Spencer's Prom

This was Spencer's actual date for Prom, Jesse Murray.  Spencer says they didn't actually spend much time together that night.  Kids are weird that way these days.

 This is Spencer with his good friend Stephanie that he has known since elementary school.  They have been in cross country together all for years of high school.

 Spencer with his usual photo pose - mouth open.  He's with Jesse & Cailey.

 Spencer & Cailey again and his usual photo pose.

 Spencer with Jesse.  It is a really nice photo I think.  Turned out really well.

 Not sure who the first girl is in the I Dream of Jeannie out fit, but the 2nd one is Stephanie, then Jesse and another friend, Natalie that he has known since elementary school

He had a great time that night I think!

All these kids went to elementary school together and were together for prom night.  Imani, Claudia, Morris, Gail, Max, Sophie, Peter, Bev, Sean, Shelby, Tanner, Gail, Mark, Stephanie, Spencer & Carissa.  All grown up now.

Prom & Other Stuff

So I  know this first shot looks like a jail mug shot, what with the wifebeater t-shirt and all, but it was a big day at the Chandler home about a month ago when Tucker got his acceptance letter to WSU (Washington State University).  At the time he wasn't 100% sure he wanted to go there.  He was still holding out for maybe the UW (the only 2 schools he applied).  Then he learned that the UW wouldn't announce which transfer students they had accepted until June 1!  Crazy.  He decided that he would go to Wazzu.  He is all set up to go in August.  He and a friend who is already going there are going to share a furnished apartment.  He has already signed up for classes and is hoping to get a job working in a chemistry lab.  

 Yes, Tucker is finally headed to college.  He plans to major in Biochemistry and Biogenetics!  Crazy.  Who would have thought.  Spencer also got accepted into several colleges - Marymount Manhattan, University of Hawaii, WSU and Wester Washington University.  He had thought that he would go to Western and we visited it twice to check things out.  But financially it makes more sense for him to do one more year of community college before heading off to a 4 year school.  He will be staying with us and switching from North Seattle CC to Central Community College which is right in downtown Seattle.  He wants to major in Graphic Design.

 So both boys will be in college next year!  It is good that Tucker is finally heading out on his own and I am happy to have Spencer for one more year at least!

 Cooper made the varsity soccer team for Whitman Middle School.  He was hoping to be the goalie but was beaten out by a pair of brothers.  He could have played goalie for the JV, but opted to play defense for the varsity.  It has been fun for him.

 Though I have to say he is the smelliest kid ever.  His shinguards could cause a person to pass out!  If you put them in combination with goalie gloves it would be lethal!  He love soccer and is hoping to try out for the Ballard team when he gets to high school.  We will see if he makes it.  It's hard for kids who don't play select soccer to compete with those who do.

 Spencer is off to his senior prom tonight.  He did not rent a tux but bought himself his first suite.  It's the new skinny style suite which he can pull off cuz he is skinny.  Though it kind of emphasizes his feet I think.

 This is Spencer with his friend Cailey.  She is not his date, he invited a girl named Jessie.  Spencer & Cailey have been friends since middle school and she works at the same place and he & Tucker.  She is a sweet girl whom I have loved since middle school.  She has had a tough situation in her life.  Her mother abandoned their family when she was little and her dad has been raising her, her older sister & younger brother on his own--the best he could.  I have always liked her.

 I don't have any pictures of Spencer and his date because Cailey and her date picked him up to take him to the place where they were having dinner before the dance.  They were taking pictures there so I hope I will get some of those.

 So that is what's going on with us these days.

Whatnot

This post is for Celiac because I know how much she loves to know what is going on with all of us and she is not on Facebook (not that I am recommending that she should--I am only on it now so I can play Scrabble with Crazy--otherwise I think I would totally give it up, it's the new Spam outlet of the internet.  It replaced email as the forward all for spam...but I digress).    So these first few pictures are from Christmas (and yes, I know it is now March).  I got all the boys head lamps for their stockings and of course they all did the same thing with them....

 Notices that Spencer's is a different color and on a different eye.  Actually I won them at work and they turned out perfect as stocking stuffers because there were three of them. 

 More of the head lamp/eye patch complete with Jester hat.

 So most definitely this is not the best photos of Dennis & I, especially the slice of light from the window cutting across my head and cutting into Dennis's ear, but I include it because to me I look like this perfect juxtaposition of mom and dad on my face.  The bottom half of my face is dad (dare I say even Grandma Vadenesque--though the thought causes a shudder) and the top half, particularly the right side, is mom.  Perhaps I am imagining it, but that's what I see.

 Cooper has grown a solid inch since this picture was taken at Christmas time.  He is a whopping 5'9" and still growing.  I took him to the doctor last week and she said he is still tracking, as he has since he was a baby, in the 95th percentile for height and weight!  He is going to be a bruiser.  However, recently when I commented as his brothers were giving him a hard time that they better watch out because he would be bigger than them and could beat the crap out of them, his response was "But mom, it's just not in my nature."  Truer words were never uttered.  He is a sweet happy-go-lucky boy. In just the past couple weeks I have had several of his teachers (current & past) comment what a great kid he is.  We love our Cooper.

