We Love Washington!

The other day we decided to go have a picnic at the park. It was pretty busy, and we heard probably four different languages being spoken all around us. We love living in Washington! Here are some of the reasons why:

• We love the diversity. Especially with Boeing being so close by, people from all over the world come to work here. It's nice not being the same as everyone. It gives us an opportunity to share what we believe and the traditions we have, and learn and gain new perspectives from others coming from such different backgrounds.
• We love that we have such a variety of friends. We have our church friends, our neighbor friends, work friends, friends we've made being involved with the community through our bakery and through the neighborhood association. We've even become really good friends with our bank teller at Wells Fargo! We've found some really great friends!
  
• We love the climate here! Summers are beautiful--70 degrees and sunny most days! Winters here don't get nearly as cold or snowy as in Utah. The rainy season should be starting again shortly. Last year's rainy season didn't get to me as much as I thought it was going to. Utah is just as gray throughout the winter, so it wasn't much different. It just lasted a little bit longer.
• There is water everywhere. It seems like every turn you make there is another lake, and if you want to go to the beach, the Puget Sound is just a couple miles away.
  
• It is green and beautiful.
• Probably most importantly, we love how much we have learned since living here. We've learned how to truly live frugally, the power of generosity, how to rely on each other as husband and wife to get through our trials. Chris and I are closer than we've ever been in our almost five years of marriage.
  

Have we sold any of you on Washington yet? Our next goal is to convince all of you family members to make the move and join us! That would be the best, and make us love Washington even more!

Here are a few pictures of our picnic at the park for you to enjoy.

Vist from Gram and Grandpa

Last month Chris' grandparents came to visit for a couple days. It was so much fun having them stay with us. We forgot to take any pictures, but we have one sweet video of Gram reading to Sam before bedtime. Enjoy!


Thanks for the visit! You're welcome to come any time! We love you guys!

Sam's 1st Princess Party

Sam was invited to his first princess party last month for his friend Bella. Besides Jet, Bella's almost 2 year old cousin, Sam was the only boy amid many beautiful princesses. He took home a little princess party goody bag which he carried around all over for days. When he couldn't find it, he'd ask, "Mom, where is my princess bag?" It was kind of funny and cute!

We don't have as many opportunities to play with Bella since she moved south with her mom, but we love when she comes to visit!

Fort Casey

Back in September, Chris, Sam, and our friend Troy went to Fort Casey over on Whidbey Island. It is an old US Coast Guard artillery fort.

From what I heard about their afternoon, Sam was fascinated with the big guns and the lighthouse, and as always, he enjoyed the ferry boat ride over to the island! He loves spending time with Troy, who he claims is his very best friend!

My Half-Day Off

I normally have Thursdays off. Since Chris is off most days by 9am-ish, he and Sam get to go do lots of fun things together. They go to the beach, parks, the aquarium, kite flying, canoeing, and other fun stuff. It's nice that they get to spend so much time together. Since I work full-time at my 9-6 job, I miss out on most of it. So lately Chris has been planning things for my days off to make sure that I don't feel left out.

So yesterday we went on a hike together--just the three of us! It was a beautiful day, and a nice little trail (the place is called Meadowdale Park for any of you locals who want to go check it out). We hiked down to a rocky beach, had lunch, and hiked back.

When we got home, we all took a nap. I woke up to the phone ringing--it was one of our employees wondering where I was. I am the one who does the scheduling over at the bakery, and normally I don't give myself a shift because I work full-time at my other job. But this week I was on the schedule because I got Labor Day off and we are training a new girl. I completely spaced that I was supposed to be there at noon, and we got their call at 2:15! Oops! I was so embarrassed! I told Chris I should be fired! He was so nice and went over right away and worked my first hour until I was cleaned up and ready to work.

So for making sure I have fun things planned on my day off, and being willing to cover part of my shift, Chris is a pretty wonderful guy and I think I'll keep him around!

Sam's 3 Year Old Doctor Visit

In keeping with tradition, here are Sam's stats from his 3 year old doctor visit:

Weight: 33 lb 12.8 oz (67.88%)
Height: 3' 1.5" (43.58%)

Here are his two year, 15 month, nine month, four month, and two month stats just in case you were dying of curiosity (mostly it's just a place to record it all, so I won't feel too bad if you really don't care).

Blue Bath Water

Sam wanted more bath bubbles, so he poured about half a bottle of Chris' body wash in the tub.

