It's been a good day. Better than most lately. Summer has finally arrived and we've been having some pretty nice weather. Not Hot Hot, but nice and warm! 80's nice and warm. We've been playing outside a lot, and doing a lot of sprinkler time. We always come in around 1 for quiet time but today the boys wanted to come in early. So we came in and played games. I love that they are getting old enough to play games with. I'm not a creative person, in the sense that I can't come up with fun toddlerish games out of the blue like my Aunt can! She is amazing at coming up with fun things to do with her toddler. I often find myself reading her blog thinking to myself "Why didn't I think of that?! It's so obvious!" I lean more towards the board games. Today we busted out Twister. WOW! The boys were pretty good at it. Gary especially! We also played Candy land and some air hockey. It was after a dispute over who was the winner that I decided it was quiet time. Usually quiet time consists of (don't judge) blankets on the couch and chairs watching Martha Stewart and Rachel Ray. To which Gary usually falls asleep and Isaac likes to watch the cooking parts.
Today Martha had on some one making a traditional Vietnamese soup called Pho. You can see the segment here. It was pretty cool (mainly because I am a huge fan of food from other countries) and Isaac thought that it looked cool to eat with chop sticks so I made some "throw random stuff in a pot" noodle soup, and hooked him up with some chop sticks and let him mess around with them. I can't eat with chop sticks so Greg and I decided to have Veggie noodles for lunch on Sunday and Greg can teach the boys how to eat with chop sticks (there will most likely be pics).
In other news, Greg dug up more of our garden area today and the boys have a little patch of dirt to play in. They are happy boys...well at least Gary is. They spent the morning building dirt castles!
Oh yah. And Greg bought me a new shirt after a bit of a rough day. I love it! Plus it looks really awesome with a 6 month prego belly!
As Greg and I sat in Church on listening to the speakers talk on provident living it got us excited and motivated to start our own garden and become more self reliant. So instead of coming home and taking naps like we usually do we decided to come home and plan out where our garden was going to be. We made lunch and set out a blanket in our backyard and talked with the boys about what we should plant in our garden. We came up with a whole list of ideas and then narrowed it down to 4 as a starter garden. The next day we broke ground! It's really exciting to see it begin and to see where our garden is going to be!
To follow our fun adventures in gardening, as we grow our very own green thumbs, check out our gardening blog where we will post updates, tips, tricks, and everything we learn about gardening; the good, the bad, and the dirty! http://buchanangarden.blogspot.com/
We decided that since we hadn't gone as a family yet we should go. So we did! It was short and sweet.
Saturday I had a Pampered Chef party so when that was over we left for Alder Lake, which is only about 30 mins away from us. It was a fun, windy drive. I'm so glad that we have kids who like traveling and make car rides....interesting. =)
When we got there we walked to our campsite and started setting up. Luckily it wasn't too far from the parking lot, although getting back to the parking lot and bathrooms was all uphill, so that made for a fun walk with 2 little boys who decided they had to go potty every 20 mins! We kept everything pretty simple. Hot Dogs for dinner with smore's to follow. Capri Sun (which they loved because I never buy it) and new camping water bottles. It was pretty warm so nobody wanted to get too close to the fire. Gary wanted to roast his hot dog but wouldn't sit close enough so Greg did it for him. Then he wanted to do a marshmallow but again, wouldn't sit close enough so I did it for him. Isaac had fun roasting his food, but kept dropping it into the fire. When it got dark we climbed into bed and the boys were out pretty quick, and slept really well until about 530 when they decided that would be an acceptable time to start in on their morning wrestle. we eventually had to separate them and spend the next hour telling them to be quiet. And when they wouldn't do that (except for the 15 mins it took them to eat their muffin for breakfast) we decided since we were the only ones in the campground that was up, we would pack it up and head out, before the boys woke up the whole place. We were able to make it out by 715. We got home, unloaded the car, got everyone bathed and headed to church.
At church they talked about provident living which got Greg and I motivated to get our garden started. So after church we had lunch and sat out in our backyard and planned out where our garden will be and what we want to grow. I'm so excited to get it going this spring!! I'm even more excited that we can have a decent sized garden that won't take up our entire yard!
Unfortunately we forgot the camera so we didn't get any physical pictures, just mental ones...sorry. You'll just have to use your imagination.
We had the BEST anniversary! Greg's mom took the boys Thursday and we went and picked them up on Saturday! A full 48 hrs of kid free anniversary time! It was very much needed (especially for me)
Isaac and Gary got me an electric can opener, which I realize may seem like an odd anniversary gift but if you have ever used any of our can openers you will know how amazingly perfect this gift was! I LOVE IT!! We had ordered a Cutco block and a knife (we already had some because Greg used to sell Cutco) and it finally came!
Way back in March I had bought tickets to the Mariners/Red Sox game. I was able to keep it a secret clear up until about a week before our anniversary! At which point Greg used his excellent deductive reasoning skills and I couldn't keep it a secret any longer. It worked out for the better because once he knew what we were doing he was able to help plan out the rest of the day.
So we rode the link light rail up to Seattle. It was a ton of fun and nice to not have to worry about paying to park, traffic, gas.... and it's very cost efficient!
