At the OMSI

After our Candy Basket tour, we had lunch at the park, and then spent the rest of the day at the OMSI.

OMSI is probably the coolest science museum I have ever been to. One of the best things about it is that we get in for free! One of the benefits of a membership to the Gilbert House in Salem.

Scott and the kids had fun making paddle boats. There were sailboats to be made, too.

Everyone, even Mommy, took a turn racing the boats. Scott had fun making a model system of getting water from the plant to the city.

There were all kinds of fun exhibits. Earthquakes, engineering, physics, hydraulics, you name it. We spent the bulk of our time in the physical science areas, only only barely scratched the surface of the bioligy and living sciences areas.Courtney got a LITTLE too close to the water. She was playing more and more in it, and the next thing I know, she was dunking her HEAD in it! She ended up soaking herself. She had an extended time out. She usually gets upset when I put her in timeout. This time she took it calmly.

The kids favorite time was when we discovered the KIDS ROOM! It was as if they took the entire museum and shrunk it down to kid size. IT was great! I think it kept them happy for 3 hours. They had lots of baby friendly stuff too. Blocks and crawling play areas; books and soft cuddly spots. Even a quiet nursing room. It was wonderful!

The older kids spent the first hour in the sand pit.

Julianna loved the water area. We both got soaked! At the end of the day, we had a very exhausted but happy ride back home. The kids would have stayed till the museum closed had we let them!

The Candy Basket Tour

Dorathy has the biggest sweet tooth of all!

For our week of Family reunion activities, we started out with a fun tour of The Candy Basket in Gresham, OR.

They have a Chocolate Waterfall right at the beginning of their entryway.


My kids were a little disapointed that it wasn't more like the one in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I got to explain to them the difference between movies and real life!

The smell of chocolate was everywhere! And they had all kinds of candies! They are a chocolate factory and a salt water taffy factory combined. In their 1 hr tour they feed you lots and lots of samples. Or at least, that's what my kids told me.
Julianna and I were they only ones who didn't get to go. Julie only kept the hair net on for a few seconds at a time. The strictest rule of the tour: No hair net, no tour. So we spent our time out in the car. But all my kids had a terrific time, and of course we just HAD to buy a bunch of chocolate at the end.

** They have a whole WALL of discounted chocolates. The European dark chocolate peanut butter truffles were the best! Just looking at them made me break my no-sugar promise. But I'm back on track now!

Peek-a-boo!

A Clamming Calamity

In June we had a memorable field trip. There was going to be a super low tide: minus 2. That means all kinds of fun: beach-combing, fishing, tide-pool watching, and digging for CLAMS.

My Aunt Norma and Uncle Elmer were camping at a beach in Newport. We arranged to meet up with them one morning. Scott and Christopher went off with Uncle Elmer to dig for Clams in the giant Newport Bay. They were right next to the Hatfield Marine Science Center. The spent a couple of hours up to their hips in MUD digging with all their might. They got a few buckets full of delicious clams! I thought we would soon be on our way to homemade clam chowder!

While the men were digging, Norma, and my younger set of kids, plus my sister's younger kids all hiked out to the surf to go play in the sand and water. The weather was decent, and the kids had a fun time until a SNEAKER WAVE got us!We were just walking along the shore, trying to find some shells for the kids, when Ivy leaned over in delight. She'd found a whole sand dollar! While we were all leaning over and admiring it, the sneaker wave hit us. Norma and I each held a kids hand and began running as the water swept beyond us. Looking back, we saw little Hyrum just standing there, not running with us. He was just standing and staring at the water. Norma gave Ivy's hand to me. I ran with Ivy and Angel, and Norma went back to rescue Hyrum as he was being knocked over and swept away. Norma came back totally soaked, and thank goodness; Hyrum was okay!

In the Melee' , Ivy's sand dollar was dropped and had been washed away. She was crying inconsolably. Norma reached down to comfort her, explaining, how it droped so that we could rescue Hryum. She asked her, "Which would you rather have, a Sand Dollar, or a little brother?" She just cried out, "My Sand Dollar!" Courtney was far, far, away, still screaming and crying in terror. After that, not a single kid would get close to the water. We played far away in the soft sand, and then hiked back to Norma's campsite.

The kids were tired and hungry. They played in the camper, jumped on the beds, and ate just about every snack stashed in Norma's cupboards. I thought longingly of the lunch and snacks I had packed which were far away with Scott and the boys digging clams. WHY, oh, WHY hadn't I grabbed them?

At last, the men and the clams arrived. We had 2 buckets of Clams to take home and clean and cook! We'd done it once before, but that was years ago, and I hadn't ever done it myself. Scott had done all the work. I was a little intimidated just thinking about it!

