Seattle-ish with the Smiths (including crab poaching! We are rebels.) Aug 2011

Since my sis, Erin, and her family now live close to Seattle, too, we get a chance to hang out with them on our visit to Z's fam. They live in Snoqualmie, a beautiful area. Rob put his boating skills to great use and rented one to take us out crabbing while we were there. Apparently (and I cannot believe Erin has not blogged about this!), their first crabbing adventure consisted of all six of them on an inflatable raft. Rob on one side, Erin and the kids on the other. It was actually quite a funny story, and Erin! You should record/share it! We are all now waiting expectantly... Aislinn especially, because she's getting antsy on bedrest and needs entertainment. Do your duty!

Waiting for the Smiths to show up... They were a smidge later than us, but they brought tons of yummy food, so it was well worth it. ;)

Going through the locks. I'm not actually hitchhiking, despite how it looks.

Maeve and Aoife loved hanging out on the sides. Aoife's not in this pic, but just imagine TWO cute little 18-month olds.

Here's Erin, making sure everyone stays in the boat.

In the little cabin... it was not a warm Seattle summer. Once Rob got going fast, it was pretty chilly up top. And actually the kiddos stayed out on the front most of the time, but they had fun checking out the cabin, too. Aoife's conked out there on E's lap.

Crabbing! It was fun pulling up the crabs, though I felt badly for the ones that didn't get to be thrown back. Such is (their) life, I guess.

The kids loved touching them...all except for Bran. And poor Maeve slept through all the crabbing! I think she would have really enjoyed it. But Bran... he would scream all high-pitchedly if one started even scuttling maaaybe in his direction after they were dumped out of the cage. I'm pretty sure he would have jumped overboard if one actually cornered him. Kinda funny, because he likes catching crawdads and stuff, but the crabs totally freaked him out.

And, then... this boat came and started pulling up our traps! Oh, the nerve! Erin was ultra-ticked. Sneaky fellas, though. They're not "Research," unless you count them as researching for the authorities, because that's what they were. The police.

Apparently the day we went (Wed., I think?) was only for Native Americans to go crabbing. We, not being Native Americans, were (gasp!) POACHING. However, the really nice water cops saw how none of us really had any clue and/or were charmed by the oodles of children on board and just gave us a warning. They even posed nicely when I asked if I could take their pic. AND, they let us keep the six crabs we'd already caught. It was pretty funny. Really, though, don't you think the guy who sold Z the licenses the previous day shoulda known the rules? Or the salty old boat renter, who saw Rob bringing on all those traps? That little caveat wasn't in the little license pamphlet thing we got...

So, we bagged that activity and broke out the tube.

Smart Liam, he ducked that noggin of his right down in there.

The water was freeeeezing, but Liam decided to jump in and swim to the boat, so Bran had to follow his cool 7-year old cousin, too. He was a bit chilly, but very pleased with himself.

Then Erin and I got to take Aoife and Maeve. Haha... ha. They really did not enjoy it. And we weren't even going fast! I think they didn't like the frigid spray right in their faces. This is the "before" pic, and I just don't feel right about posting the "after" pic. Not because of the pitiful, shell-shocked babies (Aoife has a very blank, wet look on her face, with her paci planted firmly in her mouth: "just keep sucking..."), but because the chilliness in the air is well-documented by someone's chest. Also, we didn't wear life jackets. Big FAIL. Erin and I even went by ourselves after this, and we like a lotta speed, and in the middle of that ride, it hit me that we did NOT have life jackets on. We'll be smarter next time. We just forgot. Anyway, we all survived, and the day was a lot of fun. Let me document, though, the little "hiccups" of the excursion:

1. On our way through the locks, Rob got chastised for running a red light. Maybe it was red, maybe it wasn't...

2. We bottomed out on a big rock. Nuala fell off her perch and cut her knee, screaming so much and so loudly that I about had a heart attack (I was in the back and could not see her in the front, but Z was up there), because, honest-to-goodness, I irrationally thought that she had somehow managed to get sliced by the propellor. How that would have happened, I have no clue, but my mind had my heart convinced of it. Or the other way around.

