Washington Trip '09: Thursday and Friday

Aneya and Ivan in a mock space ship

On Thursday we went to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) with Lisa and her two youngest, Spencer and Aneya. OMSI is such a cool place! It's everything about science you could imagine, and it's all hands on for the kids. For example they had this machine that let you put air and water into a 2 liter soda bottle and then it would blast up in the air. The point was to experiment with the right combo of air and water to see what made the bottle shoot up the highest. It had tons of stuff like that.

Aneya, Lincoln, and Aaron with the walking stick

One of the rooms was an animal room, and they had lots of things like rats, frogs, fish, bugs, etc in cages to look at. One of the workers got out this walking stick for us to look at. It was really cool, especially when we put it under the microscope.

Lisa, me, and Ivan watching the kids play in the sand box

They have an AWESOME room for preschool and younger aged kids. Honestly, we could have spent hours and hours and hours and HOURS in this room. They have a sand box area, with all sorts of cool sand toys, a couple of water tables, a squirrel room where kids could put on little squirrel outfits and gather nuts and stash them in a big tree, blocks, balls, an arts and crafts room where we made flubber...and the list goes on. It was really fun. The kids had a great time.

Another really cool thing they have at OMSI is this room where they have these little vacuum like stations all over and then pieces of piping, and little soft foam balls. Then you get to attach the piping to the different vacuums in any way you want and you can suck up the balls or blow them out, and they have targets and baskets, and all sorts of cool things that the balls can go through. I think Aaron could have spent all day in this room. :)

On Friday night, Aaron's parents watched our children and Aaron took me to a fancy dinner in Portland. We ate at Macaroni Grill, on of my favorite places. We haven't eaten there since our honeymoon. We ate outside on the patio. It was really nice. The food was excellent, and the company was even better. Especially since I got to focus all my attention on Aaron, with no kids to be distracting or throwing food, or what not. It was fun to actually date my husband again, at least for one night. I'd kind of forgotten what that was like. After dinner we walked down to the Willamette river. Then we went to Borders bookstore and just looked around until Aaron got tired of it (I could spend my whole life in a bookstore, probably). Then we headed home.

Washington Trip '09: Tuesday and Wednesday

I was cold at the beach so I tied one of Ivan's blankets around my shoulders. I kind of look like the bicycle lady on the Wizard of Oz.

Tuesday we hung out with Aaron's two friends from high school, Robert and Neil Butler and their wives and kids. We went to Fort Vancouver and had a nice BBQ on the grass. We were planning on going to the air museum, but it was closed, so instead we just wandered around the gift shop and watched a really poorly done movie on the history of Fort Vancouver. It's too bad it was poorly made too, because I think the history sounds really interesting. I have never learned anything about how Washington and Oregon became states or who settled them or anything like that, but I'd really like to learn. Someday I will.

Aaron and Jordan and Carter and their sand dragon

On Wednesday we loaded up two vans and went to the beach! I love the Oregon Coast, even if the water is too cold to swim in. It's so beautiful up there no matter what time of year it is. It's probably a good thing we don't live in WA because I'd probably want to go to the coast at least once a week, and it's kind of a long drive.

Proof the Grandma Swan helped with the sand structures (even if it was just to fix a spot one of the kids messed up) :)

It was supposed to be 88 degrees at the coast, but I'd say 65 was a much closer guess. And it was super foggy, from where we were sitting we couldn't even see the water. But it was still good enough weather to play in the sand, and play we did. Some of us more than others though. Aaron and Jordan and Carter built a really cool sand dragon and a Mayan pyramid. They got lots of compliments on their work from people who were walking by.

Lincoln and Aaron sitting in some holes Spencer dug

Spencer was happy digging holes, and Aneya and Lincoln and Zac ran around and amused themselves digging, or filling in holes, or trying to "help" the older boys. At one point Lincoln got sand in his mouth. Aaron had to pour a bottle of water over his tongue, but that still didn't get it all out, so Aaron was trying to teach him how to spit, and it was cracking all of us up. I wish I would have taken a video of it.

