To the Ocean and Back

Last weekend at this time we were enjoying the warm sun and beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean on the Olympic Peninsula. It had been quite some time since we had been able to spend time with my Grandma and Grandpa. The kids' memories of their Great Grandparents were starting to fade so we decided it was time to make a quick trip to visit them. Knowing that we are a loud and large group we made our trip short but just the perfect amount of time for us all to reconnect.

Friday night we hopped on the Seattle ferry and enjoyed seeing the Seattle skyline lights. Cooper had been very scared to ride the ferry boat but he decided that it wasn't a scary experience at all. In fact, all this week Coop has been asking when we can ride the ferry boat again.

Saturday morning we woke up to the foggy gorgeous ocean. The kids, Birch, and my Grandma headed off for a morning scavenger hunt on the beach.

My grandma and the kids

My grandparents live right on the water but it isn't the easiest access for taking a walk so the walk started off on the little country roads.Isn't my grandparents' home just BEAUTIFUL!! This is the view from the water inlet below their house.

Tyler's first yummy find of the day!

A cute picture of the kids looking up at my Grandparent's home.

I've got such a wonderful Grandma. She is still so interactive with all the kids. Cooper and Grandma hit it off right from the start. Before we arrived at my Grandparent's home my Grandma had requested a list of one favorite food of each of the kids. My Grandma cooked her first frozen pizza, chicken nuggets, and french fries. Being such a wonderful cook it must have been hard for her to resort to processed foods, but the kids enjoyed each meal and I just thought it was so sweet of her.Alysee sorting through her treasures.

Nate showing off his crab leg and seashell.

Coop loved finding driftwood and rocks.

Best buds--Alex and Tyler

On the way home from the walk to the beach, Cooper found a new favorite--blackberries. He came home with blackberry stains dripping down his chin.

My Grandpa hasn't been able to get around as much as he would like the past couple of years. This is one reasons we haven't seen my grandparents too much since traveling has become increasingly difficult for even an able bodied person. While growing up, a ride on the "Gator" was always one us grand kids' favorite things to do. It meant a lot to me that Grandpa would share the joy of a Gator ride with my kids. And boy did they LOVE the wild fast ride!!

My Grandpa is well-known for his ingenious inventions. This is Nate trying out his skill on the Gator horn.

A rite of passage growing up would be Grandpa deciding that you were old enough to learn to drive the Gator. Alex sure felt grown-up when Grandpa took him out for his first instructions in driving.

My Grandma has the most beautiful flower and plant gardens. She has even been featured on various home gardening shows. Coop shares a bit of her love while hauling stuff around in this miniature wheel barrow.

In the gully by their home is an ancient rope swing. Apparently it is still strong (Birch tested it) and the kids ALL loved taking it for a ride.

My Grandma was so cute with Chloe. Chloe just ate up all the interaction.

This is the view of Chloe's face from the front side.

Near my Grandparents' home a creative and extreme man built "Bandy's Place." For a couple of miles their are crazy homes built like castles and surrounded by goblin fence posts.

We're missing my mom in this four generation shot.

You couldn't have ordered better weather for our ferry ride back to Seattle. It was so sunny and warm--I kept telling my kids how lucky they were to have enjoyed such terrific weather all weekend.

When we arrived back at Seattle we drove to Seattle Center and had a yummy picnic lunch, played in the International Water Fountain, and then headed to my Aunt and Uncle's house. We hadn't been able to see my aunt and uncle for several years so it was an extra special treat to spend the night with them and introduce them to Coop and Chloe.