3. We became poachers. (I'm not sure if you can tell, but I kinda get a kick out of that.)

4. Liam loved tubing so much that he asked to stay in the tube and just get towed back. Sure, we thought, why not? Well, because the water cops informed us that was illegal, also. I guess we were heading into an area of more traffic.

It was loads of fun! Loads. We ate those six crabs -- even I did! And I'm not a seafood lover. Or really even a liker. Fish is fine. Everything else... all those bug-like or squishy or slimy creatures... eh, no thanks. But the crab was good, for being, you know, crab.
We spent the night at the Smiths' that night, and played a lot in their super amazing castle that Rob and his dad built in their tall-ceilinged living room. That thing is awesome. Bran's peeking out of the top of it, there on the left.

The next day we went to a nearby park. Maeve almost never gets to ride in a stroller, poor deprived babe, so she had a blast in Aoife's. A let her have the REAL seat, and she perched on the back.

She kept grabbing M's hair. They were totally, TOTALLY adorable together.

See? Aoife is 4 days older than Maeve. M's lucky to have a bunch of little cousins just around her age!

Here A's letting M smell her flower. Such an intense moment that the paci even had to come out!

Nuala and Brigit, buds forever, playing on the swing.

This was funny! They were spelling their names with Scrabble tiles, and Brigie, who's 5, spelled "Pauline" for the two of them. They share that as their middle name (our mom's name), and I just LOVE how she spelled it: POLING.

Handsome fella Colin and Bran getting some quality iPad time in "together."

Brigie and Nuala going down the slide in the AWESOME castle. Look at the painting of the fire! There are all these little details inside the castle... this fire, little fairies all over, a DRAGON painted in the "dungeon"... it's really quite the playhouse. Rob's mom did the decorating, and Erin, too.

Bran standing in the top of the castle somewhere. Look at the cutout arrow slits! And the bannister to keep small knights and princesses from toppling all the way down!

An attempt at a good cousin pic. Eh, they're all facing the right direction...

Cute, cute, cute girls in the swing.

We went back to hang out with them on another day after the camping trip. Rob had a little contingent of cookie groupies hanging around...

A lot of playing was done on the trampoline. Erin's house backs right up to a world class golf course. On this day, there was big golf tournament going on... let me see if I can figure out which one... Okay, a google search tells me it was the Boeing Classic PGA tour... anyway, it was kinda cool, to have all that going on right behind us. There's just a low hedge separating the backyard from the green, and directly behind was a Dave's Barbeque tent, set up for the golfers. We got some free sandwiches, since apparently the people who live in the neighborhood qualify for free tickets, etc. It was neat.

Aoife was great at sharing her little car with Maeve. Look at her, showing Maeve the ropes! "This is the air conditioner... I'm not sure what that does..." (Hee hee, get it? Because you don't NEED it in Seattle?! I'm funny. But really, that was a chilly summer.)

Maeve was NOT so good about sharing it back.

Awwww, the adorableness made its way to the trampoline!

Oh! Here's the backyard/green shot. With the bbq. And Erin.

Nail painting!

Baby doll holding!

Sweet...

Popsicle eating! (Yes, ALL this was exciting, so the exclamation marks are necessary.)

Popsicle sharing! (Okay, really I like this pic because both their diapers are squishing out the same side of their shorts. People should really be on top of their kids' diapers. Nobody wants to see that.)

And we concluded our final visit with some Mexican food. ¡Olé! Aoife and Maeve qualified for a free plate of rice and beans. Yay for under-3s!

Goodbye, Erin, Rob, Liam, Brigit, Colin, and Aoife! Thank you for a great time and we love y'all lots! See ya next year!! :)