Not to mention the station in Tukwilla is awesome, filled with cool art
This place is amazing!! You could easily spend all day here and still not fully experience everything!
They have this HUGE Tower of guitars and other musical instruments.
In the Jimi Hendrix exhibit. They have tables with Ipods in them so that you can sit and listen to music while you read different books they have on Mr. Hendrix.
Yes. We gave Ashley her first taste of Jimi!
HAD To get the saxophone!
They have this HUGE screen as you walk in that shows music videos and different things. This is the making of Avatar. on the right side it showed what the actors were doing in the studio, under that is the computer generated version, the big screen on the left is how it turned out in the movie. It was really cool to stand and watch.
7 1/2 yrs ago Greg took me to the space needle to "propose" the 2nd time....No he did not NEED to propose twice, I said yes the first time. He is just that awesome!
He proposed the first time at church and gave me my CTR ring, the 2nd time he took me to the space needle and gave me the official ring.
7 1/2 yrs later we're back (not that we've never been back since then....) and still happy! =)
The space needle
We stopped by the skate park to watch the mad skills goin on there
Notice how clear and blue the sky is now?!
YAY!!!
Because we didn't have kids to entertain, we were able to make it to the stadium early and get our free Ichiro t-shirt!!!
(note the belly barely fit..)
Some random pics through the game
Justin Smoak got hit by a ball that landed him on the DL with a fractured nose....Ouch!
I purchased the "anniversary package" that comes with a score board message, along with 2 hats, a small tote bag, a baseball (that says happy anniversary) and some gift cards!
Wait till the very end. I think it's at 27 secs.
The stadium as we left
we lost 6-4
So we rode the train back and when we got to our stop they told us we couldn't get off due to an incident that was happening. The police had closed the station. We had to get off at Sea-Tac (which is only about a mile away) and then ride the bus back. When we got back the bus driver had to drop us off a block away because the police had closed the road to the station as well.
Apparently there was a suspicious looking package under a car so the whole parking lot was shut down. Luckily when we went to find a place to park, the main parking lot was full so we had to park across the street! So we got out no problem.
Saturday we went and picked the boys up. They both fell asleep on the way home. So we put them in bed got everything put away. On our way to bed we noticed Gary had sort of slid out of bed....
It was a GREAT Anniversary weekend and it has been a GREAT 7 yrs!
After a request for more pics from the reunion; here they are!
How do you get Isaac to smile for a pic when he's being just as stubborn as his mother? You let him make all kinds of faces first!
Like a Monster face
Sweet Gary .... Who still loves to have his picture taken
Swimming
The game?! Water fight
Rules?
Squirt uncle Derek
Uncle Derek splashes you back
Squirt uncle Derek
Gary gets bored and jumps in the pool
Although he was more than happy to float his way around the pool all by his lonesome, there's just something about turning your 3 yr old, never been swimin before son loose in a huge pool with just a life jacket and floaty ring....PLUSSSSS being 6 months pregnant it didn't bother me one bit to follow him around IN the pool!
Gary decided to make himself comfy with the teenagers
Prego Shadow
The bean bag toss game,
Rules? There 3 and 4 yr olds. There are no rules. The 2 behind the board would toss them over, Gary would pick them up.
Me, my mom, my boys!
My brother's Girlfriend Ange (who the boys LOVE to death) My brother, me, with my boys, my mom and dad
The boys with Aunt Kelly
4 Generation Pic!
Annnd then there's Gary
3 Generation pic
They wanted a serious one...I can't do serious pictures so Ange snapped it in the 1.5 seconds that I was able to hold it
I've noticed as I watch all my friends post their family reunion pics I find myself scanning through to only look at the pics....So that's what you can do too!
My family all got together at my Grandparents house in Cali. We (obviously) all had fun.
Isaac graduated to a booster seat and we got it for him right before we left so he had to tell everyone about it. It only took a day of running outside for him to figure out how to sleep in the car.
The boys got a little warm and asked if they could sit in the shade. so we did...and then made silly faces at everyone.
We took a day to spend in the pool out at the campground we stayed at.
Gary took to the water like a fish! He had never been swimming in a big pool before and he LOVES to swim.
Isaac was a little more cautious. He wouldn't get off the steps unless uncle Derek was there to hang onto him.
Seriously. He wouldn't even go with me. It HAD to be Uncle Derek!
Gary discovered how to Jump into the pool! That kid is a dare devil!
Isaac with Uncle Derek. Gary and I showin our toes.
My brother, me Mom and Dad
My sister wasn't able to make it so one of my cousins made a cardboard cutout of her for us to take around and get signed....cuz that's how we roll!
I really wanted a 4 generation pic, and LOVE the way it came out!
My grandma, my mom, me, my boys.
Sunday afternoon Gary found a way to "Beat the Heat"
That would be the bucket of Ice the water bottles were sitting in!
Busted!
On the way home we made a pit stop.
Isaac was so excited to see the temple that his Mom and Dad were married in.
They were cleaning so we couldn't go in and walk around but the boys didn't seem to mind just looking from the outside.
Today has been a random thought kind of day.