Monday morning we took Alex to Seattle Children's Hospital to meet two different doctors. Several of the kids were able to play in a supervised "Sibling Playroom" -- a true blessing to us all. Our first appointment was with the head of the craniofacial team, Dr. Michael Cunningham. It had been four years since we last met with him so it was nice to catch up and show off Alex's newly-created ear. Our real purpose in meeting with him was to request him to write a letter to our medical insurance company to appeal their lack of treatment in orthodontics when the underlying problem is medically-related. Dr. Cunningham fully agreed with us that Alex's hemifacial microsomia has impacted his jaw size and unique dental/palate issues. We are working on collecting letters from our pediatric orthodontist specialist, local orthodontist, and a medical doctor all stating these issues in hopes that our insurance company will end up covering Alex's ortho needs.
Our second appointment was with Dr. Kathy Sie. A year and a half ago, she performed Alex's internal ear surgery which created an ear canal and inner ear parts for Alex. Alex continually has trouble with his ear canal becoming blocked by wax and dead skin cells. Our local ENT has expressed concern that Alex's ear canal is just too small and possibly needs to be widened. After meeting with Dr. Sie she noticed that Alex has some scarring on both sides of his ear canal which in turn creates the problem of keeping his ear canal clean. Through examining Alex with a microscope she thinks that this scarring is very isolated and has suggested that Alex have a small surgery in the next few months injecting this scarring with a steroid which in turn will hopefully shrink the scarring. After the injection she would place a small wick filled with steroid that hopefully will 1) keep the ear canal open during its healing; and 2) continually feed the scarring the steroid for an extended period of time. Though Alex is totally NOT excited about another surgery, we (his parents and doctor) feel like this would be worth a try. Our hope is that through keeping his ear canal clean his hearing will continue to improve.
Then off to Woodland Park Zoo. It was a gorgeous day in Seattle (I know I keep saying this but it really was such an unpredictable treat.) and the animals were all out and quite entertaining. Our legs were all aching by the end of our five hour tour of the zoo. The kids demanded that we see everything. Our personal favorite was the gorilla exhibit. There was this new baby gorilla that was so cute and even nursed from her momma's big nipples. Somehow that was much cuter than watching Chloe nurse on me.

Before heading home we stopped at IKEA and snarfed up our free birthday kids meals and window shopped a bit. We were all too tired to really enjoy the shopping so we headed home remembering that the kids all had school the next morning.

It was a great weekend and especially wonderful to have spent so much time with our extended family!

Red, White, and Blue

It hit me last night during one of Chloe's late night feedings that today would be September 11th. As I laid in bed I began thinking of how grateful I am that I live in America.

I remember so vividly the phone call from Birch after the terrorist attack. The following weeks I was consumed with sorrow; a bit of fear; worry if I should protect the kids from the news and media covering the attack or keep them in their safe bubble; a sense of wanting to be close to family; a rally of Americans all coming together; and of course, and overwhelming feeling that...

I am grateful to be an AMERICAN!! This feeling will never go away!

The view from our front door this morning--our flag proudly hangs and we admire God's beauty of Mount Adams

On My Own

Since Wednesday night I have been trying to play the role of mom and dad; something that I am not great at. I am pretty good at being mom until about 6 pm and then we are all ready for dad to come home. So what happens when dad is gone for several days and 6 pm roles around...a bit of craziness, stress, quick dinners, and early bedtimes.

Every year Birch relishes in planning, preparing, and going on his annual All-Brothers-Hike (it even has an acronym "ABH"). Each year the brothers try to out do themselves in cool gear, though I think Birch has lost that award for a few years now. This year he is the proud new owner of a plastic $2.00 pooper shovel. I'm sure his brothers were all drooling over his shovel and might have even tried to sneak it from his pack at night. They all hike in memory of their dad who was a true mountain man and passed away almost eight years ago.

Planning for the hike begins during the previous year's hike. Normally one of the brothers kind of takes charge with planning the hike after they all agree on a location. Then watch out...some years they have had t-shirts printed or special hymn books printed or vinyl lettering of their logo (yes, they have a logo) added to their nalgene bottles, but always you can count on an awesome DVD produced by Birch's talented brother, Kelly. These movies are right up there with Star Wars quality (or at least the Ditto family thinks they are). This year Birch got the idea of buying dry-wicking shirts and then having the logo embroidered on the shirt. He was like a little boy planning the whole gift out and couldn't wait to present them to his brothers. This year they will be missing Andrew as he is serving a mission in Mexico right now. They are backpacking in the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho.
So how do I feel about this annual adventure? I used to dread it but I am learning to live with it and even try and be happier about its annual arrival. A couple of things have helped me with this paradigm shift--they no longer summit tall scary mountains where ice axes and crampons are needed and the last couple of years they have been able to go during the school year. The thought of losing my beloved Lover to a crevasse is more than I can bear the thought of, plus our life insurance company frowns upon such high adventure trips (you should have seen the smile on my face when the insurance agent told Birch that this policy did not allow such activities.). I figure once I am dead and Birch doesn't need a life insurance policy he is welcome to climb any mountain he wants.

