birthday presents in action

shane and layla on the trampoline... yes, she had to jump in the princess dress. it's more fun that way, apparently.

dave and shane in the trampoline... bigger kids get bigger air!

layla w/ her new fishing set. she would get impatient if she couldn't catch a fish the right way immediately and she would grab it with her hand, stick it on the end of the fishing pole and then pull it right off again and put it in the bin, followed by, "i caught one!!!" well, sort of...

the 2nd hand car my parents found for her? where? i'm not sure. but she likes it. so does shane. he's found a way to play with it even though he's not allowed to drive it. so far he's strapped her tricycle to the top with bungee cords, attached the wagon to the back (also with bungee cords) to make a trailer, loaded up the 'cargo area' with 'stuff they might need', and pushed her all over the yard and neighborhood, calling on neighbors. can we say dennis the menace?

shane driving his new rc boat. the description on amazon called this a 'blazingly fast speed boat'. we knew that was the one for shane. this is at the bellevue downtown park. they have a great pond... i figured that would be a good place to try it out because if it got out of range or ran out of battery charge, it would be a small wade to rescue it, rather than having to jump in the lake.

layla's water table. micah likes it too. he's just started pulling up and this is the perfect height.

shane's fuzzy john deere taggy from gramma jackie. he hid as soon as he saw the camera.

layla's hsm taggy.

Comments

did these people go to school? ever?

sometimes i am just totally flabbergasted by how horribly some people write. i'm not sure if it's just that spelling and grammatical issues come easily for me, or if other people are just really BAD! i find it to be the worst in product reviews online. this morning i was reading some reviews of a chest freezer i'm thinking of getting. one went on and on about the poor quality of the 'unite'. repeatedly using the word 'unite'. seriously, people!!! here's another thing i've noticed. it's always the negative reviews too. what's with that? are people just so pissed off about the bad product they just got screwed on that they feel the need to rant (without pausing for breath or editing) in a negative product review? or is it just that people with bad writing skills are more likely to be compelled to leave a negative review? or are people with bad writing skills more likely to get screwed with the bad product? i don't get it. but ...

blogging. then, now… etc. general randomness

I’ve had this blog for quite a while now… since january of 08. that’s crazy. I remember when I first heard about blogs and I didn’t know what the heck a ‘blog’ was. I almost swore them off entirely because of the name. I’m sure I’ve posted before about my weird inability to get past the names of things or how I don’t like the way certain words sound or (my biggest challenge) when words or names don’t make sense to me. example: I have nothing at all against those lacy things that my grandma used to make and stick under lamps on end tables or over the back of my grandpa’s chair so his hair product wouldn’t stain the upholstery. you know what I’m talking about… but I HATE the word “doily”. I think it sounds like the absolute stupidest word in the english language. how can you say it without sounding like (or feeling like) a complete idiot?!? I had an ongoing argument with a friend in high school over which was the stupidest sounding word. I, obviously thought it was “doily”. he swore it ...

camping 2017 (photo heavy)

yesterday, we returned from a camping trip. it was fun and relaxing and wonderful and all that. this was our second time at this particular camp ground, since we liked it so much the first time we were there, 2 years ago. this time, we reserved a site that backed up against the creek, which was awesome. the only negatives were the burn ban that prevented us from having a fire (again), the fact that our entire family forgot to bring pillows, and the mosquitos – but i’ll get to that bit later. monday: we arrived mid-afternoon and got things set up, explored a bit, and then decided to take a walk down the road to lake wenatchee state park. we wound up finding this little trail that went down to the lake. there were some really nice views. yes, I took my enamel camp cup of moscato with me. when dave said, “let’s go for a walk”, i thought he meant just around the campground… when passing this sign, shane declared, “hey, there’s wifi!” we all got a good laugh. after our little wa...

sleeping cuties

this is why human children survive when their parents are ready to sell them into slavery: this was last night, after micah had a VERY difficult time NOT screaming at the top of his lungs and climbing out of bed a million times, thus causing layla to have a very difficult time going to sleep and i was ready to leave the country forever lose it. and then today, i went to check on micah during his nap and found this: i love it. they’re so worth it! (and i’m totally going to come look at this around 8:30 tonight when they’re screaming their heads off and not sleeping tucked peacefully into bed.)

i’m sure i will offend all sorts people with this…

… but i just don’t get why the entire world is so torn up about the death of michael jackson. yes, he had an insanely successful career as a singer/entertainer/pop star. yes, he took a lot of that to a whole new level. yes, i remember thriller and doing the moonwalk. yes, i remember wanting one of those red leather jackets, and one of those sparkly white gloves. however… i’m also wondering why everyone else is seeming to forget how he bleached his skin (and then had a big hit stating that it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white… always wondered about that one), underwent so much plastic surgery that he barely looked human anymore, made crotch-grabbing an acceptable dance move, hung his kid over a balcony, showed up for court in his pajamas, and, oh yeah, was accused of child molestation HOW MANY TIMES??? this was a VERY disturbed man. i have never understood why being a celebrity excuses people from upholding the same morals and standards that we expect of normal people. i w...

rachel's continued ramblings

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