 Tucker considers himself quite the hunter now.  He got a shot gun for Christmas and has been pheasant hunting twice now, ergo that makes him a hunter.   It's actually quite hilarious.  To hear him you'd think he'd been doing it since he was a wee lad.   Funny kid.

 Ah Spencer.  Always the camera ham, boy with the snarky comment and the stylish sense of fashion.  He has applied for 5 colleges and been accepted into 4 of them.  He wanted to go to Marymont Manhatten in NYC which he has finally given up on due to $$$ and his mom saying it was too far away.  He is currently hoping to attend Western Washington in Bellingham in the fall.  He still has to convince his dad that he can afford it but it seems reachable.  We took a tour over the mid-winter break from school and the campus is very nice and more cozy, friendly than UW.   Final decision to be continued...

 Another cyclops man photo.  Cooper is also sporting the new comforter he got for Christmas.  Which comes in handy now that his "bedroom" has moved downstairs in the family room.  Spencer had been complaining that Cooper's snoring was keeping him awake (and he does saw some pretty loud logs...ala his two grandfathers).  He had been sleeping on the sofa in the family room periodically and then we finally just decided to make it permanent and moved his bed down there.  He has his man cave with TV/video games and Spencer finally has his own room.  Everyone is happier.

 These following pictures are the "Popeye" arm photos from Dennis' elbow surgery in February.  He had this surgery about 15 years ago because of loose cartilage floating in his elbow was making it so his elbow wouldn't been fully extend.  So he started having the same issues again recently so he went to surgeon and ended up having surgery again.  He has a little arthritis in the elbow and some bone spurs as well as cartilage floating in there.  So when it was done he sported this ACE bandage for about four days. 

 This butterscotch pie is what I made for Tucker's recent 22nd birthday.  Wrong order, the uncovered one should be first, the 2nd one is after the meringue.  Best meringue I have ever made.  Even stayed fluffy until the next day.

So that is the whatnot that has been going on at the Chandler house recently

Holy Cow Cooper is 14!

We don't know how it happened, but Cooper is 14!  We celebrated his birthday primarily on Sunday, the day after.  On Saturday, his actual birhtday he had a couple of friends over and we took them to see the movie Catching Fire--which was pretty awesome and a good book to movie translation.  The boys liked it quite a bit!

 As you can see Oma (and Opa) came over to celebrate it.  I included this first picture because of the face Spencer is making in the background.  It looks like the candle is on the pie (butterscotch of course because that's the new birthday favorite for all the boys), it's actually on a cupcake next to the pie.

 Included this picture because Cooper's face is, well Cooper.  He is always making goofy faces.

 Cooper wanted a soccer jersey so that is what we got him.  Buffon is a goalie just like Coop. Back view.

 Front view.  Can you believe how big he is!  I am amazed every day at how grown up he is.  He is still my happy-go-lucky boy and so fun to have around.  He makes us laugh all the time and brings alot of joy to our family.  Dennis says he's the best "mistake" he ever made!  We love him so much and are so lucky to have him in our family!

So this last picture of this awesome Minestrone soup that we have started making.  I love it!  We have it almost every week.  It is soooo yummy.  It's primarily veggies with some beans thrown in for protein.  It makes this huge batch so then I have soup to take to work for lunch every day.  Love it.

Goalie Man!

All three of the boys have played soccer since they were about 6 years old.  Tucker played a little in high school and Spencer gave it up in middle school for running (good decision for him.  Cooper has also followed in his brother's footsteps with soccer.  When he was really little (back when the kids clumped around the ball like a hoard of bees) he loved to play goalie and was pretty good at it.

When he started playing for his second team he mostly played defense and was not put in as goalie for a few years.  (I don't think the coach realized he was a goalie).  Then about 3 years ago the coach started playing his as goalie and I sent him to a few goalie camps during the summer and spring break.  And next thing you know, we had a real goalie in the family!

 I have not been to alot of his games this year (because they have been on Sunday*) and I keep forgetting to have Dennis take the camera.  These pictures are courtesy of one of the other players' mom.  As you can see, he is willing to sacrifice himself for a save.

He hopes to try out for the Ballard team next year.  His coach says he is one of the best goalies in the league we are in (some of the opposing players he goes to school with have also said the same) and is encouraging him to tryout.    He does a great job and is fun to watch.

*Lest you think I let him off the hook for church he had to go to one of the other wards and his dad took him and went to sacrament meeting--so it actually had an added bonus.  Though Sunday games are done for the season and we are in the playoffs now so we will have to think of some other reason for Dennis to come to church.  :-)

Fall 2013

 Thought it was about time I did a new post.  Every year Dennis likes to go over to eastern Washington at least once to go hunting with his good friend Bill Guido.  This year was no exception.  After spending a couple Saturdays at hunter safety Cooper was able to go as well.  This first picture is a little weird because the camera was on the ground, but it has Bill in it so that's nice.

