Chicago

Brian and I took a trip to Chicago the middle of August for my cousin's wedding. I was really looking forward to it since we haven't seen our family in Chicago for a long time, but also anxious since it was the first time we've left the kids for 4 days, a plane ride away. It all went very well as you can read in the next post and I relaxed as soon as the plane took off. Our flight left Thursday around 10am, so the kids were up and we were able to say good bye. It was so cute, we received about 5 hugs and kisses before we even passed through the front door, waves from the downstairs window and then waves and kisses from the upstairs window. When we got into Chicago around 4:30 my cousin Liz picked us up and took us to a really nice dinner. That night we stayed at their house and got to visit with the kids. Friday morning we headed into Chicago to check into our hotel. Liz told us about the Lincoln Park Zoo, which sounded great, so we decided to check that out and walk around the city. The zoo is free and absolutely spectacular. After the zoo we ventured to Wrigley field seeking out tickets to the game. We waited about an hour after first pitch, but tickets were still going for $50 in the nosebleed section and since we only could stay for an hour or so we decided to skip it and just walk around the park, stopping at a really cool bar for a beer and appetizers. I'm from Geneva which is just west of Chicago, but never spent a lot of time in the city as an adult. Brian has never been to the city and I guess we both never realized how great it was, we were very impressed. Friday night was really fun, we were invited to happy hour for the rehersal dinner. We got to meet Stacey and visit with family. Then for dinner we met Jamie and Scott at a great Italian restaurant. They drove up from Indiana to see us. They just got engaged, so it was fun to hear their engagement story, meet Scott, and catch up. I miss her tons! After dinner we went to Kingston Mines for live blues. This is the one request Brian had for this trip and it was everything he hoped for. I had to drag him out of there at 3:30am! Saturday morning we took the architectural boat tour. It came highly recommended and met all expectations. This is the only time where the weather wasn't beautiful. We experienced a true "midwest thunderstorm" while on the boat with hail, lightening and thunder. The poor tour guide stayed up top while the rest of us took cover downstairs. You could hear the hail and wind through her microphone, I have no idea why she stayed up there. The rain didn't stop when we got off the boat, either, and the poncho's we bought didn't help much. We were drenched by the time we got back to the hotel, but the weather was warm so it wasn't that bad. We had lunch with Brian and Heather and at 3pm when the weather cleared up and the air show resumed, we joined my parents on the beach for a beer and front row seats to an amazing show. The wedding was at 5pm, so we went back to the hotel to get ready for a 4:15 departure to the church. The entire wedding event was spectacular, not a detail missing. Transportation to and from Old St. Patrick's Church, drinks and h'ordeuvres, a fabulous sit down dinner, open bar, live band and DJ that didn't stop until 1am, and a fun photo booth for guests upstairs, all at the Knicerbocker Hotel which beautiful on it's own. We had a blast! It was great to see everyone and be a part of Matt and Stacey's special day. They are an adorable couple and we wish they many years of happiness! Because of this fabulous wedding, though, we had a little recovering to do Sunday morning. Our flight didn't leave until 4pm, so after saying goodbye to the family we walked to the "Bean" and back by way of the beach. The air show was going on, the weather was beautiful and it was a great way to end the trip. Boy did we miss our kids though! My parents flew in before us so they waited and gave us a ride home. When we drove up to the house Gram had the kids in the back of the Suburu with the back open. Ashley got all excited to see us and Isaiah just followed not knowing quite what was going on. When he saw us he understood and wanted out of the car ASAP. Both kids came running to us for hugs and kisses... and I started crying.

My cousin Matt and his beautiful new bride Stacey



Aren't they adorable!?



This was taken from our front row seats for the air show. Saturday morning this bar cost $150 per person to get in, but because the show was postponed due to thunderstorms, they opened the patio to anyone who wanted to come in. Of course my parents were first in line and called us to join them.

Dad with his two brothers Dick and Phil





Us on the architechtural tour.

