How are we allowed to be parents?

While we were in Seattle, we planned on taking the Victoria Clipper to Victoria, British Columbia. Yes, that's in Canada people. At first we thought we wouldn't be able to go because we didn't have passports for the kids and it would take some time to get them. But then we learned that boat entrance into Canada didn't yet require passports. Horray. So we didn't worry about it anymore. So Sunday comes-the day we are going to go, we get to the dock and realize that we didn't bring the kid's birth certificates! Just because we didn't need passports for them doesn't mean we don't need anything for them, AND WE KNEW THAT!! What makes it worse, Ryan and I were both without our wallets! Since it was just a day trip, we brought our IDs and debit cards. We left our wallets, my purse, the kids shot records (which I brought for proof of age for flying)-basically everything!
So because of the chaos of getting our group of twenty or so people on to the boat, we got through that relatively easy. But going through immigration and customs getting into Canada was different. They asked us if we had papers for the kids. No. So they took our id's back to run a background check on us, came back and then asked Gwen some questions. "Who are these people?" To which Gwen answered, "my mommy and Ryan!" Luckily the guy let us through anyway and we got a lecture on traveling between countries, we need proof of who these kids are.
Then when we were ready to leave and go back to the good ol' USA, we knew we were in for it again! The guy at immigration had a bunch of questions for us. Including do you have any pictures on you to prove these are your kids? No! Not even pictures on our cell phones because of course we didn't have those either! So we answered a bunch of questions about where we were born, what schools are in those cities, (Ryan doesn't know what if anything's in Dickinson, North Dakota), why we were in Seattle, and why we were in Victoria, and why we were traveling without wallets, phones, etc.
Hello, didn't they realize I am and therefore my kids are Native American? We felt like complete idiots, and rightfully so! My only excuse is that we have just been under so much stress lately, we weren't thinking at all! So I know, you're thinking we shouldn't have charge over kids. Hey, we're still learning, and we've vowed to be more responsible. [I won't go into the story about how we also lost our return tickets to Seattle]
But our trip was amazing! Victoria is one of the most beautiful places ever! There were seriously like a million tulips! And it was so GREEN!Another example of how forgetful we are, when we were loading up the car to go to the airport, Ryan took out the double stroller to make room for our luggage. That stroller was in there for a reason-so we could use it! So our entire trip we carried our kids! My arms are still sore from carrying them around. Luckily for our tour of the Butchart gardens they had strollers ther for us to use!

Garth was being my hero and releived me of carrying Drake for a while. Of course Drake fell asleep while Garth was holding him. How cute.

Celebrating!

Like I mentioned earlier, the purpose of our trip to Seattle was to celebrate Garth's and Jodi's marriage. We had a wedding dinner party at this yummy restaraunt right on Lake Union. We had Alaskan King Crab, Halibut, Filet and Salmon, oh so tasty!

Garth did introductions to everyone there, and of course introduced us to the new Jodi McPhie!
See, I told you she was pretty! Jodi really is one of the sweetest people in the world.

Before we left to Seattle, Drake had a scab on his nose from scratching himself. Well at dinner, he scratched it off and it really started bleeding! I hurried to get a wipe to clean him up, and in that time of course he rubbed his eye, and got blood all over his face and had a bloody eye. It was so sad, but it stopped bleeding really fast, and he was happy again soon enough!

Space Needle

Of course being in Seattle, we had to go to the Space Needle. It is 650 feet tall, $13 dollars a person (adult) to go to the top, and verrrry cool. It was built to be an attraction when the Olympics were in Seattle. And I thought that I'd see Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan at the top, but Ryan told me I had the movie wrong and that they met at the top of the Empire State building. Hello? The movie's call Sleepless in SEATTLE! Okay, I remember now. Sorry.

Gwen though it was fun and all, but really had no idea how high we were. She instead really enjoyed making a space needle at the "Space Crafts" center inside, and all the rides at the bottom of the Space Needle.

She had so much fun playing with Jodi's nephews. (She has a thing for boys with accents. Who can blame her? ;) Issac (I'm sure I spelled that wrong, and if you say it with an Australian accent, it's Eye-Zack phoenetically) and Kade are some of the cutest boys ever. They took her for a spin in a little jeep. Cute huh?

Ahoy, I sail!

