Deception Pass

I am in awe of the beauty of Deception Pass. These two pictures definitely won the best pictures of the day. I wish I could say I took them but I have to give the credit to my awesome dad. He has such an eye for landscape and nature shots. I do think his wide angle lens was a good pick for the beach. Well done dad!

We had so much fun hiking to the beach at Deception Pass. The little path to the beach was quiet and inviting. Even Emma, who is too much of a whiny girl when it comes to hiking, enjoyed the little walk to the beach.

The view was spectacular with the afternoon sun glistening on the water. The kids were in heaven, of course, with all the rocks that they could throw into the water. It was nice to be able to just relax on the beach and watch the kids have fun. Even Abby played with a few rocks, until we had to take them away for fear she would choke on them as she slowly started putting them in her mouth. Instead we kept her entertained with pat-a-cake games, lots of hugging and kissing and of course plenty of snacks.

I was so glad that my parents were able to be here with us. They always enjoy going to new places and being with the kids AND the kids just adore their grandparents. We are so lucky that they get to come visit us so often. They are the best!

Of course it just wouldn't be complete without trying to get a picture of all of us. I was happy to get most everyone looking and even Emma was smiling.

Mike took this shot on his way back up the trail with the boys. Pretty neat to see the underside of the bridge with all its complexity.

Weekend in Seattle

For my birthday this year Mike got tickets to go and see Jerry Seinfeld LIVE up in Seattle. When we bought the tickets we only planned on going to dinner and the show. We were thrilled to find out a couple of weeks ago that my parents were going to come up and visit. They were so great to watch the kids so that Mike and I could stay the night in the city. This was the first time we have stayed up in Seattle together. We stayed at the Westin Hotel right in the middle of everything we needed. We were only a couple of blocks away from shopping, good restaurants, Pike's Place, and the Paramount Theatre. Of course we spent a couple of hours shopping and just looking around. For dinner we ate at this neat cafe style restaurant called The Palace Kitchen. Mike had the trout and I had the chicken and potatoes. The food was outstanding and far exceeded my expectations. Anyone who knows me well knows that I LOVE dessert - especially anything with chocolate. Their dessert menu looked ok, but we both had one dessert in mind. We left the restaurant with happy bellies and walked over to Morton's Steakhouse for their chocolate lava cake. IT WAS SO WORTH IT! It's the little things in life that put a smile on my face...chocolate and good company is one of them. Now completely satisfied, we headed back to do some more shopping and then some relaxing back at the hotel before the show.

We went to the 9:30pm show and it was SO AWESOME. Even sitting close to the back we still felt like we could see everything. The Paramount Theatre is such a beautiful place. The ceiling was so fascinating to look at. Larry Miller opened for Jerry and he was pretty funny. We were so shocked that Seinfeld was on stage for a good hour and a half. He is probably one of the funniest people I have ever heard. We would go back to see another one of his shows FOR SURE!

I had the absolute best birthday ever. We even got to sleep in until 9 in the morning!!! YIPEE!! We got on our running clothes and ran over to Pike's Place to eat crepes. We walked around the market for awhile and then headed back over to our hotel to get ready for the day. We shopped some more and then ate lunch at the Nordstrom Cafe. We haven't eaten there since living on the East Coast. Our turkey club panini and blue cheese vinegarette salad were scrumptious. We finally headed over to the Space Needle to meet my parents and the kids so we could head north to Deception Pass and the Tulip Festival. It was the perfect start to our weekend!

Learning to ride a bike

This morning Mike and Peter went outside for round 1 of learning how to ride a bike without training wheels. Just watching Mike teach Peter was pretty incredible. He was so patient and so good about teaching him different things he would need to know. He talked with him about balance and about how to stick your leg out when starting to fall. They practiced falling from each side and went up and down the sidewalk a bunch of times.

A little progress was made and I know that with some more one on one time with Mike, Peter will catch on fast and be able to ride his bike by the summer time. We are really looking forward to some family bike rides this summer.

Sweet Dreams

This is how Abby fell asleep during her nap today. I just thought she looked so cute!

Celebrating at School

If this isn't the face of a happy boy I don't know what is. This was the first time I was able to take cupcakes into school because although Andrew has been in school for three years he has a summer birthday. Peter was so excited to hear everyone of his classmates sing happy birthday to him. He even led them all...too funny. His teacher Ms. Sabado was so good about making Peter feel special. She let Peter pick two of his classmates to help him pass out napkins and the cupcakes. Then they let Peter take the first bite of his cupcake. There is nothing better than seeing you child feel so very special!

Peter and his super awesome teacher Ms. Sabado