Point Defiance Zoo

We now have less than a year left in Seattle. While this brings us great excitement because it means we're almost done with school (finally!), it creates stress if another kind - the stress of Checking things off the To-do-while-we're-in-Seattle list.
Since we had a free day on Monday with no school and the weather was nice, we headed down to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium to cross something off the list.
We almost didn't go- Ellie wasn't acting like she felt that well in the morning, and then after a dose of Motrin kicked in, she was back to her usual jumping bean self. So, probably against our better judgment, we went. We were driving around the parking lot after our 45 minute drive, trying to find a spot, when Ellie said she felt like she was going to throw up. I handed her a big Ziploc bag, and was hurriedly unbuckling my seat belt to hold it for her when her lunch contents came up all over herself and her carseat. Lovely. Luckily, we had brought a change of clothes, just in case, and after cleaning her and her carseat up as best we could and cracking open the rear windows, we went ahead. After all, we were there, and Ellie's stomach was now empty! Luckily, she was fine after that, and the car didn't smell too terribly bad when we came back thanks to the open windows. :) We had a great time, though, and if we get the time we may go back!

My kids were so fascinated with the jelly fish. Connor couldn't understand how a jelly fish could eat without a mouth or stomach, and we weren't doing to well explaining it!

And now a funny childhood story: When I was growing up, we lived next door to my grandparents. My grandpa started saying one day that he kept seeing a peacock running around the farm. Grandpa was kind of getting old, so we all thought Grandpa might be getting a little bit senile. Then the rest of us saw it. Somehow, a peacock adopted us, and it became more and more tame. It would come up on our patio. It would display its plumage and dance for the chickens. Every night, it would fly up on a telephone pole and sleep. We named him Peeper, and he stayed around for a few years. We got a peahen from the zoo, and he had a little family, until the foxes got his girl (her wings were clipped). :(. After that, we saw him less and less, until eventually he was gone. We're not sure what happened to him.
Anyway, the reason I brought that up is because they had peacocks wandering the grounds at the zoo. I couldn't help but smile - they looked just like Peeper.

Seeing the animals was great, but my kid's favorite part was the kid zone- an animal themed play area.

Mason wasn't too fond of the stroller, so him and I got in some more cuddle time. I really wished that I had remembered my sling. . . he's a heavy boy!

If you look really close, you can see Mt. Ranier by Jake's head. That's another thing to check off the 'ol list. . .

Scaliwags, Steri-Strips, and Sushi

Yes, it is July. And I'm blogging again. Maybe there is hope for me, after all. :)
Seattle has been roasting hot the last few weeks, and there aren't very many living areas that have Air conditioning. Yes, the average temp in the summer is around 76. Maybe I've just been more sensitive to it this summer being pregnant, but is comfort really too much to ask? Living without it has made me that much more determined to have it, even if I do only use it one day a year.

But, enough about me and my sweaty self. We've been trying to keep busy and enjoy the summer. Here's a little of what we've been up to:

Recognize this ship? This is the Lady Washington, the state ship of WA, aka the ship used for a lot of exterior shots in a certain few movies starring Johnny Depp. Yup, this is the ship used in the Pirates movies! It was docked across the Lake from us in Kirkland last weekend, so we land-lubbers left our home port t' see if it be pleasin' to our eyes. It be.

"Wow! I can hear the ocean!"

How often do you get to have a family picture taken on a tall ship by a real, live pirate (with authentic period sunglasses and dreads, in fact)?!? Not very often.

Some friends from our ward in Carolina (the Gallups) are here doing an internship with Microsoft this summer, and we were able to take them on a tour of the gorgeous UW campus. It was really fun to see them and their not-so-little guy. We were also able the Sears', who happen to be in the same ward as the Gallups this summer. We really enjoyed getting to see these two wonderful families and hope that we can get together again before Dave and Karen go back!

For a summer activity, our housing complex had a fire truck come over to show the kids the truck and talk about fire safety. The kiddos were mesmerized, and you can see how happy it made Connor to get up in the cab!

Notice Ellie's forehead? That's my reason for not blogging last Sunday. She tripped on a shoe and caught her forehead on a dresser drawer after tripping on a shoe last week. The cut wasn't very deep, but we were worried about it scarring (forehead scars are great for Harry Potter, not so much for our little beauty), so we took her in to the ER to have it looked at. It was a really fast ER trip, but the whole "cut" experience took up 2 hours I hadn't been planning on. Luckily, the docs felt she just needed some steri-stips instead of stitches, which Jake and I were very okay with since we've already gotten to experience stitches with Ellie.

