Monday, August 31, 2015

San Fran Day 2

Saturday morning, after sleeping almost through breakfast at the hotel, we had planned to hit up Golden Gate Park (I had talked Justin into renting bikes to tour through there, haha). We went down and ate breakfast. You know, I had an apple, a piece of sausage and a little bowl of cheerios. Justin went straight for the sausage, sugar cereal, and bear claws and started a waffle for himself. I was finished and wanted to curl my hair so I went up and he said he’d be right up after he ate his waffle. Well, a while later he came up to the room and said he felt sick because he not only ate his big belgian waffle, he drank 4 glasses of orange juice and he said he ate like 10 more sausages!! LOL… That man and his metabolism. I kinda love to hate him for it. Haha

Anywho, while I was getting ready, we received a text from Danny inviting us to lunch with thDSC04237DSC04240DSC04257e fam and Sheridan at 11:30. It was an hour and a half drive so we raced to pack up and go get the rental car. Oh my, I felt relief getting into that car and feeling like we were in total control of our fate as opposed to winging it on the subway the day before.  Driving over the bridges and viewing the cute, colorful houses was fun. Still, I don’t see how people enjoy living in such cramped quarters, no yard to enjoy and no driveway or garage to park in. I even looked up a high rise apartment complex. The cheapest rent for a studio apartment was $3000/month!! And the house prices are insane! I am in awe that people can afford all of that with paying to park and drive everywhere too. Wow! Being perfectly happy in our country way of life, that lifestyle is not for me, but it’s fun to visit and see something different Smile

Getting closer to where we were meeting the family for lunch, I started to feel at home, but with prettier views! Rolling hills, large trees, cows and horses out to pasture, and endless grape orchards. Every time we got to a really picturesque spot where I wasn’t being blocked by trees, I was too slow to draw the camera and I missed almost every opportunity! But you can just trust me on the prettiness factor.

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On the way there, I had a phone call that had me in stitches! I love my sister, Nicole. She always understands me and we have good laughs together. We were both still feeling very lost and turned around from the day before and it was fun to have a good hee-haw about it with my seester. (Yes, I meant to spell it that way, it’s our term on endearment).

Upon arrival at the restaurant, we spotted Nicole and Hayden waiting for us. Walking in, I had to do a double take to make sure we had found “our people.” I hadn’t seen some of them since my childhood and it was so fantastic to see everyone there together. The food was great and the company was even better. We were able to take some good pictures together in the park across the street. Then everyone kinda separated to get dressed for the wedding.

Driving to the Armstrong State Park (redwood forest) was very exciting for Justin (and me too, but this was his moment, people). He has been talking about going to see the redwoods since we’ve been together (nearly 13 years). So he was like an eager little boy ready to jump out the window the moment we arrived! It is quite breathtaking how large those trees are! It is so beautiful and Sheridan with her lace & chiffon dress made me feel like a true fairytale was taking place! Did I mention the cupcakes were ridiculously good? I have been on the search for a recipe to rival my beloved Retro Bakery cupcakes and I felt like they did for sure. Sheridan said her sister made them so I immediately went and asked her for her top secret recipe! Haha… She said it was the Trader Joe’s cake mix and she didn’t do anything different. Ummm, I can do that for sure! (And I’ve already made a trip there upon returning to retrieve such cake mix for Carter’s birthday next week).

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Uppon arrival, must take a selfie! And of course climb inside the first tree you find…

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A ladies picture! From left to right: Jourdie, Jamie, Mallory, Paulina, Nicole, me, Rachel holding Echo, and Bekah.

