Splendid Saturday!

On Saturday, we planned on heading to the Loganberry Festival about 25 minutes south of here.  It was a beautiful, glorious, fantastic (too many adjectives?) day, and we ended up just driving right on by, all the way to Langley at the southern end of the island.  We went to Langley over the same weekend in July last year and along the way, realized there was some sort of race going because there were runners all over the place.  It turns out that the Ragnar Relay Series has a race that starts in Blaine, Washington and ends in Langley and by chance, we chose to go to Langley on the same day that the race was ending there.  It was fun to see the runners on the road again this year, although this time we knew ahead of time what they were racing for!  Some of them go all out and get dressed up, and they all have decorated vans that travel with them along the way.  I took pictures of two of them, but I'm only posting one.  The second was just too tacky for me to put here (it was bad...the tamest part was a "that's what she said" joke across the back window...).  We wandered around Langley for a couple of hours, found some poppies for my Poppy, got lunch at a little bakery and sat outside at a little table where neither of the kids sat in a highchair!  That's pretty major!  I love Langley.  It is like the perfect little town and I'm pretty convinced that they must have beautiful weather year-round since the two times we've been there it has been gorgeous. ;-)

  

Ragnar runners on the way down the island.

A group of people waiting to run what I am pretty sure is the last leg of the 190 race.  Yes, this is a through-the-windshield picture.

This dude wore a mullet wig.  At least, I hope it was a wig!  He was running through Langley, probably only a mile or two from the finish line.

Poppy and Lucas traded sunglasses.  Poppy was pleased with herself, Lucas was just too cool to pay any attention to me.

The less offensive vehicle that I took a picture of while we were walking through Langley.  All the different teams have their cars painted up like this, but some also have bigger, fancier decorations.  I saw one van from Arizona that had "No!  Please!  We don't actually want to go to CANADA!" written across the top of the windshield. 

Lucas and Poppy on a bench next to the City Hall building.  Oh, my cute babies.  Holding hands and looking so much sweeter than they actually are! ;-)

Poppy's poppies!  These were growing right outside of City Hall.  I remembered them from our visit last year and I wanted to make sure I took some pictures of my fancy lady with the flowers that gave us her name!

Eating our lunch at the table outside the bakery.  This was Poppy's first time not eating in a highchair or booster seat at the table.  She actually sat still better than her brother!

Could Lucas look any more bored?  No, probably not....

But he could definitely look annoyed!!  Priceless!

Poppy and Lucas sitting at the table, sweeping the crumbs down for the birds to eat.  Such good helpers!

Walking with my darlings.  Butt shot, ugh.  But it is cute of Lucas and Poppy bouncing along!

Pretty Langley.  It is just so quiet and peaceful and there are flowers everywhere.  Perfect little town!

 After leaving Langley, we headed up the highway and stopped in at the Loganberry Festival since it was the original plan for the day.  They have the festival at the Greenbank Farm so there was even more pretty scenery.  And Lucas and Poppy got to see ducks, which was fascinating for both of them.  What do ducks say?  If you ask Poppy, she'll tell you that ducks say "BAAA!"  :-)

Lucas got to sit in a firetruck and pretend to drive for a minute.  He was thrilled!  He got his own fireman hat to complete the look.

Poppy and Lucas got to play in a bounce-house for the first time.  Lucas took right to it and started jumping around, but Poppy just sat there by the little door for close to 15 minutes before she got enough courage to stand up and attempt a little hop.  They both had lots of fun!

As a bribe to get Lucas out of the bounce-house, Adam told him he could go to the dunk tank and see if he could knock the kid into the water.  After waiting patiently in line, it was finally Lucas's turn and while one boy sat in the tank, the other was nice enough to explain how to throw the balls at the red target.  

 Lucas missed all three times.  No big surprise there!  The big surprise was when the nice helper boy took Lucas up to the target and let him push it to make the boy in the tank fall into the water.  That was pretty exciting!

All of us on the way back to the car.  Another set-the-timer-and-run success!

We detoured on the way home and drove by the Coupeville ferry landing.  Unfortunately for Lucas, the ferry fanatic, we had just missed seeing the boat.  But fortunately for Lucas, during the Summer they have two boats that make the run to Port Townsend, so after waiting for a few minutes, we got to see the Chetzemoka (one of Washington's newest ferries, it hasn't even been in service for a year) pull in. 

While we were waiting, I noticed that it was clear enough to see Mount Rainier way off in the distance.

Then when I turned around, I saw Mount Baker in the other direction.  Two of Washington's highest peaks, and we could see both of them from where we stood!  Okay, so we couldn't see them very well, but we definitely could see them!  By the way, as long as it isn't super cloudy, we can usually see Mount Baker from our backyard.

 

Here's Lucas waving the ferry in.  He wanted to make sure they saw him and knew where to go.

Does Vanna White need a replacement on "Wheel of Fortune?"  Because this kid has some outstanding moves. 

Lucas was so happy to be able to see the ferry on top of all of the other exciting things on our fabulous Saturday.  I love my favorite boy!

Pretend

Both Lucas and Poppy have been very into pretend play lately.  It kind of started a couple of months ago with a little set of pretend food.  Lucas tried to eat it, even though he knew it wasn't real food.  He didn't know why he couldn't eat it.  I explained to him that it was pretend food and we can pretend to eat it, but we don't actually eat it.  Fortunately, he understood...and thought it was just about the funniest thing ever.  From then on, he would pick up the pretend food and take little (pretend) nibbles off of it.  Shortly after that, I caught Poppy playing by herself one evening while I was getting dinner together.  She was carrying around the play food and kept holding it up to her mouth for some pretend bites.  I was surprised that she picked up on it so quickly!  She seemed a little embarrassed when I asked her what she was doing (she blushed and looked away), but then she held it up to me and said "Mmmm!" 

