Rained Out!

The planned hike with the Yamane family was officially cancelled this morning. The executive decision to meet for a playdate and eat our picnic lunch at their house was the final outcome. You would have thought it was monsoon season out their today and hiking with 3 kids under 6 was out of the question. I guess our trip to the fair may have really been the official end of summer. Will the sun return this week???

Evergreen State Fair 2008

For the fifth straight year the Henderson family realized the official end of summer by taking in all the Evergreen State Fair had to offer on Friday. Avery and Neil started the day by taking their rocker photo just inside the entrance. While it may look like the fair is just rides and food by our photos, our day was filled with a variety of exhibits and activities. We started the day a little after 10:00 by visiting the animal barns. We saw pigs, goats, cows, zebras(yes zebras???), chickens, pigeons, rabbits, ducks, and much more. By 11:00 it was time for rides. Avery washed her hands(can't be too careful), got her ride bracelet, and off we went.

Avery's first and favorite ride from years past...
The Shrek play house.
Climb the rope ladder,
down the bouncy slide, up the stairs,
across the suspension bridges, down the slide, repeat.








Avery went from ride to ride making good use of her unlimited ride bracelet. By 12:30 the next ride she wanted to go on was the food ride. With all of the fair food to choose from it was a difficult choice. We had already enjoyed a fair scone when we arrived. What would be for lunch?








The answer...CHICKEN NUGGETS!!! While Neil and Shelly enjoyed BBQ Beef Sandwiches from the Shriner's Booth, Avery found the Everything Chicken Booth and could not resist her old standby. She top it off with a Mango Lemonade and was ready to move on. We were suckered by an empty kiosk to put in fair rewards card. One of the many coupons it gives you is an entry for $500 in groceries if you buy a $5 lottery scratch ticket. We bought one. We did not win the groceries but we won $50 on the ticket!



What does Avery like more than rides at any fair? FACE PAINTING!!!!! Avery had to get this rainbow heart before she would agree to look at all the junk the fair had for sale. Windows, siding, shammys, socks, knives, cook sets, glasses, jewelry, clothing, cleaners...You name it, they were selling it. After passing through the first junk area under the grandstands we made our way to the horse barns. Avery loves the horses. After seeing the Clydesdales we were relieved to not have to answer the question..."Why do some of the horses look like they have a third hind leg?"

We stopped for a pony ride on the way to the second junk area. What a racket. Pay $6 and ride in a circle for a couple minutes. The kids just love it. After the ride Avery got a mint chip ice cream cone and we ventured through the second junk area.. 4H barns were our last stop. Dogs, Cats, crafts, pictures, clothing, food, and flower exhibits. There was still more to see but with an hour left we had promised Avery that we would end the day the way we started....RIDES!




Avery hit all of her favorite rides a couple more times and ended the day with several solo trips down the big slide.

Dad Rocks!!!!!

In a feat usually reserved for a teenage boy with too much time on his hands, Neil entertained a capacity crowd of Shelly and Avery by completing Guitar Hero III in medium mode tonight. After finally beating "Raining Blood" and "Knights of Cydonia", it took two trys to win the final battle playing the song "Devil Went Down to Georgia". With Easy and Medium modes now completed, Hard and Expert modes still remain. Will he conquer those as well??? Only time will tell...

Happy 80th Birthday

Grandma Hennessey turned 80 this week and all
the relatives gathered to celebrate her birthday on Sunday. Avery and Sofia took a moment out of their playtime for a brief photo with Great Grandma and Baby Jesse.

After a great BBQ, we all sang happy birthday and it was time for cake. One minor problem. Costco left out an "i" leaving the cake to say Happy 80th Birthday Virgnia Rose. Oh well, I guess there could be worse misspellings of the name Virginia.

Staying Cool

No neighbor kids home today so it was up to the family to stay cool together. After lot's of running around town it was time to cool off prior to dinner...

Chloe found a chair in the shade and was not about to move for anyone.

We turned on the sprinklers and everyone raced through them.

Avery was the leader of the race begging mom and dad to try and catch her.

At the finish line dad and Avery gave their best pose for mom.

Uncle Nate came over for dinner and the Seahawks. After the first half it was time for a little Guitar Hero on the Wii.

Avery finished off the night with a couple poses in the moonlight and then it was time for everyone to go to bed.

Hottest Day Of The Year???

If you are a kid and it's supposed to be the hottest day of the year, what do you do to cool off?

The answer...

Grab the hose, some cups, find a few friends and let the dousing begin.

After some rock wall climbing at the gym and a trip with dad to get his haircut, Avery went next door with Ben, Jacob, and their cousin Alyssa.



Who's getting wet first????

The kids took turns with the hose and cups and chased the lucky person who's turn it was to get wet. Avery was bound and determined to pour these cups on someone.

You can't get away from me!

Avery's turn with the hose. Little did she know the boys knew how cut off her supply of water.