Labor Day Adventures

Here are some highlights from our Labor Day weekend:

• A better than normal day at the Farmers Market and at our store
• A nice day at church with Primary kids that actually sang with me during singing time
• A yummy Sunday dinner
  
• LOTS of family time playing dominoes, playing Sam's little fishing game, having tickle fights, reading stories, etc.
• free movie rentals from the library (I recently discovered that you can look online on the library's website for movies, place a hold on them, and then just go pick them up when they're ready. It's so easy, and you can get nice movies for free and keep them for one week! Some of them have a long hold time--I'm still number 20 in line waiting for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but that's okay. All the others came quickly and I ended up getting five of the movies I requested all at once. The only one we didn't get to this weekend was the new Indiana Jones movie. I've always loved the library for good French films, but now I can get cool new releases too!)
• Haircuts by me for both Chris and Sam (and may I add, they look so handsome!)
• A bus ride down to Seattle
• A visit to the Seattle Aquarium
• Afternoon naps
• And I squeaked in a tiny bit of bookkeeping--I had to labor just a little bit, I couldn't help it.

Here are some pictures of our trip to the aquarium (by Eliza's request).

Walking down from the bus stop to the aquarium. In the background you can see Pike Place Market, and just down from there is the aquarium. We had typical Seattle weather--cool and rainy. I like it! I think it's cozy!


A scuba diver (one of the divers took Sam's picture with his underwater camera)


Sam and me


A scuba diver (one of the divers took Sam's picture with his underwater camera)


Sam's breakdown at Subway


On the bus

We also saw an octopus that was really quite ugly. But did you know that they can change colors? This one did! We also saw sea otters that Sam always likes.

So really I guess our weekend was pretty low key, but it was nice to spend lots of quality time together as our little family.

Trip to Utah

We had a great visit down in Utah last month. It was great to see family and friends and take a break from our crazy busy lives up here. We didn't take any pictures, so any posted on here are stolen from other people's blogs. We did take a couple movies, so enjoy.

We left Friday night after I finished work at 6pm. We drove through the night taking turns, and arrived in Utah at 8am the next morning. Sam pretty much slept through the night and there was no traffic so the trip down was pretty easy other than the fact that we were exhausted when we got there. The reason for the trip was to see Chris' (big) little brother Jordan who just returned home from his mission in Louisiana.

A random picture of Jordan from his missionWe got to spend time with some friends, go to my sister's baby shower, attend Jordan's homecoming sacrament meeting, hang out with lots of family, eat lots of good food, go fishing, and shopping. It was a quick trip, but really nice to see everyone again.

From the baby shower

This is a video of me and Chris catching our fish. And the second one is of Sam catching his fish.

Pizza Party

If you know me at all, you'd know that one of my main loves in life is pizza. I also love spending time with good friends. So when we realized the time was getting short for one of our friends here who's moving to Texas, we decided to combine the two and have a going-away pizza party at our bakery. We're so sad to see them go, but wish them luck in their new adventures! We used our Popeye bread for the dough, added toppings, and voila!

(I don't know why Sam insisted in sitting in the high chair. He's the oldest kid there.)

Sam will miss his buddy Kaylee.

And we will their whole family. Good luck!

Mini Mission Reunion--Washington Style

Last Sunday I met up with one of my old mission companions. We both live in Washington--about 3 hours apart--so we decided to meet in the middle. We met in Olympia at a random park and had picnic. Before this visit, we hadn't seen each other in over five years--it was just a few weeks before she got married, and a few months before I got married. A lot has changed since then.

She was one of my companions in the MTC (we were in a threesome). And then we served together again in Geneva, Switzerland. Some of the best times of my mission were with her.

Us as brand new missionaries in the MTC. "Hey look at us! We're missionaries!" July 2003

These were taken in Geneva. July-October 2004

And here we are now!

And these are some of the good things that happened to us after the mission.

Thanks for making the drive to see us, Soeur. Je t'aime!

Happy Bastille Day!

Happy Bastille Day a couple weeks late! Thanks to a cute sister of mine who mailed us our cake mix, food coloring, frosting, and coin to hide in the cake!

Click here for an explanation of the holiday if you're not familiar with it.

Farmer's Market

We have been participating in the Lake Stevens Farmer's Market. I help Chris set everything up, stay for about an hour, and then go back to our store with Sam to cover the last two hours until we close. Chris usually wakes up around 3am, comes home for a couple hours in the early afternoon, loads up the cars around 3pm, and comes home from the market around 9:30pm. It's a big day, but has helped out our little store tremendously!

Here is a little video of our tent.

