Saturday Morning Treat

Trip to the Zoo

As an early birthday present I got Ellie a membership to the Woodland Park Zoo. She LOVES animals and always loves going to the zoo so I thought it would be a fun activity for us to do this summer. On this trip we went with Kacey and Jack. Ellie and Jack both have the "crazy" gene in them so it is a little wild with these two at the zoo... but they always have such a great time together... and this trip was no exception.

Visit with a friend from New Canaan

Last week I got together with an old friend from high school, Amy Peloquin. We hadn't been in contact for such a long time and I randomly emailed last week. Well she just happened to be coming out to Seattle the following week for a conference. I love how the timing worked out so perfectly.

We had a great time catching up and reminising about our days at NCHS. It was fun to hear where everyone is now and what people are up to back east.

Cinco de Mayo Party

Ellie and I went to Dewi and Hazel's house for a Cinco de Mayo party. Ellie LOVES going to Hazel's house for her little parties. They painted little animals... Ellie painted a monkey... really she painted herself and a little bit of a monkey. Then she took a hit at the pinata! That was fun. The kids were so little that none of them had the strength to break the pinata so the moms helped out a little. We had a great time!

The Reunion!

After five days apart... we couldn't wait to see Ellie! Christie said by the fourth day Ellie began to wonder where we had gone to. The last day when she told Ellie that they were going to the airport to see momma and dadda she shook with excitement!

Ellie pointing to her "Dadda" as he walked through the security area.

I think that she is happy to see us :)
Although Ellie was happy to see us it was said to say goodbye to her cousins whom she had become so attached to! My sister said Ellie just followed Alex, her three year old, around all week and would copy everything he did.

Saying goodbye...

Five Year Anniversary

Brandon and I went on a trip last week to celebrate our five year anniversary. Neither of us can believe that it has been five years! We had a great trip... especially since miss Ellie spent the week at my sisters in Arizona! She had a great time with her Auntie and cousins while Brandon and I enjoyed a true vacation. To sum up the vacation best all I need is just four words: beach, pool, swim, eat... and for me a little bit of reading too!

It was truly the perfect vacation! We stayed at an all-inclusive resort that had 12 restaurants to choose from every night. The caught a ride on the golf cart back to our hotel room after dinner at the Japanese restuarant. Yummy.. Brandon loved his sushi!
Outside the front entrance to the resort.
Our five year anniversary!

Our last hour in Cancun!

Arizona

Ellie and I have been in Gilbert, Arizona for a couple of days visiting my sister Christie and her family. Our first stop upon our arrival was to Cafe Rio! We ran into some old friends from Darien, CT while there.... Shalayna Fuller and Alison Bench. It was so fun to see them and to catch up!

On Saturday we were able to cheer on my little three year old nephew in his soccer game... so cute! Of course I brought the rain with me from Seattle but it only lasted about an hour and we are enjoying the beautiful Arizona weather!

Ellie is going to be staying with my sister and her family for the next five days while Brandon and I go away. To see how Ellie is doing with her Auntie while we are away check out my sisters blog.

I know that she could be in no better hands. My sister is just amazing to do this for us! Ellie is going to have a blast with her little cousins Alex and Will. I am sure that she will cry when she has to come back home!

The Projects Continue....

We have hardwood floors under our carpet and upon buying the house we knew we would eventually have the hardwoods exposed and finished. Before we moved in the previous owners put all new carpet throughout the entire house so we didn't think we would be doing the hardwoods for a little while. BUT the carpet is a light off white which just doesn't work with a little toddler around the house. Not to mention the fact that there is carpet in the eating area...you can imagine what that carpet looks like after only eight months! So the need to do the hardwood floors was moved up sooner than anticipated. We had been getting the bids etc., and realized that we would have to be out of the house for a few days while they did the work because of all of the dust and the smell, etc.

Well we are going out of town next week so just last week we decided.... ok we will get the floors done while we are gone. SO... among packing, etc. we have been pulling up the carpet, baseboards, nails and staples in order to prepare the floors to be redone! What a project it has been! We have been taking all the pictures off the walls, emptying out closets and trying to clear everything out of the rooms that we are having refinished. I feel like we are moving again or something!

Our Friday night project of ripping up the carpet.

We can only really work on this project while Ellie is asleep because it is so dangerous with the staples and nails. Luckily she has become a deep sleeper and sleeps through most of the noise!

As we do these projects it has been fascinating to learn different things about the house...and even more about the previous owner. They were cute little old couple that had lived here for more than thirty years! I loved the discovery we made upon taking up the baseboards on Friday night.

This is the original wallpaper they had in the front room! Red backdrop with gold eagles! Unbelievable!

This morning we discovered the old linoleum that was under the carpet in the kitchen.

I think we will prefer the new hardwood floors!

Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's

On Tuesday was the annual Free Cone Day at Ben and Jerry's. If there is one thing that most of you know about me.... is that I LOVE ice cream! So of course, we didn't miss the big day! Ellie waiting for her ice cream cone!
Enjoying her scoop of Berry Berry Extraordinary!
Jack and Ellie REALLY enjoying their ice cream!

