Birthdays

 Kevin and Kyle's birthdays are a day apart (wink, wink). Actually, they were born on the same day three years apart, but since Kyle arrived just minutes after midnight the doctor let him mom claim the day before so they'd have their own birthdays. But we still celebrate them together every year. But they do get their own cakes every year, so we have to eat twice as much cake. Sometimes it's quite daunting.

Felix was so good in his exiled corner throughout the festivities.

Grandma Walter, who insists Felix is ALWAYS cold and ALWAYS hungry shared her hat, but he hated it.






















And this is Grandpa Walter.

Seattle

 After Spokane we flew to Seattle. Unfortunately Kyle had to catch a connecting flight home, but I stayed and spent a week with Keri. It was SOO much fun.  We did the usually thrift store shopping (and all of them have a mechanical horse, strangely) and I got some great stuff.

 But the BEST BEST part was our trip. Vic got his dad's car (shown below in all its glory) and we drove down to Great Wolf Lodge. Which is the best place ever and should be next summer's Anderson and/or Murray family vacation destination.

 Both kids insisted on sitting next to Felix, so all three adults got the front. Keri and I traded off on the super comfortable hump

 The kids had their own little cove with bunkbeds and a tv, Vic and Keri had the main bed and Felix and I had the pullout couch next to Keri and Vic.

 There were two main parts to the Great Wolf Lodge. One was this interactive video game type thing. You had this wand that activates stuff all over the hotel. You go up to a tree and point your wand at it and it tells you your mission For ex: to find all five crystals--you find the crystals by wandering the lodge [but there are hints in your adventure guide] and point your wand at them when you find them. After finding all the crystals you return to the tree and you get a "rune" for completing the mission. After all the missions you have all these runes to fight the dragon with. You go in this room with this huge screen and use your runes (through this touch screen box in front of you) and your wand to fight a dragon that is on the screen. It was SO much fun for kids and adults.

 And you totally get a certificate and a button for becoming a Master Magi.

 The second awesome part was the waterpark. It is indoors, so it doesn't matter what the weather is, and it is nearly as big as seven peaks. There is a wave pool, slides for ALL ages (you should have seen the fear on Keri's face the first time down) and play areas for babies up to older kids. It was so so much fun. And it was super hot in there so getting in the water was enjoyable, not freezing.

 Unfortunately, it was a little TOO warm for Felix in there. As we left (luckily AFTER we went out the front doors) he puked everywhere. It was the biggest puke I've seen from him. Then he wouldn't eat or sleep and just kept crying and crying and I ended up going to Instacare. The doctor there was a huge idiot. He sent us to a children's hospital over an hour away because he was sure Felix's intestines were folding in on themselves or the valve to them was messed up. At the ER the doctor said Felix was just constipated and that there was no way those other things were happening. He said the valve thing only shows up in teeny tiny babies. That doctor was awesome, the other one, not so much. So after an enema Felix was back to normal. Keri and I figured he just had a combination of heat exhaustion and constipation and that's what was wrong. But he was super cute in his gown :)

He also took a bath in Keri's sink, which the kids just thought was hilarious. Especially when Felix started playing with himself. Erik yelled out, "He's doing what I do!" We were all doubled over in laughter. Keri got a good shot of it below.

 We went bowling one night cause the kids wanted to (and I wanted to too). Felix was really good, but poor Erik got a headache so he just slept on the chairs and didn't play.

 I am super pretty when I don't get a good shot...

 But Vic is super serious...

 On Mother's Day Vic made Keri and I breakfast and I got my first Mother's Day card--from Taryn! Kyle bought me some flowers for mothers day...but bought them in Utah while I was in Seattle and sent me a picture. Keri said that really peaked out Kyle's weirdness to her.  Later in the day we went to the Family Fun Center (which was strangely crowded). Then Vic took the kids and Keri and I went to another Goodwill and then to dinner.

 My last night there Taryn and Erik both wanted their hair french braided.

It was a totally awesome trip. One of my best up there. And flying back to Utah alone with Felix was totally fine. I can't wait to go up again!

