A Visit From Jen or "How Many Eateries Can You Cram Into Three Days?"

In June before we left for California, Dave's sister Jen came out for a long anticipated visit. (She's only been telling me she would come hang out with me for, oh, four years now.) :) Jen came into town for a friend's wedding, but we were able to squeeze in three fantastic trips to Portland: two with kids, and one sans kiddos.

Day 1: We piled all six of us out of the car to get sandwiches at Bunk, earning stares from all of the hipsters eating there with the ruckus we created. We wisely got take-out and headed to the waterfront to eat our delicious sandwiches.

The kids heeded my warnings to stay out of the warning fountain for oh, about three and half minutes.

Then they got completely drenched and enjoyed themselves fabulously doing so.

We headed to the car with three of the four kids completely soaked and no towels to be had. I had the kids strip down to their underwear and wrap themselves in a couple of spare baby blankets in the back seat. Which would have been just fine except... that I had forgotten we needed to pick up Jen's friend Sheri (who would also be staying at our house) on the way home as well. Oops. Can we say, "Welcome to my circus!"? So poor Sheri had the exciting experience of riding in the backseat between two half-naked wet children of mine. (Incidentally, I hadn't connected that Sheri was not just a random friend of Jen's, but is actually the daughter of my mom's college best friend/roommate. I knew her as a kid and have memories of going on vacation to their house... small world!)

Day 2: Our second trip involved a variation of our Portland "Grand Tour." We started the day by grabbing some delicious lunch at little t american baker. Almost as an afterthought at the end, Jen bought a loaf of "Sally Lunn" bread (because I had made a comment that I bought it once on vacation in Williamsburg when I was 13 and loved it). It was insanely good. A major discovery! For the main attraction, we hit the Portland Classical Chinese Gardens. (Thank you, free library cultural passes!)

Jared and Camryn really enjoyed the pictorial scavenger hunt for kids. Addy, on the other hand, wasn't so enamored with the place. (She was actually fine most of the time. I think she needed a diaper change in this picture.)

I loved the elaborate architecture and even more elaborate names and descriptions. How about "The Celestial Pathway to the Hall of Permeating Fragrance"? Hmmm... maybe I should rename my upstairs hallway "The not-so-celestial path over unfolded laundry to the bathroom of permeating odor." Nah, it loses something in translation.

Don't we look thrilled to be here?

After enjoying our view of The Tower of Cosmic Reflections and taking off our shoes to try walking barefoot on the carefully mosaic-ed stones, we decided to quell our hunger at that, er, uh, venerable Portland landmark, Voodoo Doughnuts. We got bubble yum doughnuts for the kids, a Memphis Mafia and an ODB- it's covered in crushed Oreo's, peanut butter and chocolate. Yum!

Jen sampling "Memphis Mafia": a banana fritter covered in chocolate, peanut butter and chocolate chips.

We then took the kids to the playground at Washington Park and worked off our sugar rush.

We then took all four kids to Pok Pok for dinner. Yes, it was one of the braver things I've ever attempted. But we did it and we all survived and my kids even behaved reasonably well (Note: My kids can be bribed and Pok Pok had lime-ade, so all was well.)

Jen with Addy at Pok Pok thinking, "How the heck did we end up in this tiny restaurant with four kids even if we are outside on a patio table?"

 

 

 

 

 

Day 3: Our trip to Portland sans kiddos was much less, er, exciting but every bit as fun. We had a fantastic lunch at Andina of Peruvian tapas.

Jen and I smiling benevolently over our awesome lunch with a random man in the background outside the window.

Exotic truffles and a caramel-filled cookie. Need I say more?

 We whiled away the afternoon at a consignment store where Jen found an amazing dress for $13 bucks and at a store with awesome vintage household decor. We finished the afternoon with a small snack at Papa Haydn.

Two words for you: Papa Haydn. That's right. Come to papa.

Okay, maybe it wasn't small or a snack, but it was insanely delicious and a fantastic end to a fantastic day. Sadly, we were only able to squeeze in eight Portland eateries in three days, but I guess that means that Jen will have to come visit again. :)

Dancing Through Life

In June Camryn had her first dance recital. She has been taking ballet this year and in January she was invited to be on the dance "team" for girls her age at her dance studio. 

