Spring Break, Part 2

Our gorgeous sun from Monday went away.  Tuesday was overcast, with rain threatening.  Ben's parents flew in late Monday night to Seattle, returning from a month long stay in Hawaii.  (A month!  I know!)  They stayed with us a few days.

We headed to Northwest Trek Tuesday, late morning. 

Mitch, admiring the Bald Eagles.  He loves Bald Eagles.

The whole crew, minus me, the photographer.  Ben was back at work that day.

Horseshoe Lake!

Livy was very wiggly and restless as we waited in line for the tram ride.

We saw more animals this day then I think I've ever seen before here.  I've been told by the zoo workers that the animals come out more when it's cooler and overcast.

My two babies!

Ebony and Ivory!  A month in Hawaii will make a Greek man's skin all sorts of dark brown. All of my family looked like China dolls next to him.

This babe was a trooper once again.  She doesn't fall asleep anywhere and everywhere anymore, which will often have her awake for 4 or more hours at times when we are out and about.  Luckily, she is usually very manageable and pleasant.

It started to rain right as we were getting ready to go home.  It was raining pretty hard as we headed out of the park.  

Leah found a rain gutter that was pouring rain from the top and went and stood right under it, just for fun.  She was soaking wet and happy as can be.  (You can see the other kids in the background- they are standing under it as well).

Livy wanted to show Nana her desire to be a BIG girl!

We ended the night with a family game of Spot It, before heading off to bed.

Wednesday was brighter skies!  We spent the morning and afternoon around the house hanging out, reserving our energy for our late night outing.  In our last minute plans last week, Ben and I bought Mariner tickets.  Our kids love going- the games are super fun.

Livy's first game!  Here she is sporting her Mariner outfit (we bought it for Chloe when she was the same age).

We parked at Krispy Kreme's in downtown Seattle, not totally on purpose, but we weren't disappointed by our location.  Safeco Field can be spotted right over the girls' heads (the roof of it, anyway).

The whole group, ready for the game!

The workers at the game handed each of the kids a baseball card as they walked in.  For the rest of the evening, everywhere we turned, another worker was handing all 4 of them another card.  By the end of the evening, we must have had 20 baseball cards.  We had to start politely declining them.

One of the cards was this gem- a Mariano Rivera card.  He just retired last year from my fave MLB team, the Yankees.  He is the all time leader in saves.  

We got there a few hours early to watch the Los Angeles Angels during batting practice.

We went down on the third baseline to watch, and try and see if we could get some balls hit or thrown to us.  (We got 2 last year!)

A little boy standing behind Leah got a ball thrown to him by a player.  As Leah watched him receive the ball she said very loudly, "Ahhh, man!  I wanted a ball!"  A few seconds later, the boy came over and very sweetly gave Leah his ball.  It was so sweet.  Ben kept asking the boy (and his dad) if they were sure they wanted to give the ball away.  Leah was so thrilled!

By the time the game started at 7:00, it was an hour past Livy's bedtime.  She was hungry and tired!  I fed her her nightly sweet potatoes, which helped.  She was mostly just tired!

I got her all snuggled up in her bear suit and Ben worked his magic and put her to sleep.  It took a little while, as the stadium was pretty loud and every cheer would startle her and wake her up.

I was hopeful that she'd sleep awhile, but she only stayed asleep for maybe 30 minutes. 

For being purely exhausted, she was such a trooper.  "Patient" is the word that keeps coming to mind for me when I think of Miss O.  She really just wanted to be in bed asleep, but was very patient with us as we kept her up hours beyond her bedtime. 

We went to the customer service office and received this cute certificate to commemorate Olivia's first game!

It was also Ben's parents' first Mariner game and they received certificates as well.

These two were so excited to wear their Mariner shirts again. 

We bought our tickets on a Family Deal- your ticket came with a hot dog and a drink.  The hot dogs were small and super basic, but the kids didn't care.  And any reason to have soda is a great night for them!  I'm not obsessed with hot dogs, but like them just fine.  Even a bad hot dog tastes good to me at a ball park.

I love a good ball field.  So pretty!

  

The previous night, Tuesday, was Opening Night for the Mariner's at home.  I don't think we've ever been to a ball game this early in the season.  It was a lot of fun, but it was COLD! 

We came prepared!  I packed warm hats for all of us.  Mitch didn't put his on, and refused to even wear his sweatshirt.  He was too busy having fun to be cold.

