Monday, December 22, 2008

Winter Wonderland

We've had lots of fun in the snow. It doesn't seem like it could possibly be Redmond. We've made some serious fashion statements (my favorite being my full body suit that used to be grandpas. I swear that is just puff and my butt doesn't actually fill that.)

And we've had lots of adventures.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Ward Christmas Party

We went to the ward Christmas party last Friday night. Will was especially excited to see Santa. I told Will he needed to wait for his Daddy to get to the party before we saw Santa since his Dad wanted to take pictures too. We decided to wait in the long line while waiting for Brett. While in line Will said to me, "Mom, I just want to see him." I told him that he could go peak around the people but that he needed to wait his turn to sit on his lap. Will didn't quite understand and ran right up to Santa, inches away from his knees... while another child was on his lap. I had to run up and grab him and apologize to the other kids. :) Once it was Wills turn he was so excited that he couldn't even talk. Santa was asking him questions, but Will just smiled and didn't really say anything. It was pretty cute.

Snowflake Lane & the Botanical Gardens

Last week Mom and I took Mickayla and Will to the "Snowflake Lane" presentation out side of Bel-Square. They loved dancing with the drummers and meeting rudolph. They also thought the snow was pretty cool.






After we were done at Snowflake Lane, we headed over to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens. The lights were amazing.


Monday, November 17, 2008

Will's first kiss


On Saturday we went over to our Friends, Joy and Damon's house, to play the fun game. Joy and Damon have 2 little girls who are the cutest thing ever. Bailey who is 4 and Mia who is about 18 months.
Will and Bailey were playing downstairs while the adults were playing the game upstairs. I said to Joy, "The kids have been quite for a while... That can't be good." So she sent Damon downstairs to check on them.
Damon quietly went down the stairs and heard nothing. The kids had a little tent that they had been playing with, and he could see that they were in the tent. He said, "Hey! What are you guys doing?" They both came crawling out of the tent and were both wiping their mouths. Damon said again, "What were you guys doing?" Bailey said, "Talking." Damon, "Talking about what?" Bailey, "About the zoo." Will chimed in, "Yeah, talking about the Zoo!" Damon, "I've been down here for a little while and I didn't here any talking."
Damon came up and told the rest of us what was going on. A little while later Will came upstairs. I whispered in his ear, "Did you kiss Bailey?" He got a huge smile on his face and replied "Yeah!" as he shook his head. We all laughed.
We all thought it was funny... except for Damon. I guess he is already protective of his beautiful little girls.
Will and I had a little talk about how for now he should only kiss Mommy. But I must admit, he picked a pretty cute girl for his first kiss. ;)

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Gilberts on Main


Have any of you been to Gilberts on Main in Bellevue? Brian and I went there last weekend because he had a gift certificate for a free breakfast. I ordered french toast and eggs, and Brian ordered Pankcakes and eggs. We were thinking this would be enough to fill 1 plate. But then it showed up and we both had 2 full plates of food. It was SOOO good, but even at that I still couldn't finish more than half of what they gave me. We definately give Gilbert's an A+.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Bat-O-Lantern

Will is going to be Batman this year for Halloween. So naturally, we needed to make him a Bat-O-Lantern. :) I think it'll look pretty cool once it's lit up.


Monday, October 20, 2008

Pumpkin Patch Fun!

This last Saturday Brian and I took Will and Mickayla to a pumpkin patch outside of Monroe. Stephanie, Trevor and John (Stephanie's little brother) also came. We had lots of fun doing all sorts of things.

Hay ride, pulled behind a big tractor
Shooting little pumpkins with a pumpkin launcher

Playing on a pirate ship
Will thought the sun was too bright. So he put Brian's beanie over his eyes and Brian led him around.
Will picked out his pumpkin and then drug it over to the wheel barrow.

I made them take this picture - hence the forced smiles. :)


We had lots of fun at the pumpkin patch. But little did I know that they charged a crazy amount for the pumpkins. I think time we'll do all the activities at the pumpkin patch, but then stop at Safeway on the way home to pick up our pumpkins. :)

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

William is 3!