Lincoln in the sand

Lincoln's first experience with the actual ocean probably wasn't a pleasant one, he went with Uncle Jake and Zac down to the water, and Aaron was following behind. Lincoln waded out into the water (only a little more than ankle deep) and then turned around to look at Aaron. In the mean time a wave came and although the water didn't get any deeper around Lincoln, I think because it was moving, he lost his balance and fell. He got soaked from head to toe, and the water isn't exactly warm. Poor kid, he didn't want to go near the water the rest of the day. But he did have a really good time with all the sand, so I think that made up for it.

Washington Trip '09: Sunday and Monday

Grandma Swan and some of the grandkids on the stairs at Lisa's house.

Saturday was the grueling 12 hour drive to Washington, but I'm happy to report that we arrived all in one piece and that the kids did really well on the drive all things considering. Sunday morning we went to church with Sydni and Jake. I decided that sacrament meeting is not the best place to see someone you haven't seen in awhile for the first time. Aaron had to keep reminding me to be quiet because I kept talking to Syd. :)

After church and naps we headed over to Lisa's new house for dinner. Her house is absolutely beautiful. It's pretty much everything you could ever want in a house and more, complete with a large yard and a wooded creek area in the back. She fed us a yummy dinner and we sat outside on the patio and talked while the kids played.

Lincoln watching the sea lions

On Monday we went with Sydni and Jake and Zac and Luke to the Portland Zoo. Lincoln had a blast there. He thought everything was so cool, but he had a little bit of a hard time wanting to leave one thing to go see the next, even though when we got to the next thing he thought it was awesome and didn't want to leave. :)

Aaron and Lincoln feeding a lorakeet

We spent a few hours looking at the Africa section of the zoo. I was amazed at how many of the animals were out and about. I don't think I've ever seen animals as active as they were at this zoo. We had a picnic lunch on the grass, and Lincoln and Zac and fun chasing each other and running around. They are so cute. I wish we lived closer so they could play together more often.

Zac, Linc, and Aaron on the stone elephant

Monday night Grandma and Grandpa Swan watched Lincoln and Ivan, so that Aaron and I could go on a triple date with Sydni and Jake, and Lisa and Jared. We went to a really really good Thai place in downtown Vancouver. Lisa and Jared treated us to dinner to celebrate graduation. Thanks guys! It was really nice to be out with just the adults :)

College Grad!

On Thursday and Friday, Aaron graduated from Brigham Young University with his bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering. Commencement exercises were on Thursday at the Marriot Center. Elder Ballard was the main speaker. We all thought it was interesting that he chose to talk about not being defensive when you talk to non-members about the church and about how members should handle negative media attention. Another interesting note: Elder Ballard owns an iphone :) After Commencement we had a really nice dinner and Aaron's Uncle Richard and Aunt Debby's house.

I've heard of people dressing their kids up in graduation outfits, but we didn't have the resources, so we just snapped pictures of ours wearing Aaron's hat. Ivan was pretty easy, but Lincoln didn't want to keep it on long enough to get a decent shot. We only got this picture because Uncle Ryan stuck him on this statue of a compass outside the engineering building, and he had to hold on with both hands so he wouldn't fall off. :)

Aaron's mom and dad flew in Wednesday so that they could come to all of graduation. It was really nice to have them here. Aaron's brother's Kelly and Ryan, and Ryan's girlfriend Melissa, were also there to watch Aaron walk on Friday. Here's the whole group minus Melissa who was taking the picture.
Kelly brought his awesome camera and took these shots of Aaron actually receiving the little white folder with the fake diploma in it. Kelly got way better shots than we did from where we were sitting so we'll use his instead of the ones on our camera.

At convocation the main speaker was someone from the Engineering College and about the only thing he said that didn't go straight over my head was his opening joke, "One night I was telling my wife all about what I was doing in my field (can't remember what field it was exactly but something engineerish) and pretty soon she was fast asleep in the bed next to me, so now whenever she has trouble sleeping she asks me to explain _____ (insert some engineering term here)." I thought this was humorous because the same thing happens to Aaron and I on a regular basis. Not because I don't care about what he's doing, it's just so mathematically advanced that I don't have the brain cells to comprehend it. It's like listening to him speak another language. After convocation there was a luncheon at the Clyde Building (Aaron's home away from home). We ate and then went outside and took pictures, you can see how cooperative our kids were about picture taking after awhile. ;) Especially Lincoln.

