Park, Park, Baby

Utah knows how to do parks right! Everywhere we went there were new and exciting ones to explore and enjoy. This is the highlights from one of our several trips to a park to burn off extra energy.

Brian holding Madeline and Shannon holding Brogan

Carrie on a familiar instrument...all that time at SPS playing percussion paid off while entertaining the little ones.

(Above) Just look at those cheeks! Don't you just wanna kiss 'em? Her daddy does (below).

We had a marvelous visit! Thank you for hosting us!

Utah...again

We find ourselves driving to Utah quite frequently during our time out West. It's 12 hours one way. A LONNNNG drive. This last trip was for a VERY special purpose though. Our friend, Paul, got married. We've known Paul since he was 12. He has been called "Uncle Paul" since Cassidy was old enough to talk. He married a sweet, charming, beautiful girl named Lindsey on Friday, April 22nd in the Salt Lake City Temple. It was lovely. It was also the first time we had been inside the SLC temple. What an experience. We were honored to be there for this big moment. We didn't take our camera to the wedding or the reception because we figured there would be enough people walking around taking pictures...we know we ended up in a few, so we hope to see them someday. It was beautiful.

We were able to snag this photo of the 3 of us after a yummy lunch at The Lion House.

Brogan and Daddy standing with the SLC temple in the background.

We were also able to visit lots of family while we were in town. The photo above may very well be one of my favorite pictures ever. It isn't perfect, but this is my Grandpa Harvey. He is a remarkable individual and Brogan loved him the moment he set eyes on him. He spent a lot of time curled up in his lap reading stories, getting tickled, listening to jokes and just bonding. It was quite a special moment for me.

And this lovely lady is Miss Madeline (above), the daughter of Carrie and Peter (Brian's youngest sister). She is just a gem and she LOVES to watch other little kids. Brogan was happy to entertain. Brogan was playing with some of her soft blocks and she reached over to grab one...he curled around it protectively...we are still working on the sharing thing (below).

We enjoyed every moment (with exception to a few scary storms we ran into while driving to UT) and look forward to returning again in May to celebrate Carrie's graduation from Med School. Hooray for being so close to family!

EGGGGSTRA COLORFUL

The cousins got together on Monday, April 18th to color easter eggs. We scored when we found these "no spill" egg coloring kits. Highly recommended but be warned that if the color does spill, it will stain. :)

(ABOVE) Brogan, Cassidy and Abby take a turn coloring some of the eggs

(ABOVE) Jack making a blue egg and a charming little face. CUTE!

The boys showing off the final product

And the girls too.

So much fun!

Kiss Me...I'm Irish (sort of)

Last year Cassidy had to do a report on the country where her ancestors came from. She chose to cover the paternal SCHROYER side of the family that year. This year, since we are in Washington with the HARMON side of the family, she decided to represent her maternal ancestors. IRELAND!

Cassidy worked SO hard on this "Sandwich Board". It talks about the influences of Ireland today like: St. Patrick's Day, Potatoes, and The Arts (U2, Enya, Riverdance, etc). She then memorized a speech that was a brief overview of the sandwich board. She gave this speech on Wednesday, April 20th, at 11am (just about 1 hour before mom and dad left with Brogan for a long drive to Utah). Her speech was 2 and a half minutes long. She did SUCH a good job and we are SO proud of her. I have a video of it and might post it later, but for now, we just wanted to take a minute to tell you about how amazing she is. Public speaking terrifies her, but she was so brave and she didn't say "ummm" or any of those other common fillers you hear during speeches. She spoke clearly and looked confident. SO WONDERFUL. Later that week, on Friday, she got to march in a Multi-cultural parade downtown wearing her cute little sandwich board. It was even on TV! Way to go sweet Cassidy!

Haunted Legos!

We made a lego police station today.

"Why are there twenty pairs of legs just standing on the roof?"

"Those are GHOSTS! Their tops are invisible!"

"And the guys in the tower, will they be okay?"

"Yes. They have a worker, a space man, AND a ninja, so they win!"

"Awesome."

Easter Shirts!

