More Pictures

I found some more pictures of my sweet Grandma, and Grandpa. It has been so fun to reminisce will going through the pictures. There are so many happy memories. I love them both so much.

This is the classic way my grandma's birthday always ended. Every year the extended family would get together for a picnic. By the end of the night a water fight would break out, and only end when Grandma hid the handle to the outdoor faucet. What a great way to celebrate a birthday!

(Those are my two older brothers shivering in the front of the photo. Aren't they cute?)

Happy Birthday!

Today my grandma would have turned 91. Happy birthday Grandma! I miss her so much, but am so grateful for the wonderful life that she was able to live and that I was able to be a part of it. I wish that I had a better picture, but this is the only one that I was able to find. This picture was taken when my brother was entering the MTC.

Family Reunion

After our trip to Seattle, we made our way back to Eastern Washington. Mike's sisters and their children, except Kristina, all traveled to his mom's house for a get-together. Bruce (Nanette's husband) wasn't able to make it over either, he had to work. All of the kids had a great time together. We played in the sprinklers, swam in the neighbors pool, played volleyball and badminton, and threw the football around. It was so fun to see my kids getting to know their cousins better, and just having fun. Here are some pictures of our little reunion.

Little man will be one next month. Since we do not get to celebrate birthdays with Mike's family, we had a little party for him with them. Kris made a cake with Winnie the Pooh and Tigger figures, and we opened presents with the family. Little man was so excited for the cake. He started out a little tentative, but it didn't take him long to dive right in. He was mad when I took it away.

Woodland Park Zoo

The zoo in North Seattle is amazing. We thought that we would be able to breeze through it in a few hours. We have made it through Hogle Zoo pretty quick, so we didn't plan to spend a huge amount of time there. Boy were we wrong. We spent almost four hours walking quickly around the zoo, and we still missed at least a third of the animals. The entire zoo is beautiful. There are so many trees and flowers all along the paths, and the enclosures for the animals are amazing. The kids had a great time, but were very tired by the end. I think the gorillas were my favorite part. There was a large male, a female, and a few young gorillas. They are able to move around the trees so gracefully. Peanut loved to see the giraffes, and Bugs like the elephants and the hippos. At the end of the day, of course we had to ride the carousel. What a fun way to end our vacation in Seattle.

Seattle

Just to warn you.... There are a ton of pictures, so keep on scrolling (there will be more to come later too). I posted everything in the order that they occured. Sorry that puts the first items of the day three posts down, instead of the first post. What can I say I am still learning.

Space Needle

This picture was taken on our cruise of the Puget Sound.
Looking up, and the girls thinking "we are going all the way up there!?"

Looking out over Seattle

This is the attitude pose. I don't think that Peanut got the memo, but the other two sure did.

Argosy Cruise and Pacific Science Center

After the aquarium, we headed to the Argosy Cruise ship. We were able to take an hour cruise around the Puget Sound. It was gorgeous, but very cold. Luckily the day warmed up, and we were able to enjoy walking down the waterfront. This wasn't the actually ship that we rode on, but I couldn't pass up the photo op.

Our little family on the cruise ship.

After the cruise, we went to the Pacific Science Center. Bugs was very excited to see the butterfly house. I'm not sure that she realized that they would be flying around free. She was a little nervous to go inside, and did not want to stay in very long. They all liked sitting on "the grub" however.

"Has any one seen Bugs?"

"Oh. there you are! Great camouflage"

The science center has some great water toys outside. They teach a lot about kinetics. The girls had fun squirting and turning the water toys. It was a great way to end the afternoon. We spent over two and a half hours there, but we could have spent double that. If we had it to do over again, we would start at the Science center, and then the aquarium. Oh well, you live and you learn.

The Aquarium

Last week took our family on its first official family vacation. We started the day off at the Seattle Aquarium. Both of the girls loved touching the starfish.
There were sea birds walking in the sand behind the girls. Of course they moved out of the camera view as I took the picture.

This is a typical pose for Bug right now. She is all attitude.

Peanut has such an innocent smile, although I'm sure she is wondering how she can get in the tank or how she can let the fish out. We love her to death, but she is a tease.