New Tags

More changes...new plates for the cars or as they are called here "tags" So off with the old and on with the new. It's funny because we've gotten a lot of second looks with our Maine plates out here. People will pull up next to us and look at us. I wonder if they think people from Maine have some special feature, like maybe moose antlers, or lobster claws? But now we'll just look everyone else. Washington State plates have a picture of Mt Rainer...it's' 'biggest mountain. It's really beautiful. OH ps check out the brown grass...it's brown because guess what? We've had only one day of rain since we moved here.



So long chickadee and pine cone "vactionland"

Hello Mt. Rainer and the "evergreen state"

playground fun

Well Good Morning to you

Living in the woods in Maine, my kids were very accustomed to seeing all sorts of wild life. We saw rabbits, wild turkeys, deer, moose, fox, turtles, and yes even the famous bobcat. So living in a more populated area I didn't think we would see much. This morning the kids were eating breakfast and starting yelling, "Mom there are two raccoons in our yard" And sure enough there were two bandits walking through the yard. We had actually never seen one of those in our woods in Maine. I grabbed the camera and only captured one. As you could see he wasn't too happy to have his picture taken.

4th of July Celebration

When we lived in Maine the 4th of July was pretty "ho hum" we lived too far to go to the fireworks and there wasn't too much to do worth the driving distance. So we usually just went to the lake for a day of swimming. Nothing wrong with that but I love my childhood memories of the 4th of July with fireworks. So now living here in Washington we discovered we actually had a choice of things to do. First we could go to Blaine, or we second we could go to Bellingham. We tried to first hit Blaine for the parade, but we got stuck in traffic and didn't make it. (note to self...leave much earlier next year) So we were disappointed but decided to head to Bellingham. There they had lots of stuff for the kids and vendors for me =). They had 3 huge jumpy houses, face painting, music, and food. The kids had a blast. After that we headed home for some r and r and then headed back for the fireworks. They were really amazing. The best I've ever seen. I felt like a kid again. I "ohhhhh, awwwwwwed" right along with the boys. It was a great day.


Elijah isn't looking too trusting of the lady doing his spider.

But in the end was happy with the result.

At first I thought she was going to paint his whole face green and I was not too happy.

But she turned his nose into the head of a dinosaur. Pretty cool.

Everybody was KungFu fighting. This KungFu panda needed to eat a few more bowls of noodles.

They had huge chalkboards that they invited people to do sort of a "chalk by number"

Cotten Candy of course.
The big flag. God bless America...better yet show us mercy!

Finally dark at 10:30.

First Visit to Seattle

We took our first trip into Seattle yesterday. Sort of on a whim. We didn't have a plan just to take a look around. Next time however I will be planning a more"cultural" trip. It was a beautiful day...not a cloud in the sky. We stopped at the Space Needle...and should have taken the trip up as soon as we got there because later on the line was so long, I just didn't have it in me to stand in line. Next time we'll take the trip to the top. Next to the Space Needle is where we ended up spending most of the time. The "Fun Forest" is basically a carnival type deal. There are rides and games and food. Of course this was exactly what the boys wanted to do all afternoon. We took the Monorail into downtown Seattle and did a wee bit of shopping. There is so much to see!


Space Needle from the ground.

This is a statue of liberty built completely from LEGOS! It was very impressive despite the look on Elijah's face.

WEEEE

Bumper cars of course

The look on Isaiah's face is priceless. Elijah laughed and smiled the whole ride, but Isaiah had a look of horror. Peter and I got a great laugh.

bowling...oh boy

So the local bowling lane offers free summer bowling to kids. The kids have been begging us to go. I've never bowled and Peter said maybe a few times in high school or college he did. So we were in for an adventure. The balls were so heavy. I could barely lift them. Then with my pregnant belly my balance was all off. I didn't do so well. The boys had fun just trying to knock the pins down.



Elijah stood to watch every ball he released.
Isaiah just chucking the ball. LOL it was awesome.

Score board...Elijah won (with help from dad)

one fish two fish

The kids had swim lessons all week and they will continue next week. They have had a blast. They are in two different classes this year. Elijah has always been comfortable in the water so this year we are trying to match up his no fear attitude with his skills. He'll be swimming on his own by the end of the summer for sure. Isaiah can swim but he strengthening his technique and learning endurance.

Kicking at the wall.

Practicing with the noodle.

Swimming the length of the pool.

Swimming the length of the pool on his back.