all about us.

3 hour tour

 on sunday, we had reservations to rent a boat down at the harbor.  the day looked kind of dreary, so we just hoped that it wouldn't rain on us. but just as we started heading down to the harbor, the clouds broke apart and the sun began to shine.  we had blue skies for the rest of the day!  we were out on the water for 3 hours, and had so much fun.  it's so relaxing and beautiful!  we even saw a little seal pop it's head out of the water at one point.  i didn't have my camera in my hand, unfortunately :(

again, forgive the oversharpened, junky quality.  i'm really disappointed with typepad's new system.

 

dear person who is selling this house, we do not have 4.8 million dollars, but if you would let us just have it, we promise to take really good care of it and love it as much as you have.  thank you.

(man, this house is amazing.  we've always admired it, and when i saw it was up for sale, i found the listing and looked at the virtual tour.  um.... yeah.  way custom. way cool. i feel sad for the sellers!)

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on monday, we had a BBQ at our house with old and new friends.  A couple that Jesse and Bethany knew from their small group in SD moved up to Silverdale recently (about 30 min from here), so they came down to hang out.  They are currently raising money to be missionaries in Spain, so we are bummed that they aren't going to be around very long.  We also had Ryan, Amanda, and their kids come down.  It was so much fun to have everyone over.  Adam grilled up some chicken and corn on the cob, and after the feast, we set off a bunch of fireworks that Jesse had Ryan pick up on their way over.  the kids loved it, although i guess it was kind of loud for ben, b/c he had his hands up to his ears most of the time. lol.  Some neighbors heard us, and decided to pop in the backyard to hang out for a bit and watch. 

              

friends, food and seattle... without kids. aahhhhhh.... :)

   yesterday was such an awesome day.  Some friends of ours, jesse and bethany have come to visit us for the weekend.  yesterday was supposed to be overcast and rainy, but God smiled down on us, and we had gorgeous, sunny, 80 degree weather instead.  we got a babysitter for the day, and the 4 of us drove up to bainbridge island and had lunch at a great little waterside restaurant called Doc's Marina Grill.  that was heaven. i want to live there now. lol.  anyway, after lunch, we got on the ferry and went over to seattle.  we drove up to Redmond to visit the Mac n Jack's brewery (adam's favorite beer.... it's only served in restaurants here in washington, and a few places in oregon and idaho. they don't bottle it).   After we finished there, we went back down to seattle to show jesse and bethany the marketplace.  we went into the Original starbucks to get some iced coffees (by that point we were boiling hot. had to cool down), and we sat down and "people-watched".  it was quite interesting at times, let me tell ya!  (side note: bethany even thought she saw a google car drive by with a camera on top.  their newest feature on google maps is called "street view".  it's darn cool... i can look up our old rental house in san diego that we had before we moved to WA, and it's on street view.  you can zoom in to where it looks like you are walking down the driveway.  it's pretty wild.  SO.  seattle doesn't have it yet, and we think the google car was driving by to get footage at pike's.  how cool would it be to see us sitting and drinking our starbucks on street view when it comes out for seattle!?? )

anyway, we stopped in at rocky mountain chocolate factory and got some chocolate covered strawberries, b/c they do them so amazingly, that i can't help myself.  adam and jesse stopped in at McCormick and Scmicks to have some oysters on the half shell and some clams.  bethany and i just watched..*shudder*

 we had a fun time.  and, in proper erin form, when i am having fun, my camera rarely comes out. i'm always mad at myself the next day. that's ok.

 today, we have a boat rental set up for 2:00.  SOOOO excited.

um, not sure what is up with typepad making these pics look super weird, over-sharpened and funky? gross. but it'll have to do.

 

grandparent eye-candy

whew!!  i have a lot of photos to blog.  We've had glorious weather here, so we've been outside as much as possible!!  i would have paired these photos down a bit, but i figured my parents haven't seen their babies in 6 months, and still have 2 months to go... so... why not post a lot? ;)

this is thursday after school

 

i can't imagine how big those trees must look to them.

playing with daddy's racquets

more flowers have bloomed

love the light

that night, adam BBQ'd.  we made homemade burgers with cheddar, gouda, avocado, and then other little things separate to our tastes.  i had tomato, he had cajun seasonings or something like that.  we also grilled corn (not seen, as i ate it before my burger was ready! hehe). YUM. our favorite.  i topped it off with lemonade.

so, as we were putting the kids to bed, i saw this on ashlyn's window.  i thought it was so funny.  who knows what the storyline was there!

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yesterday, my friend angela and i went down to the beach.  ashlyn was in school, which is why you will only see ben here!  it was a beautiful day, and it was a cool location b/c you could see the mtn range and Mt. rainer in full view to our right.  i didn't really get a photo of it, though.  it was super warm, and it was nice for a slight marine layer to come over us... gave us a break from the beating sun, but it still stayed really nice.  ben had such a blast.  he threw rocks in the water, he watched the little waves roll in and out, he went in and out of the maze of logs that have washed up on the shore, and he even joined in with some college guys in a game of frisbee :)  they were so nice to him.  they would talk to him, let him retrieve their frisbee, and one guy even got down to his level and showed him how to throw. ben still threw it backward. lol.  i didn't get a picture of that.  i think my camera was away at that point.

i thought this was cool.  a sailboat, a ferry, and a fishing boat.  these waters get a lot of traffic in nice weather!

i love him. puff-ball hair and all. :)

i met angela when i was in 3rd grade, when her family still lived in san diego.  Her sister and i were friends, and i remember walking angela to her classroom when she was a 1st grader. That's almost ashlyn's age! Her family moved to washington when i was in the 7th grade.  they are why i know gig harbor.  i used to come visit every summer i could, and i fell more in love with it the older i got.  It's such a strange thing to have ties to the past when you live so far from everyone you know and love.  Her family is my second family.

