G's All Around Me: August 2009

I started making Grady smoothies for breakfast because he wouldn’t really sit to eat anything in the mornings and had really lost interest in breakfast food (unless its pancakes and I am terrible at making pancakes!). So, I bought a juicer and once a month, I juice a 5lb bag of carrots and a 2.5lb bag of spinach. I net about 75 ounces of carrot juice and about 20 ounces of spinach juice. It’s a great way to sneak in veggies and he LOVES the smoothies, so why not! I ran out of carrot juice recently and so I used V8 as a substitute, he tolerated that, but it wasn’t his favorite (although he loves tomatoes, so I don’t understand!) . Anyway, tonight was juicing night again and I just love looking at all the juice that the veggies produce! The pulp is going to a friend so she can make some goodies with it.

Because I turn this blog into a book for my kids to have later, I am going to post his smoothie recipe here.

1 cup whole milk yogurt – plain or vanilla
a splash of spinach juice
few ounces of carrot juice
few ounces of orange juice (the kind with added calcium)
1 scoop (2 tablespoons) ground cold milled golden flaxseed
1 banana

I blend it in my Magic Bullet and listen to Grady stand there and cry and pull at my pants until I hand it to him. I’m glad to know he likes it :)

Our annual camping trip to Ft. Stevens outside Astoria, Oregon was this last weekend. We stayed from Thursday to Sunday this year. One extra night from our usual Friday-Sunday. We had a great time! The trip included our usual cast of characters, Josh, Su & Heather, Kristi, Jason, Ethan, Gwen & Elsa, Time & Kelly and then we had Kristi’s Mom & Sister there this year also! The kids had a blast playing together all day long and getting to do fun things around the area. The pictures will tell the stories…

This year packing was only part of the adventure. It is seriously amazing to me how much stuff one needs to camp. Especially when one has a baby. Holy cow. Not only do you need mondo clothes for everyone, but baby seats, food, blankets, 14 different pairs of shoes…the list goes on and one. Since Garrison is still projectile spitting up, I had to bring every burp cloth in the house, plus extra clothes for he and I and several extra blankets. That right there was enough! Oh, and the food…..TONS of food.

We made a stop in Longview so that the kids could eat lunch and I could nurse Garrison. While I was getting our stuff together, I sat him in the seat. He looks so cute sitting here. He is getting so big!

Almost there!!!! (The Longview Bridge)

We were the first to arrive, and then Josh, Su & Heather showed up and so, the boys got to go “fishing” with Heather!
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On Friday, Josh and Su were walking down to the Fort (we were driving) and they asked Gibson to tag along! Gibson had a great time and, I’m told, was very well behaved!

There was also beach time on Friday….Gibson LOVED that and came back very sandy! Auntie Su let them play in the surf too. Probably a good thing I wasn’t there so Gibson could have some fun. With my fear of the water, I am pretty sure I wouldn’t have let him do that or I would have had a major anxiety attack and would of had to hover. None of which would have been good. I’m glad he got to enjoy playing in the water and I just got to hear about it later. (I’m working on the fear of water thing as it relates to my kids)



Of course, there was some major Garrison holding time happening…Garrison loved that.
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There was LOTS of eating…..We each took a turn cooking dinner. We had some very yummy meals. Kristi cooked blackened Tuna, Su did tacos and I did flank steak and short ribs with beans. We also did one community breakfast, pancakes, (real) bacon, eggs, cinnamon bread, fruit.

The highlight of each night with the kids was roasting marshmallows. They each got to roast a few before bed time. I think Gibson started asking about 3pm everyday if it was time to roast marshmallows yet. I thought I had more pictures of the kids roasting marshmallows, but I guess not :-(

Su cooking her dinner!

When we were at the Fort they were offering tours, so Gregg decided to take the walking tour with Grady while I hung out with Garrison and waited for Josh, Su, Heather & Gibson to arrive, plus, I didn’t want to carry the baby on a hour long tour, so we just sat down and hung out! Gregg said it was a really great tour and he learned quite a bit about the fort that he didn’t know.

After Gibson got there, we decided to take Gibson and Grady on the truck tour. I wanted to do something, so I went with the boys on that and Gregg hung out with Garrison in the van. The truck was an old fire engine that had the water tank removed and bench seats put in for passengers.


While on the truck tour we attempted a group shot….this is why I just don’t bother. It’s just not successful.

After the tour, the lady told the kids that if they, not their parents, asked the driver nicely, he would let them sit up in the cab….Gibson of course was ALL OVER that idea, so he asked and was granted permission to sit up there! I helped Grady with asking, but he did sign ‘please’ to the driver and so he was also granted permission.

Heather, Gibson and Grady in front of the truck

This is an old jeep they have on the property that is there for the kids to climb on.

There was LOTS of hanging out around the camp site. I brought chalk so Grady was all over that when he wasn’t playing in the dirt.

I was so proud of Grady. He totally played in the dirt all weekend! He is texture sensitive and generally doesn’t like his hands dirty (I’m sure I have mentioned that before) and so he usually gets pretty upset when he has sand or whatever on his hands. But it seems we may have turned a corner! At first, he just stood around and watched the other kids play in the sand/mud and get all dirty and then suddenly, he decided he wanted to do it too and there was no turning back! It was actually a challenge after that to keep him out of it!


Kristi and I

Trying to keep the kids warm at night was an issue, so they were generally bundled up and wrapped in many blankets and layers of clothing! Gibson is a crazy sleeper…at one point, he was off the mattress and onto the floor of the tent!

Garrison would not keep his hands either in his sleeves or under the blanket, so his poor little hands were so cold most of the night. I pulled him in my sleeping bag a couple of times to help warm up his hands but I was afraid I would roll over on him because I was so exhausted, so I had to make sure I stayed awake, so he only got to stay with me until he warmed up and then I put him back in the bouncer with all his blankets.

On Saturday, Gregg had wanted to take Gibson for a bike ride to the fort and so I was going to take the little boys and head into Seaside and walk around…After much discussion, we decided to do that as a family and then Gregg and Gibson would go for the ride after we got back. There was a carousel there, and so Grady got to ride that, Gibson didn’t want to, so he hung out with me and watch his brother and daddy on the ride.

Shots from Gibson’s ride to and around the fort with daddy.


This was our nightly routine. After we all got our kids in bed, we would sit around the campfire and talk and roast marshmallows. It was a lot of fun and a great way to end our evenings!

Garrison, doing what he does best….just hanging out.

HEY…who turned out the lights?!?!?!?!

Grady had his FIRST lollypop on the camping trip. He thought it was great and when he finished he kept running up to me signing ‘more’. I think he would have eaten as many as I would have given him!

The reason for the title….

The kids were playing on the pathways and in the bushes around our camp site when they encountered a bee hive…I was in the restroom, so I came into this after all was said and done. Apparently they were playing and came screaming out of the bushes with bees around them. Gibson, Ethan and Gwen all got stung. Gibson and Ethan just once and poor Gwennie was stung 17 times. She probably is the one that found the nest. Poor thing! A neighboring camper (a mom) had some Benadryl and so she brought that over and Kristi/Jason got that on Gwen’s stings. We got all the kids calmed down and Gwen took a rest. Gibson was crying a lot. I think it scared him more than the bee sting hurt. So, forever 2009 will be known, as Su coined it, The Year of the Bee Stings.

We had a great time and can’t wait to go again next year….although for all the work that it was, we think we probably need to stay an extra day to make it worth it!