Low Tide

For our adventure this week, we headed to the beach. It was a low tide day and the boys, or at least Matthew, were eager to explore the parts of the beach that are usually covered with water. We were especially hoping to find some interesting critters under all those rocks.

Low tide did not disappoint. We found several hermit crab and lots of shrimpy shrimp.
Seth, again, was not feeling the greatest so he spent most of our time at the beach like this:
Matthew was much more into exploring.
He takes his play very seriously.
After we were sufficiently chilled (don't let those partial sunny skies foul you, it was windy and COLD!), we headed for higher ground and a playground. Surprisingly, Seth perked up a little and I was frustrated that on the way to the playground I had decided to leave the camera in the car. Both boys had fun sliding, rocking, climbing. This little outing got us excited for warmer weather and more summertime beach trips.

Sheep Shearing

This Saturday we headed over to Bellevue for the annual Sheep Shearing Festival at Kesley Creek Park. The weather was a little threatening, but luckily we stayed dry. We had never been to the event and it turned out to be more popular than I expected. There were several things to do, but there were also pretty long lines. We did managed to see a couple sheep shorn (sorry, no pictures), we saw some demonstrations on wool,
Matthew (with a lot of help from Jon) made a wool ball (red, of course), and went for a tractor ride.
Seth wasn't feeling the greatest, so he spent the majority of the festival like this:
He did perk up a little bit when he remembered he brought his new sunglasses.
Overall, it turned out to be a fun time. Maybe next year we'll have more luck with shorter lines.

Zoo

Today we dusted off our zoo passes and headed out to the zoo for our adventure day. I love that the zoo is close and that we are members; these facts make short trips to the zoo very sensible. Seth napped later than usual, so we didn't get as much time as the boys would have liked. But we were there long enough for me to snap a few random shots . . .

My timid Matthew finally made it to the top of the tree house in the Zoomazium all by himself.

The bald eagles really were spectacular!

Vancouver, BC

We ventured north this weekend to take the boys to the open house of the Vancouver, BC temple. Before each LDS temple is dedicated they hold an open house, in which anyone can tour the temple and the temple grounds. We thought it would be a great opportunity for the boys to see the inside of a temple and feel the spirit of temple work. We headed up on Sunday afternoon, shortly after church and breezed through the border in about 5 minutes. Though we didn't really need them, a couple of months ago the boys got passports; something of which Matthew is very proud.

We had reserved in advance a hotel room in Langley, not too far from the temple, with a huge jacuzzi tub. So, that evening the boys enjoyed swimming in the giant tub and we enjoyed a relaxing evening away from the stresses of home.

The next morning, after eating a giant continental breakfast we dressed up and headed to the temple. I wish I could say that the boys so influenced by the spirit and beauty of the temple that they were angels for the remainder of the trip, but that only happens in Sunday school manual examples. Seth didn't seem very thrilled with much of the temple; Matthew was great at the temple, but a tired monster on the way home. I'm hopeful that, at least for Matthew, the trip made some sort of impression that will stay with him. I know that I will remember it. I'm also sure that the hard/annoying/frustrating parts of the trip will fade in my memory. I undoubtedly will only remember the beauty of the temple and the joy felt spending time in God's house with my eternal family. I'm truly thankful for the temple and the promises made within it's walls.

In retrospect, we should have stood a little further from that pole.

My handsome boys.

Some of Matthew's photography:

Children's Musuem

One of our old adventure day fall-backs . . . a bus ride to the Children's Museum, another bus to Jon's office, and a long bus ride home.

I'm not sure why the pictures are so lousy. I must have had the camera on some funky setting without knowing it. I'm including pictures mostly to document Seth's accessory eccentricities and Matthew's creative genius (there may or may not be a little bit or sarcasm in both those expressions).

Sunny Park Day

It was one of those afternoons when I felt like locking myself in my room and pretending that I didn't have kids. But the weather was nice, and I knew I'd feel guilty if I didn't take advantage of the sunshine. So, I sucked it up and took the kids to a nearby park. I'm glad that I did.

Tulip Run

Our family joined with the Goodwin and Williams family in our first ever Tulip Run. We were incredibly lucky to enjoy sunny and clear race weather (although, a bit cold) and a dry course.

Matthew enjoyed walking and running along with me, Grandma, Lucy, and Alice.
While Seth hung back with Jon and later in the race Grandpa, Alice, and Grandmother Ruthie.
We were then treated to a yummy lunch from Grandpa's cousin Rick and his wife Annie. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday!