Also, Birch has become very thoughtful over the years at doing secretive things prior to his departure to make his absence less painful for me. This year he left a sweet note sharing his love and also letting me know that he had arranged babysitters to come twice over the following four days. Plus he had flowers delivered one day and then last night he directed me to a gift that he had made--a cd of love songs. I love new music and just the thought that he had made it with me in mind made it extra special.

So how did the rest of us fare? We survived! Unfortunately several kids ended up getting Hand, Foot, Mouth disease so I wasn't able to take advantage of all the babysitting. We did have a fun movie party one night. I had been worried about handling six kids during church today (though Birch had asked a favorite family of ours to sit with us and help out) but since so many of the kids are sick we stayed home from church. Normally I really struggle at night with falling asleep on my own and getting scared but I've found that sleep deprivation does have one advantage--falling asleep isn't hard to do at all. Chloe still has just been getting up twice a night and I can handle that.

I'm not saying Birch wasn't missed; we are all counting down the hours until he arrives home today, but we did survive. Life is so much sweeter when you can share each day with your Lover.

I know Birch has been FLYING HIGH over the past several days but we are so excited to have him home today!

Birch flying high at Bumping Lake - August 2008 Scout Campout

And the winner is...

Last week I entered a recipe contest with our local newspaper. What do you know...yesterday I flipped open the newspaper and saw this:
What did I win, you might ask? Hum...I think bragging rights. If anyone is wanting my autograph you know how to reach me. These muffins are really quite tasty if I do say so myself.

Back to School...Back to Reality

Yesterday we dove into the 2008-2009 school year. Everyone was excited to put on their new school shirt, see their friends and meet their new teacher.

Alex is a cross walk guard this year and has been especially excited to start that new responsibility. Alex is a fifth grader, Tyler is in second grade, and Alysee is a first grader.
Here is a picture of the three mourners--Nate, Cooper, and Chloe. Nate and Coop kept asking when brothers and sister would be home all day long.
Nate is going to start his first year of preschool next week. He is excited and a little nervous.
Coop is a bit confused at where everyone disappeared to. He thinks going to school sounds great. Unfortunately, this morning it just occurred to me that Coop has "Hand, Foot, Mouth" disease. This would be our third time getting it over the past couple of years. He had a little sore on his lip yesterday and I thought nothing of it. Then this morning Dr. Ditto (that's me) noticed that he has several other sores in his mouth, toes, and hands. He is still pretty chipper despite the discomfort he must be in. I told Nate that he should try and not touch Cooper while he is sick. Bad mistake. I'm sure Nate is already fully exposed and now I have Coop running around the house trying to touch Nate and Nate hollering for Coop to stay away from him. If only it were possible to keep a sickness isolated to one child. I'm hoping somehow that Chloe will be spared.
Chloe's first time touching the grass; she didn't like it.
Not the cutest picture of Chloe but the outfit was just so cute on her. Not only was it Chloe's first time touching grass but it was also her first time wearing a sweater, socks, and hat. Chloe is smiling so much more and has really become quite the talker when in a good mood. I've noticed an increase in slobber this past week too (note: the slobber drip on her shirt). She is sleeping better at night. We've started giving her a bottle of formula around 10 pm and then she will normally sleep until around 2 am (twice she even slept until 4 am). Then she is usually up around 6 am and sometimes will go back to sleep after she nurses and other times she is up for several hours.

I used to collect quotes in my younger single years : ) A quote that I wrote down many years ago has been in my mind alot recently, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Nice quote to have weighing in ones mind, I know. Anyway, I think the reason I have been thinking of this quote is because part of me is annoyed with myself over the things I did not get done this summer with the kids. Like all those cool lesson plans. I printed them all off, bought most of the suppplies, told the kids we were going to do them each day, and then -- WAM, BAM--the summer is over and I only did like three days of lessons. Or a book that I started reading to the kids during their daily quiettime. I said to the kids, "I'd like to read you this book that my mom read to me as a little kid." I read two days...the book is only 1/3 read.