 Tucker got 2 1/2 birds and Cooper got 1 1/2 (they each shot at the same bird and Dennis said he couldn't tell who actually got it so they each got a 1/2).  The hunting dog is named Sandy (Bill as three now but one of them is pretty old and no longer hunts and the other is brand new so is a dog-in-training).

Tucker was talking about the hunting trip to some friends at college and some lady overheard him.  After class she came up to him and said, "You know you are a murderer don't you?"  I also mentioned it at church to someone and she got all concerned and later came up to me to make sure the ate what they hunted.  Crazy.   A different mindset for sure.

Bittersweet, but this is Spencer's last year in Cross Country (at least for high school--who knows if he will join a group in college or not).  After spending most of last year injured, he was hoping to beat his fastest time from last year.

 I made a point to attend several of his meets this year.  These next pictures of from my favorite one.  September 28, the Bellevue Invitational.  It was raining the proverbial cats & dogs (with some rats thrown in).  On the way over to the east side I had my wipers going full blast and still could barely see--actually sometimes I really couldn't.  It was kind of scary.  At the meet which was in Lake Sammamish State Park there was standing water everywhere up over your ankles!  It was crazy.  So here is a few shots from that meet because it was so crazy.  It shows that nothing stops a cross country race!

I included this next picture because I really like the kid running next to Spencer.  His name is Sean and despite the full beard, he is just a senior like Spencer.  Spencer took his senior pictures and they were hilarious, original and unique--just like him.  He sported the full beard the whole season until the very last meet.

I included this next picture because…well look at the caption below the picture.

The Four Horsemen 

 So every team has some type of chant or yell they do before the race starts.  Ballard's team gets in a big circle and links arms.  The team captains (one of which was Spencer this year) get in the middle and start the chant.  "To the boats..to the boats…to the boats….a bunch of other stuff" and then a big roar.  Don't ask me what "To the boats" means I have no idea and neither do any of the kids on the team, because I have asked.

And yes, the really itty, bitty kid in their circle is in high school.  He is shorter than some of our 6th graders at the middle school.  He looks like he is about a 3rd grader--but he is one of the faster boys on the team--he beat Spencer a few times this season!  

Sadly Spencer didn't beat his fastest time ever from last year (18:34) but he came close at 18:37 which is pretty smokin' for 3.2 miles I'd say.  A good finish to his XC career at Ballard.

Summer 2013

So we did do a few other things this summer besides going to Puerto Rico.  We hiked up Rattlesnake Ridge in Snoqualmie Pass with our friends the Roches'.  They get props for making the hike even after realizing they had left their baby backpack at home and therefore had to carry baby Zora all the way up.

 It was only 2 miles up so it wasn't too awful, but still carrying a baby all that way is not easy.  Apologies to Steph who would totally hate that I published this picture of her!

 Our ward had a campout in July and Spencer, Cooper and I went.  It was in a big meadow next to a river somewhere north of here.  This was a swing that the little kids who came later had lots of fun with.  This is Spencer & Cooper warming it up so they could push the little kids later--they were very popular with all the little kids.

 Spencer tried out his golfing skills in the meadow because some friends brought wiffle golf balls.  Needless to say there is a reason he has not taken up golf with us!

 The annual Vaden family camping trip to Alturas was also awesome.  The kids loved the opportunity to ride the four wheelers.

 The Archie McPhee assortment of false teeth that were given out as "prizes" were a big hit with everyone who got a set.  Including Spencer.

 And Truman also sporting some groovy glasses which I think were also purchased at Archie McPhees.

 Desi & Spencer are definitely related as you can see here.  The family resemblance is uncanny.

 Here's Dennis sporting the shade hat that I got as a prize.

 Cooper and Truman giving some love.

 Zen doodling was enjoyed by many.  Including Sarah.

 Bryleigh made here Vaden family debut.

 Payton was one of my personal favorites cuz she would let me cuddle with her!

 James doing some doodling of his own.

 Leah got into doodling as well.

 Little Vaden was mobile this year.

 The line-up to take the small fourwheeler out was evercircling.

 Randy had the tough job of monitoring the four wheeler line.  I don't think he actually had to move from the chair too often.

 Cooper looks forward to going out on the four wheelers every year and especially enjoys it now that he can go out on his own.

 Last adventure of the summer is beach camping at Twin Harbors State park near "always sunny" (not) Westport, WA.  This year Cooper invited his friend Jack along.  They had a great time and spent alot of time in the water.  We got lucky this year and had pretty decent weather both Friday and Saturday afternoon.

 Tucker was able to come with us this year, but I don't think he even dipped his toes in the water.  He did enjoy sitting at the beach though.

 Actually the whole Chandler clan made it this year (except Dwight & Kathy) who gave up on camping about three years ago.  It was fun to have all the Chandler cousins together.  They have a great time together.

 The Chandler cousins also bring along friends.  Heidi (left, next to Spencer) has been twice and Kailey (in black next to Emma) has been five or six times and is considered one of the family now.

 Heidi was a good sport and let the gang bury her in true Ursula style.  It was a great weekend and a fun cap to the summer.