What’s Your Number?

You know what number I am talking about, that allusive number you have to go through before you find the “one.” Mine is currently set at 26.

No, no, no, no, no we are not talking about guys here (I have the ” one” remember?), I am talking houses. We started back in June looking for houses if you recall (and if you can’t here are the links here and here), and officially called it finito about a month ago. Calling it finito did not result in finding our dream house and buying it (I wish it was that easy!) Instead it means we have stopped looking.

I don’t know about all of your house hunting experiences but ours was starting to read like a Dr. Seuss book: too quirky, too new, too smelly (oh ya we had a couple of those nightmares!), too small, too wobbly, too crooked, too far (from everything), too weird, too much money, too many repairs, too much asbestos; I think you get the idea all that is missing is the box and the fox with socks trying to get us to eat green eggs and ham.

It is hard to believe that we set foot in that many strangers houses in just a couple months. And now that I think about it my house hunting number is definitely larger than my husband hunting number (aka number of boyfriends). Is finding a house that much harder than finding your soul mate?!?!? I am beginning to think so.

The hubster has been an absolute trooper through this whole process, always the optimist he is. Me, on the other hand am not ashamed to admit I cried a few times and felt extremely nauseous from the stress of it all.  On the positive note, the hubster and I got a lot of coffee dates in and most of the time we only had to deal with Little Miss since Padawan abandoned us for his grandparents houses for most of the summer; guess we don’t spoil him enough over here. And we did find our zombie apocalypse vehicle.

The thing was awesome and British which makes it all the more awesome.  And we did see some absolute gems in the muck that is our speed dating/housing disaster.

It was an ordeal but it made us think about what really mattered to us. Did we want to buy a house just to buy a house? Or do we want a house were we can grow and settle into our life as a family? We decided on the latter. Neither one of us wanted to jump into a huge commitment like buying a house just because, we want OUR house, OUR home and that is something worth waiting for.  Cause who doesn’t want to give this cutie a beautiful home to grow up in? Our kids deserve more than a house, they deserve a home; a home with a front porch to play on while it rains, a yard to run through sprinklers in, a home with a history that they can create their own history within.

So we are keeping our “must have” lists (I am not giving up on my dining room and front porch and the hubster is adamant about his basement) and we are holding out for that warm tingly feeling we have heard so much about when you finally find the one. How about all of you? How many prospects did you have to weed through before you found the “one?” What was or is on your “must have” list? What would you be willing to overlook on that list?

Zippity “Zoo” Da

Living down wind from a zoo has some benefits (and none of the disadvantages), especially when you have a membership to take advantage of the downwinded-ness. This summer that membership paid off with multiple trips to the zoo with friends and family alike. Instead of making a post about each and every single visit, we thought we would be kind and combine all the visits together into one post.

And why not start off the post with some pictures of the cutest creature around?

Ya, Little Miss pretty much takes the cake when it comes to cuteness. On one of our trips to the zoo we kidnapped invited a grandma and papa along for the adventure.  Unlike her brother, Little Miss has lived most of her life away from her grandparents. Padawan was pretty lucky to have spent most of his early years at one of three grandparents’ house getting spoiled (he of course is still spoiled rotten by them whenever he sees them). But Little Miss still takes a while to warm up to them every once in a while, not that that stops her from soaking up some spoiling loving from her papa.

And just to prove this cuteness happened at aforementioned, downwinded  (or would it be up winded since we are downwind?) zoo cue animal photo now:

And Padawan is always happy when papa and grandma come along cause that means he gets to use their smaller camera to take pictures, which mostly ends up being of his baby sister.

And asking me to take pictures of him being crazy. I have no idea whose kid this is, please let us know if you know where he belongs. Just kidding, he is ours and we claim him (most of the time).

There were animals to see of course, we are at the zoo remember?

In all the times we have been to our zoo we were never lucky enough to see these guys awake, until one time this summer:

It was crazy seeing them walking around! You could actually hear their quills clacking against each other as they walked. Since the time we saw them awake, they have been asleep and/or hiding every single time. At least Little Miss and Padawan (and mama too) got to experience these crazy creatures we call porcupines. Little Miss may not have been as impressed with them as much as I was.  Guess it takes a lot to impress a 16 month old these days.

