Family Circus

We got free tickets to the circus.  I had never been and thought I should allow myself and my kids that experience.  It was a circus, we probably should have had our own act.  I'm still learning to juggle 3 kids and   I knew I would need an extra pair of grown up hands to help so I was grateful that Grandma and Grandpa were willing to come along.  We saw the elephants, tigers, ponies,  magicians, bears, jugglers, and some high flying guys and gals. And after I ran out of smarties it was hard to keep the kids in their seats, so we left at intermission.  They'll never know the difference. And besides...

I think Miss Peanut had more fun playing in the fountain outside the arena than actually watching the circus.  Sometimes it is kind of fun to be able to let them play and get as wet as they dare and not have to say no; it was really fun to watch her  (I keep a bag in my car, it's call the "O'Crap bag" - it has an extra set of clothes for the kids and diapers and wipes - handy to have for things like this).  Handsome was not as brave, getting his toes wet was enough for him. We had a fun afternoon.

Camping

You might say I'm a wimp; we bought a tent trailer.  We often spend a week or more at the N. California coast camping with Officer's family in the summer - I have mostly worried about keeping cupcake warm while we are there in a few weeks.  In my defense - we have tented it up until now and I'm not sure that I'm brave enough to do that with 3 babies.  Anyway we're hoping to get out camping more with the kids in the coming years so we decided to get a trailer this summer.  Officer took Handsome on Father/Sons trip with it, but last week we took our first camping trip as a family.   We drove a couple hours out of town - about half way I realized that I had left our foil dinners in the fridge.  Of course we didn't starve, we had plenty of other things to eat, but it was just the start of our mishaps.  About the time kids were asleep and we sat down to enjoy the campfire a storm blew in very quickly with lots of wind, rain, lightning and thunder. For that reason it was also very nice to have the trailer - no tents blowing over, flooding, etc.  However as we tried to use the heater...it wasn't working.  ???  I was just a little upset that officer neglected to check that the battery was charged and the propane tanks were filled in our spontaneous decision to get out of town.   Then as it got colder Handsome woke up congested and coughing most of the night along with Miss Peanut who was cold and needed a potty break in the middle of the night. Needless to say, we didn't sleep well and it was cold. Actually Cupcake slept all night - she did awesome!  And we did catch a glimpse of a beautiful clear sky full of a million stars while we were up in the middle of the night.  The next day we hiked around and enjoyed the beautiful area and went on a "bear hunt"  (for gummy bears).  Both Handsome and Miss Peanut loved hiking around, I was a little nervous about it because the river was very close and running very high and very fast.  It was a good trip, but we'll definitely be more prepared next time. 

And this is the Great American Dung Beetle feasting on some dung... AMAZING - Officer has a good eye for spotting wildlife.  :)

Naughty

This little guy keeps me on my feet.  As soon as I answer the phone, nurse a baby, leave the room, anything really he gets into something.  This is one place he often goes.  He's suddenly started to be interested in sitting on the potty before bath time because big sister does too.  Anyway this afternoon this is where I found him shortly after big sister went potty. 

And this is what he had to say about it.  I wanted to laugh so bad, but I'm really getting tired him getting in the potty.

A blessing

Family of Five, Really?

If someone would have told me 3 years ago when I had Miss Peanut that I would have 3 kids in just over 3 years - I would have laughed.  Now here we are.  I really have learned to enjoy this little cupcake because the little stage passes so quickly.  I have my frustrating days, but it's mostly because my other 2 are being naughty the second I sit down to nurse and there is only one of me.  And 5-7pm when it seams like all three have meltdowns right in the middle of trying to get dinner and bedtime going.  Motherhood really is such a blessing and I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to be a mother.  Maybe it's because of how busy I had to be right after having cupcake, but the transition to 3 really hasn't been too overwhelming (of course with the exceptions of the above mentioned moments) I told someone the other day that I feel more seasoned as a mother.  Lots to learn still of course, but these three little ones are such a blessing.  