Sam Turns 3 and Other Adventures

We had my parents, sister, and her three girls come visit for a little over week to celebrate the 4th of July and Sam's 3rd birthday. We had such a great time together and did lots of fun stuff (I had to miss some of these activities because I had to work. For a full account, see my dad's blog):

- Watched a parade in downtown Everett
- Watched fireworks over Lake Stevens
- Went to Forest Park's petting zoo
- Swam at a pool
- Enjoyed a scenic drive to Snoqualmie Falls
- Played at the beach (though there wasn't much beach because the tide was so high)
- Enjoyed a couple free movies at the local movie theater
- Went bowling
- Went to a fun concert in the park at Silver Lake
- Had dinner at the farmers market and enjoyed the bluegrass music in the park
- Enjoyed another scenic drive to Deception Pass on Whidby Island, and a ferry ride back to Everett
- Celebrated Sam's 3rd birthday on Jetty Island

Sunday morning after my dad, sister, and the girlies had left for their long drive home (my mom flew home later that evening), Sam woke up and asked where everyone went and when there were coming back. He cried when I told them they were gone. He had such a good time with his cousins.

We didn't take any pictures because the batteries died in the camera. But we did take a few movies, so enjoy! The first part of this first clip is very reminiscent of Sam's 2nd birthday.

The REAL Mac n Cheese

A few months ago we found a good deal on store brand mac n cheese. Sam is used to the Kraft brand, and when he saw me pour in the green box instead of the blue box, he tried a bite, freaked out, and refused to eat the rest of it. He said he wanted the real mac n cheese. In his defense, I was in a big hurry and didn't cook the noodles long enough, so that's why it tasted different to him. In any case, he no longer will eat the store brand kind. We now keep one empy Kraft mac n cheese box and either pour the store brand into the Kraft box just before cooking it so he sees the noodles coming out of the right box, or say something like "Hey Sam, we're having real mac n cheese for lunch" and show him the blue box. It works like a charm! We're so sneaky!

Shaving Time

Here's a video of Sam and Christopher shaving a couple months ago.

One of Our Favorite Places to Go

We love Seattle summers! For the most part, the weather is beautiful and temperate. When it's sunny outside, we spend a lot of time out at a local beach (Howarth Park). Chris and Sam go a few times each week, and I go on my day off and sometimes on Saturdays before work. We usually go in the early afternoon before it gets to crowded, but when other people are out too, Sam loves to make new friends with everyone. Here is a video of us at the beach the end of May.

Hey Family of Ours, You've Been Added!

Just so you know, we've added your email addresses to our monthly newsletter for the bakery. We thought that way you'd know what's going on with us and the business! Don't worry, if you don't want to get the emails, you can unsubscribe and our feelings won't be hurt!


And for anyone else not in our families who would like to receive monthly emails about what's going on at Great Harvest, you can join our email group at our website.

I'm a Real Mom Now!

I guess we've hit another milestone. Sam woke up Thursday night/Friday morning sick and throwing up all over. Besides baby spit-up, he has never thrown up before. So he and I were up for a few hours cleaning up vomit, cuddling, and watching Bravo. He was cute and sad. He said that he burped and it got messy. Somehow I managed to clean it all up without throwing up myself! I don't know which I'd rather do--clean up vomit or kill spiders--but I guess both are a part of motherhood.

I was pretty tired the next day at work. It always seems to happen that the nights I decide to stay up a little later than usual, Sam decides to wake up at odd hours of the night. And now his hours are a little messed up, and this morning we've been up since 3:30am. After Christopher left for work, he walked into our room wide awake and wanting to play. I don't know how Christopher gets up that early every morning because it makes me so tired! At least work starts two hours later on Saturdays, so maybe I can take a quick snooze before I have to go.

I'm so Glad When Grandpa Comes Home (to our house to visit)

Grandpa Brett came to visit last weekend, and it was so much fun to have him here!

We visited Snoqualmie Falls. Dad, you guys will have to take the same drive we took to get there. We went on all the small highways through lots of small towns. Very scenic.We visited Pike Market Place. I don't know if you can see the fish hanging down very well, but it was a Monkfish...google it to see better pictures. It was being held by a string, and the people behind the counter pull on it to make it move to scare people. Sam and I basically jumped out of our skins! Ewww...I really don't know how people eat seafood!

We got a year pass to the Seattle Aquarium. Sam liked the jellyfish and the otters best. Some of the fish made him nervous.


Grandpa brought a few presents for Sam...

and he brought a couple Wii games for us.

By the end of the visit, we had all played hard, and crashed hard.

We love visitors! And we've been exploring more so we actually know more cool things to see and do! Come anytime!

P.S. We just cut Sam's hair after this visit. It looks so much better now! And he actually sat still for almost the whole thing!