Pneumonia

Poor Odin came down with pneumonia.  He's all better now, but on Valentine's day he had a high temperature (somewhere around 104 degrees).  I took him to urgent care that evening and though he seemed to be bouncing back due to the children's ibuprofen kicking in, the pediatrician didn't like the sound of his lungs.  He had a chest x-ray that confirmed the pediatrician's preliminary diagnosis of pneumonia.  Odin was given a prescription for amoxicillan and in 2 days the fever was gone and he has continued to get better.  He's all better now and back to being my smiley kid.  Thank goodness!  It was a really rough week.

He's never this still.  This kid felt awful.

The last time he successfully slept in the living room was when he was a tiny little baby.

Back to being all smiles.  New fun, finger painting!

The Alaska Trip--Presentations

Tor and I have been asked to give presentations on the trip we made to Glacier Bay this summer at both the Corinthian Yacht Club and the Puget Sound Cruising Club (PSCC).  Both meetings are open to the public, we would love to see you there.  The details are below:

Corinthian Yacht club
Friday February 17th
Click here for details

Puget Sound Cruising Club
Friday March 16th
Click here for details

Taking Full Advantage of Beautiful Weather

This weekend we enjoyed a little taste of Spring here in Seattle.  It was sunny and the temperatures were in the mid 50s.  Glorious!  In order to take full advantage of the weather, we went out on the boat for the first time since we got back from our Alaska trip this past September.  I was nervous about how it was going to go with getting the boys out there again as walking and much bigger little boys.  I needn't have worried.  It was fantastic. We easily fell right back into the routines we developed this summer, and the muscle memory needed to contort our bodies into the small spaces of the boat was perfect.  The childproofing we did this summer was even still effective!

On Sunday we motored over to Poulsbo with the plan to stay one night, but the weather was just so good that we decided to make it two nights.  We anchored out and rowed to shore for several excursions and lots of running around the waterfront park.  Poulsbo is a great place to visit by water.  The anchorage has fantastic holding in shallow water, it's easy to row into the dinghy dock, the Sluys' Bakery sells Danish donuts and the Marina Market sells a wonderful variety of black licorice, including the strongly flavored salty Dutch type that I love.  The sunny weather meant that the adults spent several hours reading in the sun while little boys napped down below which was glorious in it's own right.  All in all, we took full advantage of the weather.

We did run into a little hiccup getting home yesterday...we planned to be back at the dock by about noon, but the Locks were closed for maintenance.  Oops.  Fortunately Shilshole Marina is right there, so we tied up to the guest moorage dock for the day and Grandma Jean and Grandpa Lee saved us by delivering our car so we could get the boys home and Tor took the boat through the Locks last night once they opened back up.

Lars and Odin drinking from big people cups.  Odin was a lot more successful.

Rowing into town

Danish Donut and coffee for Mama and cookies for boys, yum!

Do you see Yare anchored out in the background?

Happy little boys!

No need for playground equipment when you have benches!

Are you sleepy Odin?

Getting ready to row back to the boat

Yum!

Lars loves ice cream!

Glacial erratic climbing

These rocks will be climbed for years by these guys!

Playing with trains on the sole

Mama's getting us home

Cute boys!

Grandpa's Birthday

Last week Grandpa Lee had one of those milestone birthdays and we celebrated in grand style last weekend.  It was a full, busy and very fun day.  We started early for breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa, cousins Einar and Soren, Auntie Karla, Uncle Jared and Great Uncle Steve.  Then we all made the trek down to Redondo to visit the small aquarium next to Salty's restaurant.  The aquarium was a big hit with everyone.  Then it was back to Grandma and Grandpa's house and the boys had a lousy nap and the rest of us ate a delicious lunch.  We played hard the rest of the afternoon and then went to check out the new Dick's Drive In in Edmonds, where 10 of us crammed into our van for supper.  All in all it was a fantastic celebration, Happy Birthday Grandpa Lee!

Lars and Papa checking out the touch tank at the Redondo Aquarium.  The sunflower stars were hungry!

Odin and Grandma checking the sunflower stars out too.

"Eh, the aquarium is cool, but these lights are cooler," says Lars

Odin and Lars watching scuba divers

The whole party

Cousin Einar reading Odin a story

Nap time!

Uncle Jared, Einar and Lars playing with slot cars

Grandma and Grandpa and the boys getting ready for dinner at the new Dick's Drive In in Edmonds

Snow Day(s)

Seattle has been dumped on! This is the first time Lars and Odin have really experienced snow, and it has been so much fun! I'm a true Seattlite and usually HATE the white stuff and the hassle it causes around here, but experiencing it through the eyes of two curious and fun-loving little boys makes it highly enjoyable. Grandma Cheryl and Grandpa Ralph made sure Odin and Lars had proper snow gear and so we've been able to get out and enjoy it several times over that last couple of days. This morning Lars even brought his snow boots to us to communicate that he wanted to go out and play...it was easy to oblige!

We have a tight knit neighborhood and we have all been enjoying the snow days, yesterday Tor stayed home with the boys while they napped and I went on a walk/ sledding/ coffee outing with 9 of our neighbors and we ended up having an impromptu pot luck dinner at our house. The boys went to bed just fine with lots of people over. Today we went to a different neighbor's house for another neighborhood gathering with hot chocolate chip cookies and coffee. We love our neighbors!

It's been a really enjoyable couple of days.  Much better than snow days before kids!

All suited up, let's get out there!

Odin says, "hey, there is white stuff stuck to my mittens!"

Check this out Papa!

Scooping snow is lots of fun!

We had so much fun!

Whew, having this much fun is hard work!

Checking for snow pack-ability, not good for making a snowman 

Tasting snow.  Lars liked it, Odin didn't.

Lars' current 'signature smile' for the camera

Odin really wanted to help Papa clean off the stairs

This is too much fun!

Red berries, green leaves, white snow

Hey, this 3T hat fits okay right?

Snack time!

Walking up the lane (Lars and Papa)

Mama and her boys

Odin and Papa

Train Mania...

...has hit our house hard.  We were lucky enough to have been the recipients of the mother-lode of Thomas trains as a hand me down from Kara of Taking Flight.  Kara and her parents went cruising on their boat to Mexico and she graciously passed on her much loved collection of trains to our boys when they were just a few months old.  They were too young to appreciate them then, but they certainly do now!  They LOVE them, particularly my little engineer at heart Lars.  He even built his own track today, clapping for himself after every section of track he laid.  He was so proud, as was I!

Lars and his trains, a happy kid for sure!

Choo, choo!  Actually is more like Zschoo, Zschoo if you hear Lars say it

"Wait, forget the trains, cameras are my other new obsession!"

"Yeah, that's just about close enough!"

Two boys and their trains

Odin says "Uh, Mama?  I think I need my haircut, I can't really see."

I've got track to be laid!

The BEST way to push trains!

Playing nicely together