hilton crazy land

to celebrate 9 (yes, nine!) years of wedded bliss, and miss marin turning 2 (yes, two!) we headed over to the Hilton for a weekend of crazy craziness. here is the thing, the Hilton is nutso crazy land. it is like a mix of Vegas and Disney Land and a splash of SeaWorld. it takes 5 years to walk anywhere, which is why there is a train and a boat to shuttle you around. if you are only there for a weekend you feel like you can't spend more than 20 minutes at the same spot, or you wont have time to see everything. it is exhausting. but is was so so SO much crazy fun.

 

we promised c we would pick him up from school early to get a head start on the drive. by the time we were ready to leave it was only a half an hour early, but he thought it was like half a day. and then he and m both crashed out. look how they are twinsie car nappers.

 



this was the only time m would let us carry her. the rest of the trip was spent listening to her say, "no! i do it!" she insisted on stopping and pointing and asking, "what that mama?" to everything single thing in the history of the Hilton. making the journey anywhere take about 3 extra years.

 

but we managed to hit the pool before dinner! 

 

and i wrestled her onto my back once it got dark.

another day pool hopping. and hopping. and hopping. 

 

 

 

some boat riding.

 

some train riding.

 

some night time cuteness.

 

and some exhausted thelen's heading home.

oranges

since we live right by coen's school we walk to and from school everyday. this means that we have come to be friends with the school crossing guard. he is a delightful man, but we don't even know his name. shameful. marin thinks that "uncle" lives on the corner next to the crosswalk, and she gets so worried about him when he isn't there at non-school times. "uh, oh! where uncle go?!" occasionally he has brought us oranges from his orange tree. they are the sweetest, yummiest oranges you ever did eat. one saturday morning i pulled out the juicing thing-a-ma-thing and put coen to work. we slurped up every last drop of that fresh coen squeezed orange juice. thanks, uncle! (and coen!) 

 

go, green snakes!

saturday morning coen had a 9am soccer game. cruel! 9am the morning after halloween!?  the boys  were all happy, but they weren't running very fast. it was also our team's end of season potluck and  it was also our week for snack duty. so i was once again up early peeling clementine's for the 500th time in the past 2 days. on a side note, peeling oranges and drinking coffee isn't the worst way to start the morning. it's quite refreshing. anyway, wes was the coach for the "green snakes" this season. it was a lot of fun, and we enjoyed meeting new families. coen enjoyed having wes as a coach, and i think wes even had a bit of fun too.

 

go, green snakes! 

 

 tunnel!

 

potluck and trophies!

go, coen! 

go, noah lee! 

 

go, hilo!

 

go, noah m!

 

great season, snakes! (missing kolten. he's in disneyland!)

 

oh...and more sugar. because why not?

happy halloween!

other than all the obvious reasons that it is super cool to have an almost halloween birthday, i think that it totally rocks to wake up the day after your birthday and it's like the party never stopped. it's just oh, hey there, let's keep this party going. we were all a bit tired from our crazy night with the loewen's, but it was halloween! so we rallied, and we had a fabulous day.

we took all the fixings to school for coen's class to make banana ghosts and clementine pumpkins.

marin and her birthday balloon watched some halloween dora. 

i took this little fishy to coen's school for picnic lunch. the big kids LOVED her. it was so sweet to see them include her on the playground. 

no party this year. none. except maybe we should have a couple friends over. just a couple. and maybe a few more. and. and. and. it's not a party, it's a get-together. okay, fine. it was a party. a mini-party. and it was fuuuuuuuuuun. 

these monsters terrify me. also, note marin's fake sneeze progression between the two pictures. she is so weird and funny. she fake sneezes at the most random times. it's like they are real sneezes, but they are not. 

hitting the streets. 

 

 marin owned it. she was like, here i got this. trick. or. treat. next.

it was so so so so so rainy. like POURING. you washington people would call it the pineapple express. we just call it rain. warm, down pouring rain. it did not stop our rainforest kids. they got drenched and they got candy. total win. we got them home and dry,  and in front of the tv with popcorn and a movie. total win. 

marin and sophie are quite the tech savvy girls. 

 

 

the next morning i looked up from the kitchen and saw this sweet little mummy looking at me. his room is a complete disaster in the background. evidence that lots of fun was had, and maybe a small-ish party.