Happy Father's Day

 

This Father's Day we were traveling back from our vacation so we didn't do anything special for Scott.  I told him we would celebrate next weekend, 'cause I am lame.  In any case, Scott is a great Dad and deserves to have a nice Father's Day, so hopefully we can make up for it next weekend.  Here are some questions I've asked the kids for a few years now about Scott.  Grant is not yet up to giving answers beyond "baba" or "SQUEAL!!"  So we'll try with him next year.  I asked the kids these questions separately but they still gave similar answers for some things.  :)  Here are the kids answers from 2010, 2011.  Happy Father's Day Scott!  We love you!!

About Daddy
by Matthew (age 5.3) and Anna (age 3.8)

What is something daddy always says to you?
Matthew: "Reel it in!"
Anna: "Thank you" and "I love you" and sometimes he kisses me and sometimes I hug him.

What makes daddy happy?
Matthew: When I give him something for his birthday.
Anna: When I give him a hug

What makes daddy sad?
Matthew: When I hurt his feelings like when I say "Oh, I don't like you."  But I will never say that.
Anna: When I do naughty things at him

How does daddy make you laugh?
Matthew: When I'm in a burrito [blanket] and he eats me.
Anna: When he does silly things like when he throws me up in the air and makes silly sounds.

What was daddy like as a kid?
Matthew: He was small and he lived on a farm with Grandpa. (actually not true, so don't know where the farm came from)
Anna: Candy!! (still not sure she understood that question)

How old is daddy?
Matthew: I don't know.  How old is he?  I don't know.
Anna: (whispering) Give me a guess, mom!!

How tall is daddy?
Matthew: He is as tall as to reach the high games on the shelf.  As tall as Yahtzee.
Anna: About 80 inches.

What is daddy's favorite thing to do?
Matthew: Work on his computer.
Anna: Go shopping

What does daddy do when you're not around?
Matthew: He's at work when I'm not around.  He works.
Anna: Look for me!

If daddy was famous, what would it be for?
Matthew: Flying an airplane.
Anna: Books?

What is daddy really good at?
Matthew: Driving a car.  I mean, he's really good at driving our car.
Anna: Baseball

What is daddy not really good at?
Matthew: Umm... (thinks a long time) ...parachuting.  He can't jump out of a plane.
Anna: T-Ball

What does daddy do for a job?
Matthew: He does the finance.
Anna: He goes to work for a job.

What is daddy's favorite food?
Matthew: Vegetables??
Anna: Sandwiches!

What makes you proud of daddy?
Matthew: When he gets up in the far high mountains in our car.
Anna: When he likes me.

If daddy were a cartoon character, which one would it be?
Matthew: Harry Potter.  He's good at doing magic and fighting.
Anna: Mickey Mouse.

What do you and daddy do together?
Matthew: Go camping and fishing.
Anna: Go fishing.

How are you and daddy the same?
Matthew: We just sometimes match clothes.
Anna: When Daddy and me do things together.

How are you and daddy different?
Matthew: Our hair.  My hair is blond his is black.
Anna: 'Cause we don't have the same hair.

How do you know daddy loves you?
Matthew: 'Cause he's my daddy!
Anna: 'Cause with his heart!

Where is daddy's favorite place to go?
Matthew: To his work I think.
Anna: To the baseball field.

Fort Vancouver

We spent a nice day in Vancouver with my sister and her family.  We went to the farmer's market and got some yummy treats and berries.  Then we went to Fort Vancouver.  Here we are in front of the lookout tower with Ruth and Magnus.  Thanks for taking the picture Dana!

 

Here are the kids in the garden area outside the fort.

 And under the arbor of flowers

 Checking out the cannons

The kids kept looking inside the cannon for a monkey??

 The outhouses

 A cleaning room or something

 And up in the tower looking at the cannons

After relaxing for a little bit we went to dinner at Gustav's, a German place we like.  Matthew and Anna LOVED the fondue!!  So did the rest of us!

Grant and Magnus hanging out at the restaurant!  They were cute together!

The Mighty Magnus

One fun thing about visiting Oregon to see Scott's family is that my sister lives only a short distance away in Vancouver, WA.  So we got to visit with her a few times.  Here are Grant (on the right) with my sister Ruth's little boy, Magnus (on the left).  Magnus is about 4 weeks younger than Grant.  They were cute together. Coincidentally the names Magnus and Grant both have similar meanings:  they both mean GREAT!!

 Magnus is pretty tall and a very good walker.  Here he is giving Matthew a nice hug.

 

Here are Ruth and I with our respective little ones.  Does Magnus look a lot bigger than Grant?  He is.  By about six pounds and I don't know how many inches in height.  Grant is still small for his age, but I'm hoping he'll start catching up.  Also I think I look about 10 months pregnant in this picture...and in real life.  I'm only 7 1/2.  Unlike my hopes for Grant, I'm hoping I don't get much bigger. This picture was bloglifted from my sister.  Thanks Ruth!

 And here is Uncle Dana with Magnus and Grant.  Magnus and Dana look alike, wouldn't you say?

 Here are all the cousins hanging out.  They were even looking in the right direction.

Magnus was wondering why everyone was laughing.  Magnus also seemed perplexed at the amount of noise the three of my kids could make together.  Grant was very loud compared to Magnus, maybe out of necessity being the third child.  They had fun playing together!  It was good seeing you Magnus (and of course, you too Ruth and Dana).  Hopefully we can come visit again soon!

More Oregon Coast

 While we were out at the Oregon Coast we saw a few other things.

The Yaquina Head Lighthouse

We got to drive in for free because of our military pass to the National Parks.  Hooray!

 

Checking out the views.  The kids and I walked down there and Anna fell on the last step, so I spent the time bandaging her instead of really enjoying the views.  But it was still pretty.

