back in may my folks came out to visit, it was nice since we weren't expecting to see them again until Christmas but they made the trek out. the kids were very happy.
noah is a guy's guy and has always been more drawn to grandpa and paw paw. he gave yaya her fair share of snuggles though.
caleb is always glad to have visitors. we had several visitors in a row and when they were all gone, he decided it was too quiet and started asking me when we were adopting him a sister. i'll get right on that.
unfortunately for my parents, may was not as dry and sunny as they'd hoped. we did have a few nice days to get out and about though.
i took my mom to pike place market. we lucked out and happened to be there on the day of the cheese festival. free cheese tasting as far as the eye could see! it was excellent. and she got to see the first ever starbucks. tasted just like every other starbucks, go figure.
we took a ferry to Vashon island and checked out some of the many beaches there.
they are born beachcombers!
the kids would have brought home every bit of stick, rock, and shell they found if i'd let them. they had a blast. i was mostly impressed with the sheer amount and size of driftwood, like this one.
holy sock monkeys, that's a big 'un.
if it looks like he was trying to hold them back, he was. the kids weren't too happy about being there and were trying to slide off.
the island had several nice trails as well like this one. what i love most about washington is how many different types of biomes are accessible in such a compact space. here i am, in all my headscarfed glory, saying in my mommy voice that the tree is SOOOOOO BIG!
so here's the sequence of events on this one: we come upon a tree with roots growing within the trunk of another rotted tree. noah looks and thinks, oh look, nature went and grew me a a climbing wall!
ok, here we go!
nearly there...
hey, why aren't you guys climbing too?
what? WAIT! I'M NOT DONE YET!
it's hard to tell from the picture, but his feet were at least three feet off the ground level, i had stepped up to pull him down and still had to reach up to grab him, and this all happened in about 10 seconds or less. and he did NOT want to let go. i asked caleb if he wanted to climb it and he politely declined.
my parents are big 'diners, drive-ins and dives' fans and found a place in tacoma that had been on the show. my dad saw that liver and onions was on the menu and decided he just had to go. thankfully that's not all they served! noah was very happy with the corn cakes and strawberry lemonade. he is an eater!
this pic is so cute to me. has sort of a forrest gump vibe. no offense dad, i love forrest. the novelty of eating at the counter was too much for caleb to resist, and i let him, and by the time i realized he was going to be watching an episode of CSI during lunch i knew i'd have a real fight on my hands to make him move. thankfully it was one of their less violence/stripper filled episodes.
we also checked out the museum of glass, which is small but cool. in the room where they actually heat and blow the glass they have stadium seating so you can watch as they tell you what they're doing. what mostly impressed caleb was that when they opened the door to the oven in the picture above, you could feel a wall of heat rush across the room at you.
this is part of the 'bridge of glass' that stretches over a busy roadway. not my taste, but impressive nonetheless!
and then you walked under this sight and just looked silly for a while staring up trying to imagine how they made it all. beautiful.
we also went to northwest trek, where you can ride a tram year round through 435 acres of land in which local herbivores roam free. we lucked out and got to see almost every type up close and personal!
we also had a visit from nana and grandpa shortly after my parents left, i have pictures but they are on seb's computer, which is in another state at the moment, so that will have to wait for another day.
caleb finished his first year of school! here he is with his best friend. they became friends on the first day of school and since then they have been inseparable. even though he'll be going to a different school next year, i've made friends with his friend's mom, and we have had several playdates since school ended. noah has adopted him as a friend almost as much as caleb, and caleb misses him so much when we aren't hanging out. he's even asked why they can't just come live at our house! as his friend's mom puts it, they are so close and so alike, you'd think they were from the same womb, and we anticipate being connected for quite some time.
it's summer here now which means we feel like we're sweltering when it hits 81 degrees outside. this is the payoff for 9 months of rain. it's the middle of july and i still want to be outside instead of cowering inside in the a/c.
being still relatively new to the area we are searching out new parks and places to explore to discover our favorites.
caleb highly approves of any park with a sandbox!
and of course whatever caleb does noah has to do too.
had to convince him i had to take a picture before he could see a picture. that is a smile of 'please take this picture already'
there's the real one, on noah anyway, and caleb still can't give a natural smile on cue.
they love to spin!
hey looky there, i got video to work!
more pics (and video!) coming soon!
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