Here is Camryn dancing to "Reflection":

And the final bows:

 Camryn had a fantastic time and can't wait to dance more this fall.

Summer in Summary

Camryn had her dance recital in June. The day of the dance recital the kids and I flew to California. We stayed for two weeks at my parents' house while Dave stayed here and worked insane hours. He flew out for the fourth of July. We had lots of fun in California and then flew to Utah, where we stayed for almost two weeks as well. This time Dave flew out twice for less than 24 hours each time (yes, work was that bad). Nonetheless, the kids and I still had tons of fun. Jared and Camryn stayed with Grandma for a few days extra. Now we are all back home.

I had a sudden urge to try to get back into a routine and organize our life. All attempts have been met squarely by four children. I am realizing that we work the way we do for a reason: it gets us by, though it may not be pretty. I alternate feeling okay with what I am getting done in my circumstances with feeling frustrated with gap there is between what I envision and what actually happens. I have these visions of glorious summer days of playing outside, picking berries, doing fun activities and we end up mired in housecleaning or projects before getting frustrated and giving up, while seeming no further along than we were when we started. Am I a perfectionist? How quickly I forget our four weeks of nonstop fun in Utah and California.

Blogging has kind of fallen by the wayside. So I will end this lame post and think of something more entertaining to say later.

(Hmmm. This is about my worst post ever. But I'm going to post it anyway. So there.) :)

Out of It

So I haven't been doing much blog reading or writing for a few weeks now. We were out of town for 4 weeks and now I'm buried trying to unearth the bottom of the laundry pile and get de-junked before school starts. So, not only do I need to post pictures of mine and Dave's trip to Maui in May, I need to post pictures of our trips to California and Utah, Camryn's dance recital and all while I keep my perfectly-maintained tidy house looking gorgeous. (Yes, that was sarcasm.)

So my question of the day: I'm feeling the need to put some structure in my life. I feel like I am in a constant battle with chaos (that includes Dave and the kids). Is it worth trying to impose order on the disorderly? Or do I just embrace the disorderly and plant a big kiss on its chubby cheek?

I'll be pondering...

How to Ruin My Day in One Easy Step

Camryn: "Mommy, you look you're going to have a baby again really soon." Me: "That's not a nice thing to say!" Camryn: "But seriously, you do!"

I guess I can safely ascertain that 9 months is not long enough to undo 9 months of damage. Bummer. Some parts of having kids stink.

The Best Parents Are Those Without Children

This wouldn't really be my blog without an occasional rant. So here you are....

A couple of days ago there was a front page article in the Deseret News (here in UT) that caught my attention: "Dangerous Rides While Shopping" . This article expounded on the dangers of shopping carts including the line, "It seems some parents are more worried about their eggs than their children." Personally, I thought this article was a revelation. All of this time I had thought that the reason that Jackson climbed all over the cart while we shopped was because he is an extremely physical child who can get out of any buckle in 10 seconds flat and is not capable of sitting still for the time that it takes to do grocery shopping for a family of six and I usually have another child strapped to my chest in a front pack (which creates a slight disadvantage when trying to wrestle him back in). Now I know that it is really because I care more about the eggs in my cart than about my son. Glad to have that cleared up. What would I do without the Deseret News?

The article goes on to explain how store employees will often try to help or even "resort to bribery to remedy the situation." (Why didn't I think of that? Oh yeah, I did, but the fruit snacks are gone. And do you really think your sticker is going to get Jackson to sit down and stop screaming?) If all parties involved were really most concerned with child safety, they would be fine with the alternative of letting the two-year-old run wild up and down the aisles, pulling items off the shelf and throwing them at random, but people aren't too happy with me when I do that either. I admit, kids can be made to sit still in a shopping cart if it is absolutely required, but as a friend commented on facebook when I remarked about this article, "People get upset when you tie your kids in with duct tape."