Our crew!

 

Lexi kept wanting to take selfies with Ben. 

While I stayed with all our stuff and kept Livy happy, Ben took everyone else over to the Moose's Den for a picture with the Moose.  We visit him almost every game.

It was a freezing cold but fun night.  I love a good baseball game!  You can "take me out to the ball game" any time.  The Mariner's lost, which was a bummer, but it's early in the season.  And it was fun anyway. 

And being parked at Krispy Kreme's, we couldn't help ourselves and got 2 dozen glazed donuts on our way home.  Great end to a great night.

Spring Break, Part 1

We originally had no plans for Spring Break.  I was trying to mentally prep myself for a week with bored kids and wondering how I'd keep everyone entertained.  At the last minute, Ben decided he would be able to take a few days off.  We planned his days off on the two best predicted weather days- Monday and Friday.  We'd also get two 3 day weekends that way too.  Win win.  With it being last minute, we scrambled to make some plans of fun things to do. 

On Monday, with the weather forecasting to be SUNNY, low 70's and gorgeous, we knew we needed to plan something to do outdoors.  Ben and the kids love all things outdoors and he is always thinking of ways to take them hiking, fishing, camping, hunting, etc. 

We decided to hike to Snoqualmie Falls for the first time.  Snoqualmie is just a short 30 minute drive from our house.  We packed food, had everyone dress in tennis shoes and packed lots of water- we were ready to hike!

I had been told that the "hike" to the falls was super easy, but I had not been quite warned that it wasn't a hike.  At all.  We were disappointed with that.  To get to the Falls, you park, walk up some very nice, cement stairs (like 15 stairs) and you're there.  

The view did not disappoint, don't get me wrong.  This beauty of nature was worth the drive and our time.

Our volunteer photographer for this picture didn't get much of the falls in the shot.

I liked this quote on a plaque in the park.

We "hiked" back to the van to make a new plan for the day.  (There are tshirts in the gift shop that say I hiked Snoqualmie Falls!)

The city of Snoqualmie is a beautiful area and their little downtown area is really neat.

We walked around the train museum and train yard.

Family Christmas card photo? :)

We were bummed that the train ride around the area now only runs on weekends.  Chloe and I rode it years ago with some friends, when she was a baby, and it used to run during the week.

Our crew was prepared, ready and anxious for some hiking that day, so we decided to drive the short distance to Mt. Si in nearby North Bend.  Ben has hiked Mt. Si with his young men a few years ago.  It took them a few hours.  We had to be back in time for Chloe's softball game that afternoon, so we only had a short time to hike.  We decided to hike Little Si.  The trail we hiked was 5 miles round trip and we hurried to try and get as much in as we could.  We ran out of time, but estimated that we hiked 4 of the 5 miles.

My little hikers were so, so excited.  This picture shows the trail- pretty steep and very rocky.

Livy did amazing in her backpack.  We were worried she was too small to handle that thing, but it was perfect.  She barely made a peep the entire 2 hour excursion.  She was so great.

Mitch and Chloe were in charge of wearing the water backpacks.  After Mitch had 5 drinks in the first 30 minutes, we had to set some rules.

She is the best, most patient little girl.  With 4 older siblings going every direction, she gets dragged along to every activity they/we do.  She takes it all in stride and is so patient with all of us.  She was very tired toward the end and had a hard time getting comfortable in the backpack, but made the best of it.

Leah is such a ham!

Great view!

When we told the kids we had to turn around and that we weren't going to be able to make it to the top, all of them groaned.  They were so disappointed.  I don't even love to hike, but I was bummed that we couldn't finish for their sakes.

  I was so amazed at all four of them.  We took Mitchell on a much easier and much shorter hike when he was the twins' age and he cried and whined the entire hike.  It was miserable.  I just could not get over how well they all did for a very rocky, rough trail that was steep.  They loved every minute of it and had energy that I can only dream of.  Leah was the most phenomenal.  She literally floated up and down the trail like she was walking on air.  I held her hand for a few minutes on the way down and she was actually dragging me down the trail behind her.  She was going much too fast for me.  She was jumping and stepping down and off the rocks on the trail like she was weightless.  Lexi, who wasn't quite as fast or agile as her twin sister, still did above and beyond what a 4 year old should be able to do on a hike.  She loved holding my hand and was a much better paced buddy for me.  She chit chatted the entire way up and down, talking about everything she could think of. 

