They Did It!

I have been feeling like a really lame parent because I haven't been able to teach my kids how to ride a bike. But finally, they did it. Torsten somehow got over his fear of trying and basically hopped on the bike and started riding. Simon is unusually uncoordinated and it took him more time to get it, but after his brother started riding, he had more of an incentive to keep trying after each fall. And there were a lot of falls. But now they are enjoying some time outside riding bikes, which may make my no-TV-on-school-days rule less painful (for them and me).

New Addition to the Robinson Pet Farm

Meet Cornelius, the corn snake. I have been telling Steve and the boys no to a snake for years now. I finally gave in so that I could buy myself some more time before having to get another dog. This little guy is kind of cute because he is so small. But I am not going to have any part of the feeding. He eats a "gourmet rodent" about once a week. This "gourmet rodent" has no qualities that make it gourmet, except maybe its size. It is a tiny, innocent just-born mouse.


The boys are very excited about this new pet and want to hold him as soon as they get home from school. Simon held him a couple of days ago and got to experience the first poop, which managed to get on the carpet and on his face. Snake poop is more difficult to get out of the carpet than dog poop, so I hope that from now on he/she (because how do you tell the sex of a snake?) does its business inside of its home where someone else will be in charge of cleaning it.

That's it for today.

We are back at school and tired and busy. No time for blogging.

Buck Lake: last hike of the summer?

This one may have been our last hike for the summer. Now it is time to get back to work. But that doesn't mean we won't try to get in some fall hikes!

The boys and I went up to Buck lake in Hansville. There were some nice walking trails that led to a swampy area called the quiet place. We also took a short trail to the edge of the lake. There was no one else around that day so it was very quiet and peaceful. I think we ended up hiking about 2 miles. There were no hills on this hike, so it was very easy.
After the hike, we went to the beach at Point No Point. A little girl started talking to Torsten and asked him if she could help him dig a hole. He said ok, and then she started ordering him around. He was very nice and did everything she told him to.
There were a lot of people out fishing that day. I'm not sure what kind of fish they were looking for, but something in shallow water as most of them were just standing in the water along the beach. You can see them all along the beach in this picture:

Summer Hike #4 Guillemot Cove Nature Preserve

I can't believe I only did 4 hikes this summer! I had much higher expectations for myself. The truth is it was sometimes pretty hard to get the boys out of the house with me (and I'm including Steve in "the boys"). Today Steve was back to work, so I thought we better try to get at least one more hike in before school starts. I looked on the Kitsap County's website and found a hike at Guillemot Cove, way out at the end of Stavis Bay Road.

Length: 2.5 to 3 miles
Elevation Gain: all downhill on the way to the beach and all uphill on the way back.
Views: forest, beach
Wildlife: bugs, deer
Kids: generally happy, with a little whining on the uphill climb.

This is a very unique place. I tried to find some history on it, but failed. The hike is mostly wooded and is pretty typical for the Pacific Northwest--lots of trees, ferns, and other low shrubby bushes. It was downhill and quite steep in spots. When we got to the bottom of the hill, we came across an old house. It was kind of creepy (especially since we seemed to be the only people around), not boarded up at all, but definitely abandoned.
Not sure why they left the beds, but that really upped the creep factor.
There was another house down at the beach, this time all boarded up. The boys stopped for some lunch, then went out to look under rocks and climb on an old tree trunk in the water. They got their feet all wet, of course, which probably made the hike back to the car less comfortable.
The Kitsap website said that this park had restrooms. Obviously Kitsap County and I have a different definition of what constitutes a restroom as this is the only thing we found that remotely resembled restrooms.
The boys chose to pee on the trail as we were the only ones there. I waited until we got to Target. Simon let me take a few pictures of him while we were at the beach house; Torsten did not.
We explored a little more, found an old barn, then headed back to the car via the access road.
Simon trailed a little behind Torsten and me and whined that his legs hurt and we were going too fast.
Later we found out that we missed seeing the stump house, a house that is made out of a huge tree stump and apparently was once used as a hideout for a criminal. I'm kind of bummed. I guess we might have to go back some time.

Simon's Bold New Room

Simon is braver than I am when it comes to color. We've been living in this house for five years and haven't even attempted to paint or decorate any rooms. But Simon wanted to do something with his. He told me he was too grown up for his bug themed comforter, so we headed out to IKEA for some new stuff. Simon also needed a new dresser and nightstand, so we picked up those as well. Then we went to Home Depot and let Simon pick out his own paint color. The result is pretty bright, but he seems to like it.

He's No Ichiro

When they announce the Mariner's in batting order at the games, the crowd always cheers louder for Griffey than for Ichiro. I get a little disappointed with the fans when that happens. I like Griffey (we did go to the game to get his bobblehead and he hit a homerun for us), but let's show some love for the guy who's been a loyal player, who could play for team that actually makes it to the playoffs or even the World Series.

We made it to the game on Friday just in time to get our bobbleheads. Safeco opened earlier than stated on the website and we heard they ran out of bobbleheads shortly after we arrived. It's a good thing we took the earlier ferry (one boat earlier than we took to get Ichiro bobbleheads).

The boys wanted to get food right away. Simon got some chicken tenders for $10. Seriously, $10 for chicken tenders! Shortly after getting them he was being his usual clumsy self and dumped it upside down on the ground. He started picking it up and eating it, and I said, "Oh, but it's all dirty now." He replied, "That's ok, I'll eat it anyway." Am I a bad mother that I didn't want to spend another $10 on chicken tenders and just let him eat it off the ground?

Once we made it to our seats, we found out that we weren't the only people to have tickets for those seats. They ended up moving us, because we were in wheelchair section and didn't need to be whereas the other group had one person in a wheelchair. It worked out well for us as we ended up with better seats.

Not only is the food expensive at Safeco, drink prices are ridiculous. You can't bring drinks in, and after dinner and popcorn those boys were thirsty. I bought two bottles of lemonade and a bottle of water for $13. I could get over 100 water bottles at Costco for that price. There's a reason we can't go to more games. Torsten tried to help out by buying his own dippin' dots, but then Simon who had no money of his own insisted that he needed ice cream too. That's was another $5 for a single scoop of vanilla. It all added up to a pretty expensive day, but I guess it's not as bad as other parks in the country. There is a reason that when the Red Sox come to Seattle half the crowd is dressed in red (I think it might be cheaper to fly here from Boston for the weekend than buy seats at Fenway).

We had to leave early to catch the ferry, but the Mariners did win. They won last time we came to a game as well. In fact, I think the M's have won all the games we've been to in the last couple of years. Maybe we bring good luck with us. Too bad we can't bring it a little more often.

And not totally unrelated, here's a funny picture of Ichiro when he met Obama. He has such a goofy grin on his face it makes me laugh.

This weekend we had to say goodbye to our first baby, Zeus. He had a lot of health problems that kept getting worse each day. We hated seeing him sitting around the house in pain, waiting to be carried up and down the stairs, and being heavily drugged so that he could walk. We had a good twelve years together and we will miss him.

He was a good travel companion and came with us to St. George and Cannon Beach several times.


He tolerated our two kids, and even let them cuddle once in a while:

He watched over our other pets:

He joined in for games in the backyard:

He slept in the sun and didn't even complain that we weren't taking him for a walk instead:

He licked the glass on the back door when he was ready to eat his dinner:

He took an interest in what the boys were getting for Christmas (after all, it could make good chewing material):

He eagerly awaited the opportunity to clean up anything I might have accidentally dropped on the kitchen floor (such a good helper):

And he slept with one eye open so he could make sure that we stayed close by:

We love you Zeus!