Will turned 3 this last Saturday, the 27th. He was with his dad on his actual birthday, so we celebrated with Will on Sunday. When he first got home I asked him how old he is now. He said "I'm gonna be 3." And I said, "No, you are 3 now." His eyes got huge and then he said, "I'm 3!?!" and when I confirmed he got so excited and said, "I'm 3, I'm 3!"

Brian got him a set of little action figures for his birthday, which we gave to him early so that he could help us decorate his cake. He decided that he wanted them all very close together, and practically touching. Not exactly what I was planning on doing, but hey, it's his cake.


When we sang him Happy Birthday and he blew out his candles we all said "OHHH!!!" in unison as he drooled all over one corner of his cake. lol. It instantly made me think of Keith. I know how he thinks it's gross that even adults blow out the candles and then serve the spit on cake to their friends. So this was just too perfect. I cut off the drooled on corner of the cake, put it in a tupperware and FedEx'ed it to Keith. :) We ate the clean side of the cake. :)

I can't believe my baby is 3 years old! He's getting so big. But one good thing about that is the he gives the best hugs!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Brian earning his stay

With both of the boys gone mom and dad need someone to help with the man stuff around the house and yard. Lucky for them Brian spends more time at there place than at his own home. So he does things like cutting down branches for them to earn his stay. :) What a good helper.



Leavenworth

This last weekend Brian and I decided to get away for a day. We left Friday afternoon and headed up to Leavenworth. When we were checking into our hotel we made the front desk guy laugh. He gave us a coupon for 10% off their restaurant. We didn't really react to that. But then he gave us a coupon for buy one get one free mini-golf. At the same time Brian and I turned to each other and said "yes!" Ha, we're dorks.

We enjoyed our mini golf. I especially enjoyed it because I beat Brian by one point! :)

Rather than the traditional leavenworth meal of weiner schnitzel and beer we went and had dinner at a tiny little place with really good pink lemonade and ate salmon and shrimp crepes.
A very nice man in a leiderhozen took this picture for us. :)



Ellensburg Rodeo

A few weekends ago Brian and I took Will out to the Ellensburg Rodeo. We had a great time. When we got in to Ellensburg we decided to have a healthy lunch off MickeyD's. To our surprise, Ronald McDonald was there. Will said "I wanna picture with that guy." So Brian took the below picture. :)
The Rodeo was a lot of fun and we saw some interesting events. One of which was very exciting and I had never seen it before. It was wild cow milking. One guy roped the cow and the other jumped off his horse and tried to wrestle the cow to a stop. Then the guy who roped the cow got of his horse and tried to milk the cow into a little bottle. It was hilarious, and I think only one team finished successfully. Will's favorite event was the calf roping. He enjoyed telling everyone about it later and it went something like this, "cowboy... with hat.... on horse... and a rope... baby cow... rope him."










Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Water balloon fun!


This last Saturday night, Steph, Trev, Jill and Brian came over to hang out. Earlier in the day Will and I had picked up some water balloons at the store, so we decided to fill them up and play a little water balloon toss. It was so much fun! We felt like we were 12 again, but didn't mind that at all. Next time it's sunny outside I think I know what we'll be doing.








Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Will's evil laugh

I dont know where he got this laugh from, but I think it's funny. :)

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Maui

My trip to Maui was better than I could have ever imagined. I made amazing friends, saw amazing places and made wonderful memories. It is painful coming home and leaving paradise behind.
I met people from all over the US, Australia, the UK, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Russia, Canada, Ireland and more. I saw beaches of Golden Sand, Black sand, Salt and Pepper Sand and Red sand. I hiked in the jungle, I ate fruits that I didn’t know existed, I played in the water, I learned a lot of history of the island of Maui, I laughed…. My heart was SO full in Maui.
I think if I didn’t have my beautiful son to go home to, then I would have quit my job and stayed in Maui. I will miss the beauty, the friendships and the good times.

