Reunions: Part 1 - Bec comes to visit

*Warning: This post is a bit of a picture overload.

This summer was full of reunions for us.  And to kick it off, my best friend Bec drove up from California with her two kids for a week long visit!  We hadn't seen eachother since Steve and I left Utah two years ago, so I'm glad she was willing to make the trip!

We spent the week down at my parents' house because adding three people to our 2 bedroom apartment didn't sound like too appealing and, let's face it, Grandma's house is just way more fun.  One of my favorite things about this visit is that I wasn't stressed about planning things to do.  Even though Bec is a little more activity driven than I am, I assumed that based on our history, we could do just about anything and have a good time.  I was right.  Although we did go out a few days and see some of the (kid-friendly) sites, we spent most of our time at the house just hanging out, talking, and watching our kids play.  I was a little worried about how Aliyah would handle having two extra kids in her territory for a week, but she did really well and they seemed to have a lot of fun together.  Step 1 of making our girls life long friends and future college roommates is complete!

Now for the photo dump.  I'll let you know what each activity is, but if you want more details about what we actually did, go here and read Bec's post about the trip.  She is much better at details than I am, so check it out.

Around the House

Tacoma Children's Museum

 

Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium

 4th of July Mariners Game

(Aliyah stayed home with Grandma.  Steve and I are not as daring as Bec and Jeff)

4th of July Activities at Gene Coulon Park

(we didn't last to the fireworks, but the park was a lot of fun) 

Bec and Jeff spent their last night at our place before heading to their family reunion in the morning, giving the girls a little more bonding time :)

All-in-all it was a great week and really great to see such a good friend.  My favorite thing about our relationship is that it doesn't ever seem to matter how long we've been apart, we're always able to just pick up where we left off and be natural together.  We can talk for hours or just lounge on the couch watching tv and not saying a word to each other without worrying about what to talk about next.  I'm grateful to have met Bec 9 years ago and even more grateful that we have become such great friends over the years.  Hopefully it wont be two more years before we get together again :)

Camping

After having a taste of warm weather at the beach, we weren't too happy to return to the rainy Seattle weather.  So, the next weekend we decided to try camping all by ourselves and headed east of the mountains to the sunshine.  We camped along the Columbia River and once again got to enjoy beautiful weather.  The beach was not nearly as nice, but the water and weather were warmer than Oregon :)  Aliyah didn't do quite as well going to sleep in the tent this time (she decided she needed to play with her baby for an hour in the tent before finally laying down and going to sleep) but she was happy and handled not having her own bed better than we thought she would.  Unfortunately, that night and the next morning were CRAZY windy and we weren't able to light our stove to make breakfast.  So after a night of not much sleep, a super early rising toddler (5 am), and lack of food, we decided to pack it up and head home.  Although we had planned to spend another day playing in the water, the one day of warmth and sunshine was well worth it.

The Beach and a Birthday

For Aliyah's birthday this year, we decided to go camping with my parents at Nahalem Bay on the coast of Oregon.  We weren't really sure if we wanted to go since we had never gone camping with Aliyah before, but decided to attempt it and were very glad we did.  We all had a great time.  The weather was perfect and the beach was amazing!  Aliyah LOVED playing at the beach!  We'll definitely have to try and spend some time at the beach each summer.

On Aliyah's birthday, we drove into Seaside and walked around a classic car show with my parents, and my Uncle Lynn and Aunt Judy.  The highlight though was Aliyah's first carousel ride.  She laughed the whole time and was sad when she had to get off.  I think I had as much fun watching her as she had riding.

That afternoon, we celebrated with cupcakes and a couple presents.  We had one big cupcake for Aliyah and little mini cupcakes for the rest of us.  Seemed like a good idea, except she was not at all interested in her cupcake (maybe she wasn't a fan of the yellow frosting), but when she saw the mini ones, she dug right in :)

All in all, the weekend was wonderful.  Aliyah did a great job sleeping in the tent and we all had fun hanging out on the beach.  It did rain our last night there, but after a slightly soggy morning we got everything packed up and headed home.
First camping trip was definitely a success, and we will have to do more in the future!

Easter

Easter festivities were a little more fun this year.  Aliyah was actually interested in doing some of the typical Easter activities!  We spent the first half of Easter weekend at my parents' house.  While there, Aliyah got to try coloring eggs for the first time.  She probably would have been just as happy stirring colored water without the eggs, but either way, she had fun. And next year we will be sure to put a cookie sheet under the muffin tin to avoid any table dying mishaps :)

 

Later that day, Grandpa hid Easter eggs for Aliyah to find.  She still didn't quite get the concept of Easter egg hunts, but with a little help and encouragement she was able to find most of them, and was excited to find out that there were goodies inside.  Grandpa needs to work on his toddler level hiding skills though, some were a little bit too hidden for a not even two year old.

