The Perfect Saturday

Today was the perfect Saturday....hot, sunny and filled with endless summer fun.

Cleaning her room....

Ellie has become rather particular in her fashion. No matter what anyone says.. she wakes up the morning with a very specific outfit in mind that she is going to wear. If that outfit is dirty or is no where to be found.... watch out! In Ellie's search for the perfect outfit for the day she tosses the majority of her clothes from her dresser onto the floor. I have become rather frustrated with this little daily routine and have started requesting that Ellie put her clothes back into her dresser after she has found what she was searching for.

This is what happens when I ask my three year old to clean her room... at least the clothes are off the floor...right?

Sous-Chef

My little sous-chef exhausted from another day of helping in the kitchen.....

Sound to Narrows

The pre-race pep talk from her dad

Look at her go

Crossing the finish line with Grandma Rowley

We ran the Sound to Narrows 12k race with the Rowley family this month. It was a beautiful course. Brandon and I ran the race together. It was such a fun event. Ellie ran the 20 yard diaper dash. She wasn't done at the end of the race. She kept on running and even ran with Grandma Rowley when she finished her race.

Seattle

You know you live in Seattle when it is a high of 69 degrees on June 19th and your three year old complains that it is TOO hot!

The Birthday Girl!

To our complete amazement.. our little girl is growing up! Ellie turned 3 last week!

The new ride...

Fun with friends

Treats..... and lots of them!

What's a party without a pinata?

And the loot.....

We did it!....Ellie's First Haircut

I have gotten my haircut by my friend, Laura, since my days at BYU. She even did my hair for my wedding. Every time I go back to Utah I try to squeeze in an appointment with her so I can get a good cut until the next I'm back into town. So of course I only trusted Laura with Ellie's first haircut. WOW... it was FUN! Ellie did such a great job of listening to directions and holding still and being HAPPY during the whole experience. I was so impressed. And of course Laura did a fabulous job.
Walking through the whole process with my girl.
My little baby is all GROWN UP!
While I was getting my haircut, Ellie got her nails and toenails painted. She also enjoyed a lollipop for doing so well during her haircut.
Ellie and I got twin bobs. A fun cut for the summer months..

We're Back...

My Mom had to come back to the states for a couple of weeks to get shoulder surgery so Ellie and I headed to Utah to help her with her recovery. She did amazingly well with her physical therapy and we had TONS of fun while we were there.

The weather in Utah was crazy as usual..it was 95 degrees the first week and then snowed a couple of days the second week.
We took a trip down to Provo to get Ellie's haircut (more on that in a later post) and we stopped by the BYU bookstore to get some memorabilia for the kiddos. They LOVED their, as Ellie calls it, BIU shirts.
We took an adventure on Thomas the Train that was in town. What a fun little trip!

Ellie SO excited to see Thomas.

The trip... brrr it was chilly put Ellie HAD to wear her skirt as usual.
Ellie with my Mom, the trooper. Can you believe she had just had surgery?
Brandon came into town for Memorial Day weekend. We headed to Main Street Park City for our usual fun little adventure....we rode the trolley....
Stopped at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory....
Chose some goodies....
And then stopped for ice cream. What a treat! Thanks Grandma!

We had such a fun visit with my Mom. She worked so hard the whole time on her physical therapy but she was such a sport the entire time we were there. Thanks Mom! Glad you are doing better!

A Mother's Day Tribute...

To the greatest Mom in the world, literally. We are so lucky to call you our Mom. Love you! XO

Our Seattle Adventure

My friend, Dewi, planned out a little adventure for the four of us. The 1st Thursday of the month is free admissions at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) so we decided to give our girls their first cultural experience. We headed into Seattle via bus to make the trip a little easier. The girls were SO excited to be riding the "school bus."

The girls in front of SAM

For Ellie, the highlight of the museum was me pointing out where the "Please Do Not Touch" sign was on each and every exhibit that we were interested in looking at. The other highlight was definitely asking where the closest escalator was (she asked about twenty times.) I think she was interested in knowing the closest escape route in case this became too boring for her :)

Overall the girls did great throughout the museum.
This was them at the end of the experience... begging to eat the lunches we had packed for them.

We headed to the closest park and had our little picnic.

Upon exiting the museum we realized Pike's Place Market was just a block away so we decided to take a little detour and find some goodies.

We found the freshly baked donuts that are famous at the market and enjoyed a little treat at the end of our adventure!

Enjoying a little rest :)

The trip home.....