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Danny before the ceremony began taking pictures with us Smile

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Delicious cupcakes and that sign was made by Danny and Sheridan (I think) sitting on an easel made by him and Dad (that I am for sure of)

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The above picture is Sheridan with her mom and sisters. They are all gorgeous with brown hair and blue eyes!  Loved that! What a great family Smile

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So happy to have a new member of the family. Gorgeous and sweet Smile

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Atfer the wedding was over and we’d done more than our share of chatting people’s ears off, we ventured off on our own to see the oldest redwood tree in the forest, named Mr Armstrong. My dad told us about it and we had to sneak a peek before leaving! It was so huge and there was a cute group of older lady friends there having a good ‘ol time! We swapped taking pictures of each other and went on a little walk. Then it was back to the car! DSC04339DSC04345DSC04348DSC04351DSC04354

We stopped at a little fruit stand on the drive back and got delicious smelling organic strawberries for $.99/lb and some yummy local grapes along with some other goodies. We decided to try and race the sun to possible drive through Golden Gate Park on the way back. We did drive over the Golden Gate bridge, but I could only take extremely crappy pictures in the dark. And then we both really started to laugh when it was literally pitch black out our window driving through the park. Haha!! Our sightseeing was over for the day. So we went back to the hotel and watched TV until we…err, I…fell aseep. I felt like such an old lady the whole trip! I was so tired at the end of every day!

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

San Fran Day 1

DSC04216This last weekend, my younger brother, Danny, was getting married in Northern California near San Francisco. Since we couldn't afford to fly all the kids up for the wedding, we just kinda turned it into a little weekend getaway for Justin and I. We had so much fun! HUGE kudos to Andrea for taking on the extra 4 kiddos. We know Shane helped too, but he worked a lot and had church meetings. So we know who took the brunt end of the "Can you please?" and lap climbing all weekend! Really, we are just so thankful that our kids have always got along so well, and there really are never any squabbles to resolve between all of those cuties! And everyone has someone to play with! Awesome :)

So, Friday, was the day we flew out and we were kinda lucky that Justin had been working nights that week so he could drive home, have a shower, and drive into town with us. (That means no worrying about his work truck). The kiddos seemed to make themselves right at home at their Aunt & Uncle's so we weren't stressed leaving (although I knew it would be seamless, they love their cousins!) Our flight left around 3:15 and we have not flown anywhere for a LONG time. I'm talking since Carter was a baby and we flew to see family in Washington. The plane kept dropping once it was in flight and it scared the crap out of me! I kept grabbing Justin's arm asking him why it's doing that? I'm a baby, I know. DSC04212

Once we landed and checked into our hotel, we decided to try to catch the train/subway/bus, whatever we could find to check out Fisherman's Wharf and eat dinner. Let me just say that we are definitely NOT connoisseurs of public transportation! We looked at a map for the closest BART station and decided since it was just shy of 2 miles, we would walk there. We are cheap and didn't want to pay for a taxi. And although I had fun walking and talking with Justin, that couple miles seemed to take FOREVER and we were walking through an industrial, kinda ghetto-ish part of town. The streets were so tiny too! We kept commenting on the squishiness of the houses, the jam-packed driveways. Oh my heavens, we are definitely more comfortable living in the country. Well, we arrive at what we think might be the BART station, but are feeling very confused and don't know how long we might be waiting for the bus to arrive (we didn't really know that BART was a subway). Well, the bus does come and I just ask him to point us in the right direction to get to Fisherman's Wharf. Luckily, he took pity on us and gave us a free ride to the BART station down the street and told us where to get off to take the Muni bus. What a guy! DSC04213

Yay! We made it on the subway. However, not before staring at the ticket machine and looking like complete idiots for several minutes, and putting in dollars only to get quarters back out. How do you work this thing?! LOL Some other man took pity on us (you will find this as a common theme throughout our trip) and just bought the ticket for us with our money. Haha! We felt pretty silly. Add to the confusion of which train to get on once you're down there and oh my...I have a whole new respect for people that do this on a daily basis and also for people in movies who are trying to outrun subways in the tunnels. Those things are crazy fast and create quite the gust of wind when they are coming!

