BIG!!! HUGE!!! SUPER BIG!!! We’re here! We’re finally on the boat.

BIG BOAT!

We had to wait forever though. Here’s the deal…I just turned three. I’m still working on self-control. Time means nothing…wait means nothing…be patient means nothing. So, I decided that while waiting in the BIG line for the BIG boat, I’d be as loud (BIG loud) as possible hoping to get us there faster. Seemed like a plan to me. It didn’t work. Instead, the angry eyes came out.   So I pretended I didn’t have any bones and fell to the floor. This made more angry eyes come out. When Momma asked me to stand up and use my listening ears to teach Lyla like a good BIG brother…I decided to be a puppy instead.   I jumped to my knees and hands and loudly told her, “I’m not a BIG brother, I’m a puppy! Woof woof!” I’ve never seen BIGGER angry eyes!!   Someone needs to work on that…and I don’t mean me.  

So where’s Alaska? Is this Alaska? Are we there? Are we there??!!! I was so excited I couldn’t even walk. I ran or jumped everywhere! Oh! Oh! The hall! It was so …so…BIG!! I could run and run and run and still not get to the end! And…and…and. Whew. It was exhausting and exciting at the same time. There HAD to be a place somewhere on this boat to hide Lyla!! Oooo…

So really, is this Alaska? Momma said not yet. She said we had to sleep first- that the sun would go to bed, and so would we, but there was plenty to do while we waited for Alaska!! She said we could explore the big boat, find where the stairs go, ride the elevators, look for the swimming pools, find the play room, see how much watermelon and salami there was to eat, take pictures…AAANND… she lost me.

She HAD to bring that up?? I suppose she was going to have her camera a lot. Oh well. There was too much to do to be upset. It seems that Papa, Daddy and Uncle Tim had their cameras too. I thought Momma carried hers a lot?! You should see Uncle Tim!! It must make him feel better, like my lovey blanket does for me.

For the rest of the day we ran, jumped, ran some more, ate, jumped, screamed, laughed, ran, played Legos (yay Uncle Tim!), sang, used those cameras (sigh), ran, ate some more, laughed some more, more Legos, jumped, used those cameras…again (BIG sigh), and finally got ready to sleep. The sun was up for a long time, so I got to stay up too!! That part was my idea!!  When I wake up we will be in Alaska!!! Now…where I can I hide Lyla?

It was such a BIG trip with BIG mountains, a BIG ship, BIG waves, BIG animals and BIG stories that it might take a BIG long time to tell you all about it. But I have to start somewhere. It. Was. SO COOL!!!!! It is the BIGGEST adventure of my life so far.

We started by car. Not a big car though…it felt small with all our stuff in it. And Lyla had to come too. And the cameras. Pfff…so it was Momma, Daddy, Lyla, and me. Because Momma and Daddy seem to be slow learners, and forgot about the LONG hours and our crying last summer on the road trip…they chose to drive all the way up to where we got on the BIG ship.  

We weren’t gone long before Lyla started puking everywhere. Don’t worry, she does it all the time. But it meant stopping the car a lot. And it meant BIG stink…everywhere. It was then that Momma and Daddy decided maybe they made the wrong choice to drive all this way!! BIG mistake??? Oh well…the adventure had started.   Besides, Momma wanted pictoos along the way.

We drove through BIG and medium states- California, Oregon and Washington. Of course, we had to stop all the time for pictoos, but whatever. I was super excited about the whole trip so I didn’t even mind. I even helped Momma find things. Trees, old buildings, cool clouds, cool painting, drawing and writing on walls, boats, bridges…all kinds of stuff. In Washington we got to see a BIG helper boat. It was a fireboat- a boat that helps firefighters, like a fire truck…but it was a boat!! I’ve never seen one of those before! It was red and big. But it wasn’t OUR boat. Not yet.

Tacoma Fire Boat

Tacoma Glass Sculptures

We saw water and different buildings, sand, glass thingies, bridges and trains. We walked and ran. We jumped. And we drove some more. Then we got to a place where we had to answer questions before we could drive more, a man looked in our car, and we had to show our pictoo books to the man. Momma and Daddy said I had to smile big and not talk. This was Canada, and we didn’t get in trouble! They even let us keep Lyla, even though she growled at them!  Oh well.

So we kept driving some more. Daddy said he had to get used to the numbers on the signs.   We pulled over more times for Lyla. And then… we finally saw our BIG ship..or boat…or ship, I can’t remember!! And Papa, Gram Spam, Uncle Tim, Auntie Kate, Auntie Kisstine, MoMo and Bookie were there too. Our BIG family was ready for the BIG boat adventure.  Alaska here we come!!!

**Momma’s Note:   For those of you close to me that may have heard these stories, or think you know what stories are about to come, go ahead and remove your eyebrows from your hairline, and just keep reading. This is the Nate-version, mostly. I used to worry about and discuss paradigm shifts, protocol, piano scales and proper pluralization. However, now is a time in my life where I worry about what bodily functions, fluids or body parts starting with a letter“p” that might be discussed by my two-year old with strangers at the market.  So, I can’t help but share this edited version and shake my head. This is my life. **

Puh-puh-puh …P! I know a lot of things that start with the letter p!!    Like the other day, I was digging for cat poop in our sand box so that it will be safe to play in.   I was digging, singing a song about digging, and I told Momma, “It sure is fun to dig for cat poop!   Hey! ‘Poop’ starts with the letter ‘p’ Momma!!”

She got one of her funny face looks, but then said while smiling, “Nate, that makes me strangely proud!” Puh-puh-puh…proud! Hey, she used a p-word! Wait…puh-puh-puh … “Hey! Momma! ‘Pee’ starts with a ‘p’ too!” With big eyes, her head shaking, and Lyla eating sand, Momma said, “Yes, Nate. It does. Can you think of other things or words that start with a puh-puh-puh p-sound?”

I thought. And I thought some more. “Car doesn’t. Dog doesn’t. Puppy does!! Puh-puh-puh…pants! Puh-puh-p…please! Please does!” I kept thinking about all the things around me that start with a p-sound.   While I was busy thinking and Lyla was eating sand, Momma grabbed her camera. Oh man. That camera again. Always. Does she ALWAYS have to have that thing? Does she ALWAYS have to take pictoos?? Hey!! “Momma! Momma! Pictoos is a p-sound too!! Pictoos!! Can I take some pictoos?” Wait. Did I really just ask that? Sigh. BIG sigh.  

“Sure baby. After you take pictures, why don’t we go inside and look at pictures to find more p-words! We can look on the website and pick some pictures that start with p!” That actually sounded…REALLY FUN! But don’t tell Momma that.

I wonder what pictoos I’ll find that start with p?! And why does Lyla eat so much sand?