May really was a busy month.  Even with everything else going on we decided to bless cupcake while Officer's family was here.  We were able to have so many of our friends and family over for a yummy waffle breakfast/brunch after church.  Here are some pictures, in the last one great-grandma was able to be there, so it was neat to have a picture with 3 generations.  

The Parents

Officer's parents

Three generations

Top Cop Video/Medal of Honor Ceremony

For the Top Cop award,  they produced a video re-enactment of the incident.  You can see it here.  The second part of the video is the Attorney General awarding him and the other two officers the Medal of Honor.

Hopefully worth the wait.

I know you've all been waiting for it...okay maybe not, but here are lots of pictures from our busy month.  We have about 1500 pictures from our trip (many of them taken by Officers family - my hands were kind of full most of the trip.) and other things, so prepare to be overloaded.  It's hard to decide what to put on here because we saw so much, so I'm probably going to leave out a lot of the historical sites because if you want to see them I know google can probably get you some great pics.  But here are some (okay so maybe a lot) of our favorites.  Okay and I will say now that my 1000 pictures are worth millions of words so I'll only comment some of the pictures.

Tomb of the unknown soldier at Arlington. We were able to have a "behind the scenes" kind of tour from a friend of some of the officers we traveled with.  Aside all the extra stuff we went to DC for,  you cannot leave there, or anywhere in DC really, without appreciation for our great nation and those who serve to protect it. You are surrounded by so much history and we felt such patriotism. 

President's Chopper - I can't recall the name.

Stairwell at the Capital

Police officer's Memorial during law enforcement week - about 10,000 officers I think were said to be there.

Window shopping in Chinatown - how could you not want this little guy - our cute nephew

Walking, we did a lot of walking...

The metro - we're such tourists - we used it to get around for most of the week. We climbed/hauled a stroller/infant seat up this because it was not working and there was a forever long line of lazies (some legit I'm sure) to take the elevator.  Gotta admit though, it was a tough climb about 3/4 of the way up.

The Hope Diamond on display at the Smithsonian

Georgetown Cupcakes...Mmm!

My cute Mother and Sister in Law.

The very center of the capital and other pics from our tour.

Flash Standing Long Jump Competition on the Mall.

This Veteran was at the WWII memorial - on his right is a picture of him at 17 in the Navy.

My cute Sister in law who took much of the Pictures and Our favorite cousin Carl!

  

White House

Cupcake meeting the grandparents and family for the first time.

Our view of the White House and the Rose Garden.

If you look closely at the next 3 pictures you can see us taking the picture below.  Officer's sister took that from the street outside the gates where most tourists take pictures. Kind of cool.

You can see the whole ceremony here on youtube .

Cupcake and I got to meet the President - whatever else he may or may not be - he is still the President.  He even talked with me very briefly about Cupcake.  He asked how old she was, if this was my first and then said she sure is excited to meet me (She was sound asleep you can see in the picture).  That was about it.  It's already written in her baby book.  She was a whopping 2 weeks old that day.

 

Following our White House visit we met with Senator Risch and Crapo - I only have a picture with Senator Risch.

Our view the next time we went to visit.

Top Cop Ceremony & Law Enforcement memorial

Back home for the Medal of Honor Ceremony.

Handsome pointing at Daddy's picture/plaque that will hang in the Department - FOREVER!

Cute cousins that came all the way from CA. - So glad they were there!

Being awarded the Medal of Honor by the Governor.  

Silver Star and Life Saving Award

Officer was awarded a Life Saving award and the Silver Star from the Police Department as well as a Hero Award from the County Paramedics.

This last picture is the woman whose life they saved.  It was really wonderful to meet her.  I'm sure it must have been difficult, but she even spoke about the events that night and how grateful she was for Officer and his coworkers.

Pheeew...Okay that was an overload - hope you enjoyed - or even made it to the end.  There is more to come of other fun things to come so check back!