After many more questionable, confusing moments, we did at last make it to Fisherman's Wharf. Hooray! The wind was a little chilly, but it was SO nice outside, the architecture is so charming, and the people watching is A+!! 60-year-old lady with light-up rollerblades interpretative dancing by herself in the middle of the sidewalk, older man dressed like a dog wondering out loud why people might think he's crazy, and another man dressed in captain suit screaming "It's Friidaay, I love you!!!" and high-fiving people in the street. We were entertained to say the least! We ate dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp. YUMMY! It was so good. I got the bucket o' trash and Justin got a Cajun chicken sandwich (sad for him he's allergic to shellfish). DSC04217DSC04221DSC04222

We did a lot of walking to Ghirardelli Square and other sights around the area. It was fun to just not have anywhere to go really. And we were just enjoying each other's company (and the free samples at Ghirardelli). But near the end, Justin's back hurt, my knee hurt from all our walking and we realized we had a long, confusing trek back to our hotel. So we set off to get back on the Muni bus to get back on BART. Yeah, once we got to the BART station, there was a homeless man in a wheelchair at the top of the stairs telling us it was broken and we had to go to a different station. We said "Oh, okay" and started walking towards a different BART station. But standing at the crosswalk, we realized everyone else was still going down there and hardly anyone was coming up. So we decided to go check out the "broken" station for ourselves. And alas, it was in working order. Haha! Don't trust those homeless guys in wheelchairs ;)

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Wednesday, September 17, 2014

A semi-typical day in our life

OH my heavens, 3 years later I will decide to start updating this again. I am updating for my own sake, as I had always planned on keeping this as a family "journal" to print out in a book one day for our kids. And alas, Zachary has 3 years of his life undocumented and Paisley nearly 7 months. Better late than never, right?

So much has happened in the past 3 years, obviously that it is impossible to go back and update. But I figured I would recap my day today because it is a very typical day right now in this Wagasky house! That will give me a good starting point to take off from, I think.

I say typical above, and darn it all to me, it was not a typical time to start my day. I woke up at 7:30am. Crap. I aim for one cleaning chore to be done, animals fed, and breakfast being prepared by this time. I roll over and see Paisley stirring a bit, but eyes closed. So I roll off the opposite side and duck out the door so she doesn't see me and wake up. Carter's watching Scooby Doo and it looks like Zach and Kelsie still have sleepy eyes from just waking up. I head to the kids bathroom to throw my clothes on and I check my e-mails real quick (I've been waiting for a couple to come through.) No news there, so I head out the door.

I notice it didn't rain last night like we thought. I take a peek at our new-to-us tractor Justin stuck under a large tarp and shoveled sand around the edges so it wouldn't blow away. Looks kinda funny! I lift up the other large tarp to grab a flake of hay for Joy, our mini pony. Just then I look behind me and nearly jump out of my ugly purple crocs. That mean rooster is right behind me staring at me with his beady little eyes! I dash away as fast as I can, but try to make it look casual so he doesn't get the urge to attack me. I call Lily, our dog, over to me because the rooster is scared of her. I know he won't come near me if she's standing there. I throw the hay to Joy and give her some love. I throw food to the chickens and fill up everyone's water. Then I sneak past and get the eggs from the coop while constantly glancing behind me so I don't get sneak-attacked by that darned rooster! By the way, he is typically locked away in the coop, but somehow managed to escape! I look for the duck eggs, but they moved their"nest" a couple days ago and I haven't been able to locate it. Shoot.

I go inside the house and the kids have helped themselves to cereal. So, yay for me. I don't need to cook breakfast this morning. Which is great, because my kitchen looks like a hot mess from my recent days of canning all the food from our accidental thawed out freezer! I ask Carter what he wants for his lunch and give him a few options. He picks a hot dog. I start to heat one up when he reminds me it's picture day today! Doh! Okay, I tell him to finish packing his lunch while I fill out the paperwork. I look at the prices and wonder why I feel obligated to buy these things. I don't get to pick which one is good or be there to say, "Come on, show me your REAL smile!" Oh well, I pick the cheapest package. I figure this is their picture to pick their own outfit and hair. I get to pick and bother them to smile when we will get our family pictures done in the fall. But I do tell him to put a button up shirt over his t-shirt and do his hair extra nice :) Then he's off on his new bike to school.

