Arizona. It's Hot There

Randy and I flew to Scottsdale, AZ for a dental seminar.  Arizona in August is a bad place to be.  It was 110 degrees!  It was so hot that when we'd get into our car that had been baking in the parking lot all day,  it didn't feel any different than outside.  Everything was as hot as an oven.  But that didn't matter because we spent three days indoors at a seminar where the AC was blasting.  I should've worn a sweater but the cool air kept me from falling asleep.  When we got home, everyone kept asking me how my trip was and seemed to expect me to enthusiastically describe a great vacation.  It was definitely not great but I guess it was a vacation from my kids, so that was nice.  We seriously sat all day long in a seminar.  We went out to dinner one night with a bunch of dental people I didn't know and after an hour of small talk and dental jokes that I didn't understand,  I knew I was in for it.  I finally escaped to the dark (but still hot) parking lot and talked to my sisters via Marco Polo until Randy finally finished dinner.  The best part of the whole trip was going to dinner the next night with Randy's best friend from college and his wife.  The last time we saw them was when Marcus was six weeks old.  Randy and Joe were hilarious and I really hope we have another reason to go to Arizona to visit them.  In the winter, of course.

The very boring dental seminar.  Of the three days of information, I'd say three hours of it was useful.  But they served us great food so there's that.

I took this picture because of the clouds.  They're so tall and puffy!  We don't get clouds like that in WA.

We had time to kill before our flight home so we checked out the Gilbert, AZ temple.  It is huge!

We also met up with good friends from Rhode Island who have moved to Arizona.  It was fun to see them and reminisce about our RI adventures but Randy has the pictures of our friends on his phone and the chances of me actually getting them on the blog are slim to none.  Oh well.

While we were snoring it up in Arizona, my boys were home, hanging out with their cousins and Uncle Toby.  Through a weird series of events, my sister needed me to watch her kids while she and Toby went on an Alaskan cruise and I needed someone to watch my kids while I was in Arizona, but she was at girls camp.  Thus, Uncle Toby ended up taking care of my kids while I was in Arizona and when I returned I took care of his kids while he and April went on a cruise.  Strange but it worked.  

Uncle Toby knows how to play

I loved seeing these pictures of the kids at the beach, watching the Blue Angels fly overhead.  Meanwhile, I was chugging down Diet Dr. Pepper to stay awake at my seminar.

Lake Washington and the Blue Angels

I had a great week entertaining the kids and their cousins.  They were the perfect excuse to get out and do something fun each day.  I love when my sister's family visits us each summer because they love it here and it reminds me of the way I used to feel the first few years of living here.  Now I'm used to the beauty of the Pacific Northwest but when they come I remember not to take it for granted.

Sunday Fun Day

Playing duets together.  They struggled.

We went to Pine Lake almost daily.  My boys get sick of it.  I don't know how that's possible.

We go after the lifeguards leave because that's when the fun begins.  Lifeguards ruin all the fun!

We took them to a nearby farm/petting zoo and this is the awkward photo of that experience.

Summer nights in the backyard are my very favorite.   

Per tradition, we went to Seattle to play in the fountain.  It wasn't warm or sunny but that didn't stop the boys.

Each of these boys doing their own thing and I love it!

The City Center playground never disappoints

After a quick lunch at McDonald's we stopped by a new park in Bellevue that I wanted to try out.  It didn't disappoint!  The playground was huge and there was even a large splash pad area with waterfalls.  The boys had so much fun because they broke all the safety rules which meant the other moms looked at me with horror while their kids wished they could have fun like my boys do.

Ethan the climber.  See that mom looking at me to see if I'm aware of my son's behavior? Yes I was and no I wasn't mad.  See her daughter trying to climb up after Ethan?  Happens every time.

The kids had more fun sliding down next to the slides instead of on them.  Henry was in heaven!

This is Meydenbaur Bay Beach on Lake Washington and it's a new favorite discovery of mine.  We had originally planned to go to Rattlesnake Lake but it was closed because the police were searching for a DEAD BODY!  I'm not even kidding.  How gross is that?  So this beach was Plan B and I was thrilled to discover how awesome it was.  The park is fun, the beach has beautiful views of yachts and mansions ($5-$28 million dollar mansions according to the Zillow app), and the lifeguards allow us to take our paddle boards out.

Eventually the sun came out and we had a great day at the beach.

Henry and Karissa are just the cutest!

February Stuff

I love Parker.  I especially love that he still takes naps.  I love the photo above because he looks how I feel at 9:30pm every night after a day of going non-stop.  This morning my alarm went off at 5:40am so I could go running and after reluctantly climbing out of bed I walked into the closet and could hear the rain pouring down.  Perfect excuse to go running later! and I hopped back into bed for another hour.  It felt so good.

