Spring Break 2012

For the third April in a row, my mom and older sister and her kids have traveled up to Seattle to visit us for Spring Break. It is becoming a fun tradition and this year was fun, again.

They arrived last Friday, March 30th. They got here just minutes before Chloe got home from school.

She was thrilled to play with baby Jackson right away.

He was pretty smitten with her, too.

Mitch and cousin Carter wasted no time playing together. They always find some game to play with the pillows.

Having 3 girls, it sure is fun to have another little boy around to play "manly" games with my son.

Saturday afternoon we headed over to a local furniture store for Easter entertainment. None of us were in the market for new furniture- rather we were going just for the fun activities provided. They had a fun little petting zoo. They let me hold a little bunny that the kids loved petting.

My sister Amanda and her 2 boys

Me and my girls

(Pretty sure this giant bunny is bigger than my entire house. Pretty sure).

We got pictures with the Easter bunny and yes, Leah is crying. But to her credit, this Easter bunny had very long, sharp whiskers that scraped her face. She was already timid about the whole thing to begin with, I will give you that, but as soon as she sat down, the whiskers poked her right in the eye and scratched her across the face and there was no recovering after that. But she sat for the picture. What a trooper. A few days later, during a sad moment, she remembered this traumatic moment and said, "The Easter bunny poked me!" Yes, yes he did.

The Etherington boys were all smiles. How adorable are they?

All the kids (minus baby Jax) enjoyed free popcorn as we walked through the furniture store. We stood in line for the Easter egg hunt, but decided against it when we saw how long the line was.

The past two years when my mom and sis have been here this same week in April, it has been rainy almost the entire week and we have been stuck in doors all week. The forecast looked grim, with rain predicted every day the entire week.

It definitely rained a few of the days, but there were some really nice days with lots of sun and some days with a few hours of sun breaks and the kids took full advantage of every minute of dry weather. We would literally run outside the minute we saw the rain stop and play outside until it started raining again. You have to do that sometimes in the Pacific Northwest.

There was lots and lots of bike riding.

The twins fought over who got to ride in the wagon with Jax.

We went to two different parks.

People have always mistaken my sister and I for twins. Do you see the resemblance? The two of us went out one night after the kids were in bed and the cashier at the store said, "You two are twins, right?" He was shocked when we told him no. We were roommates at college for one year and we stunned people over and over when we said we were just sisters. 95% of the time, I don't see the resemblance. But the older we get, I'm seeing it a bit more. But she is definitely the cuter, thinner version of our twin ship.

Have I ever said how wonderful of a grandma my mom is? The BEST, seriously. When she is with her grandkids, she spends every minute with them. It is amazing. She is the patient, nice, fun version of me. :) She never runs out of treats, hugs, games or time for them. At the park this day, the kids would slide down the slide and then jump into Grandma's arms.

Over and over.

Oh, this little Jaxi baby is a doll. He requires a lot of attention medically, but he is sweet as pie and a true angel. We loved having him in our home for a week. He made me miss having a baby.

After getting these two wimps over their fear of swings, we couldn't get them off.

Cheese!

Playing Red Light, Green Light

Carter found our play lawn mower and fell in love with it. My kids don't play with it much, so we asked him if he would like to take it home with him.

He happily said yes! He pushed that thing all over our cul de sac and even "mowed" the lawn for Ben one day, and was very proud of himself. He even knew how to put gas and oil in it.

Sharing an iPad

After watching "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", my mom started singing the Willy Wonka song and my kids thought it was hilarious so they all became silly and wanted to make a game out of it. They would sing the song and all fall down.

The problem with my kids is they never tire of doing things over and over and over again. Good thing their mom does...

One night after dinner, we decided to make caramel popcorn. The kids gathered around to watch the popcorn being popped. Carter wasn't too sure about it at first.

Once it started to pop, he thought it was pretty cool.

Even Jax like it!

