swimming

Tim took the day off work today so that we could spend some time together as a family. It was nice to spend a fun day with our boys after being without them all weekend. Tim hadn't seen the boys in a week. We had fun hanging at the pool all day!

seattle - eleven years ago

Here are a few pictures I have from our honeymoon in Seattle. I thought it was fun to see the contrast that eleven years brings. First, camera technology has obviously improved dramatically. Second, Tim & I have grown up. We look like silly little kids. I guess we were!

seattle - day four

Our last day in Seattle we did some more sight seeing. Tim really wanted to drive me to Bellevue across the floating bridge and the tunnel that goes underneath a neighborhood. It really was incredible. I could live there, if only it was sunny every day. We saw the temple, which is always awesome!
After exploring Washington, we headed back to the pier for some fish and chips.
We enjoyed some more of Pike's Place market, we walked along the pier and then we walked down to the Olympic Sculpture Park. We were in a goofy mood and were clearly not in tune with the art, but we had a great time with our own interpretations of the art.
And, it was fun just to stroll around, hand in hand (tender!)
Here I am enjoying the beautiful day
Look at that big boat (and all that hair in my face.) Nice picture, Babe!
What a perfect picture to end the trip with. This was the last sculpture we saw as we left the park. Do not even ask what Tim was doing in this picture (not to mention the statues)!
Okay, clearly we are not art connoisseurs, but we enjoyed a beautiful Seattle day before we headed back home!

seattle - day three

Saturday morning we headed to Greenlake. We had heard that it was a great place to enjoy the scenery, as Tim is doing, and to...Run! It was a gorgeous morning and a beautiful run. Do I really look this goofy when I run?
I could really get used to running around a beautiful body of water like this everyday. Tim was still too dizzy to run with me, but he obviously had a great time!
After a beautiful morning at Greenlake, we headed back downtown. We drove on this road just one minute after this picture was taken. This road was a bridge that was raised so that a boat could get by. Cool, eh?
After much anticipation, we finally got to Pike's Place Market. This was my number one priority destination for our trip. I dream about Pike's Place.
The fish guys are entertaining, but that's not why I love Pike's Place.
I love the hustle and bustle of the crowd...
I love all the yummy baked goods...
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the beautiful flowers!
After a fun day at Pike's Place Market, we freshened up then went to Alki Beach, which is in West Seattle. This beach has amazing views of downtown Seattle.
It also has a gorgeous beach!
We walked up and down the beach. We collected sea shells and rocks for our boys. We also enjoyed a yummy dinner at one of the beach front restaurants; Pegasus Pizza and Pasta. We needed a break from seafood.
After a yummy dinner were able to watch the sun setting here. It was a perfect day!

seattle - day two

On Friday morning we woke up early and headed to downtown Seattle. Tim, being the hard worker and multi tasker that he is, just had a quick appointment to run to in the morning. It was located right by the Space Needle. We saw the Space Needle a number of times while we were in Seattle, but never had a strong desire to join all the other tourists and check it out. Maybe we're crazy?!

After Tim's (first) appointment, we headed over to Bainbridge Island by ferry with our car. We had never taken a car on a ferry before so it was a new and exciting experience for us.

The ferry ride is about 30 minutes so we went out on the deck to check things out. Riding the ferry brought back so many memories of our honeymoon. We stayed on Bainbridge Island and rode the ferry over to Seattle every day. Here's Tim on the deck looking smooth with the sun in his eyes and his Mountain Dew!

Don't you love the wind blown look? As you can tell, it was really windy on the front of the ferry!

This is Tim & I in our rental car, waiting to exit the ferry. We were just trying to perfect our "hold the camera up with one hand and take a picture of ourselves" shot. I think we're pretty good at it now!

After getting off the ferry we headed through the gorgeous streets of Bainbridge Island. Amazing!

Our first stop once we got to Bainbridge Island was the bed & breakfast we stayed at on our honeymoon. Tim thinks he's so cool!

Isn't it darling? We were sad that we couldn't stay here because it was already rented out for the week, but it was fun to stop by and visit.

Next, we went to lunch at Cafe Nola. It was a quaint little cafe just down the street from the pier. The weather was incredible so we ate out on the patio.

I was happy because I had the yummiest roasted vegetable sandwich. Is it wrong that food makes me so happy?!

After lunch, Tim had another appointment with a customer on Bainbridge Island. (How convenient!) It actually worked out perfect. I was able to walk around and check out all the darling shops and bakeries without feeling like I was dragging Tim along for the ride.

Everything about the island is dreamy!

We took the ferry back to Seattle where we spent the rest of the night, but not before we got another one of our "hold the camera up with one hand and take a picture of ourselves" shots!

We hung out at a really nice mall near our hotel. This is a picture of the family restroom in the mall. Wow! Along with visiting the nice restrooms, I was able to shop at H&M, which is always a favorite of mine.

We finished off the night by seeing the new Transformers movie (marriage is all about compromise)! Tim & I both really liked the first movie, but the second one was not near as good as the first. We were disappointed about the movie, but had a great time staying out late and not having to hurry back to get the kids!

seattle - day one

Tim and I were lucky to be able to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary in Seattle. We spent our honeymoon in Seattle so it was a perfect place to enjoy together as a couple eleven years later. It was a much needed vacation for both of us. Tim flew into Seattle on Tuesday for work. He spent three days in the city working and trying to get over his dizziness. I flew in to Seattle on Thursday. Tim picked me up from the airport. We dropped off my stuff at the hotel and then we headed downtown. He was really eager to show me around. Obviously, I had been to Seattle before, but nothing seemed familiar to me. I was pleasantly surprised by how gorgeous Washington is. Everywhere we drove we saw this...
I loved all the greenery. I was in awe by how gorgeous the freeways and neighborhoods were. Not to mention, I never once felt a drop of rain in the 4 days I was there. It was heavenly! After exploring downtown, we chose a restaurant that was right on the Pier, next to Pike's Place Market; called Cutter's Bayhouse. The view of the water was incredible. (I found this picture online.)
Here I am sitting on the pier enjoying the gorgeous view (and all the entertaining people)!
After dinner we headed back to our hotel, enjoying the spectacular scenery on the way home. We stayed just 15 minutes from downtown. It worked out great!

moms birthday celebration

We had a barbecue to celebrate my Mom's birthday.  Parker took charge of the camera when we got there and started capturing photographs of the event.  He's a good little photographer.  Doesn't my Mom look so happy to be 52 or 53?  I can't remember.  It doesn't matter.  She definitely doesn't look her age.  Isn't she adorable?  

Clint, Mom & Becca.  Parker's in the background so he must not have taken this picture.  I guess I helped out a little.

Me & Payton

Clint (always playing with his iphone)

Cooper (seems to be enjoying himself) and Parker (probably has something to do with the reason Cooper is crying).