*`*`*`Happy Birthday America*`*`*`

In honor of it being the 24th of July, I thought I'd get my act together and blog about the 4th of July.

We went to my Aunt Cathi & Uncle Tom's home to celebrate the 4th of July. And when I say celebrate I'm not talking about waiting up til 10 to watch some rinkydink fireworks- we celebrated ALL.DAY.LONG.

For those who are familiar with the Tacoma area, their home is situated right above the Ruston walkway with a lovely view of the Puget Sound. So basically we had front row seats to the amazing flight show that boasted ginormous planes that could hover in midair and even go forward and backward slowly. Crazy stuff. And there were Jets that were deafening, and trick planes, and colored smoke planes...this went on for about 45 minutes while we were munching on chips and salsa and guac and chatting up a storm and tanning. I did have pictures of the flight show but they are MIA :(

After the flight show we meandered down to the walkway where there were tons of venders selling everything you could imagine and hords of people buying the crap. If you are claustrophobic, this was not for you.

The crazy Gospel clown that had Caleb thinking...Weirdo!

...even after the clown made him a balloon

There were also massive bubbles to be blown

U. Tom is a pro and showed em how its done

This is Malina- my cousin's darling little girl and one of Caleb's best friends in the whole wide world and as you will see they are practically inseparable. They spent most of the day in this swimming pool watching the flight show and munching on soggy chips.

After the clams, salmon, and burger bbq, we enjoyed some s'mores dessert

When it got dark some people set off some flying lanterns...just like in Tangled! So cool!

Caleb and Melina waiting for fireworks to start...

These are so cute I couldn't pick just one! They have so much fun together.

So we cuddled in the yard and watched the fireworks explode right in front of us. But the amazing part was, because of our elevated location, we could see the fireworks going off in Federal Way, Seattle, and all over the Puget Sound. It was a beautiful view and we are so glad the Petramalo's invited us out for the fun filled day!

Oregon coast

My sister and her little family and my two younger sisters came and stayed with us for the month of June. So naturally we took full advantage of the fact that we had lots of babysitters and house sitters and Kiel and I took off for a scenic trip down the Oregon coast for a few days.

This is where we stayed. It comes highly recommended by me...if for no other reason than for their breakfast which was a nice selection of hot food off the griddle, my favorite being the belgian waffles with cream cheese and fresh marrionberry syrup on top. Shockingly enough I still had plenty of room for the all you can eat salt water taffys, tillamook cheese, sausage and crackers, and cucumber mint water that was always well stocked in the lobby.

And this is where we ate. Turns out all the restaurants in small towns close at 5. What the...?!?!

And this is what we ate. Very fresh fish and chips.

Even though this is what we wanted to eat. Unfortunately we found out a little too late that all the crab joints close at 5 :( So this is as close as I got to my crab dinner.

There were sooo many lovely beaches to hold hands and leave a trail of footprints in

Since we stayed in Tillamook, naturally we had to visit what they are most known for:

And we visited a jerky factory so we could stock up on protein before our big hike.

This is the hike we chose:

We did that trail zig zagging through the left finger...all 5 miles of it.

And this is one of the more famous Oregon beaches, Cannon Beach.

This was SO cool...it was a little treasure trove of sea life filled with crabs, sea urchins and some other things I can't pronounce that were pink and feathery and lovely

Oregon is for mountain huggers.

All in all it was a very relaxing trip full of walks, chats, hot tubbing, food, and beautiful scenery.

And the moral of the story is if you are ever thinking of coming to stay with us don't expect a cooshy vacation. Any takers??

I feel...validated?? :) :/ :(

My camera is MIA again so in the mean time I wanted to ask all you Wise Women what you think about validating your childrens' feelings. I was recently at a conference and there was a focus on this topic and I never really thought about it but now I'm intrigued.
I grew up in a home where I was told if someone offended me, GET OVER IT. If I'm just having a bad day, GET OVER IT. If my sister made me mad and called me a fat piece of crap, GET OVER IT. Basically I wasn't allowed to have a bad day and if I did I was supposed to keep it to myself and fake everyone out that it was the best day ever!!
Do I feel like this made me a recluse, confused, unable to own my feelings and control them?
Quite the opposite.
I am actually very grateful that my parents took this approach with me. I feel like I don't waste a lot of time trying to decide if so or so meant offense and how I am going to deal with that. I just GET OVER IT. There's a lot more time to be happy when you aren't worrying about being worried.
And lets be honest, who enjoys being with someone who is constantly down or saying negative things about themselves or others and how someone offended them (again!!)? I sure don't. It makes me want to say just GET OVER IT!! So what if that person said/did/meant that?? Are you really going to let it ruin your day when chances are they didn't even mean it that way? I guess some people just need the drama...
So you can imagine my surprise when I was told that I need to sit my child down every time he throws a tantrum or says he's mad about something or at someone or someone hurt his feelings and talk out his feelings with him. Doesn't the regular practice of exploring one's feelings make one an emotional hypochondriac?? Isn't it so much easier and, well, happier, just being happy? I get that its not easy just getting over every negative thing in your life, and sometime its not even possible without professional help, but in the little day to day crisis' isn't it just better to try to GET OVER IT?
Unfortunately, the just GET OVER IT method isn't working so hot with my almost-3-year-old. So I'm thinking maybe the feelings validating method might be the answer.

Here are some pros of validating I see:

1. it helps children and parents understand the real emotion and issue.
2. the child is more honest and open.
3. they take responsibility for their emotions so they can fix it.

I feel I have already discussed the cons. Which brings me to one more point. Although I think the GET OVER IT method worked great for me as a child and I still apply it to myself when I'm feeling particularly irked or offended about something (gretchen, your over-reacting. Just GET OVER IT and salvage the rest of your day) but I need my husband to validate my feelings. When he has said or done something to hurt me I expect him to own up to it and apologize. I think marriage would be the worse if spouses didn't validate each other's feelings. And if we expect our feelings to be validated, don't you think our children deserve our validation as well? Isn't that the respectful and appropriate thing to do in a family?
So, if I haven't totally confused and offended you yet, I want to know what YOU think about all this. Do you think its better to validate your children's feelings or just GET OVER IT? And why? Are there certain circumstances that would call for one or the other? How were you raised and what has worked in your own homes with your children?? Feel free to throw out suggestions, stories, theories, threats for offending you (at me only please), opinions...I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

you + me =

konichi-what?!?!

Watching this kid eat his gyoza you would never know he spent a quarter of his life in Japan.

Serious lack of chopstick skills but I admire his effort!

Ah what the heck. Thats what fingers are for anyway.

Future Missionaries

Getting ready for church...and missions

These boys make their mama proud.

Let it snow * Let it snow * Let it snow

I'll be honest, one of the deciding factors for me when we were trying to decide whether we should move to Washington was the fact that there's "no snow." Being an Arizona girl I worship the sun and HATE the snow. Looks like I was lied to.

But there's one little man that is not disappointed.

Parker camped out in the warm garage while Caleb went snow crazy

Those rosey cheeks and the hot chocolate that followed made this snow fall totally worth it.

Besties

Kiel's gone....alot.

HUGE thank you to these amazing ladies who make my life so much more enjoyable!

Mimy and Jen at our caramel apple halloween party.

Sadly missing is Carmine...basically the Grishams are awesome.

You girls are fun, BEAUTIFUL, talented, and I love that I can always call one of you to pass the time with! Thanks ;)