5 happy kids, a beautiful day- it was the perfect hike.

We were pressed for time, but we were close so we had to stop by XXX Root Beer (an old fashioned burger joint) in Issaquah.  Ben was introduced by a co-worker.  He and I have been here once together.  It was a first for the kids.

The description of the XXX burger sounded yummy, so I ordered it.  I had NO idea it was as big as it was.  I about fell off my hair when they brought it out.  It was only a few dollars more than all the regular sized burgers, but at least 3-4 times bigger.

It was massive.  Luckily, Mitch is a growing boy and was starving and he probably ate almost half of it himself.  I shared the other half with the twins.

We shared a few root beers.  The kids loved that!

We made it back home with just enough time for Chloe to change and head off to her softball game. 

Monday was the best start to our Spring Break! 

Basketball Season

Baseball season is in full swing here at the Andros house (pun intended).  But I'd better recap our basketball season before it's too far past.

Chloe's season started just after the new year and she had her last game on March 15th.  She overlapped with baseball for a few weeks, which was tricky.

This was her second year in this league.  It's a well organized league and Chloe had the same great coach as last year.

New this year was this inflatable dome that the teams ran through before the game, as an announcer called out their names and numbers.

Chloe was always called first- alphabetical order, maybe?  It pays to have an "A" last name.  ("A" is for awesome, too). :)

They play 6 periods.  Each girl gets to play a full period, every other period.

That's Chloe at the top, yellow wristband.  To teach the girls how to guard each other, each girl puts on a wrist band that matches the color of another girl on the opposite team.  They guard the girl with the same color wrist band.

We really had to stress to Chloe the importance of rebounding this year.  At the beginning of the season, she was not trying to rebound at all.  We worked with her at home to turn around and box out whenever the ball was shot- offense or defense- and to go after the ball. 

Look at that defense!

Great shot!  She had a few baskets this year.  She has been working really hard on her shot, making sure to only shoot with one hand. 

At half time, one of the refs called all the little kids over to shoot around.  Leah was very excited about that and ran right out.

Leah is a tiny little thing, but loves sports.  It is hilarious to watch her 33 pound frame shoot a big old basketball.  Great follow through, LJ!

The ref lifted her up for a slam dunk!  She was in heaven!

Ahh, basketball is exhausting!

Chloe had a good season.  She enjoys playing and we enjoy watching her.  Chloe does not have much competitiveness in her (is she really my daughter??), which can often lead to her not being as aggressive or motivated to work as hard as she could.  She enjoys it and is learning new skills, which is most important.  Her mother would love to see a little more fire in her- maybe that will come with more experience. 

The kids have loved having a basketball hoop in our driveway.  The height on it is adjustable, which is awesome, and it provides them lots of outdoor fun.

I love walking outside to find some or all of the kids playing ball.  Mitch was bummed that he wasn't old enough to play in the league Chloe is in.  He is ready to play!

Basketball season wasn't complete this year without a little friendly family competition during the NCAA March Madness tournament.  I printed off a bracket for everyone (minus Olivia) and made a "March Madness" wall where we could hang the brackets.  For FHE the week that the games started, everyone filled out a bracket. 

Then we hung the brackets on the wall and updated them after each round.  The kids were excited to see how they were doing (compared to their siblings).  Our kids may not be the most competitive on the field/court during sporting seasons, but within our home and with each other, they are super competitors.  The scoring system was 1 point for round one, 2 points for round two, 4 points round three, 8 for round four, 16 for round five and 32 for round six. 

The Tuesday after the championship game, we tallied up our final points.  Ben was the winner winner chicken dinner.  None of us had either of the final 2 in the final round. 

In the order that the kids won, we let them pick a box of candy for their prize.  Leah was last of all the kids and was super bummed with the box of candy that was leftover.  She liked the candy (Reeses Pieces) but I think was just upset that she had to pick last and got leftovers.  (The competitiveness strikes again).  She put on a forced happy face for the picture, after her amazing mom promised to take her to the store the next day and let her pick out something different.  If only life were always that kind.

Basketball season was fun- we decided to make filling out March Madness brackets a yearly tradition.  None of us had a great bracket at all this year, but it was really fun to do.   So long basketball!  On to baseball season- it'll be a hit!