6am, yuck.

Today has been a long day. All 6 of us were up at 6am in order to make an 8:15 appointment in Portland for Gavin. Surprisingly we were all out of the door at 7, I'm pretty sure that's a record or something.

It's really hard for me to handle all 4 by myself so usually when I have to do stuff like this Scott will take one of the older ones to work with  him. I'm so thankful that he has a job (and an awesome OIC) that allows this. So Kason was the one who got to go with Daddy and I took Gavin, Quinn and Kegan with me to the doctor's office.

Morning traffic across the interstate bridge from Washington to Oregon is usually a mess so we always leave early when we have morning appointments. Today it was not. We go there at 7:25, so early. Of course the older two were bouncing off the walls which made it difficult to keep everyone under control but that's why I make appointments first thing in the morning; no one in the office means no one has to hear my screaming, tantrum-throwing 2 year old.

Gavin's appointment was to get him disenrolled from the Coast Guard's special needs program. We originally put him on it in case he would need orthodic inserts later on in his life, unfortunately if he does need inserts we have to pay out of pocket so, insurance wise, there's no reason for him to be on it. The Special Needs program also severely limits our choices for duty stations later on down the road. He did fantastically and we have an appointment at the children's hospital in February to get his annual check up and x-rays.

I went to go pick Kason up from the station and of course he didn't want to leave. Our kids are a huge hit with the crew and bring a bit of a bright spot to the monotony of winter Coast Guard work. We all came home and had naps all around. My sleepless nights with the baby caught up with me and the 6am wake up call did me in. Everyone, including me, were in much brighter spirits when we woke up.

Tomorrow we're leaving bright and early for a day of sledding at the ski bowl on Mt. Hood. I'm watching Scott pack up the van as I type. We went 2 weeks ago to a snow park and had a great time but there are no conveyor ropes there to get my ass up the hill...

My knees are in pretty bad shape this morning from my run yesterday, i'm dreading my long run on Sunday. I want to do it but don't want to injure myself to the point I can't run at all so at this point i'm playing it all by ear.