Krystal, Aaron, Debbie, Chuck

Aaron, Lincoln, Krystal, Ivan

No So Terrible Two Year Old

Our water balloons

Today was Lincoln's actual birthday. And don't worry we definitely celebrated. Last night after the kiddos were in bed, Aaron and I filled up about 400 water balloons. Which takes FOR-E-VER by the way. Then we put them up high so Lincoln wouldn't be able to get at them until we were ready.

Lincoln thought it was pretty funny to try to hit mommy with the water balloons, he must be his father's son

Lincoln's birthday morning was pretty typical, we mostly just got everyone fed and dressed like usual. I decided though, that since Lincoln's favorite person in the world is his daddy, that we should go up on campus and eat lunch with daddy for Lincoln's birthday. We stopped at Carl's Jr. and got Spicy Chicken Sandwiches for Aaron and I, and a Kids' Meal for Lincoln. As always, we had to park forever away and then walk across campus to get to where Aaron was. Lincoln likes to walk, and since it was his birthday I decided to let him. I had Ivan in the stroller, and the food in the compartment under the stroller and the drinks on each side of the diaper bag in that pockets. Linc thought it was funny to run back and forth from one side of the other and sip the drinks. I usually don't let him have that much soda, but it was his b-day so what the heck. Well I don't know if he was too hot, or if he drank to much, or a combination or what, but pretty soon he was saying, "Mommy carry, Mommy carry." And reaching his arms up to me. So I picked him up, thinking we'd go faster anyways, if I carried him. About two minutes later, he puked all over the front of me. All over my shirt, and all over his shirt. GROSS! In the middle of campus.

Lincoln enjoyed his water party very much

I pulled off the sidewalk into the grass and sat Lincoln in the grass. All I had to clean us up with were baby wipes. And I didn't have a change of clothes for either of us. Luckily, Lincoln still wears a onsie underneath, so I just took his shirt off and he was fine. But just taking my shirt off wasn't an option. I stunk to the high heavens. And I might just add that toddler throw-up isn't even in the same league as baby spit-up. Finally we found Aaron. Lincoln seemed to be feeling fine, which is why I think he must have just had too much soda or something. I had Aaron watch the kids while I went to the BYU bookstore and bought myself a new shirt, 'cause there was no way I could stand to eat my lunch in the one I was wearing. So I got a new shirt out of the deal. Happy Lincoln's Birthday to me. Haha.

Lincoln and his new swan

We went home and had naps. After that, Aaron came home from school early. We knocked on the doors of all the people in our apartment building who have kids, and invited them to come outside and enjoy a water balloon fight. We put the laundry basket and the cooler in opposite corners of the yard, so the kids would have to run a little to be able to get to them. Water balloons seemed to be the perfect activity for kids of all ages. The older kids got the concept and ran around hitting each other. The younger ones (specifically Lincoln and his little nursery friend Aaron Schellhous) just stood next to the cooler and picked out one balloon at a time and threw it on the ground next to their feet and thought it was great fun to watch it pop, then reached in for the next one. Aaron (when I said kids of all ages I really meant it) enjoyed getting me all wet with the water balloons, and was a little disappointed I didn't retaliate. I was just enjoying watching the kids have to much fun. After all the water balloons were gone, we served Popsicles. I think everyone had a great time.

Lincoln blowing out his two candles

Uncle Kelly came over for dinner. We had one of Lincoln's favorites, pancakes. Then we had cupcakes and left over ice cream. I figured it was ok to just do cupcakes since we'd already done a fancy cake at my mom's. After that we did presents. Yesterday we took Lincoln to Toys R Us and let him pick out his toys. I was little surprised that he picked animals. He wanted a moose, a horse, a baby lion, and a swan. We also gave him two books Five Little Monkeys and I Spy Little Letters.