Like I said, it's been hot. We have lots of time, and Seattle has free wading pools at a lot of the parks, so we go and spend most of the day. I get to talk to friends, and the kids are very entertained playing in the sun and getting worn out. Totally a win-win. Here's Connor playing with Conner H. and Conor and Lily. What a cute little prune.

Our community also put on a kids cooking class. When I signed him up, it didn't say what was on the menu. We showed up with Connor thinking he was going to make pancakes (don't ask), and instead, the item was. . .Sushi. Connor actually had a really good time making it, but wouldn't try any of his own handiwork. I tried a few bites (all the meat and every thing was fully cooked), but most of it went in the garbage after he tried to pawn it off on Jake and I. I guess we're kind of boring and don't have very exotic tastes!

Baseball Games, Birthdays, and "the change"

A few weeks ago, we found out that UW and BYU were playing in the last home baseball game of the season. We can't miss any opportunity to cheer on our cougars in person (especially when we can get free tickets thanks to a guy in our ward who happens to be a baseball player), so off we went. It was chilly, but we had a great time.

Despite our BYU loyalties, the kids do have some Husky loyalty as well and were really excited to get to meet the Husky mascot


Connor, who has been obsessed with baseball as of late, sat for most of the game like this waiting for a fly ball to land in it. After awhile, he got bored and went searching for "treasures" under the bleachers, and actually found an unopened package of mentos that no one claimed. As you can imagine, that totally made his night! ;)

We only stayed through the 4th inning- the kids were getting tired and I was getting cold - but we had a great time. Sad thing is, I still haven't bothered to check the score to see who won!

Jake's birthday was on the 13th, and we just celebrated at home. I actually found a Carolina BBQ place about a 1/2 hour from our house, so I got some meat during the day, made buns and slaw, and we enjoyed a real southern dinner. SOOOOO Yummy. It's making me salivate right now just thinking about it. . m m m m m. . .

For gifts, Jake got a much needed new laptop, but the kids had to get him something as well. We took a trip to the dollar store. Ellie picked out a Tinkerbell puzzle (which every 29 year old man needs), and Connor picked out a big squirt gun. For some reason, I think they were thinking of what they'd like instead of considering Jake's tastes. ;)

And now, here it is. . . the change. Yes, we traded in our beloved Subaru Outback and have now become a minivan family. We got a screamin' deal on this one, and as much as I hate to admit it, I LOVE HAVING A MINIVAN!! The room is wonderful, and the kids love the power doors and space. It will make our trips home this summer much more comfortable. We went camping this weekend, and loved how much cargo room we had. We were loading up our car after camping, and I couldn't resist taking this picture- it looked too much like a car advertisement.

The church has some great campgrounds around Seattle, so we headed up to one of them for a quick camping trip on Friday night. Despite our rustic locale, Ellie still had to bring her "Princess Purse"

And, being a true boy, Connor immediately went over to the sticks (aka woodpile) to pick out his favorite

The kids (and me in all my camping glory) cooking hot dogs. Those sticks were kind of short, so that made it a little interesting, but the kids were in heaven with the hot dogs and toasted marshmallows. That's the stuff. The kids didn't sleep that well and it was freezing, but we had a fabulous time and can't wait to go again!

Let them eat cake

I've been eyeing this cake for quite awhile on friend's blogs. One rainy day a few weeks ago, we made it - not because we needed cake, but mainly because it was a fun thing to do. We did rather enjoy the cake, though. You can find the recipe here .

The cool looking cake batter
And the finished product. I used buttercream frosting instead of the cake's frosting recipe, and it was very yummy. The baby really liked it!

Despite yummy cake being in the house, Ellie seems to prefer to eat powdered sugar. On the couch. Naughty.

We went to Carkeek park on Saturday - amazing views of the Puget sound. Unfortunately, with my pregnant brain I forgot to get pictures of the view and got pictures of Connor having fun courtesy of the bubble man.

Ellie must have been really thirsty. Either that or she's practicing for a career in beverage advertising.

So, I had an awful "pregnant brain" experience last week. I had a few stores I wanted to go to about 1/2 hour away, so I waited until I could do one big trip. I made it down to one store and used my debit card just fine, and then went across the street to a different store. Somehow, I totally forgot my PIN # for the debit card I'd had for over a year in the travel time. Could not remember it for the life of me. I was able to use it like a credit card at that store, and then went to Costco for gas and a couple of things. I was at the pump, and tried 3 different PINs trying to remember it. No luck. I finally gave up on Costco and went on to my other errands, and either used my debit like a credit or used the cash I had. I'm just glad that had saved the paper the bank sent me with my PIN on it to remind myself. Sheesh. I've often felt like I had only 3 brain cells left after the last 2 kids, and this baby seems to be sucking them out of me ;).