Hudson's Big Boy Bed!!

We finally got Hudson a big boy bed! He's been climbing out of his crib for a few months now, so it was definitely about time! He has stayed in it pretty well, I hope that stays! And he does look so small in it! But I love the way his room looks and am ready to do some more decorating!

Literally the day before I was set to go send Mat to buy a bed for him, Mandy called to see if we wanted an extra bed their neighbor just gave them...talk about timing! Thanks to Mandy and Chris for being so awesomely generous (and for Jeanne for driving it up here!!!) He loves it!

Mt Ellinor

Our friends, the Valentines love to climb mountains. Let's be real and say that's kind of scary...when I got Micah's first planning email that we needed to find crampons and an ice axe I was a little worried this might be more than I had bargained for....but it was awesome!!! They chose for us Mt. Ellinor as our first climb and it was just right to get us started! It was only 3 miles (although I swear it must have been longer!!!) to the summit. There was some steep climbing in snow, but honestly that was only the last 1/2 mile or so. It's a 3 mile climb and 3,000 foot elevation change. The views were awesome, we could see the entire Olympic Range! I felt so proud of myself (and proud of Mat) for accomplishing it! Now on to our next mountain!

Getting started!!

We met the cutest dog on the way up!!

 Starting the hard climb!

We made it!!!

Tia wouldn't "prom" pose with me...so I look like a creeper...thanks Tia.

 On top of the world!!

I even used that ice axe!

Lake Cushman

The best part of the whole day was the glissade! To go down the mountain, you literally sit down and slide all the way down. There are so many people going down it that it carves out a chute in the mountain so you sit down at the top and slide all the way down (using your ice axe to slow you down and steer). It was by far my favorite part!! It felt like a giant waterslide, and it was awesome!! Video to come!!! Micah, with his top of the line gear chose to add a garbage bad to his glissading look...it worked quite well!

After our fun hike, we went and picked up our kids and took them back to the Tia's families cabin in nearby Shelton. We stayed by the lake, got a few rides in the dune buggy, and took the kayak around the lake. It was a great weekend! We got home Monday afternoon just in time to put Hudson in his big boy bed (next post!)

A HUGE, GIANT (as Hudson would say) THANK YOU to Steve and Jeanne for watching our kids so we could go climbing! We couldn't have taken them (maybe in a few years) and I loved knowing that they were having their own adventures!!

Here is a little video montage Mat made...

Mariner's Game

For some reason, Micah (my friend Tia's husband) was feeling super generous and offered Tia and I some Mariners tickets so that we could go and he would watch all the kids (it was a 12:10 game on a Wednesday). After deciding he was serious, we took him up on it. After a few wrong turns, some shopping, refusing to pay $30 for parking (ridiculous, I know!), a long walk (after I found free parking!), we had a great time and got there just in time to see a grand slam!!

Mother's Day

We returned home just in time to celebrate Mother's Day! And I wanted to be celebrated! So Mat made me my favorite breakfast...

And spoiled me with presents! I got a gift card to get some fancy sunglasses (like Mat's that I always seem to steal and that have literally changed his life), and all my favorite treats! For dinner, we had  few of our favorite friends over and had a BBQ and played some badminton. Our yard is so big and flat and we have the perfect badminton court (complete with spray-painted lines!)

The day before, we went to the play "The Little Mermaid". It was a Children's Theatre group, and it was the perfect kids play. It was only about an hour, there was no intermission, and snacks are allowed in the theater! Olivia loved it! Hudson tolerated it...until the last ten minutes. Then he kept pointing towards the door and saying, "I want to go right there." He WILL like theater!!!! It was a great Mother's Day weekend!!

We take over the Auburn McInelly House

Since we're pretty much the coolest brother/sister-in-law ever, we traveled down to Auburn to watch Jared and Camille's kids while they lived it up in Mexico! By 1:00 on day one...

• Hudson broke Linsey's ihome
•  Austin ripped Hunter's giant world map off his wall
•  both boys dumped out Linsey and Emma's collection of special things (shells, squinkies, jewelry, money, beads, etc)
• Austin climbed up Hunters dresser. Hudson did the same and spilled the dresser and its entire contents on himself
• They somehow escaped into the front yard just as the neighbor was backing out of their garage (who knew Austin could open the gate...I was just trying to make them some lunch!)
• The garage door broke (I think this happens every time we come, and I don't think Hudson or Austin had anything to do with this one)

So we got off to an unimpressive start...which led to Hunter somehow barricading everyone out of his room (I still don't know how he managed to barricade and then get out of his room), and Linsey and Emma setting up a motion detector...

 Although it was a little crazy/sleep deprived at times...we did have some major highlights...

• Sleeping in Jared and Camille's bed. Our bed is literally from D.I. (it was new!), we do have a memory foam on it. But when we lay in their bed we know what we're missing. And when we added three kids between us (comfortably!), we realized how great a King size bed could really be!
• Celebrating Austin's birthday! I love birthdays! (The night before his birthday we had been listening to the Annie soundtrack...so we all broke out into, "Tomorrow, Tomorrow, your birthday's tomorrow. It's only a day away" And it was awesome!!!!)

Birthday breakfast!

We went to the library for storytime and they sang to him!

Camille left a few presents for him to open!

•  We went to an indoor playground and the kids loved it!

•  This creepy horse mask. Maybe not a highlight, but memorable all the same!
  
• Mother's Day Tea with Emma. It was fun to get to spend time with just Emma and get a break from the little ones!

•  Linsey and Hunter stayed up a little longer while doing homework and I introduced them to a few classic songs. They both loved "Don't worry, Be Happy!)

The destruction of the first day seemed so far away. They have great kids and my kids LOVE their kids, so we had a good (okay, I was a little tired by the end) week!

And Jared and Camille, they had an okay week too...

 

A Whole Month of Updates!

Apparently it's been an entire month since I've blogged...So time to catch up! A really long time ago (the first weekend of May), we went to Portland with Mandy and Chris! We were really looking forward to this trip and really excited to get to spend some time as a family (Mat has had a few freelance jobs that have taken over our lives...but he's nearly done!)

We went down on May 4, and we made it in time to go to the Portland Cinco de Mayo festival. We wandered around, ate some good Mexican food...

Drank some horchata (pretty much my favorite drink)...

And ate more Mexican food for dinner. We found this place on one of the blogs I read. They had great tacos!!!

The next day, we did some shopping (ps Olivia is really fun to shop with)...

 We ate some frozen yogurt...

 (while Hudson napped)

And then went swimming at an indoor pool (where I sadly lost my wedding ring...I have such bad jewelry luck!) This weekend was so fun! Thanks to Mandy and Chris for all the fun (and for the hotel room). They are the best ever!! We love hanging out with them and every time we do it's so fun! We love having them as friends (and as brother/sister!)

Zack and Carrie's Kids

We watched Zack and Carrie's kids for Carrie's birthday the last weekend in April. While they were here, we took them to our favorite park to get some pictures of them. These are a few of our favorites!

 

 We brought them to Auburn to see Hunter and Emma's school play (and give them back to Carrie). Olivia loved the play!

Olivia was SO tired on the way home...and her holding her lip was really funny to me. She just plays so hard!!!