Saturday was my first day on the island I arrived at about 2pm. When I stepped off the plane I was excited, nervous and a little bit scared. I’d never traveled by myself, but I was so excited for the opportunity. I took a taxi to the hostel. The taxi driver was less than optimistic. He told me what a bad area I was staying in and that the Banana Bungalow was not going to be a good experience. It was kinda too late to change where I was staying so I tried to just have a good attitude about it. When I got to the hostel there was no one there since everyone was out and about for the day. I wanted to cry. I thought “What in the world am I doing in Maui, by myself?” But that quickly changed. Within a few hours I was surrounded by people, laughing and playing games and feeling SO happy that I was there. I felt the love of the people there from their smiles.


Sunday the tour of the day was to go to Big Beach and Little Beach, which are right next to each other and just separated by a small hill of dried lava flow. I started on big beach but realized that everyone was going over to little beach. So I followed over there. Little beach was quite the adventure. It is a clothing optional beach. Most bodies were less than desirable and I think the average age of the nude sun bathers was somewhere around 60. It was shocking at first, but eventually the shock wore off. I however did not participate in the nudity, which the Italian guys from the hostel told me was a disappointment to them. Ha ha. We stayed at little beach until sunset. There were many people in a drumming circle making beautiful island music. And others dancing and enjoying the festivities. I sat and took it all in and enjoyed experiencing the somewhat hipee side of the island culture.
Monday we headed for Iao Valley. On the way up there we stopped at Kepaniwai Cultural Park and learned some of the history of the Island and looked at the beautiful park dedicated to the Asian people who came to the island many years ago. The hike up Iao Valley was very beautiful. Along the way I met a girl named Amanda. She mentioned that she worked at Google and was from San Fransisco. Come to find out she knows Ann! What a small world. Once we reached the top, Issac, our tour guide told us we had an option of going down the way we came, which was steep but not too bad, or we could go the “fun” way. I chose the fun way. It really was fun! A little dangerous, but that’s that made things fun. The path was super steep. Some people decided to slide down in on their butts. I tried to just step down the whole thing. There were times that I would slip and literally be hanging by a branch of a tree, trying not to fall and take out the people in front of me. I laughed the whole way down because I was enjoying the “fun” of it. When we got back down to the bottom we went swimming in the sacred Iao Valley Stream, which was once the site of the biggest battle on the Hawaiian islands and ran red with blood. Luckily it now was not red with blood… but it was very cold. It took some convincing to get in, but once in I had a good time, even if I was covered in goosebumps.

Soon after I arrived back at the hostel from the Iao Valley hike some people at the hostel invited me to go with them on another hike up to a place that I believe was called Thirteen Crossings. It was a fun easy hike which crossed over a stream (probably thirteen times) and led up to some waterfalls. We all climbed the first small fall but Cassara and I waited at the bottom of the next one while the guys climbed up it. On the way back to the car we had a bit of a war using “Shampoo Gingers,” which appear to be a big flower that is about to blossom, but turns out to be a plant full of gooey liquid which smells like shampoo, and when you hit someone with it they get completely slimed. We were all covered in slime but smelt much better than we would have otherwise.


Tuesday was our all day trip to Hana, along the famous Road to Hana with more than 300 turns and crossing over more than 40 way lane bridges. I was lucky and snagged shot gun next to our awesome tour guide Gary. And although I enjoy Gary I was more excited about not sitting in the back through the hundreds of turns. Along the Road to Hana we stopped and got fresh Banana bread, stopped at a Black sand beach, a Salt and Pepper beach and a hidden Red sand beach. Each beach was amazing and held its own beauty. At the black sand beach there was also an area where we swam through a cave. It was cold and a bit scary, but fun. As I walked down to the main part of the black sand beach I saw a sign advising against swimming in the water because of jelly fish. But there were people in the water, and no one was screaming, so I decided to give it a try. Luckily I didn’t have any run ins with jelly fish. At the Salt and Pepper colored beach there were great waves and many of us decided to body surf. It was a lot of fun, until I caught a wave wrong and got tossed around quite a bit. Not only did I feel like I swallowed a gallon of sea water, but I also put on a pretty good show for anyone watching because when I came out of the wave my bathing suit was not covering everything it was supposed to. Jeesh, I should have saved that for little beach. The Red Sand beach was hidden from the road and took a bit more effort to access but it was a different type of beautiful from all of the other beaches we had gone to. The day was full of beautiful beaches.


