memorial day

Bit late, I know, but we actually fun over our 3 day weekend so I wanted to share.

We spent Saturday at Howarth Park, which is by the ocean:






and Monday at the zoo (the kids' current favorite outing):

It was Rebecca's first trip!

Family of five!

The kids loved digging in the dirt... sheesh, take them to the zoo and that's what they like... :D

...while Rebecca played with her blanket.

And, of course, their favorite part: the carousel!

And some bonus Rebecca pics:

the extra-long catch-up post

So, yeeeah. Turns out blogging just falls to the bottom of the to-do list when you're moving. BUT.... we are all moved in, and almost every room is unpacked! And I have to say, we are in love with our new house! We want to post pictures but not to brag, so I think we'll just post a few as we get our rooms in order, curtains up, etc. So more good stuff to come in 2011! :)

As for the rest of November and December, here's some things we've been up to:

This is how we crash after moving and not getting naptime (this was around 4:30pm).

Thanksgiving in our new house-- yippee!
I love how there's room for our table with both leaves in!

Playing at the Pacific Science Center.

Going to see the Bellevue Botanical Gardens lights.

First picture with Santa-- they got pretty scared!

Adam's letter to Santa, showing Santa (middle) bringing Adam (right) a chainsaw (left).

It was wonderful to have some family up for Thanksgiving, we loved playing with everyone and managed to have some good times despite the crazy SNOW and the fact that we were moving!

The Farm

Last Saturday we spent the afternoon at The Farm, a place out in Snohomish that does a corn maze in the shape of the state of Washington! While our kids were too little to enjoy the maze, we did do some other fun things. They had all kinds of animals to pet (our kids loved the little white bunnies), they had a huge, long trough of water that they raced live ducks in, they had old farm equipment to climb on, hayrides around the corn maze border, a mini hay maze in the barn for kids, and a little "cow train" that was pulled behind a tractor. Adam has been obsessed with machinery and tractors lately, so he especially loved it.
It was muddy and rainy, and we really didn't have the boots and stuff one should have for the mud, so we were pretty dirty by the time we got back to the car! It was fun, though-- next year, we're going to pick our pumpkins there!

Adam wasn't a fan of the bracelet he had to wear.

This is what she does when you ask her to "say cheese!"

She has the best daddy ever-- not just anyone would squish into a tiny car just so his daughter can go on the ride, too. (He actually said this was pretty fun.)

Adam was big enough to ride alone. I think this ride was their favorite.

Snoqualmie Falls and Preston Park

Saturday, 3 of us were feeling pretty crummy (I forgot to mention that for Mother's Day, my kids gave me their cold. How very thoughtful...)

And my brother called and told us about how much fun they were having on the beach.

So we decided to go swimming.

We got all ready, packed the car with towels, inflatables, and changes of clothes, and drove down to our apartment's pool.

Which was closed for repairs.

We stood there for a minute, cold congestion and resentment building inside us. We thought about the beach. And about all the cloudy days we've been having. And we wanted a vacation.

So, we went home, put normal diapers on the kids (because you do not want to leave them in swim diapers outside the water...), and started researching hotels and getaways nearby.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of fun things to do around here.

We couldn't decide. Then we wanted to plan in advance so we could do more than one activity. Our enthusiasm for getting away was being replaced with indecision.

Finally, we decided that we really would have more fun if we planned a trip and were actually packed before 3pm.

How anticlimactic.

Sighh.

We've never done a trip on the fly before, and I was really thinking we'd do it this time...

Oh, well. So what to do with our day? We could not take staying home with that beautiful sunshine smiling outside!

Why, Snoqualmie Falls. (whose main lookout point was closed for construction... what was up with our luck on Saturday?!)

oooh. aaaah.

odd baby pose 3
(if you ask them, the rocks to climb were the best part)

aw, he's so cute, that one in the middle

more gorgeous green to play in...
i love washington

odd baby pose 4

As beautiful as cascading water is, I get miiighty nervous around precipices... especially when two small people dear to me are doing their best to wriggle through any protective fences to get a better look. I was glad when we'd "been there, done that" and could move on to safer areas. And no, I don't EVER plan on taking small children to the Grand Canyon. (If I made it back with my sanity, which is doubtful, the nervous twitches would render me useless.)

So, having made it safely back to the car, we stuffed our kids with a picnic lunch and headed home.

But it was kind of a long drive-- about two hours-- and the kids did not like staring into the sun.

Park needed.