Our beloved Tracey of Sam's Town Designs (check it out on Etsy) sent us these Easter shirts for the kids. The girls say "My Peeps" and the boys say "Chick Magnet."

Spring Break Wrap Up continued

Brogan plays hard at whatever he's doing right up to the point where he falls asleep.

I like the little Lego triumvirate watching him.

As part of "Take Your Daughter to War*" day Kayla joined daddy for another round of Firefight in Halo. We teamed up with two other gamers and successfully fought off 400+ bad guys in fifteen minutes. Not only did KK dispatch the final bad guy of the match, she did it with style!

I'm so proud!

*You can check out Take Your Daughter to War Day here:

http://www.theonion.com/video/army-holds-annual-bring-your-daughter-to-war-day,14218/

I was just kidding.

I don't need a special day to bring KK to battle.

Spring Break Wrap Up

With the kids off from school this week we used the time to attend a Portland Winterhawks playoff game at the Rose Garden (thanks Grandpa!).

We also made another trip to J J Jumps, this time with cousins Abby and Jack.

Brogan (and Daddy) climb up...

Brogan and Abby slide down.

Daddy is the tall one.

And on Saturday the boys got haircuts.

It was time.

Brogan was a big fan of the barber shop we found: popcorn, lollipops, your own tv screen, and a back massage when you're done. Nice!

Treasure Hunting never gets old

About 11 years ago, Brian planned a birthday extravaganza for me that has yet to be matched. He was living on Nantucket Island and I was on the West Coast. I went to visit him on this island for my birthday. He had spent several weeks (maybe months) getting ready for my visit and the birthday we would celebrate while together. He made treasure chests and literally buried them all around the island. We spent a day together following a map and digging up treasure. It was amazing and romantic. Is it any wonder I married the guy a year later? Well, a lot has changed since then. We've added 3 amazing kids to the mix and we are currently living on the West Coast. It seemed appropriate that we have a birthday treasure hunt here as well. And so, on Saturday morning we bundled up the kids and went to Lacamas Lake to hunt for treasure. This is a photo of us consulting the map:

Here we are looking for a new clue. Brian had made flowers out of duck tape and hidden them in tree hollows. Cass helped hide them, so she had a slight advantage and tried really hard not to tell us where they were.
We had to walk across a few bridges, and over a dam...this had Brogan captivated.
At the very last flower we also found some pretty new silver ear rings. I'm wearing them in this photo, but my hair is covering them up. Trust me, they're beautiful.
Don't I have the sweetest hubby ever? And some pretty great kids too! I'm pretty blessed and SO grateful for my life and the chance I have to share it with these incredible individuals. They are my true Treasures and the ones I hope to keep forever.

NOW it's her birthday!

The kids are feeling better so today we celebrate Shannons -**REDACTED**- Birthday!

She awoke to find this on her pillow...

And the rest of the celebration is underway, more information later on.

**A special note from Shan regarding these flowers: Just in case you can't tell (and miss the hint from Brian), they are made of duck tape! How amazing is it that I get flowers that will last forever, never need to be watered, and are hand made with love? I know. I know. I'm one VERY lucky girl. And SOOOO in love with this man!

Happy Birthday?

Guess what I got for my birthday? New shoes? A new appliance? Clothes? Toys? Movies? Dinner? A Date? A Cake? No. No. No. No. No. No. No. and NO. What I DID get was 3 sick kids:

Here they are, all sprawled out in the living room watching "Tangled" for probably the 7th time. For the record, Tangled is a GREAT movie and we love it (obviously) but maybe 7 times in 48 hours is a bit much...I have a feeling it isn't the last time we will watch it before all our little ones are healthy again.

So, in light of these facts, we are going to postpone my birthday until tomorrow (or the next day, depending on the general health of our household). However, the calls and cards that arrived today (or before or even after) are all very kind and appreciated. Thank you for thinking of me and sending me thoughts and wishes. Feel free to include a few thoughts and Get Well's for the 3 sweet wee ones currently littering my floor.

