Happy Father’s Day!

Happy Father’s Day to the man in my life and the Father of our children.  Thank you for all you do for us.  We love you!

I’d also like to wish my own Dad a very happy Happy Father’s Day!! We are looking forward to celebrating with you tomorrow!

We started today off with a few tokens of our appreciation.

Jeremy’s old Memory Album was falling apart and the old school glue on the pages was yellowing all the photos.  Over the years he’s mentioned redoing the album, but never got around to it.  Kayleen and I wanted to redo the album so he can preserve and enjoy memories of his childhood.

Celebrating our Dad/Husband with

a favorite, BBQ’ed pulled pork!

And just an added bonus because she’s so cute.

A Losing Battle

A losing battle on blog posting that is.  Blog design and graphics are more fun than actually blogging.  Who would have known?  Sitting here for a few hours in Photoshop messing around with graphics for a new title seems so much more rewarding.  Guess I’ll have to try better this summer!

Mother’s Day Weekend

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Fish n’ Chips after church @ Spud’s on Alki!		A little fun after lunch.
2nd annual planting of our hanging baskets.		Dirty mess or rehydrating last year’s dirt?  Both!!
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School Performances

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Alexander’s Kindergarten Play: The Three Piggy Opera		Kayleen’s Middle School Play: An Oompa loompa in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate  Factory
Many thanks for the support of Aunt Yara and cousin Tommy!		NO words…

 

 

Memorial Day Weekend

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After a nice scenic ferry ride, a jaunt across Bainbridge Island, and a quick detour at a fab’ coffee stand, we arrived at Hurricane Ridge.  Although we had planned on a little bit of hiking, mother nature had a different plan.  All trails were still covered with snow!  So we had to take a nice walk along the road with snow lined walls.

Brrr, this dude was out kite surfing in the bitter cold.

And….

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We finally put up our the trampoline my parents gave the kids for Christmas!!!!!  They were thrilled!

Two in Double Digits and a Special V-Day!

Seems just like yesterday they were in diapers (which I don’t miss, BTW, snicker).  This morning we were were opening gifts around the time Ethan was born… 10 years ago.  Now let me hear everybody say, “Aawwwwww.”.

 

 

 

I think somebody other than the birthday boy is pretty excited about this gift. 

Valentine’s Day 2012

This year was quite a special Valentine’s Day!  Jeremy cooked a very nice dinner for us all!!  The kids were quite excited, as was mom…

After a busy Tuesday, we all came home very hungry and excited about the dinner, here’s what we found…

Wine and some pre-dinner munchies hit the spot!

Le Menu

There was even a mid-dinner poem read out loud that made mom cry.  All the food was delicious and this will go down in the books as one of the best V-Day’s ever. 

Thanks Sweetie!

New Blogging Style for 2012

2011 was a real dud on the blogging home front for me.  It seemed like I was always too busy, or had so many pictures I wanted to share I didn’t know where to start.  I will enter 2012 with a fresh start.  More posts per week, with 2-4 pictures…give or take.  Two current pictures and two pictures from years past…anything I wanted to share and just never got around to it.  So, here we go:

Yoda, our dog, is now in recovery from knee surgery he had two and a half weeks ago.  These pictures are from the day we brought him home.  He was SO excited to see all of the family he could hardly contain himself.  It was hard to keep him from being too active and messing up his stiches.  He rolled around, stretched, licked everybody to death and had a look of elation on his face.  It was, and is, good to have the pooch back home.  He has been recovering well and I even took his stiches out myself.  It was really a piece of cake and worth it as the surgeon is all the way down in Puyallup!  Now it’s a long, several months, journey to healing as they cut his bone and now it all has to fuse back together.  The great news is that he’s using his leg once again and is back to his old playful self.

As I long for sunshine and nice weather, I can’t help but think about our trip to Hawaii last year.  I am definitely longing to go back in the future.  We took so many pictures it’s nearly impossible to post even a fraction of them.  As I was looking through the photos I found two that stood out to me.  More on a photography level than any personal note.  I didn’t even notice them before today.  I did a little bit of photo processing, but did not change thing about the pictures…as in taking things out, adding things, etc.  I wish I was better at knowing what would really make these photos POP.  I did my bestest (yes, I know that’s not a word!).  Here is some of the essence of Hawaii…

We stayed in a building of condo units, along the Ilikai Marina close to Waikiki, for the first few days on Oahu.  One morning We could see the waves forming and a lot of surfers paddling out to sea to ride the waves.  This picture was of a mother and daughter duo, who were both in great shape by the way, heading out to sea with their boards on board.

Mr. Turtle was found along the highway in the North Shore of the island.  There was quite a fuss with quite a few cars parked along the road.  We stopped to see what all the commotion was about.  This guy was protected by red tape and a guard (who looked more like a surfer dude).  It’s against the law to come into contact with the turtles.  I can’t remember how far a distance you had to keep from them, but there was a law about it.  This was one of three sea turtles I saw during the trip.  Two were seen while snorkling (what fun!) and this guy was just basking in the afternoon sun, pretty oblivious to the crowds taking photos.  On the same day we were driving the North Shore highway, we actually happened upon a guy who was stealing coral from the ocean.  Jeremy went up to him with the video camera rolling (not knowing what the guy was up to, it just looked interesting), and asked the guy what he was up to.  The guy was out of there and in his car within a few minutes flat with a look of panic on his face.

And, well, here is just a funny picture taken sometime in February 2011.  I may have even included it in a post last year.  It’s just so funny to me.  These kids are doing workouts from the TV.  And hamming it up a bit too.

Babies Do Grow Up

My "baby” has lost both of his bottom front teeth.

  I’m having mixed emotions.

Happy New Years!! Welcome 2012!!

I guess I had better bring in the new year with a new post.  It’s been a while…

It’s 11:50 p.m., chicks are all still up and this hen is getting pretty tired.  As is the rooster I might add.  He keeps asking me when the chicks are going to bed.  ;-)

We started the day with some great skiing up at the pass.  Alpental is our slope of choice these days and the powder did not disappoint.  It’s such fun to have a sport we can all do together as a family!

Exiting the Armstrong Express lift.

Follow the leader!

At the start of the run with some last minute adjustments.

I hope you all have a safe and memorable midnight and may the coming year be filled with blessings from above.  Signing off for 2011…

Welcome 2012!

 

A Day to Celebrate!

Today Alexander had his Preschool Graduation.  It was a short, yet sweet ceremony.  Popsicles and juice boxes were waiting for everybody outside.  The kids were able to play together on the playground for a little while afterwards. I think that was the highlight of the day for them!  We are so proud of Alexander and the great strides he’s made this year.

 

Next up…Full day Kindergarten!  Alexander is SO excited!!

              

“Reading” the comics on the way there.        Arriving at school!

 

               

Shaking his teacher’s hand.               Singing a song with classmates.

 

               

        Preschool Diploma                                         Teachers!

 

               

   Playing a little afterwards.                   Classroom learning centers.

 

Love this school!!!!