A simple day at the park

A Saturday with nothing to do
A nice day to visit the park
Then we let Bub go and be free at the park.
And what does he do after about 5 minutes of having freedom....
Falls face first into a mud puddle. (these pictures don't show his shirt, but trust me it was caked with mud pies.)
The only mud puddle at the entire park.
And what did his parents do? Ran after him but arrived 1/2 a second too late.
And after we helped him up and realized he was ok. We all laughed so hard we almost started crying.
A nice day to strip my child down to his diaper and put him in a mismatch shirt.
A quiet Saturday to bring my filthy child back home for an afternoon tub.
And I thought this would be an uneventful day.

Summer stuff

This summer has just flown by. We have done all sorts of things like this:
Park time on the sunny days....
Dragon Festival in Chinatown in Seattle. (I had always wanted to see a Dragon Dance and this one was great especially with the applause-hungry dragon dance teacher kept making the kids dance because the audience loved it. Did I mention it was really hot and they looked miserable, but hey anything for applause, right?)

Went to the Bite of Seattle and got out of our comfort zone for sure this year. The best thing was fried alligator and the homemade strawberry shortcake.

We have also been learning about parenting, of course. First rule of summer, always bring every member of the family their own water bottle because some of them drink open mouthed after eating strawberry shortcake. Yummy!
The other thing is to childproof everything. Even if they don't want to be. (don't worry, he has become a pro at removing these little buggers from the sockets. He thinks it is a game. I wish I could get my money back because it hasn't really child proofed anything.)
What have you been doing with your summer?

He makes this look too cool

Lounging by the pool on one of the 5 warm days this summer! Where did my little baby go? And I have no idea where he got all the attitude!

Welcome Back!

I made it. I went a whole week (plus some) without blogging. I survived. And now I can't think of anything to blog about. GREAT! I hope this means that I have made the creative part of my brain lazy. Now it has no inspiration.
Let's see what happened last week...
Soder's computer hard drive died. (spending money is always fun, right?)

I got paid in Starbucks to make cookies for one of Soder's co-workers. (Making 'money' is always fun, right?)

We bought Baby a new 'toy' for his birthday. It is a baby hiking backpack for him to ride in. While I don't know how much hiking we will be doing, it is great for when I want to take both dogs on a walk at the same time. (Taking a baby in a stroller with two dogs in tow is a tricky feat, one, that I will not partake in.) So this is actually a 'toy' for me. (also a great workout accessory, carrying around an extra 30 wiggly pounds has to be great weight training, right?)

My mom had her first chemo treatment and so far not a ton of horrible side effects. (she has had some, but not every one imaginable.) But a positive note, if you are looking for beanies (for when she loses her hair) if you buy them in the springtime, you can get some really great deals.

I guess it is good to be back blogging. I am sure this next few weeks will be easy to blog about, we have my first Mother's day, Soder's Bday, some very dear friends visiting, Baby's First Birthday and our Seventh anniversary. Busy, busy, busy, but in a good way.

Tulips, tulips everywhere!

I love spring flowers. The queen and king of them would have to be tulips and daffodils. I have planted more bulbs in my short 30 years than most people have. (My parents bought like 60 bulbs one year and I planted them one fall all in their front yard.) Needless to say, they are my favorite. Luckily, I live in a state that has a Tulip Festival every year. This year we were able to go and see the beauty of the area and it didn't disappoint. (Last year we couldn't go because it was too far from the hospital and I was too prego to enjoy it.) I loved the fields of daffodils. There were beautiful gardens there and also a breath-taking field of pink tulips. There was also a cute little boy that was with us that enjoyed all the activities (including tromping through muddy paths to get to the beautiful fields and riding the most of the time in the front carrier.) And of course there was the family portrait taken in front of the windmill (with the slight chance it could end up as our Christmas card come winter.) We had a great time and enjoyed the entire place. Next time we need to bring our galoshes and try to come on a less rainy weekend. (if that actually exists in the Pacific Northwest.)

Exhale!

The last two weeks have been the busiest I have ever been. After my trip to Utah, I had two days to recoup, (ie stock my kitchen shelves again and clean the house) before my inlaws came to visit. It was a great visit and was just the break I needed. Even though we were busy while they were here it was nice to have two sets of eager hands to watch the baby for me. Like I said before, while I was in Utah it felt like I was a single parent, running the show by myself. During this weekend, I got to spend a lot of time meditating in my kitchen, where I think I do some of my best thinking while making some pretty delish dinners. On Friday, we went to the Seattle Aquarium and had a great time because the weather actually cooperated with us and made it into a sunny spring day. On Saturday, we went to Bellevue for a little shopping and Kirkland for a little down time at the Lake. Sunday was a quiet day that ended with us taking them to the airport. It was a great visit and it really was refreshing to have some visitors here to not only get my mind off of everything happening in Utah, but to really make me happy to be back home in Seattle. It is always great to revisit your city with a fresh set of eyes. It makes you appreciate being at home and feeling like things are going to be ok. And now I can just relax and exhale because the next few weeks are going to be boring compared to the last two.

Times they are a changing

On a totally separate happy note,
Then....
Now....

Let the sunshine!