All of my kids loved having a baby in the house again. It was quite an adjustment for all of them though. Anytime Jax would make a sound- happy or sad or mad, they would run over to Amanda and say, "Jackson is crying!" "Jackson is hungry!" (Mitchell would do that too.) When he was getting his diaper changed, all 4 would gather around and make comment after comment. It was ridiculous at times. At the stores, Mitchell would touch him in his stroller over and over. As soon as they heard him wake up from his nap, they would tell us immediately, over and over. You would have thought they had never seen a baby before. Oh wait, we just had 2 not too long ago... Sorry Amanda- I know that was super annoying.

They sure did love him though.

Jax looks like he's going to be a little red head and looks a bit like Mitch did as a baby. We got a picture of the "twins" one day.

The drama of the week came when we went out shopping one day. We headed over to Tukwila to go to Ikea and were getting off the 167 Hwy exit. The exit has a double left hand turn lane. We were in the inside lane and there was a semi truck in the outside (right hand) lane. As we were both turning left, my sister looks over and notices that he is getting awfully close to us and says "Carrie, look out!" I look over to see his huge semi truck trailing into our lane. I stop, and not being able to do anything about it, watch as he runs into the side of our van. It was quite the adrenaline rush, and when I realize that we are all unharmed, I am angry. There is never a fun or convenient time to get hit by a car. The first thing out of my mouth was "I don't have time for this!" When shopping with kids, you have a short window of time before everyone melts down and you have to go back home. But really, we were all just grateful that no one was injured. Really we were.

It was still frustrating to watch and hear the trucker hit and scrape the entire passenger length of the van. It was this same time last year that we had to deal with our van in the shop. Remember this? Our poor, poor van. How much more can it take?

Anyway, after the impact of the hit was over and with a racing heart and shaky hands, I realized the car was still totally drivable and that the damage was purely body damage. I got behind the truck in his lane and followed him until he pulled over into the Ikea parking lot (how did he know- it was our shopping destination- perfect!) We exchanged insurance information and waited for the cops to get there. A policeman arrived fairly quickly, took our statements and got our license, registration and insurance information and wrote up a police report. He then called me and the other driver back to his car. He started off by telling us that he was ticketing the truck driver which surprised both of us and angered the truck driver (and delighted me). When the cop had asked us both what happened at the beginning, the truck driver openly admitted that he had trailed into my line and hit me. The cop explained that I have a right to my lane and that although it's hard to do, he has to stay in his lane. If he can't stay in his lane, he has to wait for all other cars to go ahead before he proceeds because all other drivers have a right to the other lane. The truck driver tried to argue, but the cop was firm. This was great new for me, because with a ticket showing up on the police report, this pretty much proved that the truck driver was at fault for the accident.

After being given back my drivers license and a copy of the police report, I was free to go.

The damage from a distance- really not that bad, but not great for a van only 3 years old.

We are lucky the mirror wasn't completely snapped off.

Since the accident, it has been confirmed that the trucker's insurance company will cover the costs to fix our van 100%. That is great news, of course. The bad news is the hassle that comes with any accident- the time and energy involved in getting everything coordinated and taken care of. I have spent time on the phone with the insurance company giving my official statement of the accident. An appraiser has come out to the house to appraise the damage done to the car. I currently have an appointment next week to get the van into the shop to get everything fixed, and a rental van is all lined up. Everything has actually run very smoothly- much, much more smoothly than last years incident. Again, I am just grateful that none of us were harmed in any way. That was a true blessing. A van can always be fixed, no matter the stress or hassle. We are very thankful for being protected that day and that the accident was as minor as it was.

We had such a fun week and I am so thankful for my mom and sister making the long, long drive to come see us. I know the drive is not easy or fun and they both sacrificed time away from husbands to come. We had such a great time and my kids loved every minute. And so did I.

They left early Friday morning, April 6th. Grandma got her traditional picture with all the grandkids. Everyone was happy- that is a miracle!