4th of July 2009

Hope everyone had a relaxing 4th of July this year. We kicked it at our friends, Scott and Angela's house along with another couple and their two little boys.

The boys all had a great time running around the yard, playing in the water and consuming a lot of goodies. Scott was cooking up a 4th of July smorgasbord of food that included pork roast slow cooked in the smoker all day, crab legs and corn on the cob along with sides of coleslaw, pasta salad and a fruit tray from the ladies.

Just before Jayden had to go down to bed, dad was able to sneak a few fireworks in this year. Nothing too crazy even though those are DEFINITELY available up here, crazy place up north called BoomCity that has 100 stands of craziness. Even though he was a fan of the few that dad set off he was still won over by what I think is the #1 firework ever made for kids - PopIts.

We're going to the Beach, Beach, Beach......

The Friday before the 4th was supposed to be a beautiful day so we decided we needed to get out and enjoy it. We have not done too much exploring up north here since we moved to Everett and figured this was as good a time as any. A friend of ours suggested we try Whidbey Island and Deception Pass state park.

We looked up Deception Pass and it was only an hour drive up north. It had hundreds of camping sites, day use camping areas, salt and fresh water beaches as well as swimming areas. Sounded perfect!!

Since Jayden still will not nap anywhere other than the car and his bed, we headed out early to try and make the most of the day. Jayden was excited.

When we arrived at the beach area it was awesome. There were ton's of shore line to play on with BBQ's and picnic tables. Even though it was typical Washington shoreline, some sand and a lot of rocks, Jayden did not mind. He spent the better part of an hour throwing rocks into the water and wading out a bit to get his feet wet.

After the rock throwing we walked to the swimming area close by. It was nice and sandy there with a nice roped off area that was pretty shallow. Jayden had a blast splashing around and walking out to the deeper areas with mom and dad. A small puddle of water, which he called his "bath", provided the perfect spot for him to plop down and play in the mud/sand while mom and dad set up a picnic blanket and relaxed a little.

Soon after we enjoyed our picnic, we packed up and headed to the car, stopping along the way for a snow-cone. We had a great time and will definitely be back!!

Merry Christmas Everyone

Just a quick note to say Merry Christmas to everyone. We hope that you all have a wonderful day.

Wanted to post a few pictures and videos of our day. Jayden was very much into Christmas this year and was very excited that Santa made his way to our house. Hope you enjoy the pics/movies.

Sorry, had to split the movies into 3 parts. Supposed to be one 13min video, but the web site I host pic's and vid's on has a 5min limit per video. So just watch them in order to get the same effect :)

Getting some Joy out of the Constant Snow Flakes

In case you have been under a rock the last week, it has been dumping snow up here in the great north west. Over the past week we have gotten over a foot of snow in Everett and 8" in downtown Seattle. For a place with lots of steep hills and annual snow fall is just under 3" that's a heck of a lot!! Of course that means most are not prepared for driving in it and that ends up causing wrecks, delays and all kinds of issues. In fact the last three bus rides I have taken (or tried to take) I have waited a total of 5 hours for the bus!

On the bright side I have "had" to stay home for the better part of a week and we have gotten out and enjoyed the snow as much as we could. Jayden seems to really like the snow and this is the first year he could really get out and play in it. Unfortunately the snow that fell was a real soft powder and not very good for making snow men, but mom did manage to snag the last sled from RiteAid and we had lots of fun with that. Hope you enjoy the pic's.

Happy 4th of July Everyone

I hope you all had a relaxing weekend and were able to enjoy a BBQ and possibly a cold beverage.

We headed over to a friends house for the traditional BBQ, etc our selves. There where several other couples joining us, all with younger kids. We had a really good time and Jayden got to play a lot and eat a lot of yummy food.

Darn E-Mail never stops...

After the little ones went to bed we played some games in the backyard. Horse shoes and croquet where the games of choice. It was fun watching us all try and throw the horse shoes like we knew what we were doing.

Our friends Angela and Scott were great hosts. They just moved into this new house and they have tons of room and a big back yard. We did not really do any fireworks. Mostly due to the fact that one of the houses in their neighborhood just recently caught on fire and did tons of damage so no one was really in the "lite stuff on fire" mood. Plus the boyz are a bit young to really enjoy it just yet.

We finished the night off watching the fireworks on TV.

One funny before hand story was what I will refer to as "The Mellon-ball Incident". Missy had decided to bring a nice fruit tray to the BBQ. It was to be filled with all sorts of tropical delights. One of which was going to be watermelon. She worked hard at making these nice ping pong ball sized "melon balls" out of it using, of course, a melon baller. They where perfect little guys. After she was done she came into the living room and sat down. About this time Jayden walked into the kitchen as he always does and Missy and I started talking about the day or something like that. Jayden is a big fan of the watermelon and about a minute later we both kind of had this "He's really been quite in there" moment of "oh crap!" Missy walks in and sees melon balls all over the kitchen floor and carpet! Jayden quickly deduced that mom was not to pleased with him and left a smoke trail to the living room. I came in and saw the mess all over the floor and tried my best not to start laughing out loud (Missy understandably not really ready to "look back and laugh" just yet). What he had managed to do was take his riding dump truck toy and prop it up against the cabinets. Stood on top of it (pry on his tip-toes), opened the plastic bowl with the melon balls and scoop out arm loads, all while being supper quite. That boy has got mad skillz. Luckily he did not get that many and there were plenty left for the tray.

I think he learned a valuable lesson - When sneaking food never take more melon balls than you can eat or carry.