I start to do some dishes when Miss Paisley decides to make her morning debut! So I mix up a bottle and get out the baby cereal to prep before I go get her. I decide to bring a pile of clothes I folded with me to quickly put away before I snatch her out of that crib. That baby is SO happy to see me and it lights up my world when she smiles at me. But that big smile quickly turns to tears when she realizes I'm putting away clothes instead of holding her. I finish quickly and then hug her real good to make up for the crying I made her endure ;) Haha... I take her out and stick her in her chair and decide to mix some apples in WITH the baby cereal. I've had problems getting her to like much of any solid food. Nope, another fail. Ugh...My other babies were so easy to introduce solids too. She despises them! Really! I start to give her her bottle and then realize I'd rather snuggle that cute thing on the couch while she drinks her bottle. And why not start watching the premiere of "Dancing With the Stars" while I'm at it? So I snuggle up with her and flip it on. She likes the music too! After she drinks her bottle, I hold her a bit more, soaking up all that baby squish! Then realize I have chores to be done, so I lay her down to roll around with her toys while I sort the folded laundry to be put away. Much easier to make the kids put away their stuff when it's already in the pants, underwear and pajama piles!

Zachary asks if him and Kelsie can play "that funny game" on the PS3. I tell him if they are all dressed with their teeth brushed. So, they go take care of that business while I do more laundry. (Yes, laundry takes up much of day! I worked on it most of my day and STILL have a pile of unmatched socks on the couch tonight.) Paisley starts fussing so I grab her up and give her the rest of her bottle and her binky. She starts rubbing her eyes. Time for a nap already? Down she goes!

I start to carry jars and water jugs down to our pantry in the basement. I hear Zach and Kelsie giggling with each other in the other room and am happy they have each other to play with! I spend the rest of nap time getting the kids drinks and cleaning. Then it's time for lunch! Kelsie is easy to call up for lunch because she's been asking me since 10 "Is it lunch time yet?" But Zach attack gives me a hard time. I have to go threaten him with taking his game away if he won't come upstairs. So, he comes and they both scarf down their lunch while I go brush my hair and do my makeup right quick! Now it's time to wake Paisley up and take Kelsie to school. I come out of the room to find the kids are already outside waiting for me on their bikes! Hey, thanks for not making me chase you around with your shoes today, children! I strap Paisley in the stroller and we start off to the school. Halfway there Kelsie complains her bike is making her legs tired. I look and see her front tire is flat. Great. Too late to turn back now. She says she will just walk it the rest of the way and ride it home down hill. Okay. Whatever. What else is there to do? We get there and I try to let Kelsie put her bike next to Carter's on the bike rack. She's struggling. Bad. I start to walk over and of course, right when I get to her, she got it in place (happens every time). I give her her backpack and watch her walk onto the playground and get in line for class. She looks so beautiful in her little maxi skirt and red flower she picked for her hair. All the girls in her class look so fancy. It's too cute!

Zach, Paisley and I start walking home, all the while Zach asking me repeatedly where Carter is. He must not understand how this whole "lunch at school" thing works. I don't think he believes me that Carter is in fact eating at school and not at home until we arrive and he sees his brother isn't there. However Daddy is home! What?! That is not normal at all! We go inside and all take a BIG drink of water. It is HOT! And my hair feels like a heavy blanket on my neck. Gosh darnit, I'm sick of the bun, though! I settle for a clip to get it out of my face! Justin says he has to go back to work at 3, so he needs to take a quick nap. I ask him to just hold that little squish while I go make her another bottle. I take her downstairs with Zachary. He wants me to help him beat a bad guy on his game. I tell him after I feed sister. So, I lay Paisley down and turn on the game for Zach and I to play. After a while Paisley starts fussing so I pick her up and give her the rest of her bottle (are we sensing a snacking trend here?). She's happy again for a bit laying next to us with her toys so I keep playing with the Zach attack. Then she really starts fussing more and I go to change her diaper and lay her down for a nap again. Zach follows me and then we get a snack together. We play some more because now he REALLY has me all to himself. A rare treat for us :) I tell him I gotta go do some dishes, though, and we say goodbye to Justin.