One of the other times we rounded up our crew to go to the zoo we also brought along our neighbors kiddos, who Padawan spent most of the summer playing with outside and having movie/dinner nights with (sad to say they moved away before the end of the summer and Padawan misses them like crazy!) The hubster thought it was crazy that it looked like we had 5 kids, something that he says he does not want in real life.

After looking at that crazy bunch I think I will have to agree with the hubster, 5 is too much crazy for this mama (though I wouldn’t mind one more).

The kids had way too much posing at all the different areas, I didn’t even have to coax them. Well, ok maybe I had to coax them a little bit and threw in a bribe of an elephant ear or two.  But the crazy, that’s all their doing. Crazy is one thing you don’t have to coax out of kids when you put a camera in front of them.

Little Miss had to show her crazy a couple times too.

Just look at those teeth! She is finally getting them all in which makes this mama happy since it is a downright pain to go through the horrors that is teething with nothing to show for it.

And here is one more obligatory animal shot since you know we are at the zoo (again).

That otter had the right idea. It was surprisingly hot this summer which made for nice days to go out and walk the zoo but man did it make you envious of the animals who just laid about in a nice cool pool.

So there it is our zoo adventures of the summer nicely condensed into one neat and tidy post. We sure enjoy being this close to our zoo (I think this is the third blog post about a trip there but whose counting). Is there a place your family frequents during the summer? Is it a water park (man I wish we had one of those) or a museum (my kiddos are too loud for one)?

A Trip In The Fun-Vee

Happy Tuesday everyone!! Hope your weekends were full of adventure or relaxation. Ours was full of anniversary celebrations we will fill you all in shortly but first let’s revisit our recent trip to Disneyland.  If you remember in one of my posts we mentioned that we saw a pretty awesome exhibit in Tomorrowland that deserved its own post, well wait no longer this is that post!

We may be a house divided on what word to use when ordering our favorite carbonated beverage (I say “pop” and hubster says “soda”) but we are not a house divided on which super hero reigns supreme unlike our friends who disagree whether it’s Superman or Batman (sorry, Steven between those two it is Batman hands down every time). Who is this reigning super hero: IRON MAN.

Who we were lucky enough to see in the flesh metal.

Not only did they have this one suit, they had ALL of them! Needless to say I went a little click happy which was spurred on by the hubster constantly asking “Did you get a picture of this one?!?! How about this one?!?! Don’t forget that one!!” Don’t worry I didn’t miss a single suit.

 

Seeing all these suits up close and personal, through pexiglass of courser was insanely awesome. Did I just cement my nerd status by saying that?!?! Awe who cares, you would have all pegged me as a dork sooner or later. My personal fav is the one on the right, do you think it would come in my size? Or at least in the hubster’s size?

 

And just went it could not get any better, they had displays of some of the pieces from some of suits. Don’t you just love authentic battle damage?

 

I may have asked hubster if I could have this painted in our future garage, I think Barney would approve.

 

Funnily looking back at the last picture, the hubster and I think that the man in the Mickey Ears looks a lot like my dad. Way to photobomb the awesome Iron Man mural, dad. And while we are at it, why didn’t you tell us you were at Disneyland when we were?

Anyways, I hope you all agree that this exhibit deserved its own post (if you don’t then you must clearly not like Iron Man which kind of makes me sad). If you could see any superhero who would it be? Better yet, if you could BE any superhero who would you want to be?

 

Three Is A Magic Number

“Ya it is, it’s a magic number.” And it is also the number of years the hubster and I have been married. Today marks the third anniversary of us becoming a family, a family of three (see the song is right it is a magic number).  Hard to believe that only 5 years ago we were on a crazy journey all on our own until that one fateful day that the hubster decided to be late for class.

It is hard to believe that I had given up on finding someone out there that was exactly what I needed (which is so much better than having what you want). I am ever increasingly thankful I did not throw in towel.

