July in a Flash

 

This seems to be our life lately (or at least until I don't have girls camp looming in the future). Life just seems to be going by very very fast. But we try to stop now and then and revel in all the ridiculous cuteness of this little man. Yes, he is hugging himself in this photo.

We hit a big milestone this month - Clark graduated to a big boy car seat....and got turned around. I know, I know he's only 14 months and "they" say you shouldn't turn them around until they are 2 years old. Here's what I say to that: "Pppphttt". Look, my baby has the neck strength of a bison. Also, he's sweaty. I mean really really really sweaty. The first Sunday we had him in this car seat it was 102 degrees outside and we had the car seat turned backwards. By the time I got home from church, even with the AC blasting full, he looked like I'd dunked him in a pool. So for the safety of my baby (and because he is cuter to look at this way), we flipped him forward facing. Judge away.



What else happened? Oh yes - half of the Kitchen clan made a trek up to Washington for our annual firework bonanza. This time was extra special, however, because the Iowa Kitchens (aka the Washburns) were moving to Ellensburg and thus would never ever leave. Mu ha ha ha! Mom made the drive out with them and they rolled in Tuesday night very exhausted but very happy to have made it. Wednesday they closed on their house (phew!) and somehow roped Dana and Taylor into stopping on their way back from a day of golf in Seattle to unpack the entire truck. Amazing! Sarah and her kiddos arrived Wednesday night along with Dad a few hours later which meant the Gailan household was packed. Clark was jazzed to have so many cousins around and promptly threw his push cart away and just started walking. WHAT!! Yes, my baby is now a walker. Took him three days of wobbly falling to get the hang of it but now he is a full scale runner.

Thursday while I was stuck at work
the clan made the rounds in Yakima - swimming at the very muggy hotel pool, finding delicious tamales in Union Gap (thanks Taylor and trip advisor) and just relaxing. I think the happiest person may have been Grandpa Pat who just enjoyed walking Clark around in the grass.

Friday I took the day off to spend with the fam. Sadly, I have no pictures of our awesome adventure but it was really fun. We headed up to the Ellensburg, dropped a teary Anderson and a confused Clark off with a babysitter at Kristina's new house and then the rest of rafted the upper Yakima river. After a delay getting started we finally made it in and spent the day swapping rafts, shooting water cannons, swimming, and hiking up to a really cool abandoned train tunnel. Funny memories include Fred spending the first 30 minutes as a river otter (at which point he could no longer feel his feet and needed to return to the raft), all the kids bumping into the walls in the tunnel because it was so dark, and Evan being scandalized by the 'bad' graffiti words written on the train tunnel until I explained to him it was just some guys name (perhaps Ryan Jenkins is a bad word in Iowa, I don't know). It was an exhausting day. We returned to our slightly traumatized babysitter and made pizza and unpacked Kristina a bit and just vegged before heading home.

The 4th of July started off with a bang. I know we originally planned a relaxing day but where's the fun in that? The Washburns stayed in Ellensburg to start the monumental task of unpacking while the rest of us hiked up to Boulder caves. We got to check out their 'new' bathrooms (ewww!!!) and explore the cool cave. Clark did it in style in our borrowed baby backpack. He was actually fine (ignore the angry face) unless Dana stopped moving and then he was annoyed at being stuck.

After the cave we stopped for lunch and made some new squirrel friends. See if you can spot him. And then Miles for some reason became the tour guide and decided we should walk down the river instead of the normal path which would not have been my first choice but it was an adventure and none of us died so I guess that's a success.