Happy Birthday my little Lincoln. I can't believe you are two! So far you are not a terrible two, but it's only been one day ;) I love you and I hope you had a fantastic birthday.

Frugality is Fun!

...and time consuming. But mostly fun. So Aaron is graduating with his Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering next week (Hooray!) and you wouldn't believe what they charge for graduation announcements...$50. That's highway robbery. Can you say "Ain't gonna happen" ?

We weren't going to do anything, but then Aaron's mom suggested that we probably should send out at least something. Then I got the idea that it was probably possible to make our own, even if they didn't look as nice. So I went to Jo Ann's and they were having a sale on their scrapbook paper (awesome!). So I picked out a few pieces that were the BYU school colors (navy blue and gold). I got 12 sheets of 12x12 size card stock for $3. I was impressed. Oh, I have to tell a quick story, sorry, so Lincoln has been having this issue lately with keeping his clothes on. He doesn't like to. So after he threw a major fit because I was putting his clothes on to go to the craft store, he finally calmed down and was really good while I looked for paper. I had Ivan in his car seat in the front of the cart, and Lincoln in the back, so I couldn't see Linc unless he poked his head around. Anyways, we got to the cashier to pay for the paper and he looks at Lincoln and says, "Hey buddy you've got your pants down around your ankles, what's up?" I'm sure I blushed (not that I know why, because he still had his onesie and a diaper on so it's not like he was exposed or anything), and explained that he was just in that stage. Oh well. At least he hadn't managed to get all the way undressed without me noticing.

Anyways, when I got home, I looked up BYU's graduation announcement online, and it was a very simple design that would be very easy to copy, in fact I ended up embellishing it slightly, and I like what we did better. Then I found a picture of the BYU seal online and google searched how to word a graduation announcement. We went and had all these things printed on card stock at Office Max for another $2. Which means we only spent about $5 total, much better than $50. After the kids were in bed, Aaron went to campus to research a paper, and I got to work. I decided it would be more fun to do each invitation slightly different from all the others. So we are making 24 of them, and each one will be unique. Aaron helped when he got home from the library, and we stayed up until 1 am working on them. (Mostly because I wanted to send some of the more important ones out this morning). I think they turned out looking really professional. I'm excited to do the last 12. It feels so wonderful to create something and have it turn out. So for those of you who are family... look for your announcement in the mail and let us know what you think! Everyone else, you'll just have to look at the pictures and tell us what you think. Oh, and a quick shout out to Mom and Kerry, thanks for the paper cutter you gave us for Christmas, it makes projects like this possible. :)

The Latest Cheap Entertainment

I have a dilemma. Ivan takes about two naps a day. He wakes up from his morning nap right about the time Lincoln goes down for his nap, and goes down for his second nap right about the time Linc wakes up. This gives us about a 5 hour stretch where we have to stay inside each day. Sometimes Lincoln and I get cabin fever. Especially because he likes being outside to much. Some of my solutions to this include, opening our front door and letting Linc play with the sidewalk chalk, and letting him ride his bike back and forth between the two stair cases. These seem to work for a little while. But today we tried something different, and he LOVED it. And it was so simple. I filled up an empty ice cream bucket with water and set it outside. He splashed in it, dropped rocks in it, dipped his head in it, put various toys in it to see if they would float, take the old formula scoops he collects and scoop the water out into a bowl and back again, and then he'd dump it out and say "mate riyur (make river)" and then ask me for "mo wayur (more water)" and he played like that for about two hours.



We have a drain right outside our front door, and it does drain, just slowly, so it created a nice lake for Linc to play in as well. And every day for the last couple days he's brought me the ice cream bucket and asked to play outside with the water. Such cheap entertainment. It's wonderful!



Oh, and "nice!" is an expression he's picked up from being around my brothers. I think it's funny.

