Our Seattle Visit!

Sorry we've been absent for a while, but we just returned from a wonderful visit to Seattle. It was chilly, rainy and cloudy. So perfect. Actually we had some really great sunny days too. We had a great time visiting family and old friends. It's never enough time but we were able to do lots of fun things. Sorry about the picture overload that follows but we just had lots to share. Just think there even things we did I forgot to take pictures of. We owe both our parents, family and friends a big thanks for making our trip so wonderful. Although we will miss being there for the holidays, it was fun to go at a time when it's not quite so crazy. Seattle is so beautiful and it will always be a special place for us.

The Lake House

Always one of our highlights of our visits to Seattle is our trip to Jason's parents lakehouse. Jason's dad has built it almost entirely by himself and it's wonderful. It is so peaceful and beautiful. We always love to go stay a night. This time grandpa treated the kids to a ride in his little boat, Emily even got to steer. So fun!

Point Defiance Zoo

We had a great visit to the zoo. They've remodeled it a lot since I had been there last and it was really great. It was a beautiful day, sunny but chilly, perfect.

Tuppance a bag...

Whenever we are in Seattle, one of our favorites spots to visit is Ivar's. It's a little seafood resturant on the waterfront. The food is great but what we really go for is to feed the seagulls. They'll take french fries right out of you hands (if you're french fry isn't long enough, they might take you finger too.) The birds were particularly crazy this time, tourist off season I guess. The girls were very brave and had a great time.

Seattle Science Center

When Jason got to Seattle, we took the girls downtown Seattle to the Pacific Science Center. It was a great day, not crowded at all. The girls basically had the place all the themselves.

Emily in the Butterfly house...she was a little disappointed that none of them would land on her.

Lauren loved this snake...yuck.

Fun with Bubbles!

Don't worry, it's fake.

The girls loved using umbrellas...crazy kids.

Carnation

One of our days in Seattle, we did a little tour of the Snoqualmie Valley. I spent a lot of time there growing up since my grandparents lived in Carnation. We started at Snoqualmie Falls, went to Carnation, saw my grandparents old home, had lunch at Xtapa (not sure that's spelled right, my grandmas favorite Mexican resturant), went to Remilinger Farms and finished off by driving by Carnation Milk Farms. My grandpa worked for Carnation Milk Farms and we used to go visit when we were small (it's actually now used as a camp for special needs children.) It was a fun day. It was nice to show my girls some of the places I loved as a kid.

Snoqualmie Falls

The falls were amazing this year. There had been quite a bit of rain before we came and there was so much water coming over. I don't know that I've ever seen them that big. It was actually difficult to see them at some points because there was so much mist coming up. It was very cool though.

Raking Fall Leaves

Something we don't get to do very often, but the girls loved it. It was so fun to bundle them up and send them out. They had a great time!

With their friends, Mike and Woody!

VOTE!

I am proud to have had the opportunity to have vote today. I am grateful to live in a country where we have a voice and hopefully that voice is heard. It's seems like this has been a very long race, I am definately ready for it to over. Right now, as much as the presidential election, I am concerned about the vote on Proposition 8. For those of you is California, you know the struggle. For those of you outside of California, your turn will come. This will not end with California. This has been a long and hard fought battle and I can only pray that the outcome is such that traditional marriage is protected. It has been a priviledge to stand up for my beliefs and values. And though this specific issue is nearing a finish line (one way or the other), we will have many other races to run in order to protect our beliefs. So get out and exercise your constitutional right. And if you live in California, Vote Yes of 8.

Happy Halloween!

We hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween. We had a great Halloween week. We had so many fun things going on. It started on Monday with our spooky story time at the library. The girls got to dress up and go knock on office doors in the library to get treats. Such a cute little program, they love it. Wednesday was our ward's trunk-0r-treat. Jason and I even got into the action and dressed up. Crazy, we found it was a little more fun that way. The party was a big hit and the girls scored in the candy department. Thursday, Emily got to dress up for pre-school and they had a little party.
Finally, on Friday, we went down to San Diego. We've never been able to join in on the Haynie festivities for Halloween since it's usually during the week. So this year, we took advantage of the Friday Halloween and went to their ward trunk-or-treat and followed that up with the ever popular Haynie Halloween party. We had a great time. We had great scones and lots of hot chocolate (although it was 85 degrees that day). Overall we had a great holiday and got great use out of our costumes. Emily got the award for "Most creative kids costume". She was so proud.

Arghhh Matey!

All Emily wanted to be this year for Halloween was a pirate.... So here are our little pirates!!