Sure, the article offers good alternatives to the dangers of the evil shopping cart, such as the newly designed shopping carts with a car for the child to drive stuck to the front. It is close to the ground so the child can't fall; unfortunately that means that it takes about five minutes before Jackson is out of the little car and running up and down the aisles-- that's assuming that the store has one of the new-fangled carts to begin with. But wait, I forgot another great alternative they suggested: just bring a wagon or stroller for the child and put them in that instead. Which would be a fantastic alternative if your object at hand was just to look and not to actually shop. I have yet to find a stroller that has room for a child and groceries for a family of six. The wagon alternative is tempting (after all, who would think that packing a wagon along in your car for shopping trips is a chore?) but I tend to think that piling groceries on top of your child would get you some dirty looks, not to mention that placing groceries where Jackson can reach them means only one thing: Target Practice (as in, "How far can I throw this apple?")!! Of course the best alternative is to not take your child shopping in the first place-- which would be great if all stores were open between the hours of 10 pm and 7 am (when there is another responsible adult at home at our house).

Before you get up in arms and tell me what a bad parent I am, let me say a couple of things. Whenever I shop I look for the carts with child restraint devices in the seat (who wouldn't?) and I am religious about buckling Jackson in. That works really well for about 30 seconds or maybe even 10 minutes on a good day. I never allow Jackson to climb into the bigger basket, which would always be his preference, even if he throws a tantrum-- at least at the beginning of a shopping trip. I have lost multiple packages of eggs in shopping trips with Jackson and have never had him fall out... yet (although I admit it is better luck than common sense). But honestly most two-year-olds are not likely to sit still and be happy for the time that it takes to complete a shopping trip for a family of six, let alone Jackson. I can start with him buckled and happy, but by the end of the trip-- even after getting a free cookie, a sticker and breaking open half a dozen bags of fruit snacks-- he will either be gleefully climbing over the cart trying to get out or screaming his head off and poking his baby sister (who is in my front pack) at every opportunity. (But wait... that doesn't work. If I give him cookies and fruit snacks to keep him quiet, then I will be guilty of causing child obesity and will still be an abusive parent.)

I guess what bugs me the most is that this article is based on the assumption that the parents are either ignorant or don't care and THAT is the root of this epidemic problem-- as if I didn't know that my child should be buckled or make any efforts to keep him safe. Oh- and that the child is a passive, inanimate object who will do exactly what "it" is told and stay where "it" is put. I hate to rock the boat, but did anyone realize that there is another component to this situation, namely, the child? Instead of focusing our efforts on parent education, why don't we refocus our efforts on educating the two-year-old that it is in HIS best interest to stay seated and buckled. *I'm sure* that if the two-year-old only realizes that (regardless of how much more fun it is to climb around the cart or run up and down the aisles) he will be safer and the other shoppers will have a more pleasant experience if he stays quietly seated and buckled up, then he will stay seated. Always. Quietly, of course. Of course, this terrible problem would be solved if I just didn't have my four troublesome children in the first place (how thoughtless of me).

On the airplane from California to Utah I was lucky enough to have my sister with me (versus flying alone with four kids from Oregon to California-- that was downright scary). We split the kids between the two of us on two rows and did our best to keep them quiet on the 90-minute flight. (Did I mention that Adelyn single-handedly delayed the take-off by having a diaper blowout just minutes before the plane left? Way to get off to a great start....) Jackson did remarkably well (we had a great flight attendant who gave him extra snacks and did duck-quacking impressions) and we managed to keep him in his seat, but towards the end of the flight he started to get really wiggly. Finally the lady sitting in front of him stood up, turned and looked him in the face and said (to this two-year-old), "Will you please stop kicking my seat? I don't like it." He stopped and stared at her for at least 40 seconds before he started again during which she triumphantly turned to me and said, "Sometimes you just have to ask them and then they will listen."

I really didn't know what to say. I had weighed trying to get him to stop with the risk of inciting a screaming, food-throwing tantrum or the alternative of him racing up and down the aisles and figured it wasn't worth the risk. So I just apologized for his wiggliness and let her think I was a bad parent. I guess you just can't win. Where's my duct tape when I need it?

Onward...

After a fantastic two weeks in California I am now in Utah. I have all kinds of great pictures to post of adventures at the beach, San Francisco, Great America and more. But they're not on this computer so you'll have to wait until I get my laptop hooked up to the network. Try to hold your breath.

Is it just me or is the per capita consumption of hairspray higher in Utah? Just wondering....