After Carter and Kelsie get home (they've been riding their bikes together the past week), Carter and Zach want to play Skylanders. So, while they settle in for some brother time, I help the little miss Kelsie with her homework pages. While she's practicing her letters, I get on the ipad to shop the book club for her class. I add one for each of the kids to my cart. Kelsie keeps telling me all the "tips" her teacher tells her for writing her letters and numbers. She says, "My teacher says if the letters are floating, then that means they are ghost letters. Teachers don't like ghost letters." Thank goodness her teacher said that to her because for the first time, Kelsie stretches every single letter from the top line to the bottom line! Hooray for her! Every other time, the letters would get smaller and smaller and float higher and higher! She then draws a picture of our family with all the details. In the picture she draws Daddy giving me a flower and her holding Paisley. Cuteness!

I start doing some more cleaning and thinking about dinner prep. The kids are starting to wander into the kitchen and look around. A sure sign we need dinner. Soon. I start to make a recipe I got off Pinterest for Southwest Chicken wraps. (They weren't that great, shoot.) After I make them, Paisley wakes up too and I get another jar of food out for her to try. It's another flop. I conclude mentally that she already somehow knows that all the jarred baby food is gross and she wants the good stuff! After all, she always eyeballs our food with an expression like, "Why do YOU get that and I have nothing?" While battling the baby in the food war, I get a call from a friend. They invite Carter to go do a service project with them. I ask him and tell him he has to do his homework first. After asking him several times and threatening him with him not going, I text my friend and tell him he can't go after all. Oh dear. This has unleashed The Hulk that lies within Carter. THEN he starts frantically doing his homework and desperately saying, "Mommy, please?! Please text her and tell her I can come now!" No sir. I'm sticking to my guns! However his irrational growling behavior makes me chuckle still. I tell him maybe next time he will obey the first time instead of a mad dash after I follow through on my threat. He is mad. And crying in his room. However, there is still daylight to ride bikes and I tell him he can come ride bikes with us before it gets to dark. He declines. So, I head outside with the other 3.

My tire is flat so I can't take the baby for a ride. I stick her in the swing under our tree while the other kids ride. Justin comes home to grab some dinner before heading to Young Men's. As he starts to pull out, Carter comes running out. Justin gets out of his truck and returns his embrace. Then Carter gives me a mean glare and storms back in the house. But 15 minutes later, he's putting his boots on and going to ride bikes. I just start chatting with him to break the ice and he gives in after a quick ride down the street. Zach is sitting at the bottom of a small hill the kids like to ride down on their bikes. As Kelsie whizzes by, he sticks his arm out and it gets stuck in her spokes! Oh no!!! I rush over and it looks broken at first glance. No, no, no. But as I get closer, I see it's just bent weird and I am able to get it out. I ask Carter and Kelsie to watch Paisley in her swing while I get Zachy an ice pack. I take him inside and hug him and put an ice pack on his arm. He says he wants to ice it outside with everyone else, so I carry him back out. Kelsie is sitting by the door in tears. Those two always fight over Paisley if I walk away like that. Oh well, she gets over it.

It's starting to get dark and a friend stops by to grab something from me. Her daughter gets out and Kelsie is DYING to bring her inside and show her the new Belle dress she got. So we all go inside and give the kids a popsicle. After visiting with our friends for a bit, and Zach starting to hyperventilate about his arm, they leave and we get ready for bed. I manage to get Zach calmed down with a big band-aid and he starts playing My Little Ponies with Kelsie. I laugh every time. I laugh because for a while we all thought he named his pony "Weirdy." But then after many corrections from him and much deciphering, we realized he is saying "Rarity." It still sounds like Weirdy. I lay Paisley down for the night and my arms feel FREE!!! (I really like holding her, though :)

Daddy gets home! Yay! But he has to return to work in 4 hours. So, we all kneel for a prayer. Zach wants to say it. After every sentence he keeps saying "Umm, ummm, ummm." So Justin starts to help him. But he won't repeat anything Justin says. Until it's "Thank you for Jesus." Then he completes the prayer. Kelsie insists on trying her Belle gown on for Daddy too. And then Zach shows us a cool trick of sucking his upper lip against his nose. I say, "Hey, Daddy can do that too!" It's a mutual talent. We all try to do it, but still Justin and Zach are the only ones who can. Then Carter starts doing his Donald Duck impression, which no one else can do! I tell him he only shares that talent with my grandpa. I tell them it's time to climb in bed but they all just want to keep talking. I let them for a minute, but after 3 requests I tell them I'm gonna start to get mad if they don't listen. They all run for their rooms. LOL, am I that bad?

