That’s not a typo.

Over the weekend, Haley got a new room! But JT used to say “new oom” when he moved to his new room before Haley was born, and now Haley says “new oom” too.

Since I knew we were having a baby girl, I’ve wanted to paint the walls yellow and get white furniture. But since I already had a perfectly good cherry dresser and crib, we stuck with it. Until now! With Aunt Jennifer’s due date this summer, we had a timeline for passing off the crib and I had been looking for white furniture and a white toddler bed on Craig’s List. I found some on Friday and off we went. Then I was so excited I stopped and got paint… and then my mother-in-law suggested that she sweep the children off for the day on Saturday so I could Extreme Makeover Haley’s room without interruption. Here’s what it looked like before…

This weekend we drove down to Portland for a baby shower for Jim’s sister (JT and Haley’s new cousin is due August 5th!). After the shower, we went to a park and played in the sunshine.

Seriously. She loves it!

 Haley kept crawling up the slide and falling backwards down it. She was determined to get it.

The MAX train went by the park every fifteen minutes or so. A few times Jim took JT and Haley to the fence to watch. Once the engineer blew the whistle at them!

Racing back from the fence..

The next day we went to the Oregon Zoo. I have wanted to go there for awhile because they have animals that our zoos do not have. JT has been asking to see crocodiles and we just don’t have them. I had a great time trying out the aperture mode on my camera and many times I could get better lighting and color than auto mode, which was very exciting. I love the zoo and took lots of pictures of animals.

Watching the sea lions swim by

There’s one!

Haley was interested in the animals: “See too?”

My favorite, as always, was the elephants. There are four female Asian elephants in this area. One of the younger elephants was playing with a metal ball hanging from a fence. It was completely fascinating!

The lions were out lying in the sun. It looked like a great way to spend the afternoon!

JT was a little wary of brushing the pygmy goats.

The crocodile made JT a little nervous. Its big snout and teeth were pretty close up, even behind glass. He felt better standing back a bit.

Group picture

 

Walking with Grandpa


And my favorite picture… on the way to brush the goats. I call it “The zoo with my two.”

 I completely forgot I had these pre-fishing trip pictures on my other camera!



Think they’re a little excited?

 

The men… all six 🙂

 But BEFORE the fishing trip, JT and Jim practiced casting in the backyard.j

Haley was happy to watch.

The first cast went over the chair. The second went over the fence. And the third, well…

It went so far that it got caught in our neighbor’s painting project! Good thing he’s a super nice guy.

We also took some time to do some skiing. You know, preparing for summer. JT decided to do some trick skiing and went backwards.

Haley completed her first ski. I knew it wouldn’t take anything to convince her. JT took one trip around the yard and she was shouting, “Ski too! Ski too!” from the deck. She said she liked it!

This month’s date night was a little over the top. But then again, if you know my husband, none of this will surprise you. We reserved the date night package at the Bellevue Hyatt – a favorite because it comes with a gift certificate for dinner, tickets to the movies, champagne and strawberries and truffles at bedtime, breakfast in bed, late checkout, and valet parking. We’ve done it before and it is very nice. This time Jim got us a room on the very top floor. Check out that view!

We had appetizers at Joey’s, dinner at Daniel’s Broiler, and dessert at The Cheesecake Factory. We were just a little bit full. Okay, I was in pain. I had to get a box for my cheesecake. We saw 21 Jumpstreet, which was really a funny movie. I watched the original series with my dad and have great memories of the show!

Love this one!

We watched a movie while we ate breakfast in the room and lounged in our pajamas until well after noon. In fact, we checked out with about two minutes to spare right before 2 PM. Don’t we look rested? 🙂

JT was excited (understatement of the century) to go on his first camping/fishing trip with his dad. And his friends. (Oh. My.)

The lake near our house stocks 10,000 trout in time for opening day of fishing season every year. Then they put on a big event and you can camp in the park overnight. Years ago Jim and I went together and had, um, an okay time. It was cold. And wet. And there was nothing to do except fish, and it was too dark to read.

Anyway.