Spokane

Here I am, finally catching up! And I'm not even using the laptop I insisted I needed to get my pictures with. Oh well, at least I'm blogging. At the end of April and beginning of May Kyle and I flew to Washington with Felix. We spent the weekend with Kyle's dad and then we flew to Seattle where I stayed with Keri and Kyle flew home.  So this first post is about Spokane and the next will be about Seattle.

Felix was a champion flyer. He was so good. He sat and played with the windows, napped, ate, didn't cry. Even with the ear popping stuff he was totally good through.

Our flight first landed in Seattle where we stayed on the plane then continued on to Spokane. However, some idiot deemed Spokane unsuitable for landing and made us continue on to Portland. There was drops of snow when we were supposed to land and we were the only flight that was rerouted. Some of our fellow passengers immediately boarded a flight and were on their flight for over 4 hours as the plane stopped in various cities before returning to Spokane. Luckily, we were put on a direct flight with a four hour layover in Portland.

This was super fortunate so that Felix could play, and nap, and have a ginormous blowout that was horrendous. It was seriously everywhere. I think Kyle is still mad that I didn't just let him throwout Felix's outfit (it was my very favorite and still is). I don't know how we would have been able to take care of it on an airplane. I had to change him during the stop in Seattle and that airplane bathroom is just not big enough for the job, especially when Felix decides that when the diaper comes off he should pee some more. It was everywhere in the bathroom, including on me.  When we weren't cleaning Felix up we were able to play the board game we had in our carry on.  The place we set up camp was totally vacant so we could spread out and play our game while Felix played with his toys.

Felix's favorite part of the plane rides were playing with the windows. He was fascinated with them. He stared out them for long stretches and banged on them and yelled at them for other long stretches (until Kyle stopped him because he worried about him bugging other passengers).

Our first day there was pretty much blown on all the detours in our traveling. So instead of a whole Friday in Spokane (which we got up at 4am so we could have) we had an evening. And Felix was a complete zombie. He did a lot of staring off into space. It really weirded me out. He is always so happy and energetic and noisy that I thought something was seriously wrong with him. But he was back to normal after sleeping that night. He did great on a blanket set up in the hotel.

Kyle's dad got out this electric ball thing for him to play with and it kept him entertained for awhile.

He wasn't as impressed with Mrs. Pickle, Kyle's dad's bird. But I was. I am so in love with that bird and am insisting on dibs on it over Elise. She's too young to deserve such dibs. She can have Mrs. Pickle once I die.

She seriously was so great. She would just hang out and nibble on stuff or fly around to show off. I love her.

This is Quinn's mom who came over just to meet Felix (Quinn is Kyle's half brother--there are pictures of him further down).  Felix and Quinn were so in love. Felix could not keep his eyes off Quinn. He thought he was just the coolest and Quinn seemed to really like Felix, which surprised me. I thought Quinn would just think, eh, babies, yuck. But he hung out with Felix a ton! We haven't seen Quinn for around 7 years. It was so great to hang out with him. He came up to stay with his dad while we were in town and we had so much fun with them both.

This is just fyi for all us in Utah. (It says "Eyes like diamonds Everyone dies in Utah This day will tell).  This was just hanging up at a mall in Spokane...

So, I looked up stuff to do in Spokane and this Riverfront Park looked way cool. I mean, they had a garbage goat that really ate your trash! But apparently not everyone was as fascinated with it. There was a lot of mocking (but mind you no one else looked up anything else to do).

This slide and the merry-go-round below were both at the park too. I thought the slide was super cool, Felix did not care about it at all. His face was just neutral through the whole thing as if nothing at all was happening.

This is Kyle's dad trying to convince Quinn to sit on a clown's lap for $5. He wouldn't do it even when I threw in another 5.

I stayed in the car while Kyle got a picture of John Stockton's Grill in the pouring rain. Pretty cool, eh? John Stockton should've been there. Then maybe the rain would've been worth it.

Here's one of our many games we played up there.

Brian (Kyle's dad) showered me with presents while we were up there, which of course I love!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
The last day we were there we went to the park and took lots of pictures. I think we took every combination of people possible. But here are some of the best ones we got.