Book Review: A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-first Century

by Oliver Van DeMille

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

I really like this book. I'm probably going to buy it so I can use it as a reference later. We are reading it for book club next month, otherwise I probably wouldn't have picked it up on my own, but I'm very glad that I did. I really liked the idea that you can get an education simply from reading the classics. I don't know, maybe it's because I'm an English Lit major, and I'd like to think that my time as been well spent. But in all honesty I think the ideas in this book make a lot of sense and I believe they could work.

The whole idea behind this book is to give people an education through the classics (all kinds not just literature), in the hopes that people will learn HOW to think, not just WHAT to think, and be able to become moral, ethical, leaders in America's future. Leaders of all fields, including, but not limited to, government.

The curriculum for "Jefferson Education" consists of reading the classics together, the teachers and the students, and then writing about them, rewriting about them, and thoroughly discussing them and applying them in today's world. The education really stresses having a mentor, just like Thomas Jefferson did, to help and encourage, but that basically the learning and gaining of knowledge is up to the student.

One of the quotes I really liked was by none other than Neal A. Maxwell (and this is not an LDS book, so I just thought it was cool that he was in here, but that's not why I liked the quote)who said, "The goal is not to get through the book, but rather to get the book through you." And it explains that so much of our education these days is just route memorization of facts to put down on a test and forget about a week later. But how if we slow down and actually learn something, the lessons will stay with us throughout our lives and we will be better people because of it. I feel like this point rings true, at least concerning my own education. I don't remember a whole lot from high school, or even from college...but I got good grades. But the things that do stand out in my mind are the good teachers, and the reasons they were good is because they guided me while I learned something for myself. And those are the things I remember.


I've also been doing a lot of research lately about homeschooling, and this book fits into that about 110% But I don't believe that only people interested in homeschooling would find this book helpful. I think everyone could get something out of it, and that is why I am highly recommending it. :) Oh, and it's only 200 pages long, so it's a fast read and well worth the effort.

Let the Celebrating Begin!

Lincoln is celebrating his birthday Sydni-style this year (meaning that we started on Sunday and will continue celebrating throughout the week until his actual birthday on the 10th). The reason for the early start is that Mom and Kerry will be out of town over Lincoln's birthday and on all the weekends close to it, so we had a party on Sunday so that they could celebrate with us. I made the invitations, and I think they came out pretty well. Aside from the fact that no standard envelope was the right size, but it all worked out because Aaron made envelopes. He's amazing ;)

Here's the sailboat cake we made. It was fun. And I learned how to make Fluffy Boiled Icing, which tastes great and doesn't have powered sugar or butter in it. Wow.

Linc was way better at opening his presents this year than he was last year. Now if Grandma would just lay off the tape a little we'd be in business. ;) He'll be a pro by Christmas though. Lincoln got a toy boat for the bathtub, an Apache helicopter (which he now takes to bed every night and at nap time. Funny story really quick, today I was putting him down for his nap and I couldn't find the helicopter, so I told him he'd have to sleep without it. Well, he threw a huge fit and was screaming bloody murder when I walked out the door. So I looked around a little and finally found the helicopter and took it in to his room. When I handed it to him, he immediately stopped crying and said, "Thanks Mom, goodnight." and layed down and I didn't hear another peep out of him.), the movie Oliver and Company, two little hand games to play in the car on the way to WA, a book with a flashlight that makes noise, a box of crayons, and ABC fridge magnets. He was thrilled with all of it.

Here's Linc blowing out the candles. He got both of them in about 3 tries. Not to shabby. And so the celebrating continues...

Bring on the Rice...Cereal That Is

We had intended to wait until Ivan was about 6 months old before trying rice cereal with him. Mostly because when we tried it with Lincoln at 5 months, Linc puked it back up for us every single time. But, Ivan seems like he's hungry all the time, and he's still not sleeping through the night all the way. So we thought, what the heck, we'll give it a try. We haven't been feeding a lot to him right away. Just a tablespoon of it at dinner time, just to get him used to the whole swallowing idea. We're just planning on taking it slow and easing him into it. So, we haven't had any huge results yet, but he hasn't puked while eating it, and I'm taking that as a good sign. In fact he's done so well with the rice, we've decided to take it to the next level:

Ok, not really. :) This was staged.

