The Vance's: August 2016

friends at the beach.

>> August 29, 2016

This past weekend we got away to celebrate the end of the summer. Many months ago we planned a weekend trip to the beach house with some long time friends of ours and now that the weekend is over, we can easily say it was one of the highlights of our summer! We got a headstart on the weekend and left early Friday afternoon to really enjoy 2 full days up at the beach. Matt's parents were incredibly generous in letting us take over the whole house for 2 families (5 kids 6 and under!). The kids all got along (Simon and Teigan - just 8 months apart - have a sort of love/hate relationship since they are both learning about gentle hands!), us parents had time to relax and catch up and we spent some great time outside.
Before we left I spent some time doing Lucy's hair. I had to document this because 95% of the time her short, fine hair is either in a barrette off to the side or pulled back in a half pony tail. Her hair just doesn't do much. But, I was able to successfully french braid it and she actually liked it! Crossing my fingers we can get her hair to grow just a little bit longer so we have more options in the coming year.

And we're off! The kids were so excited to have friends come up to play with them.

We let our friends have our usual room with the bunk beds for their kids so Carter and Lucy shared the bed in the guest room. They did a great job falling asleep quickly but around 2am Lucy woke up to tell us she didn't have enough room. We tucked her back in and reassured her she still had half the bed but 20 minutes later we found a hysterical Carter waking us up because Lucy had punched him in the eye while he was sound asleep! Seriously. She was apparently annoyed his legs wouldn't move over for her. Poor guy. After that incident the rest of the weekends' sleeping arrangements went smoothly...whew!

Simon was his typical curious little self. He opened every drawer, cabinet and closet as often as possible. He crawled, climbed, scooted and hopped all about. He gave us that mischievous smirk as he so often does when he realizes he's getting into something he probably shouldn't. And he kept us on our toes!

While we waited for our friends to arrive the kids pulled out the bubble machine and ran in circles in the yard. It's these little things that make me smile knowing they will have such fun childhood memories.

Saturday morning Chad, Ashley and their 2 adorable kids arrived and after a quick lunch we headed to the beach. The boys climbed on the driftwood, the girls played with rocks near the water.

Simon and Teigan were so cute together, when they weren't pushing or hitting each other over the head. They are both at that phase where they get a little jealous over toys and often didn't want to share. But by the end of the weekend we managed to get a slight hug from each of them. And Simon may have even blown her a kiss goodbye!

Sunday morning we headed to the park before going back to the beach. The kids all just loved playing together and running around. Matt and I agreed it was such a relaxing, fun weekend to spend with friends and we are so happy it worked out. Time to plan another getaway together!

a run to remember.

>> August 16, 2016

5 years ago a high school friend of mine was tragically killed in a car accident while she was out running while on vacation. It was absolutely devastating to not only her family (a young, pregnant mom with 2 small boys) but to the community. To help her family cope with her loss and find a way to remember and honor her, her closest friends and family started the Lise and Faith Memorial Run. The first years' proceeds went to her husband and boys to help them with finances over the coming years. In the past 5 years this run has provided support to a handful of special people going through some incredibly hard times.

When this year's run started getting organized, a good friend of mine encouraged me to nominate our other friend, Sarah. Sarah has been battling aggressive breast cancer for the past year, diagnosed just a couple weeks after she delivered her 4th baby. She is seriously one of the strongest people I know. She has somehow remained so positive over these last 12 months despite 20 weeks of chemo, a double mastectomy, multiple infections and now a new plan of treatment including a long course of oral chemo and will then need a complete hysterectomy and more radiation. Ugh. She is so young, such a great mom and one of the sweetest people around.

Lucky for her, she was chosen as the recipient this year!!!

I was so happy and honored to be able to run for her, as we remembered another friend who passed too soon. The kids were also excited since they include a kids fun run after the 5k with lots of prizes!

We got to see a lot of friends from high school (both Matt and I since we went to rival high schools in the same town). This is Matt's longtime friend and old college roommate. And Carter is catching up to him quickly!

One of my best friends ran with me and it was so fun. It was her first 5k and she was amazing! It was HOT that morning but Heather never gave up. Love getting to do these things with friends.

Our pre-run, pre-sweaty picture with the beautiful Sarah. She is looking so good for all she's been through!

And after! Whew it was hot and we were so sweaty!

Me with Cathy (Lise's mom and the main organizer of such a wonderful event).

Kids all ready for their run! The funny part was as I was finishing my run I suddenly saw a bunch of kids go by, including Carter and Lucy. I thought it was odd they had started the kids run while the 5k was finishing up but just cheered them on and ran by. Well...ooops! Matt accidentally had them start the 1k instead! Carter was in tears he was so tired because he basically sprinted the entire thing. Ha! We got him some water and encouraged him to finish the kids run too....and then headed home to relax.

a day with animals.

>> August 7, 2016

We decided to visit Northwest Trek a few weeks ago since the kids had never been and I hadn't visited in probably 20 years! It was a long drive down there but well worth it. It wasn't crowded, wasn't too hot, we saw lots of animals and had plenty of fun running around all day.

