Monday with a lot to do

The Easter bunny showed up to Grandpa’s house Monday morning.  It’s always a fun thing to wake up to a surprise.Ken had to fill up the van and grab some more baby food with Grandpa and everyone but Mark and Jessie wanted to go to.  Neil ran out to the car with enough toys for everyone to have something to play with and wasn’t too happy when Ken brought him back in to drop off the extras.  Grandpa has lots of fun cars for little boys.While they were gone a little mischief happened and our milk suddenly changed colors along with the orange juice.  The others kids just LOVED this April fools day joke and when the green milk was gone Neil refused to have white milk on his cereal.  He was stubborn enough to eat it dry and then we gave in and dyed the next gallon green too.  Since returning home we’ve had many shades of milk grace our cereal bowls.  Spencer and Neil already have dibs on coloring the next two gallons after the peach one is gone.  I wonder how long this phase will last.  (Before the peach gallon we had bright purple because Neil was trying to to do it himself and squirted 1/2 a bottle of purple in before Jessie could grab it away.  Ahhhh…..good times.)Isaac’s getting big enough that you can’t take things from him anymore.  It’s trading time!After the trip to the store we piled in the van to go see downtown Bremerton.  Unfortunately after we started Ken and Spencer got dropped back off on account of one them being too grumpy to put up with.  :-(.  The first fountain Grandpa took us to see had a lion spitting out water.  Mark tried to take his place and then Abbie tried to catch the water.  It was fun.

We wandered around looking at some statues.

And then more fountains.  These ones are from a WWI Memorial.  At the end there was water sprays that squirted through some hoop rocks.  That part was the kids’ favorite.

Even when Grandpa pushed the stroller Neil wanted to “help.”

The last fountain that was on was down at the little splash pad.  There were five of these fountains in a row and they took turns shooting the water out of the tops.  It was very pretty down there by the ocean, but pretty chilly.  As we were leaving the fountains started spraying again and Neil leaned over to Jessie and shouted, “Ka-boom!  I love to say Ka-boom.”  It had us all laughing.

We walked back to the van and went home for lunch at Grandpa’s.  Afterwards I stayed home with the sleeping babies and Ken and Grandpa took the older kids to Illahee State Park for some beach combing.  They hiked down the trail from the car to the beach. 

The tide was really far out and the sand was swallowing shoes, so Ken and Grandpa stayed back while the kids explored.  Can you see them way out on the right hand side of the picture?

They had a wading contest in the freezing water.  Mark said you just stood still until the part of you that was in the water got numb then you moved out a little further and waited a bit and that’s how they got out so far.  Abbie and Mark tied…..and Abbie’s pants were really wet.Out in the water they found a live sea star, bright red and orange.  And here is the collection of shells and crabs and muddy pants.

Before they came home they played on the teeter-totters and the boys each climbed out to the end of the guns.  It’s amazing how long and high those guns are in real life.

That night we went to Ken’s Aunt and Uncle and had a delicious dinner.  We took a walk down to the lake and played on the swings.  Isaac got to ride in the backpack for the first time and loved it.  He giggled the first few steps after Ken put him in.  That was really fun.  (Ken got the backpack out again yesterday to carry Isaac while he mowed.  The pack was sitting on the floor by the couch and Isaac dashed over to it and pulled it down on top of himself trying to get in it.  I’m so glad he likes riding in it!)

By the time we walked back some Easter eggs had been hidden in the backyard.  The kids had a great time collecting them.  We had a little lesson and listened to several people entertain us with piano solos before we had to go home.