We drove home, and put all the clams in the fridge. Scott had to rush off to work, and I had to clean off 5 hungry sandy children. I cooked the smaller clams for dinner, the ones you just steam open. I don't think I did it right, though. Must of them were too chewy. I tried to give them to Lucy to eat when the kids wouldn't eat anymore, but she threw one up, and just played fetch with the rest. ** funny sidenote** when the kids were eating the little clams, they exclaimed, "Look, Mom stuffed the clams with cheese and broccoli, YUM!" Just so you know, there was no cheese OR broccoli...those must have been the clam's innards...YUCK. After they said that, I couldn't make myself eat anymore. I just began worrying that I had cooked them wrong and we'd all get sick.The kids went crazy with the shells. They discovered they made great puppets! You could chop their empty lids together singing crazily, "Nobody's home! Nobody's home!" My kids just crack me up! I just laughed hysterically when they did that.

I was concerned about the big clams. I knew you were suppose to clean and cook them right away. They are only good to cook as long as they are alive. They have to stay sealed shut. But I was too exhausted to even think about tackling them myself. Scott promised he'd take care of them first thing in the morning.

In the morning, we got a phone call. Scott had an opportunity to pick up free wood in Dallas, for our winter supply, but he had to get it NOW! So he was gone for 7 hrs or so hauling wood. He came back with just enough time to leave for work. He said, "Don't worry, I'll do the clams first thing in the morning!! Maybe they can wait another day!"

Then I began researching the clams online. I found out you are suppose to put them on ice, not put them in the fridge. I discovered that you needed to keep them in saltwater, for fresh water would kill them. (great...We had put them in TAP water!) I found out you should put cornmeal in the water, which encouraged the clams to shed all the sand they had inside them. I also found out that if you've kept them beyond the 24 hrs in which you caught them, that they are probably no longer good. If they are open, you can't eat them.

With a heavy heart, and a slightly sick feeling, I looked inside the buckets in our outdoor fridge. Sure enough, all the clams were DEAD. They look so horrible with their shells flung wide and their large tongues hanging out. Blah.

But I felt so bad for Scott and Christopher who had done all that work for nothing! And I felt horrible about it when Norma and Elmer had been so kind to invite us and help us get those clams. Such a waste made me feel so sick inside.

I guess our little clamming calamity will just join our many other learning experiences. Don't dig for clams unless you have the time and ability to clean and cook them right away!!! Next time, I'll just have to buckle down and do it myself, no matter how tired I am. Either that, or we just won't go clamming again. Sea life in our oceans are scarce enough as it is. The thought that we caught something to eat, and then it just died and went to waste haunts me. Not wasting any life has been deeply ingrained in me.

Christopher was devastated. He could talk of nothing else for days. So sad...but I guess that's how we learn!

To Flush or Not to Flush....

Whoever invented the automatic toilets never had a potty-training 3 year old!

Several months ago, Angel was making great progress in potty training. She loved trying out new potties. At church, or at people's houses, she was very proud of herself using "the BIG potty" all by herself. I was certain that at last I would have a quick no-complications potty trainer child!

Then while at Homeschool P.E. (at Western Oregon University) She encountered her first automatic toilet. While sitting on it, the potty flushed 3 times in a row. It was so loud, and poor little Angel was TERRIFIED. I don't blame her! They scare me too! She was screaming and crying, totally confused. Then the next day we were at Winco, and she had to use the potty. Once again, an automatic toilet flushed spontaneously while she was sitting on it.

That was the last time she used the BIG Potty. She totally reverted to diapers for a while. She walked around saying "I'm little for diapers...I LIKE diapers!" I got tired of that quickly, since I knew she was perfectly capable of using the potty!

So we came up with a new idea. Even though she used the big toilet for months and could get on and off by herself, we took our little potty out of the attic, and Angel was thrilled. A nice, small, non-intimidating, comfy seat. I then discovered that as long as Angel's bottom was bare, she'd use her little potty all by herself without being prompted. But as soon as a pull-up, underwear, or bathing suit touched her skin, she treated it like it was a diaper and let it all loose!

So this is the summer gone BARE and Angel is going to be wearing a dress everyday. At least with a girl, you can be modest while doing that. We've been taking the potty with us in the car wherever we go. I'm just hoping that by the time cold weather comes around that she'll be ready for underpants.

Even my older girls hate the automatic potties. They'd rather hold it than use them. I get quite exasperated with them over that, because it's not helping Angel any. Angel won't even climb on the big potties at home. I despair that she'll be using the small potty till she's 8.

It's so funny, I heard Courtney say yesterday while we were using a portable potty "I like these kinds of potties best...they have no flush at all!"

