Sunday, August 5, 2012

Click III

This is always one of my most favorite kind of post to do! A "Click" post. (See Click IClick IIClick II continued for others.) This is the time when we upload all the photos from our phones onto the computer. The following photos were all taken in 2011 from about mid summer leading up to Christmas.
The Woodland Park Zoo had a dinosaur exhibit last year that William and Andrew were very excited about. We decided to check it out, I thought it was all very underwhelming, but these two sure had a blast. Their favorite part was the velociraptor that would "spit" on you as you walked past.
 2 cute kids with 2 cute haircuts
William and I attend a Nature School every Monday. Natalie must have not had school this particular Monday because she joined us at the Ballard Locks for a fun lesson about fish. Afterwards the kids got to make their own fish out of paper plates and pipe cleaners. I think the pipe cleaners were supposed to give the fish a decorative flare, Natalie decided they should be used to make her fish look like it was throwing up. Nice.
 Some how Natalie and I convinced Will to play "Pretty Pretty Princess" with us one afternoon. He ended up winning and becoming the prettiest princess of all! I'm sure he'll love these photos when he's 16.
 I think these were taken at the Brandi Carlile concert last year at Zoo Tunes. Every year The Woodland Park Zoo hosts family friendly concerts, we attended this show with the kids and their mom, it was a beautiful night and a great show. 
 Here I am with a gigantic radish that I harvested out of my little garden plot. 
Funny story about radishes... you know how when you buy radishes in the grocery store you get a big bunch of them? Well I thought they grew like that, yeah, in bunches. So I planted 5 seeds, only to realize come harvest time I would only get 5 radishes. Good thing I got a big one, right?
 Some more photos of all that I managed to squeeze out of my plot last year.
Last year during Seafair I made it my personal mission to get Natalie and William comfortable and excited to watch the Blue Angels zipping over Seattle. I know they're loud but they're also awesome and I knew they would have a good time if they just gave it a shot. Above is a picture of them sporting their noise cancelling headsets hamming it up for the camera. 
Here are the Blue Angels flying over Seward Park.
 Finally here are Natalie and William happily playing in the sand (sans headsets) while the jets zoomed above. Success! (They thought they were awesome!)
 Ben and I checked out a new (for us) restaurant in Madison Park last summer called Cactus. We mentioned it was our first time at the restaurant and they surprised us with a free dessert! Three cheers for Cactus and free dessert! 
 William's red bell pepper "bra", or as he would say it "bwa". 
This kid cracks me up on a daily basis.
 Ben and Will enjoying some chocolate milk.
Our first Sounders game! It rained, but we had a good time anyway!
 William took a dinosaur class last year at the community center... we had a great time making dinosaur related crafts.
 Vinegar and Baking Soda Volcano!!! Every kid's favorite project!
 Can't make it through Halloween without some Count Chocula cereal! A bowl of sugary fun!
 William's first Jello Jigglers. My mom used to make these for our birthday treats in elementary school, they're just as good 20 years later.
 Harry Potter... or... Chicken Little?
 Once again this little guy always gets a laugh, wherever he goes. 
Alright I think that officially wraps us up for 2011!! 
HOORAY!! 
Onto 2012... only 8 more months of memories and I'm all caught up!

Christmas 2011

Alright, I've almost completed 2011 in my recap. Here you have a horrible quality photo of our Christmas tree this year. (Most likely taken with my phone.) Just posting this photo makes me long for the day when I can get out my twinkling lights and prance around the house decorating. Ben gave me permission (ha!) a few years ago to start decorating on November 1st. I know, I know, all you Thanksgiving-enthusiast will turn your noses up at me but decorating earlier makes me all the more thankful for my Christmas decorations!

Only 141 more days until Christmas 2012! 
 Ben and I got iPhones for Christmas this year. (It's changed my life for the better and probably for the worse.) This is the first official photo we took with one of our new phones. Hooray!
It wouldn't be Christmas without some sweet rolls. These are the famous butterscotch sweet rolls that I would wait for every Christmas as a young girl. My parent's friends, Bill and David would deliver them warm on Christmas morning. We all thought it was a secret family recipe and were a little nervous to ask for it a few years ago. Bill graciously gave my dad the recipe and all the tricks to the trade (butterscotch Jello pudding mix) a few years ago and I've been making them ever since. This year I actually had a few people request some Christmas morning deliveries. I was more than happy to oblige! 

These are the only other two pictures I took Christmas morning, and of course there is a story behind them. Every year my mom gets Carrie and me some cozy, comfy, super soft fleece pajamas. This is something I've began to expect to be under the tree. We love them.

Colin & Ben have deemed these pajamas as frumpy and relentlessly tease us in our fleecy pants that are covered in snowmen or reindeer or florescent green polka-dots. So this year my mom searched high and low and found some extra plush, super soft, guy pajama bottoms to give to the boys. I'm pretty sure I saw Ben sportin the fleece bottoms a time or two after Christmas. 

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Downtown Day III

We had our annual Downtown Day during Christmas this year. Andrew couldn't join us but we had some other friends come with us for the day. Our first stop: the gigantic train in the Seattle Center House. 

 One day you'll be able to see over the barrier Will. :-)
 Our friends met us at the train and we all hopped onto the Monorail and rode down to Westlake Center for the merry-go-round.

 Every year I get a picture of Natalie, William and usually Andrew all on one horse. See below:
 2010
2011
 2012
Clearly Natalie is OVER this tradition! I couldn't get her to smile even for a second. (Hahahahaha, I can't get over how funny this photo is!) I get the drift Nat, you're getting "too old" for this I wont make you do it again! 
 Next stop the Teddy Bear Suite! 

 After the Teddy Bear Suite we said good-bye to our friends and headed back to the bus home. We found these awesome mazes near the EMP and ran around in them for a little while. We also had an impromptu photo session next to the flashy purple EMP walls. Indulge me. You're about to encounter a picture overload.  



 This one displays Natalie's usual look lately, she's getting way too old!


 Oh yeah, William got some swords that he needed to show off!