It's going to take me a while to get our weekend all blogged. But here's where I'm starting. Ryan's oldest brother Garth recently got married a few months ago to a beautiful, wonderful girl named Jodi. We all love her so much and are so glad she's in the family (you'll get a pic of her later). Anyway, she is from AUSTRALIA so her family came out to meet ours, and we had a wonderful wedding dinner in Seattle. Garth and Jodi are so much fun! They just got done spending the winter in Aspen where they are ski instructors, and now are going to be working a boat in Alaska for the summer. They are so awesome, and we like to spend time with them in hopes that some of their awesomeness will rub off on us. ;) Anyway, they taught Ryan and I how to drive (?) the boat, and we got into a bit of trouble! That's me looking out the window and seeing that we were about to crash into a school boat full of young children and radioing Ryan to tell him he'd gotten off course.
Luckily Ryan's got his brother's nautical skills and used all of his massive muscles to get us back on the right course. That was a close one!

After we got back on course, Ryan checked his pants, then had a good laugh about the situation with his other brother from the same mother (I just had to keep going becuase it rhymed, of course his brother is from the same mother), Gavin.
And sadly enough, this story was all false. Garth is far too smart to let us drive (? I know I've got to be using the wrong word) the Elsa Major!!
Ryan and I were able to live out our dreams though. I was queen of the world...

And Ryan was able to climb this thing.

Girl's Night Out!

Okay, I got a new computer...an imac. So while it's all cute and everything, I'm still getting used to how completely different it is than a PC. So I have no idea how this blog post is going to post because this is all different. But here we go.

I'm dedicating this post to some girls who are so dear to my heart. My old roommates/friends from BYU. We try to go out once a month and have fun like we're still young college girls! (we can get pretty silly!) In this picture (if the right one will post) we have Haya Miller who is also an Arizona native and our "club president" of course moved back to Mesa after graduating. She is a reading teacher at Poston Junior High. Kristin McPhie (that's me) from Mesa and brought Ryan here when he was done with school. Lindsey Phillips who did study abroad in London and met her husband there, and now they live in London with a cute little girl named Isabell. Lindsey doesn't usually make it out to our monthly girl's night. :) But it was so much fun to have her last night and catch up! Ivette Green who moved in with Haya here in Mesa after school, met her husband John, and now they live in Queen Creek, and Thera Tolman who just moved to Chandler with her husband Bryan. We're missing of course Desiree and Diana (Diana is moving here next week!) among others. Anyway, last night we went to the Elephant Bar for dinner (it was so yummy!) and then since it was Friday the 13th, we saw a scary movie...Disturbia! It was good and oh so scary! I love these girls so much and look forward to our girl's night every month
A couple of month's ago for our girl's night, we thought we'd dress up like we were going to a formal and go to a dinner theater! It was so funny because apparently this dinner theater we went to was a place that "older people" like to go. They all thought that we were so beautiful instead of silly. We had so much fun though. I thought it would be funny to wear flourescent pink lipstick. You might recognize that shade from a previous post-"Lovely Lippy". (Gwen loves it!) So thank you girls for your friendship, I love you!!!

And more Easter!

Easter was a special day for us. After church, we went over to Tawnya and Kolby's house where we do our Jerusalem dinner. We eat traditional and symbolic food on the floor! It's so yummy! We had lamb and barley, lentil soup, flat bread, unleavened bread, bitter herbs, and grape juice instead of wine. After wards, Gavin and Emily invited us and Emily and Sharod Eagar over for desert. Emily whipped up a delicious pina colada cake. It was tres bien! ;)

Later on in the evening we adults were playing DVD pop culture Trivial Pursuit, and to get the kids to let us play in peace, we had them go upstairs and prepare for a fashion show. Delia was the show coordinator, and was able to get her, Gwen and Cloe looking glamorous! Although, I don't typically see models cleaning the runway, I'm sure Emily appreciated Gwen sweeping her living room!

Drake was a happy spectator watching all those beautiful girls go by!

More Easter!

Cute little Drake and Jack were pinned up on the porch while we were all out building the fire to cook our foil dinners in. And when we turned them loose in the cabin, Jack started crawling!! Congrats Jack! Sorry Tara and Andy! :)
One of our fun activities while we were there was hatchet throwing! Kolby and Eli brought up their hatchets and we took turns hurling them at trees. It turns out it's a lot harder than it looks, only Kolby and I were lucky enough (or should I say strong enough) to get it to stick in the tree! hehehehe. So this is me by my amazing throw, the first time I stuck it. Turns out if I do my special Indian hatchet throwing dance, I can get it to stick. :)


We were all so impressed with Gwen's amazing egg finding skills! But despite the help from daddy, she still wasn't lucky enough to find the money egg. We leave those special tracking skills to your truely. The Indian spirits were really with me on this trip!


After the egg hunt, we all dumped out our booty on a blanket and ate our teeth rotten! What a fabulous egg hunt! Thanks for sponsoring it this year Tawnya and Kolby! And congrats on the large tree you felled Kolby!

