watch and listen

heard
during a trip in the car, driving by the cow farms.
me - "hey makenzie what do you like better, cows or pigs?"
makenzie - "horses!"
me - "but pigs give us bacon, pork chops, pork rinds, and curly tails. cows give us lots of stuff like cheese, milk, ice cream, butter, and hamburgers."
makenzie - "cows don't give us hamburgers. they don't poop out hamburgers out their bum bums."

seen
tessa rolling off of the couch and landing on here feet. the look of amazement on her face and she realized what she had just done.

heard
during our drive home
kenzie - hey dad can we wrestle when we get home, me and ethan?
austin - yea...what about mom and tessa can they wrestle too?
kenzie - no, they will get hurt.

seen and heard

heard

the other night we stopped by dairy queen to reward the kids for being good. inside they had 3 stools that were the perfect size for the kids to sit on, ethan was on one, makenzie was in the middle and i was holding tessa on the other side. when makenzie and ethan got their cones i asked makenzie to share with tessa, to overt some sort of banshee scream from tessa. makenzie obliged and then:

me - "ethan can you share you ice cream with tessa?"
ethan - "uh, no i too far away!"

heard
later on while there i asked if i could have some of his cone and here is what i got after taking a small bit:
ethan - "no daddy, only a lick. like this (he then lightly touches his tongue to the ice cream). not a bite."

heard
while getting ready for church yesterday i told makenzie that she needed to go and find cherisse to get her hair done. ethan trying to stick up for his sister.

ethan - sternley saying, "kenzie's not going to do her hair."
makenzie - "ethan if i don't do my hair, i will have crazy hair. do you want me to go to church with crazy hair?"
ethan nodding to concur that no one needs to go to church with crazy hair.

seen
on the way home from church yesterday afternoon tessa and ethan fell asleep. makenzie reached over and held ethans hand after she realized that he was asleep.

heard
yesterday before makenzie and ethan came back down stairs i interrupted this little reunion.
makenzie standing in front of ethan holding a blue and a brown dress.

makenzie - "ethan, which one should i wear."
ethan - "da blue one." (his only choice for his own attire is blue)

makenzie - "thanks ethan."

sea legs

last night we took the inaugural trip out on our yellow kayak. there was some hesitation from the crew and a near mutiny when we were just about to set sail but after that it was smooth sailing. the wind was not in our favor that evening and the lone paddler had to work hard not to end up at the other end of the lake. after coming back in from that first trip tessa wanted to go on the next voyage. she enjoyed playing in the beached boat. makenzie and ethan soon realized that the shore was full of rocks that could be thrown back into the lake and that is what they spent the rest of the time doing. looking forward to many more adventures in our unnamed boat.

Storrs Family Reunion San Diego

This last weekend we went down to my parents house for a family reunion. We had a great time and the kids had a blast. We each got our own welcome bag of goodies and fun toys. Thursday night we hung out and chatted. Went swimming and watched a movie on a projection screen out by the pool.
Friday we went to Mission beach and played there all afternoon. Then we went to the Padres game all 43 of us and let the kids play in the sandbox behind center field.
Then Saturday we got up early and did a 5k at the park and yes I did finish it! Then we hung out at mom and dads and went swimming, kids had a blast in the art room, older kids had fun in the pool room out back with all the video games, played games and hit balls in the newly finished sport court. There was of course a ton of food everywhere to graze all day. Then we had a surprise luau for my moms birthday with a lot of her old friends. Even her old friend all growing up from Idaho Falls flew in from out of town, Gladys. We had L&L Hawaiian Barbecue cater it and yum I haven't had L&L's since I moved back from Hawaii. Anyway the girls all did a couple of hula dances for grandma and we had a picture slide show for mom. Then we had a fun dance party after that to finish off the party.
Sunday we went down to Sea Port Village to take family pictures...which is always super fun! Then walked around for a bit and then went back to the house to hang out.
I am super tired but the kids had a great time playing with cousins all day long for four days.

time goes by

here are a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend. tessa is full of life and ready to take it at max speed, which right now is a slow crawl. playing with the German Shepard. makenzie and ethan working on their swimming. by the end of the evening they were jumping in and swimming to the sides without their jackets.

memories

Here is a fun little game...

