Our Glassblowing Experience

This weekend I surprised Mark with a fun day. Kaylie spent Saturday night with Jessica and Jeff (THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!) and Mark and I got to go play. We started out with a long walk along the Ruston Way waterfront - good people watching (several mohawks, a few unfortunate tube tops, tons of families, a crazy roller skater, etc.). Then a trip to the Museum of Glass where we looked at the exhibits & watched them blow glass in the "hot shop". Once Mark was appropriately intrigued and dying to try it himself, I told him that our next stop was our own glassblowing class at the Tacoma Glass Studio. We had a great time, saw some absolutely amazing talent and art and even made our own halfway decent pieces!

This is Mark's work. Well, it's actually a display from the Museum of Glass, but I'm sure he could have done this.

Outside the Museum

Mark's turn in class. Here he is heating his glass in the "glory hole" (I know, it sounds awful, doesn't it?) to over 1,200 degrees.


Mark and our instructor, Patrick, laying the color on the glass

Cooling the rod in water so that he could lay more glass on the end.


Mark's bowl in progress

My turn!

After our glass blowing, we went to the Tides Tavern in Gig Harbor for a great dinner, went on a long walk on the Gig Harbor waterfront, then home for a nice quiet evening at home where we got really wild & crazy and caught up on the latest Lost and Grey's Anatomy.

Sunday morning: We slept in until 7:45!!! Then made a big breakfast of blueberry muffins, quiche, sausage, fruit & lots of coffee, then headed out in the kayak. We should have gone out before breakfast when the water was perfectly smooth because it got very windy and choppy while we were out. We put the spray skirt on the kayak, but still headed back in after about a 1/2 hour. The water was splashing over the front of the kayak and into my face... it would be very fair to say that I prefer warm weather kayaking. Kaylie got home around 1:00 (we were sooo happy to see our girl! We missed her terribly!) and we headed back to Tacoma to pick up our glass, a quick stop at Trader Joe's and home for a BBQ. A perfect weekend!

Last Weekend

Malia with our little cousin Kalina who was visiting from Switzerland. The girls had so much fun together - seemed like they've known each other forever!

Isn't it amazing how much she looks like Kaylie?

BFF Lisa

We celebrated Lisa's birthday with a yummy dinner and even yummier wine! Happy Birthday Sistah! I love you!! (See her blog for more pictures)

Paxton after the biggest bubble of the night popped. (Sorry Pax, I didn't mean to pop it!) :-)

Trying to convince Kaylie that she should use the potty instead of going in her panties is not going well:

Kaylie: "But EVERYONE goes poopie, Mommy."

Me: "Yes, but EVERYONE does not go poopie in their brand new pink, ruffled Curious George panties!"

pause...

Kaylie: "Well, maybe they should!"

Another Camano Weekend

We spent another fun weekend at my parent's house on Camano Island. My nephew Austin and niece Avery joined us too, while my sister and Keith enjoyed a weekend away. We had amazing weather on Saturday - sunny and 80 degrees. We played on the beach, ate clams, kayaked, and had a great time. Avery and Kaylie spent most of the weekend playing at the beach and on the driftwood, mopping the mud (a mop came in with the tide?!?!), and taking baths in the big tub. Avery was a ton of fun, Kaylie earned her Junior Log Monkey badge, and Austin proved himself to be quite the kayaker.

Lessons learned:
1. Don't leave Mark alone with the kids at the beach - he's likely to bury them in the mud
2. Take the clam OUT of the shell before eating it (this one was learned by Kaylie - the hard way. She forgets every time.)
3. Hamsters like to eat tulips
4. If you need a shopping assistant - take Austin (NOT Austin, Avery and Kaylie, though!)
5. Just because you buy a waterfront house, it doesn't mean you always get water

SBK

Cousin love


The hunky kayak guide - I liked him so much I brought him home with me!


Mark, being the good Uncle that he is, took the kids out to the beach to play. Mom, Dad, and I stayed back at the house sitting in the sun and looking at magazines (or maybe that was just me and Mom ... dad was mowing the lawn and doing other manly dad things). After awhile we just couldn't tell what Mark and the kids were doing out there and a look through the binoculars just seemed to be too odd. They couldn't possible be doing what it looked like... could they? Mom and I threw on our boots and headed out to see for ourselves. We were greeted by Austin & Avery laughing hysterically and yelling, "Mark started it - it was his idea!!" Mark had actually dug a waist deep hole in the mud and he was taking turns with Austin and Avery jumping in it and trying to get stuck. I have NEVER seen dirtier - or happier - kids in my life.

The Instigator in his hole



Even Kaylie went for a dip in the hole.

Avery running from the mud ball being thrown at her from Mark. If you look close, you can see it about to hit her in the back of the head. She actually lost her pants in the mud hole - they were found but will never, ever be yellow again.

Washing off with the cold, cold hose water. Grandma is really pushing for an outdoor shower with warm water.



My Dad -
a.k.a Grandpa Bobbo
a.k.a Bob of Bob's Yacht Club fame
a.k.a. the best Dad ever

Full Circle

So, bear with me... this post may be a little random. When Holly Funk and I were little (I'd say 7th or 8th grade), we would spend time on Camano Island at her family's beach house. Her little cousin Liz Weber would often be there too. We'd spend lazy summer days floating on air mattresses in the Sound. (This is where Liz comes into the story). Liz, being several years younger than us thought that we were the cool (duh!) older kids. We knew about the important stuff like Adam Ant, shiny eyeshadow, and Aqua Net Extra Super Hold. Liz liked to hang out with us and she was pretty cool so we let her. She also liked flowered panties: hence the nickname "Flower Panty Girl". So, there we would be, floating on our air mattresses and letting Liz hang out with us. Her job would be to keep our air mattresses facing the sun so that we could get the best tan possible. If we started to float off course, Holly or I would simply yell, "Liz - Sun!!" and she would push us back to the right angle. This was easy for her because while Holly and I were happily floating on our air mattresses, Liz would be standing waist (shoulder?) deep in the water with one hand on each of our mattresses to keep us steady. Man, that was the life.

To explain the full circle, the reason for this post is that SBK (do I need to remind again? It's for Sweet Baby Kay) has decided that panties are not so bad after all**.... especially FLOWERED PANTIES. We have our own Flowered Panty Girl now and I call her that often and every time I do, I think of Holly and Liz. And then add the fact that my parents now have a house on Camano, right around the corner from the Funk's beach house, where we'll be spending another weekend this weekend... and it's all coming together.

** Not so bad after all - many, many days of trying to get Kaylie to wear panties went nowhere. She would cry and kick and yell and tears would spurt out of her eyes as she begged to not wear panties. I finally put my foot down and said, "TOMORROW YOU WILL WEAR PANTIES!" She promised. We wrote it down on paper: "Kaylie is going to wear panties on Monday. She promised". She signed it. Mark and I signed it as witnesses, and she's been wearing panties ever since. This is the sign - you can tell how thrilled she is:

And here we are now:
Ta Daaaaa!

Flying Kites & Building Chairs

Mark and Kaylie flew kites in the yard this weekend.



All was well until it got stuck in the tree...


The chair that Mark built. He's been talking about building adirondack chairs as long as I've known him. I bought him plans for his birthday and his family gave him gift certificates for the wood. His first chair is done and it's beautiful - and so comfortable!