What We've Been Working On

Aaron and I have a couple of new projects going on around our house these days. They might not look like much now, but we are really excited about how they will turn out. A little while ago our apartment complex had a yard sale. Aaron and I made $40 selling off all our junk. Yahoo! With that money we decided that we would buy the wood to make ourselves a nightstand for our bedroom. You can see the drawing above (and I should probably mention that Aaron did this drawing and it is to scale. That's Aaron for you. If I'd drawn it we'd be lucky if the lines were even straight.) This night stand will be tall enough to look nice with our bed (our bed is pretty high up there) and it will fit in the corner of our room very nicely. The side that's on the same wall as the bed will have a cupboard with doors on the bottom and two drawers on top. On the other side it will be a bookshelf. Awesome!

Here it is so far. We took it to Hooper a little while ago and Aaron used Kerry's router to make the corners look really nice, and the nail gun to put in the shelves. We picked out a stain that will match our bed. Now all we need is for Aaron to have some extra time to finish it up. :)

For the last couple of weeks whenever I've had a free second (not very often, in other words), I've been working on my latest project which is a levi quilt. My mom's friend had a bunch of levi she didn't want anymore so I was very glad to take it off of her hands. :) The quilt I'm making isn't going to be entirely out of levi, about half. The other half is different colors of cotton fabric that I thought looked cute together.
I am sort of following a pattern, but I made a few changes to it that I think are a nice improvement to it. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do on the back, or how I will bind it together, but I have really enjoyed having another sewing project to work on. I guess we'll see how it turns out. Happy creating to us!

Book Review: Memoirs of a Geisha

by Arthur Golden

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was a little leery to read this book because I knew there would be a lot of sex in it just because of the topic. I watched the movie, which I thought was good but it left me a little confused and wanting more information, so then of course I had to read the book. I really enjoyed the book, which was a nice surprise. Yes, there were a few parts where I had to skip, but for the most part the author does a very good job of describing the life of a Geisha without getting too hot and heavy. That being said you should be aware that a lot of sexual things are discussed but I didn't think of them so much as inappropriate but rather historically accurate. I think it's sad that a nine year old girl could be sold into slavery and made into an object for man's enjoyment. I should probably say, for those of you wondering, that a Geisha is not a prostitute, but more of a human made into a work of art.

Anyways, even though the story had the happiest ending it could possibly have, it was still a sad book just because of the situation this girl finds herself in. The story was entertaining though. It was interesting to read about a culture I was unfamiliar with. And what I enjoyed the most about the book was how the author wrote it. The narrator was the Geisha as an old woman telling her story to someone who was researching about Geisha. So the story is told from her point of view as she remembers it, which I thought gave the book an authentic feel. Also, the author used metaphors in such a good way. They feel natural to read and they help draw a picture in your mind of what's going on. I gave the book only three stars because it wasn't one of my all time favorites. A good read, entertaining, well written, but not in the top ten. But I recommend it.

View all my reviews >>

Family Pictures

I've been wanting to do family pictures ever since Ivan was born, but we just never got around to it. Then I saw the family pics of Aaron's sister Sydni, that Aaron's brother Kelly took for them while he was up visiting in Washington. They looked fantastic. So we decided to have Kelly do ours too. :)

On Saturday we went up to Bridal Veil Falls. There are lots of great spots up there for taking pictures. And the weather cooperated very nicely. It was over cast which is great for pictures, and it only rained a tiny bit right at the beginning. The kids did pretty well. Lincoln had some trouble holding still, but we copied Sydni's idea and bribed him with M&Ms, which helped.

Kelly did an exceptional job, and he was very patient while we tried to get Linc to smile and hold still. He took over 600 shots. It was hard to narrow it down.

I love this one of Lincoln sticking his tongue out. It fits his personality so well.

This is towards the end. Linc got bored while we were doing some shots of Ivan and rested his head on the fence rails.

Ivan grinning for the camera. He's getting to be such a cute baby.

I thought Ivan would hate to be propped up again the tree, but he did so good.

I love this shot!

On the way back to the van Ivan was hungry and tried eating my face. Haha.