Does ayone have any suggestions for helping kids who are scared of flushing? And what do you do when your 5 and 8 yr old kids refuse to flush the potty even at home? Just because they don't like it, they continually conveniently "forget" to flush.

Did the pioneers have a hard time potty training their kids? I guess their kids never had to worry about loud flushes! Maybe their kids instead where afraid of falling in the hole in the outhouse?

That brings up another potty memory. Once when Dorathy was 4 years old, we were at Christopher's soccer practice. She had to use the potty, and there were portable potties close by, so we went to use them instead of walking the long distance to the Aquatic center. Unfortunately, this potty was almost full. I have never seen a portable potty so close to the top! When I saw that, and smelled it, I was on the verge of losing lunch. I wanted to GET OUT and g0 walk to the aquatic center, but poor Dorathy had to go REALLY REALLY bad, so we tried to stick it out. I was pregnant with Angel, and Holding on to a toddler Courtney, and Dorathy then started to fall INTO the hole! I barely caught her, but she got into the nasty mess. Stop reading this if it is too graphic for you, I'll try not to get into the horrible detail, but let me just say, that we ended up going the aquatic center to clean all 3 of us up. It was a nightmare. Ever since then, even my older girls want me to help hold onto them when using the porta potties because no one else wants to fall in the hole!

I have just one word for that.....YUCK.

Progress for Julie!!!

Julie finally learned how to sit up by herself! And then 2 days ago, she at last figured out how to pull into a stand up position!

Julie may be almost 14 months old, but she has been very delayed in learning some basic large motor development skills. I've been worried about her safety, since she refused to crawl and hates being on her tummy. But in June she learned how to scoot on her bottom. And now over the last 2 weeks she's figured out how to push herself up into a sitting position. That made it so for days she couldn't take a nap. She'd sit up and then couldn't figure out how to lay back down! I'm so pleased that she's learned how to pull up at last. Not on everything, but she's making good progress. Now she just needs to figure out how to stand up herself without anything to pull up on, and she'll be ready to learn to walk! I still hope that she'll learn how to crawl for real.

Julianna can walk by herself. She can walk at least 20 steps with no help whatsoever, but she's usually too terrified to try it. She'll walk if the thinks I'm holding on to her. It's because she still doesn't know how to fall or catch herself. She falls like a stiff tree and bonks her head. So sad to see! I've got to work on that with her before she gets badly injured! But at least I no longer have to worry that she'll drown in 1 inch of water just because she can't push herself up.

The hard part on me now, is that Julianna is almost never happy. She's filled with continual anguish that she can't get up and move well on her own. It's driving us all NUTS! She pretty much cries ALL DAY LONG unless I'm holding her hand and walking her all over the place, inside and out. She wants to steer me, and she throws a fit if I don't go where she wants. Unfortunately, her fits involve throwing herself backwards and banging her head.

Julie sees the Doctor for her 1st year check up this week. I wonder if he'll want to put her in therapy, or if he'll say her development is within the normal range.

Fish Heads, Fish Heads

Courtney & her cousin IVY at her 6th Birthday in the Park

Courtney cracks me up! The things she gets excited about! She is so unique!

A friend was generous enough to give us a freshly caught Salmon from the sea. It was beautiful, it was huge, and it was going to be very very tasty. We all love fish in our family, and Salmon is our favorite!

The fish was already gutted and cleaned, but the head was still on it. Scott would need to chop off the head, and filet it so I could marinade it and prepare it for dinner. Courtney was in the bath when she heard that Daddy was getting ready to chop off the fish's head. She was so excited, and was incredibly anxious that she not miss a single second of the action. She's usually the girl I pull out of the tub kicking and screaming after all the water is gone. But this time she was out and dressed in about 30 seconds and waiting at the table to watch the fish turn into filets.

I wonder what kind of naturalist Courtney will be when she grows up! She loves all animals alive and dead, and doesn't bat an eyelash when Scott kills our meat rabbits for dinner. I was 16 years old when I watched my sister, Mary Cate, catch her first fish. Mary and my brothers helped gut the fish while I hid in the motor home under my blankets shivering in fear. I didn't even want to LOOK at the fish till it was cooked and on my plate ready to be eaten. Even Angel thought the fish chopping was all great fun. I happily waited in the other room till it looked like a nice side of fish bought from the grocery store. When I see a dead fish, I want to puke. All my kids know that if any of their pet fish die, I won't even look at them. They have to flush them into the sewer system all by themselves. It took me a while to be able to eat the Rabbits that Scott grows for our family as well. I still have a hard time if people talk about it while we're eating.

I am posting this link to a weird, funny, macabre song about fish heads....follow it if you dare!

Fish Heads Fish heads YUMMY yummy Fish heads

Miscellanious Kid Quotes

Every week in Primary, the kids say darling things that make us laugh.

