Throwing Rocks

Being here in Washington for 2 months is great! It really feels like a vacation where you actually have time to see and do everything that you want to AND have time to relax. We planned out our site seeing schedule for the next 5 weeks (our last 5 weeks in Seattle). We started our planned site seeing adventures this past weekend.

Friday evening, Parker, Autumn and I picked Paul up from work and drove a few blocks over to Pike Place Market. It was awesome.

It started with a run in with a crazy lady (who was on something) that wanted to borrow our phone and promised she wouldn't steal it. She then continued to explain that the reason that she didn't have a phone was that she let someone borrow it and they took off running with it. Needless to say, we didn't let her hold the phone, but we did call a friend for her, with no luck.

I loved seeing all the vendors, the fresh fruit, the fresh flowers, paintings, jewelry, fresh fish (we were a little disappointed that no fish were being thrown), cuisines from all over the world, the first StarBucks, and all of the specialty shops and trinkets for sale. I loved the whole Marketplace atmosphere.
Saturday Morning we headed off to Whidbey Island via Deception Pass. Deception Pass is a bridge from the main land over to the North End of Whidbey Island. We were able to walk across the bridge and see the beautiful view of the Sound and some of the other islands. It was a beautiful day, although walking across the bridge was quite windy and cold. We hiked (there was a paved/dirt/gravel path that was fairly steep for carrying/pushing 2 kids) down to the beach to play for a while. It was quite rocky, but Parker didn't mind. All he wanted to do was throw rocks into the water anyway.

After the hike back up to the car, we drove down the length of the island, where we boarded the ferry (car and all). The ferry ride was pretty short, but just about perfect for the kids. We had plenty of time to get out and show Parker that we were riding on the water. I think he liked it, he just didn't want to get close to the edge.

We got off the ferry at Mukilteo Lighthouse Park. Yes, we saw a fully operational lighthouse. It was actually pretty cool to go in it and see how it worked, but the lighthouse itself wasn't all that grand in appearance (It was no Fairport Harbor, for any of you Ohio-ans out there). This Beach had a little more sand, but still a lot of rocks, so Parker enjoyed some good rock throwing once again (twice in one day). This Park is also known to be a great place for Kite Flying and since we happened (really just happened) to have a 'Thomas the Train' Kite in our trunk, we did a little kite flying. At first, we weren't sure if Thomas was going to fly, but apparently trains can ride the wind as well as the rails. After a few throws of the football, we ended our day and headed home in time for dinner.

After church on Sunday, we drove to the Seattle Temple. We sang 'I love to see the Temple' and took pictures. Paul decided that the Seattle Temple looks like a cross between the Provo Temple and the BYU Law School Building. I had to agree. The temple is such a peaceful place to be, even just on the grounds. Just behind the temple are some walking and nature trails. We walked through them and felt like we were in another world. It is a forest with nicely groomed trails, right in the middle of the city. It is a perfect place for pondering spiritual things after a temple visit.

On Monday, we relaxed quite a bit. We jumped on the trampoline, Paul helped with some yard work and Paul and Autumn had good naps. In the evening, we headed off to Richmond Beach (a nice beach about 30 minutes from our place). We had a peaceful evening on a blanket on the sand eating fruit salad, making sand castles and you guessed it, throwing rocks in the water. Happy Memorial Day!

Our baby girl is growing up!

Autumn is 8 months old!

She is still doing her army crawl, but has started to try out all fours as well.
Her first tooth just broke through.
She says Dadadada and Mamamama, but mostly Dadadadada. (Although, they don't really have any meaning to her yet).
She likes to clap. Her clap is mostly hitting two fists together.
She likes to make a lip smacking noise. She works so hard at it that she makes a fish face before the smack noise comes.
She loves music. She rocks to the music, kicks her feet or claps when she hears it.

Babies seem to be somewhat of an anomaly around here in the Seattle area. The very first time we went grocery shopping, a lady kept smiling at Autumn and then had to go get her friend to show her the baby also. I cannot believe how much attention I get with this baby girl. Just about every time we are out and about, someone stops to smile and giggle with Autumn. They go out of their way to tell me just how cute she is. I catch people of all ages and walks of life playing peek-a-boo or making their best silly face to get a smile out of this girl. Maybe there are plenty of babies around here, just none this adorable! Of course, as her Mom, I have somewhat of a bias.

Our Pretty Pretty Princess

It is hard to catch her with her hair bands on these days, she is always pulling them off.

Adam's Baptism

Last weekend, we got to drive down to Vancouver to see our little nephew, Adam, get baptized. It was a special day and we are so happy that we were able to be there. Adam is such a good kid. He is really smart and so funny. He is fun to play games with. We are so proud of him! My brother, John, and his wife, Emily, have such a cute little family. We are happy that we got to spend the weekend with them. I have included quite a few pictures. (Mostly, for my family that couldn't be there.)
Parker had so much fun playing with his cousins and keeps asking to go to John and Emily's house. He particularly loved to play with Ryan. He followed him around most of the time (and I think Ryan liked playing with Parker as well).