When the sunshines in the wintertime in the Northwest, you make sure you enjoy it. Everyone gets outside when the weather is nice especially since it has been so cloudy and rainy (I know, I know what do I expect when I live in wet Washington.) We took a long walk when we had some beautiful weather last weekend. (notice the baby sleeping bag and extra blanket on Baby... I said sunshine, I didn't say warm temperatures.) And then we all just hung out in the sunshine by our sliding glass door. I think everyone, especially Thing Two really enjoyed it. (Thing one was happy to have the couch all to herself while we were all on the floor)

It was just a great time and we all were in better spirits after we had a little vitamin D boost. Can't wait until the next sunny day, hopefully it will include some higher temperatures too. I am itching to break out my flip flops.

Long overdue Starbucks 'date'

On Saturday morning, we took a short little break and enjoyed a quick cup at our favorite 'date' spot, Starbucks. It was a far cry from the last time we really hung out there when Baby was a mere 3 weeks old and it was hot and sunny. It was fun because Baby has started eating dry cereal so he kept snacking on those while we were people watching. (our favorite past time) Great break from our normal Saturday routine. I wish we could do it every weekend.

Fall Time is here

Baby Loves his backpack

Last weekend, I didn't really do much (because I was working) except we did take a walk around our neighborhood with our entire brood. I have started walking the dogs on a more regular basis. I finally feel like I have a little bit better of a schedule going on with Baby and the Things have been so understanding this summer. I call him 'Hannibal' because he wears a muzzle when we walk (and very vaguely you can hear him say 'Chianti' and make a sucking noise like on the movie Silence of the Lambs.)

When I am alone with them, I have to take them one at a time on a walk. (I usually only take them around our apartment complex because it is a nice walk and then I can keep it fair. I don't need any sibling rivalry coming from the Thing department.)
It has been such a beautiful fall here in the Northwest, that I will forgive it for the crappy summer. I love fall. It has to be my favorite season (until of course I see Spring then I forget the beauty of Fall and become infatuated with all the new growth and colors.) But back to Fall, I love all the leaves and especially love to crunch the fallen leaves on the sidewalk and gutters. That is right, I still walk in the filthy disgusting gutters to satisfy my need for that crispy sound that only comes once a year. This picture just makes me smile and want to walk back down there to stomp and kick through one more street before this fall turns into the swampy cold, rainy winter that is just around the corner. It is definitely the little happiness in life. I am glad that one thing that has carried over from my childhood is the leaf crushing thing (well that and my horrible bad habit of chewing my nails, but that is for a different day.) I think I better leave the laptop and head out while the sun is shining......

It's a Utah Thing

On Saturday, my fellow Utahn-native and I decided to hit the only craft/holiday gift show in the Puget Sound area. We trekked all the way to Tacoma for this event. It was crazy to see all the eager women lining up to get a glimpse of what filled the Tacoma Dome. After parking and walking over to the dome, we excitedly waited for the doors to open.
Some of you may not know that Utah is not only a Mecca for Mormons, but also for everything crafty. I don't think there is a house along the Wasatch front that doesn't have something tole-painted adorning some wall. And while tole painting isn't our thing anymore, we both enjoy cute little decorations to put on our mantles. After paying a whopping $11.50 (which in the 'Tah, I have never paid over $5 to get into a craft show.), we were let loose to look around at the hundreds and hundreds of booths. I was quite disappointed when most of the booths were full of chinsy things. I think we only found a handful of booths that really had Utah quality crafts. Puget Sound has a lot of winning aspects but the craft field ain't one of them. Oh well, I better stock up on holiday decorations when I head back to the homeland in a few weeks.

Pumpkin Time

Once upon a time, there was a young couple with a 5 month old baby. The young couple has been learning to do all the fun parenting things so that their baby will experience it all. They decided one frosty morning that they would go to a pumpkin patch that you had to ride a hay ride to the field to pick your pumpkin. The only thing that the young couple didn't plan on was it being so cold. So instead of going to on the quaint little hay ride, they decided that it was too frosty and the baby wouldn't care where they got the pumpkin from this year. So they left and went on a trek to find another pumpkin patch. So with the baby safe in his car seat in the warm car they set off on their journey. After a few wrong turns they discovered this beautiful little tucked away neighborhood that had big fall trees full of fall leaves and it was along a very out of place red bricked road. It was a nice break to drive along the red bricked road and enjoy the scenery, but there were no smaller pumpkin patches. After about a thirty minute detour/scenic drive, the young parents did discover the perfect place for their baby to find his first pumpkin.
And so they romped through the small fields until they discovered the perfect pumpkin for their perfect little pumpkin. When it was found, they all were happy that they had discovered what they were looking for. (The 5 month old was actually still deciding if this was the perfect pumpkin or if he should still be asleep in the warm cozy car and also wondering why his mother put him in such a ridiculous hat.)
After paying for their find, they piled back into the car and headed home to relax and enjoy the rest of the lazy weekend. Next year, the young parents thought, it will be different because we will all be dressed warmly and on a hay ride we will all enjoy to find the perfect pumpkin.The End.

Goal accomplished

Soder's 'evil' number
Baby even participated
At the starting line
After the race... we survived.

On Sunday, Soder and I did our first 5k. While it wasn't the one I was hoping to do when I posted about this, we decided to do this one instead at the local city street festival, Salmon Days. It was a great time and we really enjoyed it because my sister and her family were participating in it as well. I was worried that the race started off as a bad omen when we saw Soder's number, which was 1666. I think he might use that as a reason not to do any others, that and he apparently has a weak right ankle that bothered him for the last mile of the race. I beat Soder because I am a faster walker. Baby was a great participant that slept the whole time and added a better workout to my walk because I was pushing 16 pounds plus the weight of the stroller. I was just proud that we all finished. I had a great time and can't wait to do another one.