After a good soaking all the kids gladly accepted ice cream bars. Avery found a nice shady spot to enjoy hers and summoned everyone for a group photo.

Hey guys, over here!

Soaking wet and ice cream in hand. The perfect end to an afternoon of front yard fun.


But wait, there's more. Dad and Avery are off to family swim. Avery has work to do on her diving and flip turns for the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Value Shopping

After a morning at the gym, dad and Avery had to stop at Albertsons and take advantage of the frozen lunch deal. Lean Cuisine lunches are on sale this week for $1.88 with a max buy of 10. If you go through the self check it will print off a $2.00 coupon when you buy 6 as well(we got 2). We got ten lunches for $16.80 with the coupon. When we go back we will buy 6 for $9.28 and then 6 for $9.28 again. About $1.55 per lunch. Always looking for a deal.

Zumba

The latest craze to hit the gym circuit is a Latin infused dance/aerobics class called Zumba. At the beginning of the summer, my gym started offering the class during the day and it was a HUGE hit. To accommodate all of us "workers" they finally decided to offer Zumba in the evenings on a trial basis. I was a bit curious about this class so I decided to attend, along with 60-70 other women and 1 man. I felt like it was the first day of class, freshman year in college. As soon as I walked into the gym I had a flashback of walking into a large lecture hall that was filled with a zillion students, all of whom were excited and nervous for their first class. Imagine, walking in, trying to see if you know anyone in the class, finding the perfect seat . . . not too close to the front, yet far enough away that if you are screwing around no one will notice. Flash forward to Zumba class . . . same sort of experience, finding the perfect place, not too close to the front but far enough away that no one will notice how bad I am.

At the beginning of class, the VERY enthusiastic instructor claps her hands and expects everyone to copy her. It is a little like being in kindergarten, which I don't respond well too, but, everyone else seemed to go right along with the hand clapping. The instructor then goes on to tell us that she will not be using a microphone in the class. In fact, she will not be speaking during the class and you’ll have to watch her hands and feet to know what the next move will be. After hearing this, I think to myself, "WTF, I already HATE this class. I should just go home. How am I supposed to figure out all of these moves if the crazy woman doesn't use verbal clues to help us along?" Finally, after her announcement of the class rules and how many calories we were going to potentially burn--400-1000, (again like being in kindergarten) the music starts . . . My first thought is, "This is the kind of music that you listen to while drinking a foofie drink laying by the pool or on the beach. Oh how I wish I was doing that right now!" Instead of drinking by the pool, I begin to panic a bit . . . my body doesn't move like it used too, my hips don't move like they used either. I felt SO old!

I spent the next hour stumbling to keep up with the instructor, tripping, laughing and getting reacquainted with my rhythm. At the end of class I was so sweaty you would have thought that I took a shower with my clothes on. I was tired but a different tired than I am used to with kickboxing. Kickboxing kicks my butt. When I get home from kickboxing I am so drained that I hardly can move the rest of the night. After Zumba I felt more fluid and a bit refreshed. All-in-all it was and is a good workout. Last night was my third class; I am planning on continuing with the 60-70 other nuts! A little variety in my work out won't kill me!

School Shopping Weekend

Friday night Avery got her first dose of school clothes shopping. We made our way to Old Navy and took advantage of the 40% off kids sale and 20% off your entire bag coupon we had with us. Both dad and Avery made out like bandits but we were not done yet.



Saturday morning we were off to the Alderwood Mall to seek out more bargains. Avery got fitted for shoes at Nordstroms and then we went on the hunt for clothes. Avery and mom spent about an hour in the fitting room at Gap Kids. While dad shuttled new sizes and colors back and forth, Avery stockpiled a nice array of school outfits.




After all that, it was time for lunch. Nothing like a hard earned lunch at the mall food court. People watching, people watching, people watching. My only question is...Who tells these people that it is ok to go out in public wearing what they have on. (Must be getting old)


After lunch, Dad made a nice haul at Macy's and then it was time for shoes. Avery found shoes at Stride Rite while dad found shoes to his liking at Footlocker. Treat time! The allure of the Godiva Chocolate store could not be passed by. Each of us picked a chocolate delight and then we pressed on. One last pass through Nordstrom had mom picking up some make-up and a pair of boots.(Thank goodness she passed on the $495 pair)

After the day of school shopping Mom and Dad were able to drop Avery off for the night with Grandma, Gruncle and Uncle Nate. Two recommendations from our night out...

Dinner and a Movie--Don't miss out on the Carne Asada with shrimp, the best green beans ever, and mashed potatoes. Margaritas and Adam Corolla as The Hammer helped end an outstanding day.

Frogmore Stew/Shrimp Boil

I have received lots of questions about the "Frogmore Stew"/Shrimp Boil that is in one of our camping pictures from last weekend. This is truly one of our summer favorites. So, I have decided to post the recipe so you to can try it.

