Birthday Extravaganza

It's summer which means we have a whole slew of birthdays to celebrate with our wedding anniversary tucked in there between them all.  It's a whirlwind to say the least.

Randy turned 42 while we were at the Oregon Coast.  I bought a Nothing Bundt Cake for him (and Henry) and tucked them carefully into our van that was bursting at the seams.  Luckily both survived the drive and unpacking unscathed.  Randy has had another busy year as he works his tail off to get our practice off the ground.  He is doing an amazing job, his patients and staff love him, and he and I are getting better at maneuvering the ups and downs of the dental business.  Experience is a great teacher!  We were so happy he could spend a few days with us before he had to go back to work.  Luckily he's been able to take a lot of little 3-day weekend breaks throughout this summer so he's not completely tied to the practice like he used to be.

Two days later, Henry turned 2!  I wish I had a picture of all the people who were at our campsite to sing Happy Birthday to Henry.  My aunts, uncles, cousins, and even his Great Grandma were there.  Henry is still the cutest thing, even though Marcus chopped his bangs in such a terrible way.  I've never had a kid cut their own hair but Henry looks like he did it himself.  Luckily it will grow back and Marcus is fired.  We sure love this boy and I love watching my older boys love him.  Henry brings out the softer side in all of us, except for when he's grumpy, and then the soft feelings are nowhere to be seen.  He is getting better at talking every day, he runs ridiculously fast and far for such a little guy, he takes amazing 3-hour naps daily (my saving grace), he refuses to sit in a high chair and will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

Landon and Parker turned 10 and 7 respectively.  Their birthday fell on Fast Sunday this year which usually means Landon doesn't eat breakfast, so Landon was thrilled when I told him he didn't have to fast. I think he thought this was the best gift ever.  I made them breakfast in bed (Star Wars waffles) but since we only have one tray, they even had to share that.  Luckily these two don't mind sharing as long as they get to do it together.  I have almost no pictures of their birthday but Landon was thrilled with his new lacrosse gloves and Parker got a fancy trick scooter.  I'm done buying Lego sets but Grandma and Grandpa S gave them each a Lego set so the boys spent the rest of their birthday in their room in Lego-assembling bliss.  The house was unusually quiet for a few hours as they worked like Santa's elves.  The icing on the cake was that Max and Sam, their cousins from Utah were here to celebrate all week. The party was non-stop.

Excuse the messy kitchen as you watch these clips.  The boys were so excited to eat cake that as soon as I finished frosting it they wanted to blow out their candles.  The best part is Henry yelling, "Happy Birthday" as he tries to sing along with us.  My niece Megan filmed for us.  I can't even begin to tell you how nice it was to have a temporary daughter in the house.  She even helped me make the birthday cakes!

Laura Came To Town

My older sister,  Laura and her family, came to visit us for the first time.  I've upped my game a little bit in things to do with visitors so they can see the beauty and awesomeness of the Pacific Northwest.  Unfortunately for them, they were my guinea pigs so some things didn't go quite as planned but we had a good time anyway and they said they want to come back and visit so I'm taking it as a win.

We drove into Seattle to explore Pike Place Market, the oldest running farmer's market in the country.  We got lost in traffic, arrived during the busy lunch rush, and had to fight crowds to buy anything, all while my kids grumbled about how bored they were.

We found the pig!

The Gum Wall is so disgusting!  Landon refused to look at it and after I gave everyone a piece of gum, I could only convince Ethan to stick his gum on the wall.  A few years ago they removed all the gum.  How'd you like that job??

We tried one of these dumplings and it was amazing! 

Landon being under-whelmed by the market

After the Market we took a water taxi to West Seattle.  I had hoped we could rent bikes to ride along the boardwalk but the pier was a couple miles from the bike place, or anything really.  But we ate some delicious Hawaiian/Korean food and threw rocks from the beach until we boarded the taxi again. 

 Landon bought this giant donut at the Market and carried it everywhere until he finally decided to eat it on the ferry.

It looks colder than it was but for our Utah family they thought it was a freezing 65 degrees

My boys love ferries

My boys love throwing rocks.  Henry loves eating them and consumed quite a bit of sand while this picture was being taken

 We came home from our day of fun and celebrated Randy's 41st birthday.  He got a keyfinder thing (to go on his key ring because he always loses his keys) and a wallet finder because he always loses his wallet.  And if he has both his keys and his wallet but can't find his phone (happens all the time) then he hits a button on one of his finders and his phone beeps even if it's on silent.  Genius!  Randy was not impressed.

 We took them to Pine Lake and Landon enjoyed taking Sage out on the kayak.  Pine Lake is the best and so is my dream house you can see in the background which sold last year for a mere $3.1 million.

Hot tubbing after the lake is the best!

Our friends took us out on their amazing boat and Laura was the first to wake board.  She killed it.  Moms rule!  They stayed out on the lake while Randy and I raced back to his office to work.  so lame.


I think my favorite activity was kayaking around Lake Union.  We went paddled past the floating houses, including the Sleepless in Seattle house.  Sea planes were taking off and landing right by us, and we saw too many beautiful yachts to count.  We could've paddled right up to a dock and jumped out to grab some lunch but the rentals charged by the hour or that would've been a cool experience too.

Marcus and Landon were together, fighting every second of the way

The Jorgenson's

Check out this boat gas station.  Pretty cool.

That's Parker as we were heading under the I-5 bridge and that brown building on the right is the U of Washington Dental School where Randy did his residency

The cousins played pretty well together, especially considering 2 of those cousins were girls.  Not something we see a lot of at our house.  

We roasted s'mores in the backyard on their last night here and soaked in all the fun and family time possible. 

Hooray for families willing to leave UT and adventure with us in the great state of Washington!  And now I must sign off because I can hear boys trying to kill one another.  Must be bedtime.  Sigh.