leave a comment on our blog of a memory that you and i (cherisse, austin, makenzie, ethan or tessa) have had together. it doesn't matter if you've known us for a short time or a long time, or met just once, anything that you remember!

next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. it is pretty funny to read the responses.

up and down the five II

Thursday kenzie, ethan, tessa and I flew up to Washington to surprise shalyn and the kids. It was ethans first time on an airplane and he was so excited....until we went to board the airplane and he realized that daddy was not coming. He would not go with me and kept screaming no I want daddy. "Daddy go airplane with me. I want daddy go." He was crying and holding on to austin's leg. It was so sad, but after about 10 minutes I got him on the plane and he was fine and excited to push all the buttons he could get his hands on. Kenzie that night before was crying saying that she was not going to have any fun in Washington because daddy was not going to be there. I want daddy to go on the airplane. Daddy is going to be all alone and sad because I am not here. I want my daddy to go. Yea I feel like a good mom...my kids want their daddy to go and are crying because he is not going. Hello....here I am...mom is going...nope only wanted daddy.
Aaron Grover was nice enough to come and pick me up from the airport and take me to shalyn's house. It was fun seeing old friends from Hawaii again. I haven't seen Aaron in about six years so it was fun to catch up. shalyn was out and about so after 5 minutes of waiting she got home and we surprised her as she was getting out of her car. we had a good time playing at a beautiful park with a lake, picnics, mariners game, snoqualmie falls, huge rain storm, walle and playing with cousins.

up and down the five

last weekend we were up in the bay area for luke & greta's wedding. we drove up at 3am on Friday morning and met up with everyone at the hotel, went in and saw some sites, and then back for some swimming. driving in the morning was great and we made it up there in about six and a half hours. our trip back was not so quick as it was in the middle of the day. it was fun hanging out with the dyer side of the family and to get together for luke's special day was fun.

seen and heard

we have quickly realized that we need to write these things down as soon as they happen or else they will be forgotten.

heard - while makenzie and ethan are running around in the kitchen with filled water balloons,
"hey dad can you juggle these, can you juggle these?"
"if you want to play with those, you need to go outside."
"do you want to juggle some food that is not going to break."
she then brings over some lemons.

seen and heard - the kids getting out all of the lemons from the fridge and teaching themselves how to juggle. it quickly turned into dodge ball. while sitting in the office i hear makenzie become the casualty of an errant citrus projectile. then ethan comes running down the hall toward me with a look of guilt. i tell him to go and apoligize to his sister and he turns around and taps her on the shoulder and tells her,
"you ok."

heard - if no one is around tessa, not that we leave her in solitary confinement, but if she sees that no one is around at the moment of her choosing then she will let out a squeal. a bone stirring squeal to let all within a two and a half mile radius know that she is upset about something.

heard - last week we were at the thunstroms pool and there was a birds nest just above the (which is a cave/grotto) and so the kids couldn't go swimming in there. So today we were over there swimming again and kalia came over to kenzie and said,
"kenzie, kenzie the birds are gone they are not in the hot tub any more we can go swimming in there."
"o, are the birds on vacation?!"

heard - makenzie, "mommy, when i cough i think that i have a cold."

heard - i told her that while in san fran we were going to go to a park that i use to play in when i was a kid (in front of my grandma's house). makenzie wondering how i got there,
"o what car did you ride in."
thinking back to those 11 hour road trips down to SF, "a herbie van (vw bus)."
"mommy, what car did you ride in." short pause, makenzie answers, "a pink limo."
"yep makenzie, a pink limo." "that's a fun car."

heard - "mom, i am going to be princess leia, and an ice skater."

heard - after i got done singing a made up song
"dad your silly." "why am i silly?" "because you are speaking english."

heard - while in a grocery store in melo park,
"we need to get some milk for your cereal." makenzie, "i don't like milk." "milk is good for you. it give you strong bones, and has lots of vitamins in it." makenzie, "chocolate milk make you healthy. regular milk makes you sad."

heard - when we were leaving at 3am on our trip to san francisco makenzie woke up for about 30 minutes and was full of things to say. we got out the camcorder and recorded some things that she was saying. toward the end cherisse asked,
"is there anything else that you would like to say kenzie?" "um.., no that's all. a motorhome, you should get a motorhome. dad that would be fun, huh."