One week, the Primary President told the kids that Brother Gouge was going to give a talk next week. Little Dustin Chapman piped up saying, "Brother Gooo? EWWW!"

In Primary last week, the bishop gave a talk on David and Goliath.

"Does anyone know what a giant is?" --Bishop

"A REALLY BIG Human!" -- Ivy Bassett

"That's right" --Bishop

"Just Like You!" -- says a sunbeam

I guess the Bishop is just like a giant to a little 3 yr old sunbeam! :)

Then in Senior Primary, Nona Springer was talking to the kids about the second
holiday in July that we as an LDS people celebrate. (She was trying to get them
to guess Pioneer Day) And then one of the boys pipes up: "I think they call
it the Holy Trail?" (hee hee, it's the MORMON trail!)

Last week Dorathy said something really cute:

"Someday when I'm REALLY big and grown up, like 10 or 11 or EVEN TWELVE, you know, a TEENAGER, I might go to Italy and live for a month, and I'll send you postcards. And you might even be a Grandma by then! And then you can watch my kids while I go to live in Italy!" This is quite an amazing statement, considering the fact that on most days she denies that she will ever have kids. She usually says she will never marry or have kids, because having kids hurts. She says she wants to be a famous chef and publish books and illustrate them herself...or just own her own bakery shop and bake goodies all day long.

Just a few days ago, Angel came up to my coughing, "I'm sick....I'm sick!"

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"I need a popsicle!" She says. "My tummy hurts! My throat hurts!"

(In our house when you get a bad ouchie like a scrape, a bee sting, a splinter, or a mouth injury, I'll give a kid a popsicle becaus it distracts them while I pull out the splinter, or treat the sting, or cleanse wounds and apply bandages. In the past kids have done great theatrics all in the name of trying to win a popsicle from me.)

At the time, I was really busy with paperwork, and I was just trying to get Angel to go away long enough for me to finish, so I said, "Sure, sure, a popsicle, I'll get you one in a few minutes. Go watch the movie with your cousins."

Soon Angel is strutting up and down the room with her hands on her hips, bragging to all the other kids. "Hey guys!! Hey guys! Guess what! I get a POPSICLE, because I'm SICK!!"

Angel is also quite the little Hypochondriac. I never know when she is truly in pain, or when she is just tryin to get my attention. She is always crying over little pains in her foot or hand. She cries when she falls of something, but then again, she cries just as loud if the dog wacks her leg with her tail. For every little pain, she demands that I take her to the doctor. She is in love with going to the Doctor. I don't know what is so romantic or exciting about it, but Angel loves Doctors and medicine.

So a few days ago, she comes up saying, "I'm Sick! I'm Sick! I have to go to de Doctor!"
I sigh, knowing she's not really sick, and say, "We're not going to the Doctor. It's time to go to bed."
Angel insists, "I have to see de Doctor! Quick! De Doctor make me better!" Then her eyes light up. "We can go to de Doctor right now, and drive there in the dark!"

"No," I answer, "We're not going to drive to the Doctor in the dark. There are no Doctors at the office right now, they are all at home getting ready for bed"

Then she gets a new idea. "I have money! I have my Money, Mommy! I can buy de Doctor! Let's go now, Mommy, and I'll buy de Doctor with my money!"

With a little distraction, I get her off to bed. I hope I never not take her to the Doctor when she really really needs it. But it's hard to know, when she asks to go almost everyday!

Cheesy Tourist Spot

If you ever want to stop at a really cheesy tourist spot on the Oregon Coast, check out these The Prehistoric Gardens!

It cost a ridiculous amount of money to get in to make a very very short walk through someone's personal forest all decked out in giant, colorful, aging dinosaurs.

They must have been 50 years old because a lot of the info they had on the Dinos were out of date. Some of them needed a new paint job! If you want to know more about the Prehistoric Gardens, and the man whose crazy idea it was to build giant dinsosaurs in his backyard, click HERE.


It's all really quite creative, actually. And his unique plans tourned it into a nice family business! I'd put some giant 8 foot dinosaurs in my backyard if it would pay for my kids' college educations!

So we went in and paid the exhorbitant fees because the kids were tired of the car, and it costs less than going on say, a jet boat tour. Their little gift shop was cute, but of course, way overpriced.

It also helped that Courtney LOVES dinosaurs.

The kids enjoyed a little fun break, even if it did cost us as much as it would have been to take the family out to Mo's for dinner.

The kids' favorite part was eating all the Salmon Berries that were ripe along the little trail.

So we've been there once, and that's enough for me. Next time we're driving on 101 up from the Redwoods, we'll keep on driving!



But if you have little boys who love dinosaurs, and you don't mind paying 6 or 8 dollars per person for a 20 minute visit, check it out!