Curleyhair Cabin Trip

It's that time of year again! Easter! That means that we head up to Pinedale for our Easter egg hunt! It's a tradition we've had in our family since we were kids, and now it's so much fun to see Gwen looking for eggs the same place I did when I was little. Andrew wasn't able to make it because he had work and a lot of home work, and Shand and Ethan are missing since they are on their missions. :) But it was awesome having Jessylee with us this year!

On the way up, Gwen decided that the shoes we packed for her were too small, so we stopped at the Dollar General in Heber to buy her some shoes. She fell in love with the Curious George flip flops, and even though we picked up a pair of closed toe camping shoes, she didn't take the flip flops off the whole time.

For Halloween last year, Drake was a caterpillar, convienently enough, his costume was basically a sleeping bag with a hood on it. So we brought it for him to sleep in. He was snug as a bug! Ha ha, I'm so witty!

Best friends!

Gwen and Drake have so much fun playing together lately....as long as Gwen's not taking his toys away from him!
One of their favorite things to do is to get in the dome chair and have me spin them. Gwen thinks it's so fun that Drake is now old enough to actually play with. And no one can make him laugh harder than his sister!

General Conference

This weekend is General Conference, and boy have I been needing it!

So Saturday I'll shirk my chores, and I'll create an extended Sunday.

Hopefully we will have the spirit in our home all weekend!

Patient Drake

Sweet Drake is so patient with me! Every morning while I'm getting ready, I put him in his jumper to jump around while I get dressed and make my bed. As soon as he get's in it, he's jumping like crazy! He's just so happy to be using his little legs, he gets so much height. By the time I get out of the shower, he's not getting so much height. By the time my hair's dry and I'm dresses, he's jumping just every now and then, then by the time I get the bed made, he's just hanging there watching me, ready to get out and have me hold him again. But I must have taken an extra long shower today, because when I got out, he was just passed out in his jumper.

Miss Independent

I can't think of a better way to describe Gwen's stage right now than "Miss Independent"!!

She's just a riot, everything she has to do by herself.

Her common phrases are "No, I do it!", and

"I do it myself" / "I did it myself!"

But today I just had to laugh when she came to me in the kitchen and says,

"mom, I put my shirt on, and I put my pants on,

and I put my seat belt on,

and I got water in my cup all by myself! BONES!"

And then she stuck out her fist for me to pound it,

and she blew it up after wards!!!!! It was so funny!

It's crazy how much this little one picks up just from watching others!

Now Gwen loves to do "bones". It's how she says good job!

St. Patty's day wedding!

Eli and Jessylee were married Saturday, and had a cute Saint Patrick's wedding! For the reheresal dinner, we ate at the Landmark, and Gwen got a steak-that she almost ate the whole thing by herself! After a while, she didn't even bother with the pieces that I had cut up for her to eat with her fork, and just picked up the steak with her hands, and just chowed down! She loves her some bovine!

Drake and Jack so handsome on the dance floor. They had the cutest matching green and white seersucker pants ever! All the ladies wanted to dance with them! And how lame am I? I don't even have a picture of the bride and groom! Our camera batteries died, so that's our excuse. We did however manage to get one more picture of dirty Gwen playing with the swings. She was in total awe of how pretty Jessylee was in her wedding dress, and was sure to tell people that she had Ariel's wedding dress at home!

lovely lippy!

While I was out today, Ryan said that Gwen was in our room for not even five minutes, but she was being very quiet. A quiet two year old that's not sleeping (we have found) equals trouble. So Ryan went in to check on her, and found her digging around in my makeup drawer. When she turned around, he found out the reason for her silence.....lipstick! Isn't she so pretty? And she looks just like Cinerella since she's wearing "Cinderella's makeup".

Crazy Gwennybum!

My Gwenny is such a silly girl! If she's been quiet, I can usually find her at the top of the stairs, quietly playing, with the laundry basket turned on top of her! Sometimes she brings her princesses in with her for company, but other times she's just playing kitty. I can promise you though, we don't keep the kitty locked up under the laundry basket. This morning, after my shower, I came out to find her under the laundry basket, and she somehow got one of her blankets to cover the laundry basket and was inside asleep. Kind of like a caged bird-you cover it with a blanket, and it goes to sleep. Drake has fun just watching his sister being silly.

Sweet Gwen and Drake

Drake is so stinkin' cute! He's been fussy and snotty for the last three days, and even though all signs point to teeth, I don't see anything even getting close to the surface in there. But even though I know he's not feeling well, I can tell he's still trying to be his sweet self. I just love how you can see his hair is finally coming in in this picture.
Gwen is our little morning sunshine! She likes to take the books from her room and stack them on top of each other to make "stairs" up onto our bed. Then she climbs up on to the bed and likes to roll around in our sheets and cuddle with us and Drake. I love our cuddly, family in bed mornings!