This was one of our favorite buildings on the tour. I love how it reflects the skyline.

A highlight of Brian's trip, Kingston Mines Blues Bar. They had two great groups playing Friday night.



Jamie, Scott, Brian and I at the Blues Bar.

Beautiful church near our hotel

Since we couldn't get into the game we got a picture instead.

I can't believe people pay to watch the game in bleachers across the street! I'm sure they're not cheap either!

Lincoln Park Zoo. We were amazed at how close we could get to the animals







This is a temporary tourist attraction. Since it won't be around forever we had to get a picture of Brian with her

The "Bean"

It's pretty heavy!!

Can you see us?

This is taken standing in the middle underneath. Made for a crazy illusion.

The beach was packed for the air show.

Gram Camp

Gram came to stay at our house with the kids while we were in Chicago. Aunt Becki came from Tuesday to Friday to help out and get the numbers more even. When you're not used to taking care of our two rascals it can be tiring! I'm not sure who enjoyed the time more, though, the kids or the adults! It was a hot weekend, so they spent a lot of time in the sprinkler in the backyard and loved it, went to the zoo one day, made bird baths with hand and foot prints, rode the carousal at the mall, and ate out a few times (a treat since we hardly ever eat out). It was none stop stories when we got back. I loved hearing all of them and it made me proud that even though Mama and Papa weren't around things went on as they normally do, a few screams and arguments, but for the most part the kids behaved. Gram and Aunt Becki did an awesome job making sure everything was taken care of including administering the medication Isaiah was on that week (eye drops for pink eye 4x day and antibiotics for an infection 3x day, all diagnosed 3 days before our trip!)

Monkey See.. Monkey Do...

A Day at the Park

Last year all Ashley wanted to do was go to the park and watch the other kids run around and climb. This year she's a litte monkey, trying new things every park we go to. It's really fun to see. Isaiah started out as a little monkey, so no change there just his ability to reach things he never could before. Plus he was just a baby last year!

Kiddos

Just some random picures I had to post.



Ummm, you got a little something on your face buddy!

Play time with Papa

Trip up North

We always look for excuses to head up north to Seattle to see our friends and this time it was a triathlon that Brian and Steve were going to do in Enumclaw. The triathlon ended up getting canceled for whatever reason, but we still ended up taking the trip. We left Portland around 4pm a little nervous about the traffic. I don't know if we got lucky, but leaving from the east side is a lot easier that taking 26 to I-5! We stopped for dinner at Applebee's in Chehalis to stretch our legs and fill our bellies and then got up to Seattle around 8pm. The trip went fast and the kids were great (I think they're getting used to car trips, which is a very good thing because we like to do a lot of them!). Baby Sawyer was 6 weeks while we were there. He's changed so much since we saw him just a month ago! Steve and Brian went golfing Sat morning, the girls and I took the kids to the park and we all rendezvoused back for dinner. Before bed, D, Sawyer, Ashley, I walked along Greenlake to a new frozen yogurt place. So yummy!!! Sunday we walked to Zoka (it's not a trip to Seattle without Zoka!) and then went to visit our friend Tina and Ebi from UW. She just had her baby, Kayne, on Monday so he was not even a week old! It was great to see them and meet their little guy, he's so cute! The kids played with Senaya for a few hours and then we headed back home. We stopped at the Ram for lunch in Lacey and watched the Blue Angels on TV. We've seen them live, in fact we took Ashley when she was 8 months old, but I enjoyed them on TV much better. The kids loved seeing them too. It was another fun filled weekend, but not a lot of pictures... just a few from the park.

Love Our Backyard!

We just sit back, relax and enjoy the awesome back yard that we have

We take very good care of the babies making sure they are warm, out of the sun and everyone else is quiet while they are sleeping

We teach brother "tricks"

We cook on the new enormous BBQ

We chase and roll down the "pitching mound" after each other

We make grass angels

We take naps in the grass, we love our back yard!

