One last Seattle Pic

A memory I will cherish forever:

34 plates of Conveyor Belt Sushi in Seattle.

Dave looks sated ... for awhile.

Male bonding

It's about time for my semi-annual post (or two). Friday afternoon, Kai and I drove to
Bear Lake. We had dinner at Cafe Sabor before it closes for the season. However, Kai snuck in a hamburger from across the street. We saw a family of deer by the cabin, but no moose this time.

Saturday morning we stopped in at Pugstones Tackle shop (before it closes for the season). We then went fishing at Tony Grove in Logan canyon. Not much luck for us but we think we might go back sometime.









Here is a shot of the little fisherman. Also a shot of the project "we" put together - "Mr. McGregor's Gear Farm" or something like that. 85 individual pieces of pure bliss. Thanks Aunt Kirsten!

The Girls Adventure

Ashley & Sophie, Ashleigh & Rori, Rebecca & Charlotte, and Jamie & Haden

This past weekend our family divided and conquered for our final summer adventures. I will let Lance and Kai post about what they did. For Rori and my girls adventure we flew to Las Vegas to meet up with 3 of my girlfriends (they were all bridesmaids at our wedding) from College and their babies. We had each had a little one in the span of a year. It had been 8 years since all 4 of us had last been together at once so it was lots of fun to catch up and hang out. Rebecca is now living in Los Angeles, Jamie has just moved to Las Vegas from Japan, and Ashley lives in Montana. We stayed at Rebecca's families Lake House outside of Vegas and really only got out once to dip the babies in the lake. It was really fun to reconnect and get to enjoy each others new additions.


Sophie- 5 months
Haden- 9 months
Charlotte- 17 months
Rori- 12 months

Seattle

In the midst of all of the birthday fun we had been in the middle of some home improvement projects. One of which was getting new carpet in our house. More on that and our other projects in a few days....

So, the weekend after the birthdays we attempted to move everything off the old carpet and pack for our upcoming trip to Seattle. We had planned a visit to Lance's sisters family in Seattle while the new carpet was being put in. As helpful as the kids and I can be with such things- we decided maybe that would be a good time for us to be gone. Plus Kirsten was going to be alone with Emme and Kate while Dave, Jake, and Grandma and Grandpa Utah were on a trip in Canada. The kids and I left on Monday. Lance stayed home during the week to work and supervise the carpet and then joined us in Seattle on Friday for the weekend. By then the Canada group was also back to hang out.

We had a great time! It was so much fun to get to hang out and relax with Kir and the kids. We also had fabulous weather- she kept trying to convince me that it isn't always like that. Ha! Every day we had a new fun adventure, as usual there were lots of yummy meals (like Sushi Bar Conveyor Belt, Costo 3 huge scoop Gelato for $1.50, XXX HUGE Hamburgers, Ivar Seafood, and lots of fresh peaches), great conversation, and it was neat to get to see their house, Jake's school, Seattle, and on and on. Thanks so much to the Mullins for having us! It was a perfect trip!

Playing at Lake Washington (this place was awesome with grass, a playground etc.)








How We Got Around Town:


A Great Water Park:




Our Ferry Trip:






The Lefties:


The "Twins"(we were asked if they were twins A LOT):


The Piano Was A Big Draw:


Touring the Microsoft "Campus" Where Uncle Dave Works (think most posh College Campus ever):






Dave Teaching Kai the Finer Points About Sorbet:


The Seattle Duck Tour (a big hit with all):










The Locks:




Dave Making Breakfast with 2 Sets of Twins:


The Snoqualmie Falls:






There are also some more shots on their blog.

When it was time to go we were all beat. The kids and I had flown in on Delta and Lance had come later on Southwest. So on the trip home Lance took Rori with him. I almost didn't know what to do with myself with just Kai. Lance claims they did great. As we were leaving Kai was heard to say "I'm sad to leave........but I am excited to see the new carpet". Thanks again Mullins!

Happy 1st Birthday Rori!

Today Rori officially turned 1 year old which is amazing. In some ways her being born last year seems so long ago and in some ways it feels like it has gone by so fast.

The first few months of both kids lives were a little tough. I know some people love those first few months, but with both of our kids they have been all about survival with the lack of sleep, nursing, hormones, acid reflux, and fussiness. For us it just gets more fun as time goes on. Thankfully both kids were great sleepers from about 6 weeks which helped make the often fussy awake hours survivable. At about 4 months we feel like a switch went off with Rori and she really started to enjoy life.

We feel so blessed that she is healthy and beautiful. We wanted her very badly before she was here. Finding out she was a she after already having a he was icing on the cake. For the entire first month of her life there was some concern about her hearing which added a lot of stress and concern to our lives. When it finally came back that her hearing was 100% we felt so grateful. We want to remember that feeling of horrible unrest followed by extreme gratitude always. These little ones and each new step they take are miracles and never something we want to take for granted.

She is such a fun baby. She makes us laugh all the time with her big grins and her assertive little personality.

Here are 12 things we'd like to remember about her at 12 months old:
1) She loves to laugh and be tickled.
2) She flirts with everyone but will only let the men hold her.
3) She often prefers to be on Mom's hip.
4) She loved to give her Daddy kisses and swim with him.
5) She thinks it is a fun game to chase Kai around the house with the fastest crawl ever.
6) She points her little finger at what she wants and seriously tell us about it.
7) She prefers big people food- even slightly spicy stuff.
8) She does not love having Mommy out of her sight or being trapped in the carseat.
9) She still has some red hair on top and bright blue eyes.
10) She is often reffered to as fiesty.
11) She rarely sits still.
12) She continues to be a fabulous sleeper.

We love our Rori very much!

We spent her big day enjoying some more time with Grandma and Grandpa Whitney. We drove them around showing them some of our favorite spots, put together and checking out some of the new birthday gifts, had lunch with Daddy downtown, and took Grandma and Grandpa to the Gateway to check out the Planitarium, the Sporting Good Store, and the fountains. Rori was a big fan of the Orange Julius from the food court now that she has mastered the straw. Then we dropped them off at the airport and headed home for much needed naps. Birthdays are fun but exhausting. Good thing we have a whole year to gear up for next time.

Many thanks to everyone who make our kids feel so special and loved!

Party People

We kept the fun coming Wed. night. We had planned on having a birthday BBQ at our house that night, but after Grandma and Grandpa Whitney's surprise arrival we decided to alter the plan and instead head to dinner at Cafe Rio with everyone so they could get their sweet pork fix. We never turn down Cafe Rio and our kids love it too- if you ask Kai he'll list it as his favorite- so it was a great place to go for their birthday party dinner. A guy that Grandpa Whitney worked and got to be good friends with in San Diego is now back living in SLC so we invited them to join us as well. I kept having to pinch myself that they were really there.



After dinner we headed back to our house to open presents and have cake and ice cream. We ordered cakes from Rochelle (Drew's Mom) that were awesome. She made Rori a babydoll cake (with red hair) and an individual 1 yr old pink panda bear cake. Kai got a really cool green (his favorite color) guitar cake. They were so fun and yummy!







Rori did a great job doing the 1yr. old dive in to your cake thing. The panda was perfect for that and she just slowly and methodically went to town on it. It was like Christmas in August for the kids. So many awesome gifts and both sets of grandparents to share it all with. They were in heaven. It was a fun night!