That afternoon the Washburns came down for slip n' slide, family fun and fireworks!! This is the only picture I got of Clark in his fun 4th of July pjs because, frankly, it was a million degrees so he spent the night in his diaper. But I like his face. We were also joined by Sonny, Matt and Kristen and Tracy and his girlfriend, Charlotte which made for one fun bunch. We started the night with amazing food a la Taylor and then moved to the backyard for s'mores after Grandpa Pat made a nice toasty fire (yeah, we needed that!) I'm pretty sure the kid's favorite part was Matt's fireworks. He'd let them light them and toss them really quick and then watch them explode on the grass. It was fun and terrifying to watch especially for some of our throwing challenged nephews. Our neighbors kiddy corner promised more safety this year and brought in a professional who was spectacular. Eventually, however, little man got tired and went to bed and the group moved to the front where our next door neighbor, Mitchaiel, had not hired a professional. In fact, quite the opposite. So it was no surprise that Kristen got hit with a stray rocket and that Charlotte's car took the brunt of another. Everyone was fine but we sure kept an eye on them after that.



We always say it but Moxee truly is the coolest place for fireworks. This year they out did themselves - or rather one guy with a boat load of funds outdid himself with the most outlandish full scale 12 minute finale. Incredible. I love this country:)

Sunday we said goodbye to Taylor and Clark had 3, yes, 3 poops at church. I gave a Relief Society lesson and then we all came home and crashed. This is Dana after getting back from dropping Taylor in Tri-Cities. Note that he is still in his church clothes and fully passed out. He, by the way, has no recollection of this. We let the kids watch movies and Mom caught up on Relief Society President stuff; we had good chats about the gay marriage vote and Dad braved the heat to call Granny and Grandpa. Basically, just a chill Sunday. Of course, we squeezed in time to watch the most amazing Women's Soccer World Cup. They scored 4 times in the first 10 minutes. It was incredible. I thought Dad was gonna punch a hole in the ceiling with his head because he was jumping so high. The funniest bit was us promising Ethan that nothing exciting would happen in the first 2 minutes so he should go help the girls set up the wii. We psyched him out the first time but then they actually did score and he was a bit cross with us:) We also celebrated Grandma Tina's 60th birthday. It was a bit hectic getting all the Kitchen brother's to call in and the kids to leave their slip n' slide to come sing happy birthday but it was worth it. We gave her a photo book (which was a whole other rigmarole) and we hope to liked it. We sure do love her!

Monday I went back to work and Mom, Sarah and Kristina hung out in Ellesnburg with this naked little man. The boys, meanwhile, went on a hike on the Pacific Crest Trail (insert Dad drooling right now). They said it was really fun. Maybe funnier because Ethan and Isaac both had to do some sensitive business on the trail:)


Tuesday everybody went their separate ways. Sarah left for Utah. Mom and Dad headed up to Leavenworth to celebrate her 60th birthday, Kristina and Fred unpacked, and the Gailans all stayed home to sanitize the house and veg. We also had dinner with Mom and Dad one more time at Buffalo Wild Wings.

The next day was my 31st birthday. Not a big one and so we celebrated small style with delicious pizzas (ingredients fresh from the garden) and mangos from Kristina and purple cupcakes just because.

More family activities followed with a fun and hot evening up at the Zirkle's for a get together. We love seeing Dana's family. Always good food. Always funny stories. Always the best views in town. Wow! And Clark was once again in show off mode and loving the attention until he got too tired and went full on crazy. Still lots of fun.


And then we got back to normal. Or as normal as can be with girls camp invading every area of our lives. It's been a fun ride with Rachel and Jessica but can August please just come already? I currently have 260 gray t-shirts taking over my spare bedroom and I am drowning in spreadsheets:) Other good things are happening though. We've been able to go on lots of fun and hot walks with popsicles. Clark picked up a couple of bad habits from the cousins, including random whining and opening the trash can to drop his toys inside. Matt and Kristen are buying a house in the middle of Yakima and we are way excited for that. They are also expecting a baby in February (shhh!!! It's a surprise that Dana can't stop telling people.) Dana got a raise at work and I got a promotion to Projects Manager which is a lot more responsibility but also lots more pay (yay!) so we feel very blessed for that.

And little man is...little man. He's driving us up the walls all over the place but we just can't get enough of this weird person.