Temple Square

 

In April we headed to Utah for a long weekend to attend Emily Hansen's sealing in the Salt Lake Temple.  We have known Dave & Janae' Hansen since 1991, twenty two years!  Here's a funny story:  I was telling David's brother how cool it would be to see someone you knew at temple square, but there are so many people that that would never happen.  Not thirty minutes later I see a guy I know, then a lady I didn't know, his brother and then I saw his mother my friend from Oregon!  I ran up to her and hugged her tight!  I haven't seen her in years, it was so nice to say hi and visit for a few minutes.  I miss Mary.



Happy 9th Lego Birthday Party!

 This may very well be that last fun little kid party we have so we went all out!  Bry wanted a lego party, well since that is all he ever does anymore!  He just wanted a home party with lots of games.  Taylor set up the Ninja Run in the hallway and the kids loved it!

 We decided to make our own pizzas, which was fun.  While they were all at the table eating they began telling jokes!  It was so funny to listen to them from the kitchen, they were having a blast!  The best joke came from Kacie, "What do trees drink?   Rootbeer!"

 How embarrassing!  The table was set so nicely too, but ten nine year olds tore it apart!  Also the cute display of candy had been taken to be put into the goody bags.

 Gifts... they couldn't get close enough to Bryant!

 Every thing turned out great.  It was definitely crazy with eleven nine year olds!  They were loud and so full of energy!  Todd limited them to half a cup of rootbeer then water.  While we waited for parents to arrive we had them jump some energy off!  Happy Ninth Birthday to my favorite son who always has a huge smile on his face! 

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!