 

We spent Easter morning at home as a family and Aliyah enjoyed even more goodies in her Easter basket.  She was so excited, she brought the basket straight in to show Mom in bed.  Her favorite things were definitely the bubbles and bunny car.  That afternoon we had our traditional Easter dinner with Betsy and her family, which was fantastic as always.

  

I'm glad that Aliyah is starting to enjoy holiday traditions, rather than just doing things because Mommy wants to take pictures.  And I'm excited for her to look forward to these little traditions even more next year.

February and Valentines Day...

February brought with it a couple days that were actually nice enough to play outside.  Unfortunately, they were few and far between, so we had to find other things to keep us entertained.  We discovered the play areas at malls and went at least once a week.  She loves to slide!  We also started to do a lot of baking, which Aliyah thoroughly enjoyed, especially if I let her taste as we went :)

 

 

 

Valentines day brought another fun activity for Aliyah; finger painting!  She was unsure at first, but warmed up to the idea after a little while and enjoyed it in the end.  We made pictures for Daddy and hung them on the wall so he would see them when he came home.  Aliyah picked out most off her outfit that day.  It's one of the only times she has insisted on wearing something and I gave in easily because it was a pink skirt and pink boots, so why argue?

That night Steve and I enjoyed a quiet dinner together after Aliyah went to bed.  I must say, eating is much more peaceful without a toddler involved.  It's nice to do every once in a while :)

Snowmageddon 2012

Oh no! Snow in Seattle again! What is the world coming to?
Similar to last year, Western Washington had a heavy snow storm and everything shut down. After living in Utah, it is so funny to see the panic that ensues when snow hits. There is 24 hour news coverage re-spinning the same stories and making it seem as if the world is coming to an end. While it is funny, snow in WA is a little different and a little more difficult to deal with, mainly due to the lack of equipment to clean up and clear roads. Since we live in the middle of a big hill, there really is no way in or out except for by foot, so we were stranded at home for a couple days. We had a good time with daddy home in the middle of the week and spent a lot of time sledding.

Unfortunately, the snow storm was followed by an ice storm which made things worse.  That was not as fun.  Seriously, I had never seen anything like it.  We were sitting in our apartment and could hear and see tons of branches crashing down in the woods around us.  It knocked the power out for a couple days.  Luckily, by the second day, the roads were clear enough for us to make it as far as Betsy's, where they had power.  We stayed the night there and by the time we got back the next day, our power was back.  Phew! We avoided freezing to death this time.  We'll see what next year brings...

House Sitting at Gandma's...

While my parents headed down to Florida to visit Riki and Tim, we headed to their house to watch the dogs. Aliyah seems to think that Grandma's house is way funner than ours and found plenty of things to keep herself entertained.

It didn't hurt that it snowed too, and she could actually enjoy it this year!

Merry Christmas!

It's a little strange to be the one who's in charge of Christmas all of the sudden. When did I grow up and have a kid? I thought I was supposed to be the kid on Christmas morning... Well not this year. Steve, Aliyah, and I decided to stay at our own house Christmas Eve and enjoy Christmas morning, just the three of us. It was really a nice peaceful way to start the day. Not a lot of hoopla, just spending the morning together and opening our stockings. After a fairly unsuccessful outing at church (Aliyah was a little restless due to the fact it was naptime), we joined our families and let the festivities begin.

We headed down to Betsy's and had dinner with her family. Aliyah also got to tear open her first Christmas gift, since we only did stockings in the morning. She still needed a little help, but did pretty good after she realized that mommy wasn't going to tell her no when she ripped it. She got a big box of Latin themed play food, and wanted to dig right in.

After we spent the afternoon there, we continued on to my parents' for the evening and the next couple days. We wasted little time getting to the presents there as well. The highlight of Christmas for me was the little kitchen my Dad and I built for Aliyah. Ok, so really my Dad built it while I handed him tools and I decorated it, but either way, it's awesome, and as much as she did seem to like it, I'm pretty sure I was way more excited for it. Along with her kitchen, Grandma got Aliyah pots and pans to cook her new food in. She has gotten lots of use out of all of it and spends lots of time cooking just like mommy :)

On Christmas Eve we were able to continue our tradition of making tamales!  My mom and Michael joined us in the assembly line and we were able to pick up Danny and Marina from the airport just in time to enjoy the results.  We're getting better at the tamale making process, but they could still use some work :)

 All in all, it was nice to be able to spend time with family and friends and to be able to relax and enjoy the holidays.

Thanksgiving...

Believe it or not, we did celebrate Thanksgiving last year, and although we lack proof via pictures, we actually celebrated it twice, in the same day. We had an early dinner with Roger, Betsy, Brittany, and Karissa, and then went over to my parents' house and ate with them, my grandma, and Michael and Danny. Both dinners were delicious and enjoyed for many days following and it was great to spend lots of time with family.

Aliyah helping me make the stuffing (which didn't turn out so great, so send any awesome recipes my way for next year!)

And although we have no pictures of our Thanksgiving celebration, we were sure to get documentation of the Apple Cup celebration. UW Huskies vs WSU Cougars. Huskies all the way!