Jack Turns 2

One of the great things about living on the West Coast right now is that we get to spend a lot of time with family. For the first time in a long time we are here for birthdays and other big events in each other's lives. It's been pretty awesome. On Wednesday, March 30th, we celebrated Jack's birthday. His birthday is actually March 31st...so is his Dad's...and so is Mine. Cool, hu?

What kid party is ever complete without a pinata? Check out the faces and stance on these 2 boys (Jack, above...Brogan, below). We didn't have a stick so we used the tube to a vacuum cleaner. Clever, right? Just not as effective as one might hope. Although it was eventually busted.

Jack's current love is "DRAGON" more commonly known as "How To Train Your Dragon"...one of our family's favorite movies too. So we did a Dragon cake. Check out "Toothless". Did you know that there are NOOOOOO H.T.T.Y.D. promotional toys out there? Nope. Nothing. The shelves are Toothless and Hiccup bare. Bummer. 'Cause this little boy would have loved his very own stuffed Toothless.

Happy Birthday, Jack. We love you!

Green Eggs and Ham

Mom and Dad got the pleasure of joining Kayla for brunch today in celebration of the great Dr. Seuss. And, as would be appropriate, we dined on Green Eggs and Ham (which was NOT green). KK started out a bit of a skeptic....

..but eventually gave the green eggs a try...and to her surprise, she LOVED them. (There was a day not so long ago when no amount of cajoling or bribing could have gotten her to do this.)
In fact, we ALL loved them. Mom especially loved KK's Dr. Seuss hat and may choose to borrow it someday.

A Snow day in Washington

It is unusual to have snow in Washington...it is even MORE unusual to have snow in Washington in February. In fact, according to the news, the last time it snowed this late in the season was in 1993...and it has only snowed this late 5 (now 6) times on record. Because it doesn't snow very often, it is cheaper for the area to simply shut down rather then invest in snow removal devices and drivers for such things. Which is why a little bit of snow can become a big problem. And when I say "a little bit", I really mean it.

In New England, we would call this a "dusting". But, in Washington, this much snow means NO SCHOOL.
See the joy on these faces? This is what happens when 3 little kids go to bed with their pajama's on backwards because they were told it would result in a SNOW DAY...and, as far as they are concerned, it worked.
Cass was *almost* able to build a snow fort. Instead, she settled for a small corral for the squirrels she is determined to catch. New Englander's will probably get a chuckle at how debilitating this much snow is for the folks out this direction, but when you just aren't accustomed to such weather...well, it's better to just stay off the roads and instead spend the time scraping together every little inch of snow in your front yard just to construct ONE snowman. That's dedication...or desperation...we haven't decided which. And we don't really care. Today was a snow day, and that's all that matters to my 3 little happy monkeys.

Why we LOVE having a garage:

The "Lightning McQueen" car is a remote control vehicle that seconds after this photo was taken was guided to smash and knock down all of these structures. Over and over and over again. It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

Great Wolf Lodge or "Hooray for Presidents"

Guess what happens when "Groupon" and "President's Day" collide: For our entire family (ALL the Harmon family grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins in WA), it was a wonderful and thrilling weekend at GREAT WOLF LODGE. Below is a photo journal of our weekend.

This is actually a big bear, sadly the head didn't make it into this photo. When we first arrived, the girls looked at this and declared, "This is just like Grandpa's campus!" Well, the decor is certainly Campy and would compliment "campus"...but, check out the water park:

This is a wave pool. Maybe Cassidy's favorite place (above)
Brogan got a kick out of blasting others...wasn't always thrilled to be on the receiving end of things though...
If you look at the top of this photo, just above the huge gushing waterfall, you will see a gigantic bucket. It would fill up to the top and then tip over and dump gallons upon gallons of water. It was loud, and Brogan insists that it scared him.



These little jet ski's were a favorite for Brogan. Unfortunately it was impossible to photograph EVERYTHING. There were some exciting slides (the TORNADO was exceptionally thrilling, especially in the dark), a wonderful hot tub (that wasn't TOO hot, so the kids could all go in), a sport section with floating basketball hoops, and a huge anchored floating snake to climb on. It was truly a memorable experience. We are so glad we got the chance to go and hope to make one more trip before leaving the Northwest.