Jim asked JT if he’d want to go this year and of course JT said yes. Then Jim organized his two friends Carl and Brian to come with their boys (see photo of the three boys here). Everyone came to our house for hamburgers before they left to camp in one big tent overnight. The ladies put the babies to bed and watched Iron Lady and ate snacks in the warm house on the cozy couch while the men looked like this…

They bought the yummy pancake breakfast in the morning. The timestamp on this photo is 6:34 AM. Jim said when he woke up JT was lying in his sleeping bag just staring at him – willing him to wake up, I am sure. For a boy who drags himself out of bed at 8:30 most mornings, this is a first.

They went to the fish pen that holds lots and lots of trout for children to catch and got in line early. This was good, because they waited 45 minutes as it was and some parents Jim talked to waited for hours. It’s because a child’s turn is until they catch a fish. Love this rule when it’s your child, hate it when you’re waiting in line.

And sure enough, he got one! 10 inches long and 5.75 ounces (it’s like announcing a baby). He was sooooo proud of it.

Hot chocolate for the hungry fisherman

Here’s what the park looks like in the morning – a nice day for fishing!

Asher and JT

The fishermen got home about 11:30 and slept together in our bed until 2:30, completely missing lunch. Then we ate the trout the next day at lunch and it was really good!

The house Jim lived in during college is part of the Vision 16 community at UW. He loved his four years living there and he met many of his lifetime friends there. In fact, many of those friends’ wives are now my closest friends too! At the last reunion, I was pregnant with JT. Five years went by very quickly!

Here we are enjoying burgers with people who we see all the time… and who live fifteen minutes away… which completely misses the point of a reunion, but it was sure fun! 🙂

The above posted men each have a firstborn son. Here they are, standing oldest (right) to youngest (left). They have a great time together!

We took a walk to see a friend’s new house and enjoyed the sunshine. I made the kids pose outside by the flower beds and this picture deserves a shout-out to Zack for making them laugh!

My manager at work lives next door to nine 8-week-old lab puppies and we got to go visit one sunny morning. They were soooo cute!

Monday night, Jim got back from a two-week work trip. Tuesday we made no plans and just relaxed as a family. And the weather was decent and we had lunch on the boat and we SKIIED (shouting) for the first time since December. Normally we try for once a month all winter long, but this year we had horrible weather and just never got a chance. It was a wonderful way to welcome Jim back.

And guess what?! We don’t need a baby holder anymore. That’s right – JT and Haley sat nicely on the seat while Jim or I drove and did just fine. JT can flag, and does a great job. Haley sat very still the whole time and didn’t slide around on the corners. When the whole trip was over and we were loading the car, Jim looked at me and said, “You know what this means, right?” Big smiles. Not that we don’t love having other people in the boat – because we do! – we just get super disappointed when it’s a calm, dry day and we can’t find anyone to join us or babysit. Hooray for growing children!

Sharing the front seat

Driving the boat



Lunch break – also a life jacket break

 

“JT, how’s it feel to be back in the boat?” Big thumbs up!

First mate bringing in the rope (although we miss you, Preston)



Ready for another life jacket break – but never complained!

Finally, Haley got a turn with the flag. 🙂

While Jim covered the boat, the kids ran and picked dandelions in the field at Ms. Vivian’s house, where we keep the boat in the off season. I took all my pictures this day not using auto mode and I was very excited to learn how to get a nice color and a soft background using my settings.

Tuesday was just a great day all around. We had a waffle breakfast (using my new mini-waffle maker, shout-out to Sarah), took our time heading to the lake, I got in a run before the rain really fell during the kids’ nap and set my new best time, we ate a yummy steak dinner and got frozen yogurt for dessert at my new favorite place near our house, tucked the kids in bed and watched a movie… most importantly, we spent the whole day as a family without chores or commitments: one of the best days in a long time!

When you fit in the blanket basket along with your brother, you’re still a small kid. 🙂

When we met the Shucks at the park for playtime and lunch this week, JT was so excited to see his friend Asher. They haven’t seen each other in awhile and they had a great time. Very quickly, they grabbed sticks shaped like rifles and played hunter in the trees. JT tells me they were hunting deer. So we watched as our boys ran through the trees with sticks in their hands, prayed they would come out with both eyes, and felt our hearts fill with joy. Oh, to be a kid again!

Discussing the next hide

 I got two action shots…

Then the girls joined them and JT was concerned, “Haley has a stick, Mom!”



Coming back from the woods…


 The girls were more interested in the slides than the sticks.


Love this face!

We had the hungry hunters save us a table while the women gathered up lunch. A great morning!