Three weeks ago, Lucas added to his pretend repertoire by introducing an imaginary friend.  I went to get him out of bed on a Saturday morning and he said "Here's my ladybug!"  I was a little weirded out at first.  Was there a real ladybug in his bed!!?  Slightly panic stricken, I asked him where it was and he said: "Right here!  She is a pretend ladybug!"  (Yes, in case you were wondering, he did use a very "duh, Mom" tone of voice.)  I asked him what her name was and he thought about it for a second and then told me that her name is "Pretend."  So she really is Pretend Ladybug.  He asks for her every time he lays down in his bed and I make a little production of scooping her off the dresser or out of my pocket or I tell him she is already there, waiting for him on the pillow.  He seems to get a kick out of it!  A few days ago, I changed the sheets on his bed and when he went down for his nap, he said "Oh, my Pretend Ladybug loves the dinosaur sheets!"  He has periodically asked about her while he's eating and I'll pretend to set her down on the placemat with him, but today was the first time he told me that she needed to eat with him.  He had a few spoonfuls of cereal left and he tried to feed his pretend friend, but then he told me "She's not eating.  I don't think she likes it."  Luckily my camera was handy!

"Would you like some food, Pretend Ladybug?"

He was holding his pretend ladybug here while he tried to get her to eat his cereal.

Lucas has also enjoyed pretending to be a dog lately.  Or, more specifically, Aunt Holly's dog Chloe.  A few days ago he was playing in his closet (because what could be more fun than playing in the closet) and he found the harness that I bought for him when he and I flew to the States from England two years ago.  Since then, he has wanted to wear it every day.  He wore it while we went for a walk this morning and when we got home, he kept it on and asked if Poppy could walk him around the yard.  She cooperated and did a fantastic job of walking her brother, the pretend dog. ;-) 

Lucas likes to stand outside the window to the playhouse and ask Poppy if she can put air in his motorcycle. 

Here's Poppy eating some of her pretend food. 

Then she had to pretend cough.

There goes Lucas, riding his motorcycle...still wearing his harness, by the way.

Aside from all of the pretend stuff that goes on around here on a daily basis, one thing that is very real is that these kids are getting older!  Poppy is 19 months old today.  In twelve days, she will be the exact age that Lucas was when she was born.  Wow.  Time really does fly!

One month ago...

A few blog posts ago, I mentioned Lucas's orange safety vest and said I would write about how exactly Lucas got his vest.  Well, here I am. :-)

One month ago, we were visiting my parents in Brookings.  It became part of our evening ritual to feed Buck (the goat) and Maggie (the sheep) some hay, bread, carrots, or whatever else we could find that they would eat.  During one of the first nights there, Lucas found Grandpa's riding mower and got very excited.  It isn't often that he sees a genuine "tiny tractor" up close.  Lucas had so much fun sitting on it while it was parked, but he really wanted to go for a ride on it with Grandpa.  Once we got Grandpa on-board with this idea, though, Lucas chickened out.  He did NOT like the noise that the mower made, even after Aunt Holly gave him a pair of super cool hot pink earplugs.  He went completely crazy when we tried to sit him on Grandpa's lap.  Then Holly had the wonderful idea to have our dad turn the mower off, throw it into neutral, and push it around the yard so Lucas could still get his "tractor" ride.  Good thinking, Holly!  It worked!  We all got a good laugh out of it, and Lucas still wore his earplugs even though the mower wasn't turned on!

Hot pink earplugs, courtesy of Aunt Holly.  Unsure, slightly scared look on his face courtesy of the noisy mower.

Once the mower was off, Lucas was happy to sit with Grandpa on the "tiny tractor."  He really wanted to use the steering wheel!

Off they go!  Holly's brilliant idea at work!  She and Adam gave my dad and Lucas a push to start on their ride around the yard.

Everyone got a kick out of this!  And Poppy was distracted enough to let Grandma hold her for a few minutes!

For the ride back up the (very slight) hill, I had to help out.  You can see Holly and I, looking like dorks.  Adam was there too, but he was lucky enough to be hidden behind Lucas and Grandpa!

After the mower was safely parked, Poppy had her turn at "driving" the mower.  Looks like she has some road rage issues.  No surprise, she's a wild one.

Feeding the animals was definitely one of the daily highlights while we were there.  Poppy loved both of them!  She stuck her hand in Buck's mouth a few different times (Maggie is a little less social) and still never got scared.

Lucas was just excited to have a sheep AND a goat at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  When I first told him, he said "But goats live at the zoo, not Grandma's house!"

And now to how Lucas got his special vest!  After the mower ride, and feeding the animals, we headed inside to get ready for bath time.  But on the way, I noticed something that I could not pass up.  My dad had driven a different truck home from work, and OMG, it had props.  Stop signs and orange cones and hard hats, oh my!  It was every little boy's dream!  Lucas got to dress up like a construction worker, and there just might have been one orange safety vest missing the next day... ;-)

Oops, there goes the hard hat!

And then the stop sign was next to go "kaboom."  Grandpa helped get the hard hat on straight one more time.

Happy boy!  Thanks for letting us use your fun gear, Grandpa!