Julia's 7th Birthday

Julia celebrated her golden 7th birthday in perfect ice skating style.  We had gone ice skating at the Air Force Academy as a family a few weeks prior to her birthday and had observed other people having birthday parties at the ice rink.  We looked into it, and apparently, anyone can have a party there as long as it's on certain dates.

Julia invited a couple of friends from the neighborhood, a couple from school, and a couple other family members and adults tagged along. I was able to skate with the kids while Stacey made sure the details of cake and presents were taken care of.  Although the party was simple...just ice skating, cake and ice cream, and presents...several parents loved the idea and were going to look into doing the same thing for their upcoming parties.

The kids really had a good time.  Due to the timing of the party, we had the entire rink to ourselves.  It was as if we had rented the rink and had a private party for Julia.

College Planning

Flashback to the other night...

Stacey was putting Julia to bed, and while they were talking about various things Julia stopped and asked a very important question: 

Julia: Will I ever not live with you guys?

Stacey: You might not live with us anymore when you're older...like when you grow up and go to college.

Julia: Does that mean Buddy will be here by himself and get to stay longer than me?

Stacey: Yes.

Julia: (gets all teary-eyed) I don't ever want to leave - I love it here!  Can I go to college and still live here?

Stacey: Sure, you could definitely do that.

Julia: That's what I want to do.  I want to live here with you and Dad and Buddy when I'm in college!

(I wanted to make sure I put this in writing, as it may prove to be very useful in 10 years)

Seattle Monorail

Here's a video from last month of the kids riding the monorail in Seattle.  They loved the view from the front.

Pledge of Allegiance

Here's a video of Julia and her class saying the Pledge of Allegiance...

Western Travels

Some pictures from a few weeks ago.  I snapped the first shot of Mount Hood while flying into Portland.  The second was taken in Issaquah, and, the third, as I was leaving work one day...

Best Kids Ever

It doesn't get much cuter than Jonathan's yearbook photo.  Julia was flying high on Halloween sugar in her fairy costume...or maybe it was because she was awarded with student of the month for October.  Jonathan was flying on the ice even though it was his first time ice skating...

Family Pictures

Warning...we recommend that you sit down before viewing the below pictures...we are not responsible for anything that happens as a result of the below cuteness, other than the cuteness itself.

We only have digital copies, so feel free to save the full image to your computer for printing.

Green Lake

Fun with fall. After the zoo just the kids and us checked out Green Lake a few miles away. The weather was cool and windy, but there were a lot of people out jogging, walking and even rowing. The kids just played around in the leaves while we walked a little bit, then crashed in their hotel bed after a big day of walking around.

Woodland Park Zoo

On Thursday we met Stacey's parents (and Matt) for coffee in the morning, since they had driven over from Spokane the night before. In the afternoon we drove around the area, stopping at Snoqualmie Falls and letting the kids play at a playground in North Bend. We finished off the day with some Chinese food.

The next afternoon we headed to the Woodland Park Zoo in north Seattle.  There were several animals I hadn't seen before or in a very long time. The kids enjoyed it, of course.