Adventures

We're a little behind on reporting about our adventure days. Here's a couple of links with the updates:

March 18th - Everett Children's Museum

April 1st - REI

This week we went swimming at Mountlake Terrace Pool. We didn't sign Matthew up for another session of swimming when his last session ended in March, figuring he could probably use a break. But I've resolved to try an get him and Seth into the water frequently in the interim, so he doesn't lose his skills. I looked into swimming lessons for Seth, but none of the times fit our schedule. It took him grabbing his swimming suit from his drawer a couple weeks in a row when Matthew started getting ready for swimming for me to realize that maybe he'd like to swim too.

Unfortunately, no pictures to prove it (I don't know how you supermoms handle two wet, crazy children AND a camera); but the boys had a blast. Seth was accommodating and agree to wear a life jacket so we could spend the majority of time in 3+ feet water. Much to my surprise, Seth really enjoyed floating on his back and even on his tummy with some help. Between the two boys I really didn't have much time to help Matthew with his strokes, but maybe it was more fun for him that way. Maybe next time . . .

Not to be outdone...

Matthew saw that Seth had two videos on the blog, so he needed to make one of his own and put it on the blog. You might not think so, but he thinks this is the funniest video ever.

Our Little Parrot

Seth is at the age where he will repeat words you tell him. The other day, Jon was telling him to repeat all kinds of words. We decided to get some on video, but of course Seth stopped talking so much once the camera was out. We did get a few cute phrases on video.

Easter

It has been a couple of weeks since we posted on our blog, so this post is a bit long. We hope the number of pictures and videos in this post makes up for our long delay.

As usual, Julie prepared for Easter the night before by making and decorating sugar cookies. She always includes them in the kids' baskets, explaining that she adds them after the Easter bunny comes.


For the boys' baskets, the got the usual candy and cookies. This year they each got Thomas Legos, a tie and vest combination, and a book.



We got out the video camera for the morning. First, we have to show you the boys going down the stairs and getting started. Seth is more concerned about his doggie (which he pronounces without the "g" sounds) than finding eggs. We all try to encourage him, to no avail.

After Seth got tired finding eggs (i.e., having us try to convince him that finding eggs is fun), Matthew found his basket for him. You can see that he wasn't even excited about that at first, but he started warming up to it.

Matthew, on the other hand, was very excited about finding his basket. Although, he couldn't come up with many good places to look by himself (sorry, the silverware drawer doesn't count as a good place to hide an Easter basket).

After we found baskets, the boys were happy to play with all their new stuff...




...and eat goodies. Seth was especially cute eating his goodies and showing off his Elmo eggs.




After all the fun, Jon cooked us some "dessert" to follow up on our cookie and candy breakfast: Easter-colored hash browns and eggs.

New Bike

For at least a year now, Matthew has needed a new bike. I'm embarrassed to even admit that he has been riding on a 12" bike up until today. We are obviously negligent.

I had causally looked into bikes but I was hesitant to get him a new bike in the heart of winter. So, with some signs of Spring (Matthew is quick to mention that it is already technically Spring, but I gauge spring by the thermometer, not the calendar) and Easter coming up, I was finally able to commit. We ordered the bike last week from REI (thank you dividend and 20% coupon) and it was ready for pickup this week. So, we made an adventure out of it.

We went to REI on the premise of buying summer sandals for the boys, but I also told Matthew that we would be picking up a surprise for him too. I do realize the irony in my hesitation to buy a bike during early spring, while at the same time anxiously purchasing summer sandals. But Seattle's socks and sandal culture provides perfect validation for this little eccentricity of mine.

The boys quickly picked out and tried on their sandals and we played briefly at the treehouse before Matthew was ready for the unveiling. It wasn't until we were in the bike shop that Matthew finally clued in on the surprise. He then promptly commented, "I wish it was something else." Thankfully, once he actually saw the bike he was pretty excited.

We rounded out the adventure by eating lunch with Jon downtown.

Of course, the weather turned sour by the time we made it home with the bike and we also ran into some trouble applying training wheels, but we eventually did get some pictures of Matthew on his new wheels. He is adjusting well to the bigger bike and is loving how fast he can go! So much so, that he made a game out of avoiding having his picture taken. For each of these pictures there are about 10 others that I had to snap before and after. Thank you digital camera! Seth was more cooperative; of course he's also seat-belted in and he can't pedal yet. Too bad that doesn't last forever.

I love that Matthew felt it prudent to put his coat hood under his bike helmet in case of rain, yet he didn't feel the need to zip up his jacket. I guess this shouldn't be too surprising from a boy that is also wearing socks with sandals.

He can almost reach!