On Wednesday we went out to West Maui and Lahaina. We rented snorkel gear and snorkeled around black rock. We didn’t see much in the water, but to make the trip a little more exciting Sanjay and I (one of my roommates from the UK) decided to climb up Black Rock and jump off of the top. It seemed higher than we thought it was when we were at the top and it was quite a thrill jumping off. Just as Sanj and I got back to our towels it started to rain. Some people decided to head back to the vans to wait out the rain but the rest of us decided to just get back in the water since the water was warmer than the air. Just as it was time to leave the beach the sun came out. We went down to downtown Lahaina and ate dinner and did a little tourist shopping. My buddy Issac, our tour driver, bought me a fresh lei. It smelt so good and I got lots of compliments on it.


Thursday was my last full day in Maui. I started off the day right by going with a bunch of people from the Hostel to "Tasty Crust" for breakfast. Sounds horrible but was delicious and cheap. Then we went out to turtle town to go snorkeling with the turtles. Barbara and I went out for a while and couldn’t find anything. Gary told us to try again and that we needed to go far to one side. We were kinda frustrated because we weren’t seeing any turtles, then all of the sudden we were surrounded by turtles. It was amazing, they were right next to us. We were satisfied after that. We soon after went to little beach. Barbara and I just laid around because we were pretty exhausted from snorkeling for so long. After that we went into Kihei. Barbara and I ate at Life’s a Beach and then did a little shopping before meeting everyone back by the water for sunset. I didn’t want the day to end, so I stayed up until around 2am playing games with friends back at the hostel.


Friday was a sad day for me. I really didn’t want to go home. And really I think if I didn’t have Will at home I would have quit my job and just stayed in Maui. As stupid as it is, I cried at the airport. I was just feeling like with family you know even if you go away that you’ll see them again sometime, but I don’t know if I will ever see any of my friends from the Banana Bungalow again. But I guess I need to just be grateful for the experience. It truly was an amazing time in Paradise.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Puppy and prayers



The other day William, Mickayla and I took Fritz and Decko to the dog park. While at the dog park we saw a little 8 week old puppy. William of course loved the "baby dog" and we ended up following it around for most of our time at the dog park. The owner was kind enough to let him pet it several times and even hold it. (I took the above picture with my phone.)

When we got home from the park it was time for dinner. William loves to say the prayer at dinner, but usually I tell him what to say. Dad asked if he wanted to say the prayer and right away he started his prayer, so I just let him do it on his own because he didn't seem to want any guidance. We couldn't understand most of what he said... he blessed the food several times... but what we did hear sounded something like this.... "hevly father, .... bless food.... day.... food.... and the puppy at the dog park... he was so cute.... baby dog........ name Jesus Christ.....AMEN!" Through out his prayer you could hear the grunts of all of us trying to hold in our laughter. We all opened at least one eye at some point and looked around to see if everyone else was smiling too. By the end of his prayer we were all just about in tears from trying to hold in the laughter. I think we'll have to let him pray on his own more often. :)

Friday, May 23, 2008

Adventures at the Zoo

Last Saturday Mickayla, Will and I decided to venture out in the 96 degree heat and go visit the animals at the Zoo. I must say it was the most adventure I've had at the Zoo. Our favorite part was getting to feed the giraffes. We waited in a long line and paid an extra $5 a person, but it was well worth it. Will liked the giraffes until one of them licked his hand while we were feeding him. lol... he did NOT like that. I don't blame him, even though I enjoyed feeding the giraffe it was pretty weird that it had a 12 inch long bluish-purple tongue.

We of course saw lots of other animals and Will and I also pet a snake. (Mickayla was not interested in getting anywhere near the snake.) So besides it being about 10 degrees too warm and a little run in with a crazy giraffe tongue, we had an amazing time.