Washington trip, take 2

I got Anna's pictures, so here are many more for your enjoyment. I convinced myself that it was ok for me not to take my big camera, cause Anna would have hers and we could share it :) so we passed it back and forth quite a bit.

When we got to Anna's house Levi was watching a movie, so the kids went right in and sat down with him to watch, they'd acknowledge each other later.

Levi took an instant liking to Ari, "what's her name?" "Ari", "I love you Ari"


After they came out of their movie comma we went outside, much to Charlie's delight.

Levi has a fab park just beyond his back yard, so once Gracie woke up we headed down there to play.


I'm not sure what the game was, but I'm sure Levi was being dead and the other kids weren't quite sure yet how they should respond. Ari looks concerned.


I loved the sunset on the ocean and mountains behind the swinging kids.



Once it started to get dark we headed back to the house and Auntie Anna got to cook Hopper style, which means in mass quantities, and amongst chaos.

Gracie and Kole had some fun baby play time while the bigger kids ran all over the place.

Gracie kept making the kissy lips at Kole, thus baby kisses.



awww

Our trip to WA, part 1 of who knows how many

Last week we had a 5 day trip out to Seattle for a whirlwind visit to Anna's family and to get to attend/participate in my cousin Allison's wedding.
It was all very exciting, but one of the things the kids were most excited about was getting to fly for the first time. (this is also the part that most adults cringed about when I told them of our upcoming trip)
They all did very well on the plane, each had a backpack full of surprise goodies, toys, snacks, new coloring books and books to read. We also had a good supply of movies to watch.




Kole was fine with the flying on the first flight, he loved take off, and was craning his neck to see all the trees and cars when we landed. The second flight though, they (flight attendants) had us move his carseat all the way over to the window, which is where it's supposed to be I guess, and he didn't like that so much. He was ok all through taxi-ing and the beginning of take off, but once he started looking down and seeing how the plane was going up he got scared and cried. Suckers made it bearable until the seatbelt sign went off, but then he wanted out of that chair!


Watching movies on Papa's new IPod, perfect for travel :)




Seating was interesting, since there are 7 of us and rows of 3. on our first flight the 3 girls sat together, and the 3 boys (including faron) sat in the row across from them, and I sat in front with strangers :)
Our connecting flight though was not very full so the big girls got their own row and the rest of us spread out a little too. It wasn't until our last flight on the way home (plane 4) that Faron and I sat next to each other, and that was only because Grammy and Pop were on the same flight and they are alot more fun to sit with than Mama and Papa, so Faron and I only had Kole to sit with!
Minutes before landing on both flights out Ari fell asleep. Kole never slept, regardless of having gotten up at 4:30 am.


Once we got off the plane we had the adventure of the Seattle airport, finding our 7 suitcases (plus carry-ons) and getting to the car rental place, all while not losing any kids. We made it though.

Next came the drive to Anna's Island. We pulled over by deception pass, the bridge that takes us out to her island, and looked around a bit. It was very pretty.




You can see the bridge we crossed in the background here.


This was the first time ever that our family has visited Anna, usually she comes to us. So the kids had lots of fun getting to play at Levi's house, and at Levi's park. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures of that cause I didn't take my nice camera, only my little one, so once we got to Anna, I used her nice camera :)
SO, there will be lots more pictures once I get a copy of all of hers, for now here are the few that I took.


Actually Isabella took the next few here. They were all playing in Levi's room and Isabella came and asked for my camera, I didn't know until later what she was taking pictures of, but she's gotten pretty good with the (little) camera so I let her have at it.
She had arranged Levi with all these animals and wanted to take a picture.




Kole liked Gracie a lot!


So that's day 1ish of our trip, much more to come!

Ari's Birthday

It finally came, Ari finally turned 4 and had her birthday. After many discussions between her party and her actual birthday where she would come to me, very put out, saying, "Mama! Xander says I'm not 4!"
Well, now she finally is.

Much thought and consideration went into the decision to awaken the birthday girl early to open her big present before Papa left. Ari is very much not a morning person, so I was afraid that if we woke her up early it would wreak havoc on her day, however, since most of her presents didn't make a whole lot of sense if she didn't first open her big one, we decided to go for it. The results were not too tragic, I did hear, "I AM NOT GROUCHY!" several times, but that's about it.

So, she got up early and opened her new toy kitchen. We have had toy kitchens before, but the last one was several years ago so Ari and Kole really haven't had one to play with.


After that Papa had to head off. Thankfully he is in class this week instead of at the office, so he has actually been getting home at nice times! He was home in plenty of time for birthday dinner.


After papa left Ari tore through her presents at race car speed, just as she had during her party.


Velcro food that can be cut apart

too many cooks

A little break from cooking to watch Strawberry Shortcake on netflix :)

Kole got some solitary cooking time during the movie.

Princess Ari rules from her throne

Next it was time for some birthday crafting. Here they are coloring and decorating cupcake pages.



Kole wanted in on this one

everyone needs a little glitter on their chin.

Then on to some watercolors.

A card in the mail with some cash is always a nice thing to get on your birthday! Thanks Grandad!

Normally we go out to eat on birthdays, and Ari was all ready to go to Cici's Pizza, but we happened to start a round of stomach flu the day before the birthday, so I figured Cici's didn't want us to share it with them. Ari agreed, and we decided to have pizza at home, so we had a lovely pizza birthday dinner at home. Thankfully no one was sick on her bday, just the day before and the days after :)
Sickness aside, she had a good birthday!

Happy Birthday Arianna!

Happy Birthday Arianna Illaria! You're a big 4 year old today!!

Arianna's Birthday Party

We had Ari's birthday party this weekend. She turns four on Wednesday!

Sometimes, when your birthday is in winter, and especially right after Christmas, you just really don't have many choices, and you end up at the Mcd's play place! (Right Miah and Gracie?)

So, that's what we did





Then we went over to Grammy and Pop's house for cake and presents...and dress up. Uncle Mathew got it first, he actually got it a lot worse than this, but I didn't have my camera out the first time, I know other people got evidence though.
Grandma got it too







This one cracks me up.



and the presents! Ari flew through her presents like a race, there was no slowing her down.


Mama, trying to get Ari to stop and smell the roses, or admire the presents, but as you can see she would have none of it.







Next came more dress up.

Why yes, they did tie him to a chair.




After all that fun and playing we headed out for some ice cream on the way home. Ari and Xander both had blue ice cream which gave them some nice lips.


A lovely party day, now looking forward to a birthday birthday!