They opened up a new kids area a few months ago and it is amazing! Seriously, if admission wasn't so expensive I think we'd come and visit just for this. It had slides, ropes, climbing walls, forts, water and more. The kids played in here at the beginning and end of the day and if it wasn't for traffic looming in the back of my head, I would have let them play even longer!

After playing for a bit we headed over to the tram ride. I have zero pictures of that entire experience because of a certain little toddler. The tram is about a 45 minute ride through peaceful acres of natural habitat all while searching for beautiful wildlife. There are many other people on this ride, many of whom have expensive cameras and are searching for that perfect shot of nature. The important part of the ride is remain quiet so as not to disturb any of the animals. Well, that sounds lovely and all, but for a 13 months old who has the nickname, "Screaming' Simon" it's not the easiest task in the world. Thank goodness I happened to grab his Cheerio snack box right before we boarded. The big kids loved the tram, loved seeing the animals up close and thought it was so fun to have open windows to reach their arms out. Simon did as best he could, as long as I was feeding him Cheerios (or grapes my mom happened to have in her purse). There were a few screams, a few bad looks from those crazy camera people and a lot of moving around to stay interested but in the end we did it! Whew!

Off we went to explore the rest of the zoo portion. We saw bears, bobcats, owls and more!

We finished at the Discovery Center which turned out to be one of the highlights of the day! I thought it would be a quick stop in this little building but all 3 kids loved exploring, making a craft, playing the quiz games and asking tons of questions to the volunteer. It was fun (and helpful!) to spend time with my parents and let the kids see a new place. Thanks Northwest Trek!

gosh i love summer.

>> August 6, 2016

At the beginning of the summer we wrote a summer bucket list. It included everything, big and small, we hoped to see and do over 2.5 months. And while we haven't checked everything off our list (because kids...we can't afford to go to every.single.museum and aquarium and zoo in the entire state!) we've done a whole lot. And I've been loving every minute of it. There is something about summer that just makes you slow down sometimes, get a little dirty, throw routine and schedules out the window and just have fun. It's really the best thing ever.

Carter got to attend a week long soccer camp back in July. He played spring soccer and is gearing up for his first season of fall soccer so having a week in the summer to practice his skills sounded perfect. He loved it! He's such a social kid and never afraid to enter into new situations. I just love that even though he knew a friend at the camp he decided to instead make new friends and spend the week really learning how to have fun while playing the game.

Simon has continued to be flexible with his naps during the day but that means he wants and needs extra cuddles at night. I'm still nursing him but now at night he prefers to cuddle up with Matt and fall asleep. It's pretty darn cute.

Carter also had a chance to do a rock climbing class at the Seattle REI. He's been asking for quite a while to climb the big rock and the class was a perfect fit. On his 2nd attempt he made it all the way to the top!!! And then did it again!! Pretty proud parents, impressed instructor and excited kid. He didn't even seem to struggle either. We are now seeing what other opportunities he may have to climb again, especially since it was such a good physical and mental challenge!

That same day we got all dressed up and went out to dinner to celebrate Matt's birthday. We don't go out much (hello 3 kids!) and when we do it's usually our standard pizza/Red robin/spaghetti factory but this time we chose a more formal restaurant and the kids did great! It was a beautiful night on the water celebrating one of our favorite people ever.

The next week Lucy got to attend a summer camp at her preschool. I didn't get any pictures of her because she'd just run instead and wave goodbye but she had a great time making new friends and being back at a familiar school. Since it was just me and the boys we decided to go hiking one morning (another thing on our bucket list). Even though we got lost on a few trails it was a fun morning to just explore and find new bugs, leaves, rocks and trees.

And Simon continues to brighten our mornings...even the really early ones!

Another activity on our list - blueberry picking! We picked 9 lbs in just under an hour!

The weather has been wonderful the past few weeks so setting up the pool has been a fun afternoon routine. They can run, jump and splash over and over again and never get tired.

All 3 kids have adored this little lawn mower.

And Simon loves his little pool too!

Lucy and I have been busy baking all sorts of summer treats. She's such a great helper in the kitchen but most importantly, she LOVES to do the dishes we when are done. It's so great! I can leave her alone for 30 minutes and she'll still be at the sink washing each and every item. Thanks Lucy!

We spent another morning at one of the local beaches near our house. I'm getting pretty good at wrangling 3 kids at a sandy beach and still somehow enjoying the scenery myself.

Carter is still obsessed with Harry Potter (almost done with book 5!). He asks us to read anytime we have a few extra minutes. It's been so fun to watch him get excited about different characters and storylines, especially since it's a more complicated book for his age.

Simon is now our busy little bee. He's playing, exploring, climbing, discovering and never ever slowing down. I forgot what it was like to have a little boy around since Lucy was much more mellow but I'm sort of loving this stage too. He's talking more, using his hands and facial expressions and really showing us his true personality.

Tooth #2 was lost! And 2 more are loose...we'll see how many teeth are missing when school starts this year.

Another sunny day and another afternoon outside in swimsuits.

Somehow the big kids can get wet but this one gets SO dirty. It's bath night almost every night of the week at our house.

All 3 kids love books and asked me to go to the library the other morning for a special story time. We stayed after to choose some new books to take home and they instantly started reading in the car, before I could get them buckled in!