Autumn and Kaylee

Ryan and Parker

April

Autumn chillin'

We had a picnic at a really cool park on Saturday afternoon.

Mount St. Helens (Yes, that is it way off in the distance)

Parker was wiped out after such a fun weekend with his cousins. (You know I love the sleeping in the car seat pictures!)

MaryMoor Dog Park

Our upstairs neighbor took Parker, Autumn and I to a Dog Park. It is an off leash area for dogs to run around. It runs along a river and there are multiple areas for the dogs to get in the water, swim, and fetch tennis balls. There were all kinds of dogs there and Parker loved seeing them. He would just run up to the dogs and try to get them to chase him. He had no fear until one little dog did chase him and started barking. The dog was just trying to play, but Parker started crying. Of course, he was also nervous around the bigger dogs as well. I am not really a dog person, but it was a lot of fun.

Parker's New Friend

We haven't had a chance to get to know a lot of people in our ward yet, but Parker has made a new friend. This is Molly. Parker loves playing with her at nursery and play group. They just run around, giggle and copy everything the other one does...

Missionaries

Last Wednesday, we had the missionaries over for dinner. I wanted to write a quick note about it because it was the first time we have been able to have missionaries for dinner since we have been married. Parker enjoyed getting to sit next to them at dinner and he sang "I am a Child of God" for them. Now, he occasionally remembers to add the missionaries to his prayers without even being told. It was great to feel the spirit that the missionaries brought into our home and to be remind of the important role that we play in helping them to teach others the gospel.

Tulip Fields

On Friday, we went to the Tulip Festival in Mt. Vernon (about an hour north of us). We only stopped at one field, but drove by a few others. I am not sure these pictures do it justice. It was beautiful!

We're Not in Provo Anymore

We started our trip on Wednesday afternoon. After having made the quick trip back from Pocatello just the day before, Parker was not too happy to be back in the car again. He was good for the first part, but then the high picthed screaming started. We tried to tell him to use his inside voice and then we just tried to ignore it. Finally, we just gave him some candy until we were able to stop and let him run around a bit.

We made it to the Johnson's beautiful home in Boise, where we stayed for the night. What a treat! We had fun visiting with George, Caralee and Kevin. Caralee made us a great dinner and took great care of us for the night. I forgot how much I love Rice Krispie treats!

In the morning, we were back on the road again. We made it to Kennewick around lunch time and stopped to see one of Paul's mission companions and his family. The DeCoria's are great people. We continued on our way. The kids did great and Parker finally fell asleep about an hour or so before we arrived in Bothell where we are staying.

We are renting the basement of a home from a very nice family. It is bigger than our little apartment in Provo and we have DVR! We feel like we are living in luxury! Except for the spiders, of course.

I don't do spiders. Have I seen the movie 'Arachnaphobia'? Yes, at a young age and maybe that is what gave me this debilitating fear. As we were being shown our place, I saw a pretty big spider on the wall. I was going to have Paul kill it right then and there, but decided to wait until later. It was a few moments later that I learned that the family that we are living with prefers that we not kill spiders, but capture and release them outside. I didn't make any promises and let's just say the spiders that we have seen have been "taken care of." It really has not been too bad. There really have only been 2 living spiders found. And two quarter-sized hairy ones that were already dead. (Upon finding those, I immediately started praying that I would never find any of those alive. I might have to start sleeping in the car at that point.) Now that we have been here a few nights and have not seen too many spiders, I am feeling better. I just hope that we can coexist for a couple of months and not bother each other.

Parker has seemed to adjust without any trouble. There are new toys to play with here and even an air hockey table and a trampoline. The only adjustment was having Paul go back to work. Ever since Paul has been done with school for the semester, Parker has been all about Daddy all the time. The first day Paul went to his internship, I opened Parker's door in the morning, he said, "No, I want Daddy." He gave in when I told him that Daddy wasn't home. He asked quite a few times throughout the day for his Daddy, but has now gotten used to the fact that Daddy goes to work during the day.

Autumn was understandably clingy for the first day or two, but has now gotten used to our new home. She is army crawling all over this place.

Paul started his internship on Monday. His bus stop is just around the corner from where we live and it drops him off about 3 blocks from his work. He seems to enjoy what he is doing and has already gotten some good feedback on some work he has done. As anyone starting anything new, he was a little bit nervous. But he does well in everything he puts his mind to, he is a hard worker and he does everything with a smile. I am sure that they will be thoroughly impressed with him by the time we leave.

We took a trip downtown to get Paul's bus pass and look around. We got to see the building Paul works in (above) and the protesters in the May 1st Immigration march. Of course there were all kinds of other protesters there, from Health Care Reform to Gay rights. I guess it was more of a' March for your own Cause' here in Seattle. Good News is, they had drums and Parker thought it was just a fun parade and he loved it!

We are glad that we took the opportunity to see a little bit of Seattle when we did because it was a sunny day and every day since, it has been overcast and rainy. I guess what they say about Seattle is true.