March Fun

Another great visit from Gma Alice, full of quality kid time and abundant Dave and me time.

The kids absolutely loved Gma's IPAD and couldn't get enough of the games and books she had on there.

Piper enjoyed several sleep overs at Gma's apartment.  Special time for just her and Gma to hang out, visit the ice cream store and play games. Even the boys each got a turn with one on one Gma time and did really well with their individual sleep overs.

We are thankful for Gma Alice's bravery to take on our munchkins with such ease...well maybe not ease, but she indeed handles them well.

Allowing Dave and I to enjoy 24 hours away was such a treat and and an exciting window to what we have to come with our 15 day ten year anniversary trip this summer.

We didn't go far, but had an amazing time breaking trail in the 8 inches of new snow, with a blue bird day at the Ray Benson snow park, out past Sisters, Oregon.  We hadn't been back to this fun cross country ski trail since I was pregnant with Piper 5 years ago.  It was fun to relive what it was like back then, just the two of us.

With no schedule holding us back, we lingered and played in the snow.

Bombing down hills, making snow angels and doing cannon balls into the DEEP fresh snow.
What a fabulous day and topped it off with a long soak in the hotel hot tub.

Thank you Alice for the opportunity to get away, it was nice to relax knowing that the kids were in good hands!

Piper has been working for months on her world map project at school.  Each continent was slowly punched out with a pin poke, then she painted the Earth balls before taking the time to write out the name of each continent.  This photo doesn't do it justice, but we are proud of Piper's persistence to complete her map.  Way to go Monkey Moo!

How is this the only picture we captured of Lindsay and Keith with their hounds Hazelnut and Chloe?  What a fun 3 day visit we had, jam packed with good meals, walks, skiing and long overdue catch up time.  Lindsay has been one of my most favorite friends from B'ham, it felt so good to just spend time. We appreciated them making the trip to Bend for Spring Break, loved watching the dogs play and showing off our kid-lets.  Such warm loving people, love you guys!!!

We are starting to get spring fever, with a few nice days teasing us into thinking it is going to stay warm.  But then we see the snow still in the yard and have to remember we still have a ways to go.

It doesn't really matter, we play outside anyway. Dave even started preparing a section along our fence to plant corn.  We have high hopes for an amazing garden this summer. YAY!

Walk to town for ice cream before Gma gets on the airplane back to Arizona.

 YUM!

And now it is Spring Break for River Song School.  Hazel and Piper had a fun day keeping busy and playing hard.  We have a fun week planned with snow shoeing tomorrow, rock climbing Friday and more play dates in between...it is great to be a kid!

Seattle Trip

What a fun time to have a family spend over at our friends house in Enumclaw.  It is not everyone that we can bring our family of five (plus Mango) over to stay the night, but Ron and Jes welcomed us with open arms.  They understand the fun crazies of twins, with their boys Van and PK who are about 9 months older than Calvin and Jett.  We played hard and loved catching up with old friends.  VPK are such sweet boys, it was cute to see all the kids play.  Who would have thought when Ron, Jes, Dave and I were all hanging out 13 years ago that we would both end up with twin boys!

After our adventure at the Alfords, we continued our journey to Ballard for some quality time with the grandparents.  Well actually Dave and I hung out for a little bit before jetting off to meet up with our old boss and friend Jeff Rogers.  So good to see JR, it had been way too long, but his smile and heart   filled the room like always.  

For the weekend we enjoyed hanging out with family, Garret and Piper built amazing creations out of straws, Grandma read about 50 books to the kids and even Uncle Topher joined in for the fun.  

We were a little cooped up inside because of the rainy weather, but we squeaked in small window to play at the park down the street.  

Mango finally got the chance to meet his puppy cousin Cooper.  It was a rocky start, but they eventually worked it out to be buds.  Cooper is just a puppy and Mango loves to tell puppy's that he is the boss.  

It has been a busy trip, but so nice to spend time with the special people in our lives.  We always figure out a way to spend time with the Tylers, and this trip we had a small window before Shannon and Kyle headed out for a kid free vacation to Puerto Rico which they must so deserve!  The Tyler clan has 4 kids of their own, plus their two cousins and some how 3 more neighbor kids in the mix were all at their house when we came by.  So adding in our three made for 12 kids running around having a good time before coming in for a PB&J lunch.  I am always so impressed with Shannon and Kyle, and this day was no exception.  Ella, Luke, Nolan and Alice are all such nice kids.  Just as welcoming and warm as their parents, no wonder they always have a full house.

G.G. Poletti came for a visit and got lots of love from the kids.  As well as cousin Mercer who is one and a half, toddled around holding his own in the mix of his big cousins.  Fun to see his personality coming out and have the chance to catch up with my cousin Celeste.

Always a favorite stop while we are in Ballard is a trip to the Locks.  Please note the pretty picture that Piper took of David and I, as we were waiting to meet up with more old friends Nate and Rachel and their son Pierson.  Why do I keep calling our friends old friends?  I guess we are getting old, I don't feel like it, but we have known these guys since our college days, which now is 15 years ago.  Back then, looking at someone in their mid thirty's...with kids...man those people seemed old.  But now 15 years doesn't seem like that long ago.  Time is such a funny thing.    

Anyway it was great to see Nate and Rachel, meet their little guy and show off our little kid-lets.  I don't know if showing off is the right word, as they all ran off different directions and we almost lost Jett off one of the moving bridges.  =-)




















Then that evening we headed over to the Morales's for more play time and a yummy taco dinner.  What cute boys Jacob and Jude are, they showed us the ways of the light saber and Jerry and Jen shared a few thoughts on Italy while we had the chance to talk between someone having to get up from dinner to attend to the little monsters  running around the living room.

Sorry Jen, I had to steal this pic off your FB page because we were having too much fun and I never pulled out my camera while we were there!  

Unfortunately my mom was busy for several of the days we were in town, as she served her civic duty as a juror on a big case downtown. But we still got lots of special time making breakfast, playing beauty shop and even a trip to the mall for new shoes.

Piper is really looking forward to her solo trip back to Seattle this summer while Dave and I celebrate our 10 years of marriage in Italy and Switzerland.  More on that trip in another post, but Piper can't wait to go get her nails done, head back to the Space Needle, have spend overs at Auntie Lisa and Uncle Kevin's house and overall just have special Piper time with no brothers to share the attention with!    

Calvin, Jett and Piper all liked watching the car races with Grandpa!

And then there is the birthday boy, David turned 36 while we were here (February 28th for anyone taking notes) !  =-)  We had a super fun day at the aquarium, with one of the highlights seeing a scuba diver in the big wall tank.  We spent a couple hours wandering around checking out the feeshes.  The kids loved the seals, the new baby otter and several of the tropical fish that Piper actually remembered seeing in Hawaii last year.

That evening my parents watched the kids so Dave and I could meet up with Topher again for a birthday sushi dinner.  Then the main present was Dave getting to fly to Denver to meet up with 7 of his old high school friends for a weekend of skiing, ice climbing and any other shenanigans that this old crew can come up with.  Fun times I am sure. =-)  He deserves it, all the time and love Dave pours into me and the kids, this weekend away is the least we can give him.  We love you daddy and cant wait for your return!