Trip to the Zoo

On Monday we had planned a trip to the zoo with some friends. We woke up Monday morning to a downpour of rain... not that uncommon of course, but still bit of a damper on our plans. We decided to put our raincoats and boots on and head to the zoo despite the rain. Good thing we did because by the time we got there (just thirty minutes later) the rain had stopped and it was a beautiful sunny day! We enjoyed a leisurely day at the zoo.

Jack & Ellie hiding in the dinosaur egg.

Weekend Getaway

Brandon and I celebrated 6 years of marriage at a mock Bavarian village in the Cascade Mountains of Washington. It is a little touristy town called Leavenworth.

We stayed at this cute place, the Bavarian Lodge.

We had to try the famous bratwurst. Brandon said they weren't much different than the authentic ones he had in Germany a couple of weeks ago.

The main strip of Leavenworth is just so adorable. Each of the buildings are designed in the same style as in Bavaria.

I can't believe we have been married six years already but I'm lovin' it and can't wait for the next sixty.
XO

International Cuisine

I love international food. Ok well I love all food but especially anything different. One of my favorites is Indian. We had a tough time finding the best Indian restaurant when we first moved here. We had to try out a number of different ones before finally settled on our favorite. Anyway, we love to go. My dish of choice is chicken tikka masala. After heading there last week I thought to myself I could make this. So after doing a little research on the internet this last week... I did. And it was oh so yummy!

Headboard Project

A while back my friend, Jihan, posted about making her own headboard. I decided to join her in undertaking this little project. Well... it turned out to be not so little of a project but it was definitely fun!

It's in the genes

Ellie had a sleepover at Grandma & Grandpa Rowley's on Friday night. She loves going to spend time with them. Grandma always has special crafts and activities planned out for them to do together. Her grandparents spoil her and make cookies with her and give her all the attention that she loves.

Ellie had had a great time playing with Grandma and Grandpa but when 7:30 pm rolled around... she asked Grandma if she could go to bed. She was tired and it was a half an hour past her bedtime. When Judi (Grandma) told this to us the following day we were shocked. But then again.... if anyone knows me and my desperate need for sleep you wouldn't be all that surprised. I was always the first one to go to bed at sleepovers and also the first one to wake up in the morning. I guess I passed the genes on......

The Dilemma

So I have this dilemma. It is something I battle internally every day. Ellie has never had a haircut. She is coming up on three years in just one and a half months. But her hair is just too pretty to cut. Up until now there really hasn't been a need to cut it. She'll let me put pretty bows in it...but now they don't stay in all day long. She'll pull out her bows mid day and then her long beautiful hair covers up those gorgeous eyes and it drives me crazy! She is always smoothing her hair back behind her ears and I feel so badly that she even has to worry about it! So here it comes... I want to have her hair chopped.... like to her chin... a cute little bob. It would be so much easier to take care of! And I think it would be so cute. I was thinking maybe on her third birthday we would have it done. But then on a day like today, when I take the time to curl her hair, the thought of it all being chopped puts a pit at the bottom of my stomach! Oh the dilemma!

Trip to Bavaria

The last week of March Amazon sent me (this is Brandon posting) to our Munich, Germany office to represent my group. In the spirit of work hard play hard, I had a great week in Bavaria. On the ride from the Munich Airport to my hotel I passed by the famous FIFA 2006 World Cup Allianz Areana. Our office was just a few minutes away from the BMW welt and the 1972 site of the Summer Olympic Games.


Our German team took us out to dinner one evening to a restaurant called Ratskellers, it was located underneath this building, the Munich City Hall. Nice restaurant and great food.



In 1923 Hitler and his supporters, who at that time were concentrated in Munich, attempted to overthrow the Weimar Republic. The revolt failed, resulting in Hitler's arrest at this site.

Over the weekend, I made the trip to the German village of Hohenschwangau in South West Bavaria to visit the Neuschwanstein Castle . This was the castle that inspired Walt Disney.

The Bavarian Alps

Hohenschwangau-- King Ludwig II's Home During Youth

View from the castle

View of the castle

Herrenchiemsee

This castle was built by King Ludwig II. It was his weekend island getaway. Versailles was the inspiration for the castle's appearance. I took a short 15 minute ferry ride across Lake Chiemsee to reach the island. The castle was magnificent. The fountains are currently covered for protection during the winter months. The highlight of the interior tour was the hall of mirrors which was approximately 100 meters ( little longer than the equivalent room at Versailles).