 I put the boys to bed first and crawl next to Zachary to sings songs. I start singing "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" and he starts with his whiny screechy voice, "Noooo!" So I tell him (like I do most nights) that if he talks mean, I'm not gonna sing to him. So nicely, he says, "Can you sing Baa, Baa, Black Sheep, please?" Sigh... The runarounds you do with a 3-year-old. I sing them songs, give hugs and kisses and move to Kelsie's room. After tucking her in and talking for a bit, I literally have to jokingly cover her mouth to get her to stop! That girl can talk ;) Haha! I sing her songs and give her a hug and kiss. My mommy job is done for the night, so I head down to write this blog post! So, now I will head off to bed and try to sleep well for me teaching my Zumba class in the morning! I am happy I wrote this. I hope I keep up on it, but if I don't I will at least have a glimpse back on a (mostly) typical day in 2014 :)

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Massive Update

Okay, I've been meaning to do a massive update before this next baby is born, and I'm being induced later today! So, now's as good of a time as any, right? These are from the last couple months, starting with 4th of July this last weekend! In the morning, we went to see Cars 2 as a big group. Justin's sister, Shelly, was in town, too. Then later in the day, we went to our sister-in-law, Andrea's parents house for dinner, water games and fireworks. We had a super fun day with family and the kids enjoyed the fireworks. Kelsie got a little overwhelmed near the end from tiredness and loud fireworks, but we had a blast!
Kelsie took a couple sessions of a dance class at the rec center recently and really enjoyed herself! She had so much fun and was the biggest participator. Hopefully in the fall, the teacher said she's starting a new group that will have an actual recital at the end. So, we're looking to get her into that, because she is our little dancer and entertainer!
Two weeks ago, Robert and Don completed a 500 mile bike ride all the way from Salt Lake City! It was amazing and we are so proud of them! My mom was along too on the food crew. We missed them while they were gone and were so happy to come greet them at the finish line!

Had a little baby shower for this little man. Every baby should be celebrated! My mom and Nicole did such a beautiful job of decorations and such and we had a good time :) Especially enjoyed the yummy cupcakes from Retro Cupcake! My favorite cupcake place!
June 9, our exchange student, Maxi, returned home to Germany. We miss her, the kids just loved her!
Kelsie turned 2 on May 24!!! On her actual birthday, my mom came with me and the kiddos to Lied Discovery Museum. She also brought her over her first present of the day, a cute Dora guitar. Kelsie LOVES Dora! We are so happy to have been blessed with this little girl in our family. She brings everyone so much joy and is the cutest little 2 year old girl around! She talks and sings our ears off and is the little mother hen of the house. She loves taking care of everyone and is a Daddy's girl. If Daddy ever tells her "No", she comes running to me saying in a sad voice, "Daddy telled me something."
The Saturday following her birthday, we had her birthday party with all her cousins and family in town at the Butterfly Park. Luckily it didn't get windy until the end when we were ready to pack up. Everyone had a good time playing in the water and such, although the heat was melting the cake! But we had a tent set up with decorations for food and shade for everybody :)
This last year, Carter has been a part of a preschool group with some friends from church and as our last little activity before summer, we went on a firestation tour. Carter was so cute, holding Kelsie's hand and making sure she stayed next to him in the group. He's such a sweet brother, I love it! They kinda have a little system, where he's her little protector and she "mothers" him by always getting him his drinks, shoes, blankets, etc. Such a cute pair, these two :)
Justin and I also in May had a fun little weekend rendezvous to St. George for Justin's 30th birthday. It was just a fun little relaxing getaway for just the two of us and we enjoyed having the time alone. I love this man! He is such an amazing husband and father and I'm the luckiest girl in the world to get to share my life with him :)