                                                                             mama,  please stop taking my picture!!

 

look at the lines in the photo.... i love how the water and tree line match up perfectly.

by far, this was the coolest washed up branch.

i took some pics of angela's baby girl... she was so cute in her little dress!

beach beauty

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what to do when you want to cool off? run in sprinklers, of course!

i'm a sucker for sun-kissed faces!

Popsicles in the shade :)

hmmm.  48 photos in this blog.  not too shabby. lol.

a couple quotes

today was SUCH a nice day.  will post pics as soon as i go thru them.  anyway, Ben says this to me as we sat outside, " ahhh.. the sun is shining, the bees are buzzing, the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing, the frogs are ribbiting... what a beautiful spring day!"  He's so BOY, but when he says stuff like that, i die of love.

ashlyn: "caeden drew this for me.  he likes me. a lot of people are starting to like me." 

that was this morning.  tonight, i asked her who liked her, and she named them off (4).  i asked how she knew they liked her, and she clamed up, saying she was embarrassed.  i told her this was the fun stuff we can talk about, and she said, "this is not so very fun!" and she laughed a bit, throwing the covers over her head.  *sigh*.

independence is breaking through

  6 years old must be the helpful/independent age.  i woke up to find that ashlyn had already fed herself and ben breakfast, she had dressed, cleaned her room, and by the time i stumbled into the kitchen to make coffee, she was brushing her teeth (while ben read to her). i think i like this ;)

 

after she was done brushing, they decided to read the book together... each of them reading every other page.  it was so darn cute.

starting the day

This morning, ashlyn took it upon herself to make me breakfast in bed, along with breakfast for everyone else.  i was woken up this morning to a bowl of yogurt, granola, and a drizzle of honey (my fav breakfast lately) set on my nightstand.   The fact that i didn't have to make anyone breakfast was just such a nice break... i think this is the first time i have ever felt pampered by a child on mother's day, since they've been a bit too young in the past.  She even tried to make me coffee, the sweet thing.  i ended up just showing her step by step how i do it.  if i would have let her continue her own way, i would have had yesterday's grounds floating in today's cup. lol.  i was just blown away by the thoughtfulness of her actions, and she was just beyond proud of herself.... i could tell she felt very grown up.

After breakfast, she presented me with the goodies she made at school.  a book all about mommy and a little potted flower.  it's only 7:30am, so i'd say this day is off to a good start.

happy mother's day to all you mom's out there... especially my own!!  call you later, mom :)

tooth fairy fun

So, ashlyn dropped her tooth down the sink while trying to wash it off yesterday morning (oops... the tooth fairy was super busy the night before, and didn't quite remember to leave money).  She was SOOO upset, and adam told her he'd try to get it out after work. Well, we ended up going on a date to the Mariner's game kind of last minute, and adam didn't have time to fish it out.  instead, the tooth fairy wrote a note to tell ashlyn that she found the tooth in the sink, and stuck the note in the tooth pillow with the $1.   This morning, ashlyn came in to tell me that the tooth fairy left her a note, and that she wrote the tooth fairy back (how sweet is that?).  this is the note.  (i love how she wrote money....muny with a smilie face in the "u")

finally!

after a few days of that thing hanging from a (very strong) thread, it's OUT!  She came out of her room wild with excitement... laughing and part crying.  it was so cute.  Ben kept saying, "good job, ashlyn! great! now you are going to grow another tooth!"

workin' around the house

yesterday was a gorgeous day... perfect for getting things done.  we spent a lot of time in the yard. adam mowed, i sprayed and pulled weeds (feeling that in my poor muscles today), and we re-seeded a bald patch in our front lawn from when the cable guys dug it up to give us a new cable line a few months back. it feels good to get all this stuff taken care of. with summer vacation right around the corner, the kids and i will be spending countless hours out there for sure.  anyone want to buy me lounge chair for mother's day?? ;)   Anyway,  Adam fixed my garage door b/c it wasn't closing all the way, and we bought a new little grill because ours was all rusted out.  tonight it's all about the grilled chicken and corn on the cob :).

while adam was mowing, he caught a little tree frog.  We hear these guys all the time, but never saw one.  The kids loved it.  this little guy wasn't afraid.  it stayed in adam's hand for quite awhile!

ben jumped at the chance to help adam all he could with the fix-it jobs.  when he saw adam take out his tools, he ran to get his. i love it.

                                                               

and helping with the BBQ

                                                               

ok, this one is so totally blurry, but this child is about to lose another tooth.  i don't know what it is about wiggly teeth, but it totally makes me squeamish when she sits there moving it around with her tongue.

 

summer is coming.  this was taken a little before 9 o'clock last night.  pretty soon it will be light till 10.  it really messes with your sense of time!

i have a lot to do today.  laundry and more workin' in the yard.  costco too, maybe :)

Ms. Rosegarden's class is in session

today, Ashlyn had to stay home b/c my car battery died.  She came back in the house crying because she wanted to go to school. i felt so bad :(

Since she can't go to school, she has been somewhat following the school schedule.  She went outside for recess, ate snack out of her lunch box, and right now, i walked past her room and found that she was doing story time with Ben.  She told me that she is preparing him for kindergarten! lol. And yes, Ms. Rosegarden is the name she chose for herself. She had her best teachers voice on, and i can tell she is reading just like her teacher does. She reads the page, and then holds it up for the "class" to see. She asks if everyone saw the picture, and then resumes reading the next page.  so cute :)

Ben raising his hand to give a word that starts with "f"  :)