Frogmore Stew

3 quarts water

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon crushed red pepper (Use less if you don’t want it to be so spicy)

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons dried thyme

2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper

8 garlic cloves, peeled and mashed

4 bay leaves

2 (12-ounce) cans beer

1 medium onion, cut into 8 wedges

2 pounds small red potatoes, quartered

1 pound low-fat smoked sausage or low-fat kielbasa (such as Hillshire Farms), cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices

4 ears shucked corn, halved crosswise

2 pounds large shrimp, unpeeled


Preparation
Bring first 10 ingredients to a boil in an 8-quart stockpot. Add red potatoes; cook for 12 minutes. Add corn and sausage, and cook for 4 minutes. Add shrimp, and cook for 2 minutes or until shrimp are done. Drain and discard bay leaves.

Yield
8 servings (serving size: about 2 3/4 cups)

Nutritional Information
CALORIES 315(11% from fat); FAT 4g (sat 1g,mono 1g,poly 1.2g); IRON 5.2mg; CHOLESTEROL 184mg; CALCIUM 91mg; CARBOHYDRATE 38.2g; SODIUM 709mg; PROTEIN 31.5g; FIBER 3.6g

Cooking Light, Sept. 2006 edition

NNO in Lake Stevens

2nd Annual NNO (National Night Out) in Lake Stevens. Avery and I(Neil) passed on bbqing free hotdogs from Haggen at home for free hotdogs and chips at NNO. Not exactly Aquafest, but hey, it didn't cost anything.



We saw police and firemen, there were booths promoting kid safety, and many more. What did Avery really care about? You got it...the bouncy house.



After some jumping, we got our free meal and people watched from the hill.



After letting our food settle for the appropriate 30 minutes it was off to swimming. Crawlstroke, sidestroke, flipturns, and Avery's favorite the backstroke.



Avery finished off the evening with two dives (so quick even the camera couldn't keep up) and a jump and we were off for home.



A bath, a couple of episodes of Ice Road Truckers in fast forward (you have to love the DVR), the tail end of Wipeout and Mom getting back from her daytrip to LA signaled it was time for bed.

What could tomorrow possibly have in store for us??? I guess we will have to wait and see.

Oh to be a kid again!

As soon as Avery got home today she wanted to go outside and play in the water. I looked outside, she was trying to drink from the hose. It was kind of cute!

It's days like today that I get really mad at Neil that he gets to stay home and play in the sun.

Tomorrow, I will be flying to LA to pick up kids from camp . . . it is a long day but very rewarding to see how much fun the kids had and how life changing it was for them.

Camping with the Heaters

We had a fabulous weekend camping at the cabin on the Tahuya River with Ben, Maggie & Henry. When we were planning the trip Maggie and I decided that we should try to ride in one car. We all doubted that it could happen, but guess what, we all got in and even though it was cozy, it was a great ride!

Avery & Henry in the way back of the Durango

After a short adventure of looking for night crawlers/worms, we made it to the cabin. After unpacking and eating lunch, Ben, Neil, Avery and Henry took off on an adventure to scope out fishing holes.

Avery is scaring away all of the fish!

After everyone got back, we mixed up some yummy drinks and relaxed with the kids. Avery and Henry were having such a great time dancing that we all took turns dancing with them.

Avery & Henry's first slow dance

Super Maggie double dancing with the kids.

FINALLY, dinner was ready. We did are far share of consuming most everything insight the entire weekend. Everything was SO good! Maggie made some to-die-for cookies. I can't wait to make them myself.

Our famous Frogmore stew . . . . really it's just a shrimp boil.


Once we got the kids to bed we had a few more drinks and played games. Then we started to figure out what where we were all going to sleep. We pulled out the roll away beds and noticed that we had a very stinky dead mouse on one of the roll aways. YUCK, that is a smell that I do not want to smell every again in my life! Needless to say we immediately got rid of the mouse and that roll away spent the rest of the weekend outside. I slept on the couch, Neil slept on the clean roll-away, Ben on the futon and Maggie upstairs with the kids.




After we got up Saturday morning, the kids went outside to play and all of the sudden I hear Avery screaming that Henry has something to show us . . . .

Henry and his little friend.



Avery on her favorite swing

While Avery was on the swing Ben showed me the recent bear tracks . . . .

It rained the day before . . .these are fresh!


For our big trek of the day, we all headed down the river to fish.





Check out Ben's new fashion statement



We are roughing it in the sun!


Avery catching a fish!



Neil and Ben spent the rest of the day fishing with the Batman and Barbie poles while we took the kids to the park!



Ben says . . . I want to use the Barbie pole!!!

Maggie Lake


Brrr, it's cold!




Neil getting his first tattoo


Enjoying smores!

We can't wait to do it again next year! For more blogging about out trip go to http://heaterfamily3.blogspot.com