Everyday I am thankful and darn right lucky to spend it with my best friend.  Someone who has been through thick and really thin with me (our first 6 months of marriage felt like 60 years it was so full of potholes) and who never once said “I give up” but instead grabs my hand, holds it tight, and some how manages to navigate us out of the storm.

Everyday I am shown that love is an action not a feeling when he comes home takes the kiddos, does the dinner, and helps me check things off my to-do list so when the kiddos are in bed we can enjoy each others company or just the house being quiet for a change.  He reminds me not to take myself too seriously and that life is no good if you can’t enjoy it, and have a good laugh.

My darling hubster, thank you for three wonderful years together. I love you more and more each day and can’t wait to see what the next 50+ years hold for us!

**All photos were taken by Jasmine Photography of Portland, Oregon**

Sand, Surf, and Sun

Disneyland was not the only adventure we want on this summer, the rest of them though were within our beloved state. One of the places we enjoy visiting the most is the coast. Where we are from it is not called the beach, it is the coast; the beach has warm water and sand and you don’t need a wet suit to go into the water.

Despite the chilly water and the lack of bathing suit beaches, we love our coastline! The hubster and I have recently talked about planning a camping trip that takes us all along our coastline one of these summers. But back to this coast trip: like most of our trips it was pretty spur of the moment and motivated by one kind of food or another. This time it was clam chowder. And who would want to turn down the best clam chowder this side of the Mississippi especially when it come with a view like this one:

This seems to be our stand-by go-to location when we are in much need of some ocean therapy. Are we the only ones who feel rejuvenated after spending the day gazing out at the waves? If you haven’t tried it, you are missing out. Not only do you get to enjoy the sound of the waves and the smell of the salty sea air  but you also get to watch all the crazy wildlife, like these guys (I think we counted 8 at one point)

And this rare little bird in sparkly sneakers. This was Little Miss’ first time to the ocean where she could actually enjoy it (her first official visit happened when she was only 2 months old).

She was all down for the freedom of letting her roam around while we waited for a table to open up at our chowder spot.

And she was all for playing the sand, more like letting us bury her legs in it or throwing it at me which is one of the reasons I am glad I didn’t take Ansel down to the shore with us except for these few shots.

We had hoped to add to our sea glass collection that we have been working on, but sadly we were unable to due to the fact that high tide happened right when we arrived and would not go back down til after dark (cue sad mama face here). Since our glass hunting was put on hold til our next trip over we had to find something else to occupy our time at the sea. Again, being food driven our caravan (my mom and stepdad meet us over there for chowder time) made its trek to another of our favorite seasides spots for another sea staple: salt water taffy.

The only problem with saltwater taffy is remembering what flavors you got in your bag or are currently left over in your R2-D2 candy stash. Any ideas on what flavors we still have??

The weekend that we went seaside was the first time that Little Miss got to ride in her “big girl” car seat.  I think it is safe to say that she enjoyed it.

With a tuckered out kiddo and a hungry hubster, we hopped on over the bridge for a spot of tea beer. One of the local breweries we enjoy is based out of our go-to seaside destination and we *GASP* had never ventured over there for bite to eat.  Which is even crazier when we consider the fact that when the hubster and I started dating he had applied for a job in the accounting department at this brewery.

Both the hubster and the step-dad sampled the beers, i just enjoyed the fish tacos and watching Little Miss enjoy the view of the marina and her crayons.

I did enjoy a nice HOT caramel macchiato though on the drive home which was such a welcome after spending the day on the cool side of the ocean. I am soooo ready to have my coffees be hot again. Funny how I can’t wait for the weather to turn to enjoy iced ones again but then around August I am ready for the warmth and coziness of a hot cup again (too bad the weather is not cooperating around here for that!)  How about you, do you wait for the weather to change for your coffee order to change as well? Are your trips as food oriented as ours (at least Disneyland wasn’t hahaha)? How about your coastline, is it warm and perfect for shorts and swimming? Or is it like ours where you dress in layers and have plenty of opportunities for a cup of hot joe?