Pre-Christmas Activities 2013

 So not sure what happened with this photo, but it is kind of cool!  This is Taylor holding Summer Smart at our ward Christmas dinner.  Below is Sydney and Emmie talking with the snow fairy at the Snowflake Lane in Bellevue.  Every year we meet up with the Rigtrup, Allen and Paternoster families for FHE and head to Snowflake lane for dancing fun!  The kids get lollies from the  high school students dressed as nutcrackers and then the drummers come down the street and play for twenty minutes, so fun and festive.  This helps me get into the holiday spirit every year!

 I finally got a photo of both Jon and Bry looking happily at the camera!  They always have fun dancing and trying to avoid the girl fairies!

San Juan Island

 We got up very early to drive to Anacortes, Wa to catch a ferry to the San Juan Island.  It was a bit socked in weather wise but the sun came out about 11am and was perfect!  It was a bit chilly when we first got there as you can see Bryant refused to get dressed in his shorts and chose to stay in his pajamas!  Above, we had hiked to a lighthouse, which was small and disappointing.  Down from the edge they are walking to is this down in the next photo.

 The kids spent forever climbing all over the rocks searching for sea life and seaweed!  Bryant also found a yellow balloon, go figure?

 We stopped by the American camp and the English camp, how fitting as our guests are from England.  The English camp was so cool, it was situated on a nice little bay and neatly laid out unlike the American's camp that wasn't around anymore.  We just went into a small interpretive center to learn about how the two countries were arguing over who owned the islands.

 Bryant, Stayson and Adam are watching a man clean a salmon in Roche Harbor, where we stopped to eat lunch.  Below is called Lime Kiln Beach or "whale watching beach".  The kids again just had fun playing on the rocks and looking for sea life.  No whales, darn!

 and climbing trees...

 This is Friday Harbor and it is such a quaint little port.  The guys are talking sail boats as Stayson has purchased a fixer upper one and has yet to do anything to it.  Below is a photo of the babies fast asleep after a long day.  It is an hour and twenty minutes to drive to the ferry in Anacortes... late night.

Taylor's visit

 Mt. St. Helens was pretty amazing.  We tried to go to the Ape Caves too, but they were on the other side of the Mountain, darn!

 We took the Taylor family who was visiting from England to go clamming.  Here they are shucking and eating oysters!  Even little Bry ate one and said it wasn't bad at all.  Sarah in the end didn't do it, she tasted the salt water and gave up.  James put a huge one in his mouth and it wouldn't go down and he ended up spitting it out, gross!  Stayson said he ate four or five!  Those were the brave ones!  Sydney found some baby star fish, they were so cute!

 After a quick lunch we headed to the other side of the spit to dig up clams.  All you do is rake the top layer of sand off and dig around with your hands and they are everywhere!  We collected 140 clams and then the next day we had my friend Stephanie come teach us how to steam them, actually not bad at all!  Everyone loved them! 

 On the way over to the spot to clam we took two trips shuttling everyone, but on the way back we decided to make one trip.  Our poor little fishing boat couldn't plane and was slow...running at full board.  That's a lot of weight!  We had a beautiful day at the beach and so much fun too!

Wedding

 Todd's cousin was married this past weekend in Friday Harbor on the San Juan Islands.  We had to drive an hour and a half to get to the ferry then an hour on the ferry to just get there.  It was beautiful out there but I don't like being stuck on an island relying on the ferry as your only way off!  The wedding was a fairy tale garden wedding.  It was so fun to visit with Todd's uncle Bill and his family again.  I decided to try to get a good photo of Bryant to hang on the wall by the girl's Eight year old baptism photos.  I think I got some good ones.  He doesn't last long so we just kept walking around to find a good place for pictures and he was a good sport until the end!

 Sydney loves her daddy! 

 The kids were sitting on the back of the car getting ready to change their clothes and fell in, too funny!  Taylor was the Tate-sitter!  She saved the wedding for Cousin Shannon!  Look at those runner thighs and bum, goodness!

Pinewood Derby 2013

 First time ever to scouts, because of baseball games on the same night, just happened to be Pinewood Derby!  Bryant worked on design and cutting with his dad and then he painted his car all by himself!  Purple, blue and green! 

 This is too funny!  Can you tell this was his first time ever to participate in a flag ceremony?  Ha ha, he is saluting at who knows what, not the flag!  Below he is just chilling while waiting for the races to begin.

 His car just kept winning, he was loving it!  Here he is with the winners, he took third place and was all smiles!  What a great fun introduction into cub scouts!  The next time he was able to make it a police detective came and took them through a staged crime scene!  

First year of kid pitch 2013

 I have to say the kids have improved so much over the season.  At first almost everyone walked and pitches were wild.  When Bryant is bored he practices his pitching stance, he is actually an okay pitcher too.

 This year his father has umpired a lot of his games and Bryant enjoys this.  Todd is a very vocal ump, watch out on strike three- you will definitely know you are out!  He makes a lot of kids cry, so sad...  he loves it though.

100 meter race

Poor Taylor has been suffering from chondro malacia, which is runner's knee.  Her knee cap moves slightly to the side when she runs which causes inflamation and pain under her knee cap.  She is supposed to be icing, taking ibuproferin and wearing a knee sleave to help it.  She won't wear the knee sleave because she doesn't like it...  I guess she'll never know if it helps or not then!

Second 8th Birthday Party!

 Second 8th Birthday party!  All three sets of Grandparents were here except Papa, who was home with bad back pain.  Aunt Kacie and her kids drove 14 hours to be with us too, crazy!  Aunt Sherry and Uncle Ben were here too.

 This is after the baptism, I didn't get any photos of them in their white clothing as we arrived right before it started and Todd and Bryant were already in the chapel sitting up front... darn.  Then they rush into the font so fast I missed them again.  Oh well.  The photos below were so funny as he didn't want his photo taken anymore and by the time we got the one with Aunt Sherry, he was so done! Ha ha!

 Grandma & Grandpa Ryan

 Grandma & Grandma Jensen

 Nana & Aunt Louise minus Papa

 Aunt Sherry

 box one

 box two

 box three

 box four

 box five

 box six

 and inside the final box was Bryant's new Scriptures from Gpa & Gma Ryan!  So fun, he had a blast opening each and ever box!