We pulled off the freeway to follow directions to one park and ended up finding another, much better park. It has to be the coolest playground I have seen. Ever. I would love to meet the engineers who came up with some of the playsets. It had a 2 story and a 3 story slide, it had an outdoor metal piano, it had all kinds of twisty twirly things on which to run and spin-- it was amazing.
And, it was right next to a brand-new, fake-turf-and-dirt soccer field. (Imagine the BYU indoor practice field, only outside on a breezy, sunny afternoon. Aw, yeah.)
Adam and Nicole ran from one end to the other and played in the goals. It was the perfect end to a beautiful day. And you know what? It made us forget all about being sick. For then.

it's been a while...

...so let me fill you in on what's been going on.
My mom came to visit, and that was a ton of fun and our kids had a blast playing with her!
Steve's birthday was last Wednesday, and he is in his final twentieth year.... hehehehe. :D All joking aside, I love Steve and I'm so happy I get to share his birthday with him. The kids and I made him posters and a yummy cake, we took him out for a day of fun in the city, and his early present was his phone. I hope you had a good birthday, Steve! We love you!!!
And here are some pictures from the various sundries we've been up to:

This is what happens when your shutter speed is SO SLOW... really bizarre faces!

Adam and Nicole got new bikes! We got his from TRU and hers from craigslist, brand new.

Adam set up the chairs and told me he was riding the bus, so I gave him a paper plate to use as a steering wheel.

This is one of those moments where all I can think is, "Why???"
And then I take a picture.

The Aquarium was part of our fun day in the city-- it's cute, but small, and if we didn't have a two-for-one coupon, probably not worth their outrageous admissions charge. :)

Then we went to West Seattle for some italian food and cupcakes... we tried Cupcake Royale, and, ok, they do have pretty darn good cupcakes. On the way, we saw a little lookout point where you can get gorgeous shots of the city.

This was so crazy the first time we came to Seattle-- there is one particular cliff where you can take pictures of the Space Needle and it looks huge and like it's in the middle of downtown, and that's the picture you always see on postcards and stuff. However, ACTUALLY, the Space Needle is kind of small (comparatively) and waaay off from the big part of downtown.
Still love this city, though. Even with the several things that drive me nuts about it, I have completely fallen in love with Washington state.

Going to the Zoo

We went with Michael and Brittany to the zoo on Saturday. Adam hasn't been to the zoo since he was 5 months old, so it was fun to see him actually enjoy it. He ran around a lot, climbed on rocks, and tap-danced on the bridges. Our favorite animals were the ones you could see up close, like the bears and the otters. It was a perfect, overcast, cool day. We all had a really great time!

Adam watches the bears fish.

Adam and the bears, who are cracking into coolers to get their lunches.

Just when I get a good shot, he decided to leave! (Does this remind anyone else of a Calvin and Hobbes panel?)

He said the bronze otters are much more fun.

Adam and his daddy outside the monkey pens.

And this is why we didn't take pictures of the rest of the animals. :)

Breaking Dawn Concert Series

So last night my friend Leigh and I went to Seattle for an awesome event... the Breaking Dawn concert tour! It was Stephenie's last stop, and it was really fun to see her and hear about the book. She brought Justin Furstenfeld from the band Blue October, and he was amazing! I know Blue October is usually a harder rock band, but if you ever get to hear him do "The Sound of Pulling Heaven Down" acoustically, you should.
Then we stood in line for an hour and a half to get our books signed. It was really hot for part of it, but it was fun to check out everyone's t-shirts. People went all out.
Overall, a very enjoyable night-- lots of energy, and we were in the gorgeous Benaroya Concert Hall (home of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra). I took some pictures on my phone-- no camera, darn pregnant memory!-- but right now I have no way to get them off my phone... we'll see if I can post some later.

And, on a family note, Adam is exactly 18 months old today and I am exactly 28 weeks pregnant.

The Mariners Game

Hello blog fans! We did a lot of things yesterday, so get ready!
First, I had to include this picture-- I "caught" Adam getting into his book basket. I just thought it was cute. He thought he was so sneaky...


Next, Adam and I went with our friend Lindy to the Science Center. Adam loved it! His favorite parts were trying to catch butterflies in their butterfly house and walking around the dinosaur exhibit going "rar!"
That evening, Steve and I took Adam to a Mariners game (courtesy of Amazon). He was decked out in his baseball outfit, (thank you Donna Kay!) and he really enjoyed watching the game!


After the game, we took pictures with the giant baseball mitt sculpture. It was really cool!


And we also happened to catch a gorgeous sunset on our way out of the stadium. It's a bit blurry because once again I forgot to hold still without the flash. But still pretty. :)

Anyway, I'm being rushed because Steve's dad is here and we're supposed to be taking off for Vancouver. I am very sorry, Blogger fans, but I may not be able to blog our trip until we get back, but never fear: you shall know the details and see the pictures in good time.