Hagg Lake

Isaiah was laughing so hard getting Grandpa to splash in the water with him







The last weekend in July was wide open, so we decided to meet up with my parents at Hagg Lake to go out on the boat since that Sat was supposed to be in the high 80's. If you remember how long it took for summer to get here, we were really excited to have a nice day on a weekend! We took a picnic dinner and parked the boat on a beach to swim and enjoy the sunshine. Instead of coming home that night my Dad came up with the idea of finding a place to camp. So, he set out to find a place and we loaded up the camper. Of course every place was first come, first serve and by the time he got there they were taken. But... my Dad is determined and found us a place. We ended up at a "campground" that had actually closed down, but still had "camp sites", about 4 of them between and lovely creek and the HIGHWAY! I have to laugh because it's not at all a place we would normally camp (being that it was right on the main highway), but it was an adventure and we had fun. In between the semi's driving past, we could enjoy the peaceful sound of the creek and then another semi would pass and we would laugh. At one point my Dad mentioned that he was sure it would quiet down as the night grew on, but that didn't quite happen. We had a campfire and all slept in the camper. The kids got a kick out of that and thought it was great to wake up and have Grammy and Grandpa there. We packed up that morning and drove to Camp 18. Brian had never been there and it sounded like the perfect place to take the kids. Good times!

The creek near our campsite. It was a very calming sound falling asleep to in between the loud trucks passing by!

Isaiah found himself a bench to park himself on while the rest of us set up camp










Check out the Elk head behind them. Ashley was a little nervous getting so close to it.

Giving the bear hugs




One of the carved statues outside of the restarant

Old logging equipment at Camp 18

Awesome Weekend!

We had our housewarming party the end of July, but the whole weekend ended up being full of fun stuff! Aunt Becki came into town on Friday. We had dinner out on the patio, great conversation along with a bottle of port wine she brought, and ended the night in the hot tub. Sat morning Brian was up at 4am getting the BBQ ready. He had just bought a new one to fit the 40 lbs of pulled pork he was cooking. He wanted to make sure it was going to be ready in time for the party. The meat went on at 5:15am and cooked all day. It was delicious and smelled so good! He had also picked up the keg the day before so all of his attention would be on the BBQ! It also goes hand in hand, a man's got to have a beer when he's cookin' meat right?! We got most everything set up in the morning, so when the kids went down for a nap Becki and I snuck out for pedicures. Everyone came over around 4pm. We had a great time and hope to host many more parties now that we finally have the space. Sunday morning was a lazy one. On the menu for breakfast... pulled pork! It was so good, that's all we ate for the next few days. Becki left around noon and at 2:00 my mom took Bonnie and I to the play "Hairspray" and the Deb Fennel Auditorium. This was the best play I have ever seen, went beyond my expectations which were already high because I loved the movie. After the play my mom and I had a glass of wine and appetizer's at Hayden's on the lake. It was the perfect end to an awesome weekend! I wasn't very good with taking pictures this weekend, but here are a few.

Becki decorated this cake for our party. It turned out great!! I love the little family of frogs. She put so much detail into it, the little girl frog has curls like Ashley.

Picking raspberries n our backyard before the party

National Night Out

Last night was "National Night Out" where neighborhoods get together for block parties. We had this in Seattle and it was so fun to get together with neighbors we hadn't seen for awhile and meet new one's that have moved in. Well, Happy Valley loves to do these as well. Apparently there were 17 neighborhoods that participated last night inlcuding one that had 240 people and a live band! The city blocks off the street, they provide hot dogs, chips, and bottled water. The fun part for the kids is the police come in their cars with lights flashing and hand out fun stuff. The firetruck was supposed to come, but I think it got a little delayed when it stopped at the party of 240. Either there were a lot of kids or it was a really good band! Our was a little smaller, but still so much fun. It was a great way to meet our neighbors (we have awesome one's by the way)! There were a ton of kids running around, perfect for our little guys to have a good time as well.