So the school year starts will a bit of mixed emotions. I'm ready for it but at the same time I wish I had done better. I'm enjoying the quiet afternoons, cleaning up only a handfull of dishes after lunch, sweeping the floor only once a day, errands with only three kids...but I wonder if I could have done better. Sometimes it just feels like anything I try to do with all the kids is just hard and so I give up (or wait until Birch gets home).

Well, those handfull of dishes are awaiting me.

Another year older

August is just one party month at our house!!
Birch turned 35 years old this year. His birthday was on a Sunday which we both realized as you get older it isn't quiet as painful. Growing up, Saturday, was always my favorite day to have my birthday so then I didn't have to do my Saturday jobs.
Birch celebrated his special day by enjoying yummy food, opening a few gifts (his favorite was a book on hikes in his area), and then gobbling down turtle sunday waffle cones.
My 33rd birthday fell on a Tuesday this year. Alex surprised me with making lemon poppy seed muffins all by himself and Tyler made toast with peanut butter or jelly for me. They even set the table all nice. The cool fabric "Happy Birthday" sign behind us was hand-made by my very talented mother.
That night we all enjoyed Strawberry Shortcake together and then Birch and I went out to dinner with no kids. It was a wonderful way to finish off the day.
Alysee Grace is now a big six year old. Hard to believe that she will start First Grade tomorrow. Since the day Alysee was born at 5 pounds 8 oz. we knew we would love all each ounce of her. She is a ball of fire; a little bi-polar in temperament. She loves to sing and she loves to play school, church, Vacation Bible School, mom/dad, brother/sister--you name it. She has been wonderful at caring for Chloe when I've asked for her help. She enjoys candy, collecting rolly-pollies, sleeping in late (a rare quality at our house), craft projects and drawing, and riding her bike. The day before Alysee's birthday she had her first friend party. We finally learned our lesson and just had two girls over to help celebrate (Alex's first friend party consisted of 18 wild boys--what were we thinking?). The girls made and decorated foam hula dancers, made their own two layer birthday cakes, and then played a really fun game that Birch came up with--"Try and hit your brother with a water balloon." The girls all loved the challenge and Alex and Tyler were good sports about the game.
The night ended with a family trip to the local semi-professional baseball game. Alysee has ALWAYS wanted to try cotton candy. As a birthday treat she got her very own bag of sticky pink cotton candy. She loved the first three bites and then decided that it is actually quite a disgustingly sweet concoction. It was a great way to end the night!

Partyin' it up with the Dittos

One thing that I love about the Ditto extended family is how much everyone enjoys being together. Everyone makes such an effort to get together several times a year and support each other on life's events or just to have fun. The past four summers we have been able to have a Ditto Family Reunion at Lake Cavanaugh, just north of Seattle. My sister-in-law's family has allowed us to bring our group of 29 adults and children to bask in the sun and water. This year we didn't get to bask in the sun too much but there were still a lot of water activities that went on.

Stand back for an overload of pictures. Birch and I got our hands on an Kelly's (Birch's brother) awesome camera and we just couldn't take enough shots.

Tyler-7.5 years old
Tyler and Birch going tubing
Tyler
Sara and Chloe enjoying a bit of relaxing time.
Nate-4 years old
Nate and Birch tubing
Nate and Birch on paddle boat. Nate's favorite thing to do was actually ride on the wave runner with Birch. Somehow we didn't get a picture of them together.
As you might have noticed, Nate has a very expressive face. Birch caught this photo when Nate was expressing his concern over the paddles floating away in the water.
Nate loved hot tubbing in his life jacket.
Cooper and Nate on the see-saw
Coop-2 years old
Grannie and Coop playing a game of football.
Chloe-6 weeks oldChloe and her cousin Hailey
Apparently Birch hasn't lost his touch; I was still asleep each morning when he and his brothers would attempt to sneak away from the 19 kids to go waterskiing.
Alysee-almost 6 years old
Alysee
Alysee
Alysee spent about seven hours a day in the hot tub--no kidding. She LOVED each minute in the tub and LOVED playing with all her cousins.
Alex-10 years old
Alex became quite proficient at playing Koob. Alex jumping off the dock.
Tubing Alex

Can't wait until the next Ditto gathering!