Crescent City for a Shower, and no Showers!

Alysha, Evan and I headed home to throw a shower for Skeet, Ris, and Baby Girl Lee. I loaded some audio books on the ipod to help with the 7 hour ride. It helped him stay distracted, but he still got nausious. Alysha and I loaded our audio book in the CD player, listened, rewound because we thought we talked through the beginning. Nope...we started on the last disc instead of the first. When you know the husband cheats on the last CD, the first three aren't really worth listening to. Good thing Alysha has satellite radio, or she did after her 30 minute conversation to renew. During this call, we confirmed our suspicion that Chase had blocked her card for odd activity. Who knew trying to purchase items in Oregon could cause such a hassle. Anywho, we eventually made it CC.

We spent our first night there at Grandpa Bob's new place in Smith River, and we loved it! We especially loved the shower. We were there for less than 24 hours, but I managed to take two showers. Evan even took a shower, and he doesn't usually enjoy them. But, as you can see, this is no ordinary shower.

His bedroom

View of the entryway from the bedroom

Entryway

Grandpa wrapping presents for the Lees.

The livingroom

The kitchen

The decor

Evan being silly...it was way past his bedtime:)

The tree of love before the shower

The shower decor. Nursery theme is Classic Winnie the Pooh. Doesn't Lani do nice work?

The lovely mommy to be, Auntie Risa.

Of course there were games. Here Grandma Tammy is showing the proper way to hold the baby while taking clothes off, and putting them back on the clothesline.

And here is Grandma Mac, Donna, and Diana getting a little creative. Yes, Grandma Mac has the baby doll in her mouth...

Then came the presents. Uncle Skeeter was feeling a little left out when none of the headbands fit him, so he made his own.

Again, isn't she just glowing!

The Roatan Gang back together again. I am so glad that their close friends were there to celebrate with us.

Diana and Chris's mini me, Uriah.

Titi and James. I am not sure, but they may be watching video of the rap battle at The Turf the night before. Yes, I realize there are many things wrong with that sentence, and no it wasn't a typo.

Along with the tree of love, I stole this idea from Britt's shower. Notes of love to the baby. Skeeter followed his written note with, "Where I used to be." I left that out of the memory book for the baby:)

Papa Kirk didn't get to come to the shower:( I didn't put all of the messages in here, just those from Ev's side of the family.

Despite a mishap with the food (tri-tip in the deep freezer instead of the kegerator, whoops), the shower was great. But, our trip was short lived. The next day we were on our way bask to Sac. We should have known our road trip was doomed when we stopped at Starbucks on our way out of Sacramento to get Alysha a skinny cinnamon dulce latte, and she ended up with a whole milk, triple shot, extra hot latte, followed by the CD dibacle, debit card casualty, and sattelite radio incident. But oh no, that was nothing compared to the ride home.

I convinced Alysha to go to Dutch Brothers instead of Starbucks, and instead of my regular Almond Joy mocha, we all went with smoothies. Bleck! They were so sweet we couldn't take more than a few drinks. Luckily Alysha had a Red Bull for backup. Anyway, since this was one of Alysha's only trips this summer, she thought it would be fun to stop and do all the touristy things along 101 that we have never done. First stop, Trees of Mystery.

Question from a tourist to Paul Bunyan, "Why do you have a door on the back of your shoe?" Paul Bunyan's answer, "I got this shoe from an old woman who used to live it with her kids." That may have been the highlight of the trip for all of us.

Look what I found!

So, we walked up to the ticket booth, saw that the trail took an hour and decided we didn't want to be off the road that long. So, we got back on the road and drove through a tree:) Evan was bummed about leaving Trees of Mystery, so titi promised a train ride.

Next stop, Confusion Hill! We stopped to take pictures in a big wooden shoe.

When we got to the counter to buy tickets for the train ride, we just missed it! Next ride is in 40 minutes, and it is a 35 minute ride. Again, not willing to be off the road that long, so we played on the playground, got some ice cream, and got back on the road.

Based on his amount of energy and willingness to eat a banana that has been with us since Sac, you would never guess that in the course of this TEN hour ride home he got carsick and threw up, ended his weekend of accident free potty training by getting stuck in traffic and peeing in his car seat.

Messy banana hands:)

Still smiling, but then again, I am used to our trips taking this long.

Titi, not so much.

Okay, get me home already!

Yay, daddy truck, and we are home!

Evan's Latest Photo Shoot

I deleted probably 100 pictures that he took this time, but that is because he sat in front of the computer and took a picture of every picture that came up on the screen saver. These ones weren't bad though and he does enjoy it, so I have to capture this hobby on the blog:) No editing on my part this time.

Solo Swim

Evan had his first solo swim lesson today. He had a few things working against him, rain and five kids in the class instead of four, but he did great! There were two little kids that were all over the place, completely distracted and off task, but no criers.

When Evan got out of the pool he said, "Mama, I did everything my teacher said." I of course said, "Yes you did!" Only to glance over my shoulder and see the mom of the son who was not on task. She says, "He was the best behaved. Isaac, you should hang out with Evan." Oh, my heart just swelled with love and pride. I don't think there is a greater feeling as a teacher to know that your child is well behaved even when you are not in charge. Granted I was ten feet away, but it still feels good.

He grew so much in these two weeks of classes, so proud of him!

It looks like I am being a helicopter mom in these videos, but I promise I used the zoom feature on the camera:)

At the beginning of the summer he didn't like to put his head in the water. I was amazed that he recovered so quickly from this accidental and unexpected face dip.

Evan and Ela (not Ella, Ela)

I love that he asks his teacher for help! I tell you, he is a kid after my heart. Love him so much:)

Bike Rider

He was stopping every three seconds on the way to the park, and by the time we got home, he was a pro. Something just clicked, he was finally ready!

Swimming

We are starting our summer off with swim lessons four days a week for four weeks. I know, it seems like a lot, but when it is already 80 degrees or more at 11, it sounds just fabulous! I watched yesterday while Evan and Ben swam, and it is way too hot to do that again.

Evan was able to pick up right where he left off last summer, and today he kicked all over the shallow end with his noodle (no hands from mom or dad), it was awesome! He also let Ben dunk his head. Those that know me, know why that was Ben's job. But, I told Ev if he did it so would I. So, today, I also dunked my head under the water, and it was so refreshing at the time, but very cold as the breeze kicked up during lunch.

We have been sitting by the pool, having lunch, while watching the kids swim without their mommy or daddy because after one more week, he will be going in without us. Wish us luck:)

Evan loves that his teacher, Annie, starts and ends with a song each time.

 He rocks at kicking on his stomach.

 He isn't really a fan of being on his back, as you can see when he grips Ben's hand and holds on for dear life.

 Evan's favorite part of the lesson is when he gets to jump in the pool.

Putting on a Show

Evan loves to dance, but now he is adding singing to the act. Here he is incorporating his new found friend, Fireman Sam.