Trip to Tulip Town

We took a trip to Tulip Town in Skagit Valley this weekend. It was so beautiful!

Pottery Barn Sing-a-Long

Ellie and I went with our friends Kacey and Jack to a Sing-a-Long at Pottery Barn Kids. Ellie was fascinated by the lady wearing a strange purple velvety shirt and purple tights. Ellie and Jack were by far the craziest kids at the sing-a-long. We were constantly trying to keep track of them as they wandered through the kids and throughout the store. But they had a great time and so did we!

Easter Sunday

Brandon and Ellie about to embark on the big Easter Egg hunt!
Brandon trying to teach Ellie about Easter Egg hunting.
Ellie got the hang of it in no time at all!
Yeah!

Ooooh!

Easter Dinner with the Rowley's.

Judi was out of town for Easter so we had Dean, Derek, Michael and Grandpa Rowley to our house for Easter dinner. We enjoyed a nice evening together.

Trip to Utah March 23- April 3

We took a trip to Utah this month. My parents were able to come back to the United States for conference week.... so of course the family congregated to Utah to be with them! We had a great time being with the family. Upon our arrival we headed straight up to Twin Falls, Idaho to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday! It was fun to be with her and spend a little time on the farm.

Ellie and Carla on the Farm!
The famous and relaxing green swing. There are so many memories from the stories told by Grandmother and Grandpa Jackson on this swing.

After the trip to Twin Falls we drove back down to Utah and spent the remainder of the trip at my parents house in Park City. My mom had planned out a complete itinerary of all of the activities for the week. We definetly were not bored!

Monday we went to the Dinasour Museum at Thanksgiving Point.

Ellie had a great time playing in the sand with her cousins Rocky, Jackson and Alex.
On Wednesday Christie and I went down to Provo to catch up with some of our friends. I had breakfast with my good friends Courtney Belcher and and Anne Reichman. And we definetly enjoyed the breakfast location... Magelby's Fresh! Later on I met up with my friend Olivia Love McCord and Ellie just loved playing with her little guy Marcus.

Brandon flew in late on Wednesday... just in time for the ski day on Thursday! We were anxious when we first arrived in PC and there was almost NO SNOW on the mountain... but the night before our big ski day we got about 8 inches of snow. We were so excited on Thursday morning to see the fresh powder!

Over the weekend we enjoyed a couple of sessions of conference and a girls night out with all of my sisters and my mom in Salt Lake City...(NO KIDS ALLOWED!) It was a great time.

On Monday, the day before our departure, we went the Children's Museum at Gateway.

Ellie with her cowboy cousin Denton sharing some time on the horse at the Museum.

Ellie and Alexis learning to fly!

The Rowley Family

Brandon was scheduled to fly out on Monday afternoon while Ellie and I weren't leaving until Tuesday morning. Monday morning Brandon offered to take Ellie back with him so that I didn't have to do yet another flight by myself with Ellie. I readily took him up on the offer. After the whole experience Brandon has much more empathy when it comes to Ellie and I traveling on an airplane alone.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Ellie was invited to a St. Patrick's Day party this week. She had so much fun! They painted rainbows, went for a treasure hunt and ate yummy green snacks! The girls are searching for the treasure... the clue is right above their little heads on the leprechaun's hat.
The treasure is under the rainbow!
All the kids with their treasure in the pots of gold!

Trip to the Home Depot

For those of you that really know our little Ellie... the following story will SHOCK you!

Daylight savings has caused havoc to Ellie's sleeping schedule. Right now she is having a very difficult time with her nap. I am having a hard time not making her take a nap. A little bit of a power struggle going on here over this if you can't tell. Anyway, the other day Ellie won and she didn't take a nap. Around 4 pm we headed over to Home Depot to order some new windows and pick up some paint for this weekends project... painting the master bedroom! Well... it seemed like a LONG car ride over to Home Depot because Ellie was a bit cranky because she hadn't taken her nap. By the end of the ride. it was quiet.. and Ellie had fallen asleep! I was shocked. This is not a little girl that easily falls asleep in the car. Anyway... that was the least shocking of the following experience. I was torn as to what to do.... should I drive right back home and put her to bed... or do I actually wake her up and continue with my shopping trip? I decided I need to get the shopping done and decided to pick her up and see what happened. I took her out of the car seat and she stayed asleep. I walked into home depot holding Ellie in my arms and pushing a shopping cart... the speakers at Home Depot blaring their various announcements... still Ellie didn't even restle in my arms... unbelievable. I go to the window department... still with Ellie in my arms... sit down with the Home Depot guy... go through the entire order... still asleep. Now by this time and was getting a bit tired attempting to hold her with one arm and push the cart with the other and I still had a bit of shopping to do. I had a dilemma....should I actually put my sleeping child inside the shopping cart and let her continue to sleep...I had seen it done before but should I actually do it and the real question was... would she actually stay asleep? I tried it..... and the following is proof of the story that no one in my family would ever believe.

I continued to shop for 30 more minutes while Ellie slept peacefully in the cart.

Children's Museum of Seattle