The Devil's Punchbowl

A big rock formation

Lots of states have Devil's Punchbowls, but this one was pretty cool.  He must throw a lot of parties.  We also found out on this trip that a lot of states have a Castle Rock.

We went to Lincoln City Beach so Matthew could fly his kite.  One thing they seem to have no shortage of there is wind.  I guess they have big kite flying competitions there sometimes.  So Matthew was able to get the kite in the air no problem.

Scott helped him and Matthew had a lot of fun flying his kite.  I think he got tired after a while and Scott took over, but still.

I was sitting in the car during a lot of this with Grant and Anna.  Both of them had fallen asleep and we didn't want to wake them.  Eventually Grant woke up, but Anna kept on sleeping.  Here's Grant sitting in the car with me.

We ventured out a little bit from the car but had a near miss from a seagull, so I decided we would go back in the car.  We could still see Matthew with his kite.  It was a nice day at the coast!

Flying Kites

During a short trip to Target I let the kids pick an item from the dollar bin.  They both picked these little kites.  At first I didn't want them to pick the kites, since I am very tired these days and I knew it might mean lots of trips to the park when I would rather be laying on the couch, but we ended up getting them anyway.  Right away they wanted to fly the kites.  Scott helped the kids put them together and Grandma Guptill took them outside for some flying.  We didn't have any wind that day, but undaunted, the kids decided they would run around to make their kites fly.  Here is Anna with hers.

Grandma helped them get started but then they had to run to keep it in the air.  Sounds like a lot of work to me, but since they have a lot of energy anyway, it was a workable solution.

 Matthew did pretty good with his.

 Here's Anna winding up her string.  She kept hers on a shorter leash.

 

 Here's Matthew after running around for a while with his.

He had fun though.

 Grant so wanted to be out there with him, but I made him stay inside.

He was very sorry about that.

Eventually he got to go and check things out.  He was even wearing his new shoes that day.  Such a big boy!  Someday you can fly a kite too buddy...but probably not these kites.  I don't think the dollar bin kites are going to survive too many days of being flown or run around/dragged on the ground.  We'll see.  :)
See other kite flying adventures HERE.

Oregon Coast Aquarium

After spending a little time in Utah we continued on our journey and made it to Oregon.  It was a lot colder here than I was expecting.  We did check what the weather was going to be, but somehow it just seems colder with the moisture and the rain.  But it's been nice having a little vacation from the dry in Colorado.  We headed out to the coast one day of our Oregon trip and visited the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport.  It was nice weather out there that day and it wasn't very busy, so we had a great time!  Here are the kids checking out one of the tanks.

 

They had some fun play areas for kids.  One of them let the kids catch fish or pretend they are on a fishing boat.  All three kids liked catching fish.  Here is Anna with her catch.

Matthew wanted to be the captain of the ship.

Anna ran the fish market and sold me some nice fish, crabs and mussels.  She had a lot of fun doing that!

She was also excited to see the jellyfish.  The jellyfish were much more colorful than they look in this picture.

A lot of my pictures at this or any aquarium (or zoo) are just of the kid's backs.  :)  Here they are looking at some starfish...or do we call them sea stars now?

Sea lions.  This reminds me of when we lived in Monterey a few assignments ago.  We lived a few blocks up the hill from Cannery Row and we could hear the sea lions barking at night.  Ahh, good memories.

The shark tank.  Anna really liked the rays in there (or skates?).   She told us one of them was her special friend.

Matthew tries on a diver helmet.  Anna wanted to try it too, but was a little too short to do it on her own and refused to have anyone help her.  So we have no pictures of her in there.

And Matthew and Anna both check out the shark jaws.

Looking at some seals.  Grant was VERY excited about seeing all the animals.  He was running around squealing, pointing and jabbering at a lot of the tanks.  Here he was very excited when the seals would swim close by.

We played at a little play area before we left.  Here's Grant with the play turtle.  It was a fun visit and we got to see a lot.  We drove around and saw a few more things on the coast and got some clam chowder at Mo's before heading back inland.  It was a lovely day!

Temple Square

While in Utah we visited Temple Square.  It's the headquarters of the church, along with the Salt Lake Temple and some visitor centers...and a lot of other church buildings in downtown Salt Lake City.  It's a big tourist attraction for the LDS church or anyone who wants to learn about the LDS church.  Here we are on top of the convention center overlooking the Salt Lake Temple.  It was a blazing hot day! 

 

I've never seen the convention center in person before, and the roof had a lot of fountains and plants on it.  It was pretty, but so hot!  I wanted to sit in the fountains, but I think they frown on that.  Here are Uncle Cody, Matthew, Anna and Aunt Alycia (Scott's sister) looking at the fountain.

Here is a kind of dark picture of the inside of the convention center.  The LDS church holds a general conference from here twice a year.  We watch it on the internet, but you can also come watch it in person.

 Here we are down by the side of the Salt Lake Temple looking up.  It was so tall!

 Grant was warm.  We rubbed sunblock on his head which just made him look extra sweaty.

Here are Olivia, Anna and Matthew resting and having a few snacks.  Olivia (Matthew and Anna's cousin) was nice enough to share her snacks with the other kids.  I brought a few snacks too but no one wanted mine.  ;)  Olivia had the good stuff!

Inside one of the visitor centers the kids posed by the Christus statue.  It was good to see some of the things there are to see on Temple Square, although we didn't see nearly all of it!

It was so hot that we went to the shopping center across the street after and let the kids play in the fountains.  Matthew went all out and got completely wet!  I bet it felt nice.  So we didn't see everything, but we saw some and had a good time.  We need to leave ourselves more time next time we come through Utah!