The Batmobile

 We survived another Pinewood Derby.  Randy and Ethan started out with minimal interest in the competition this year, especially since Ethan won 1st place last year, but Randy can't do anything half way so he still managed to put in lots of time building a fast car.  

But here's something you probably don't know about the derby.  Until you race your car for the first time, you really have no idea how it's going to do, regardless of the time you spent building it.  That first race is the moment of truth and that's what makes the whole thing exciting.  Well, to me anyway. Ethan's car did great.  He was up against 15 other cars and was holding strong at 2nd/3rd place when they raced the final four cars.  You'll have to watch the clip below to see the horrifying crash as Ethan's hopes are dashed to pieces.  After three consecutive crashes his car took a beating and finished 4th overall.  Oh well.

Ethan right before "the moment of truth"

The sun has been appearing more frequently which allows us to spend more time outside, specifically at the new park that just finished being built down our street.  Some rich lady in the community bought this huge property with a house on it and everything and then donated it to the city under the condition it remained undeveloped.  The city decided it would be OK to develop some of it which is annoying to us because we hate the trees and fence that were ripped out to make room for the parking spots that went in, but the slide, zip line, and walking paths are pretty great.  Oh, and the bridge over the swamp is pretty cool too.  Basically the whole thing makes me even happier about where we live. 

These blossoms wouldn't be appearing for another 2 months in New England.  So glad we live here!

The boys driving to our park

Over the swamp and through the woods to Landon's house we go

Landon standing proudly in front of what he thinks will someday be his house

This is Landon in front of the house that's in the woods at the "new" park.  It's a nice house and totally empty.  Landon decided that since he never wants to move out (I told him eventually he'd have to) he could move into this house.  He talks about it like it's just a matter of time before he moves in.  He even said, "I'll live so close to you, Mom!  And that way when you're going to the grocery store you can call me and I'll meet you there so you can pay for all my food."  I laughed so hard but was kind of disturbed that he's making big plans to be an adult who's still totally dependent on his parents. Hopefully he'll outgrow that!

 

That bobble-head looking boy running across the field is Marcus.  He's playing lacrosse now.  I know NOTHING about this sport and have never seen a game.  Neither has Marcus and his first game is Saturday.  I've decided to embrace my son's natural ability in all things sports and hope he can land a scholarship out of it.  Otherwise this is a lot of time and money down the drain but I try not to think about that.

His coach has a man bun.  As I stand on the sidelines watching and waiting for practice to end, I play out scenarios in my head where I run up and cut the bun off with a pair of scissors and run away before he knows who did it.  Can you imagine how awesome that would be?!

Enjoying the Sunshine

We may have been gone for three years but one thing we remember is how important it is to enjoy the sunshine.  September is usually a pretty sunny month so we've been out  rediscovering our favorite spots before the rains descend.  I'm surprised how much Landon remembers from living here before.  He gets so excited when I tell him about the park we are going to and then we get there and he says, "Everything is so small!"  He doesn't seem to understand that the playground didn't shrink, he just grew.

Bean is currently on the 5th Harry Potter book and going strong!

These two are best buds

Parker has seen his brothers pose one too many times

The boys have missed the skate park.  The City of Sammamish was smart to put the skate park right in front of the police station.  It makes it user-friendly for everyone and keeps the rough crowd that is usually at the skate park in check.

Picking blackberries along the side of the road just like the good ol' days before.  These noxious weeds are the worst but the berries are tasty

We also hiked to Snoqualmie Falls recently.  The trail to the waterfall was under construction the entire time we lived here before so we were excited to go again.  The first and last time we hiked it was the summer before we moved to Japan.

Snowqualmie Falls 2007 - we were a LOT younger then. 

Still have the same old hiking backpack.  It was old even back then!

This picture has nothing to do with anything but I needed documentation of Marcus's crazy neon colors he's been sporting

 We've had enough rain now that it's finally starting to get green again after the dry summer and I'm still in awe of the beauty of the Pacific Northwest.  We had a sprinkler guy come over to figure out how to get our system up and running so we can revitalize our yard.  The previous owners stopped watering after they sold us the house and sadly there are a lot of trees, bushes, and grass that died.  But never fear!  Randy has already aerated and reseeded the lawn and fixed a bunch of broken sprinkler heads.  Yard work never ends and thankfully Randy enjoys the work. 

Our dead yard the day we moved in

Getting some of the green back.