the ocean

James' boys are here with him for a month and we have been having a blast. James took last week off and we played a lot. The best part of last week was taking off and heading for the Ocean, Ocean Shores Baby!!! We were there for a little over 24 hours and it was much needed and very worth all of the work and driving that goes into such an activity. It was my first time to Ocean Shores, I love the Ocean even though it was extremely windy which made it quite chilly. A great time was had by all and I am pleased to report that the Quigley men are excellent traveling companions, I am looking forward to our next adventure.

Trip Highlights:

• Eating fried chicken squished in the back of my car, it was so cold and windy outside
• Running on the beach
• The Hotel's breakfast
• Mini golf right outside our hotel roomS
• The warm sand on our cold feet
• No rain
• Riding that bike/cart thingy
• Playing in the salt-free swimming pool
• Relaxing and having no worries
• The NICE tan I now have!!!

Day One:

Day Two:

Just in case you wanted to see more pictures of the two of us:

(I love this one. I love when we drive my car places so James doesn't have to shift gears, that leaves his hand free for more important things)

something you might want to try

It's summer! Wahoo! Too bad I'm already complaining about the heat, I need to work on that because I will miss it when its gone (next week probably). We have had a gorgeous first week of summer. You should see my tan! Since it is summer my preschooler is home ALL DAY LONG and you what that means for him and his little brother-more time to fight and argue and cause problems. So, with that in mind, having a plan before things get out of hand, I instigated to new system. The smiley face system. This is how is works: a smiley face is given for good behavior, playing nice, sharing, clearing table, using good manners, having a dry pull-up, pretty much one can be given for anything I want. A frown face is given for the exact opposite. Pretty simple. I am in charge of giving the faces, I can decide when and when not to give them. Sometimes they just have to do things because I said so and no smiley face is given. At the end of the day every frown face cancels out a smiley face and if there are 5 or more smiley faces earned, a smiley face sucker is the reward. So far so good. Nolan (the almost 3 year old is the problem child, he didn't earn a sucker on Thursday and near went crazy on me, hopefully he learned a lesson). You might want to try something like this, make it your own. Your kids could earn different items work different number amounts of smiley faces or a non-food item, etc. Make it your own to work for your family. I like it because it is easy. Oh, and we start new every day faces don't carry over and I keep track while we are out and put them on the paper when we get back. I also think it is helpful for the boys to see me put the faces on the paper and be reminded of why they get each one. That's all. Happy summer, I feel like I am melting.

at the end of day one

the coveted prize

my boys enjoying their reward

deception pass

We had the boys over the weekend and had so much fun together! The weather was perfect and everything worked out beautifully. After dropping off Sicily with her mom (see previous post) we headed to Whidbey Island to see one of my favorite spots in the Pacific Northwest. Deception Pass. James is a great sport he is always willing to do whatever I suggest, even if he doesn't know where we are going or what we are going to do when we get there. He is great for so many reason, that is just one of them. I was surprised that he didn't love the bridge, I think it was mostly because he is a caring dad afraid for the safety of his boys. I think if it was just him walking across the wobbly bridge with oncoming traffic and no place to go if a car was out of control, he wouldn't be as worried. He liked lounging at the beach much better. We spent a couple of hours at the beach, the water was cold but the boys didn't care they loved playing it and gathering seaweed. You should have seen the sand that covered their two little bodies, good thing we brought a change of clothes. We ate dinner before taking a 10:30pm ferry back to our side again. Another near perfect day!

sicily and the temple

I got to hang out with baby Sicily (Jared's niece) while her mom, my friend Stacia, went to the Temple with her parents. Sicily is so precious, I love her. James and the boys loved her too. We got to go to the Temple to return her to her mama. Stacia was kind enough to take some pictures of us. And it even turned out to be a beautiful day.

this morning at the pier

It seems like forever since the boys I nanny and I have had an adventure in the city, just by ourselves. This morning we made it happen....we went to the Aquarium down on the waterfront, but actually only stayed for a little while. What the boys really wanted to do was go "skateboarding" (to my boys this just means running and jumping, sometimes off steps).

I thought the weather would be awful, but it wasn't. It was cold but no rain:

My little skateboarders:

After looking at fish it only seems natural to go eat some:

My favorite part of the day, fish tacos at Steamers. I think they are my favorite, but I should do an intense study or something. I think I like flour tortillas so much better than corn. Yum. I want another right now.

Who wants one of these?:



What a great morning I had, now I need to go take a nap and hope my 2 year does too so I don't have to hurt him. Nighty night.