Hannah Says...

anniversary trip

Saturday marked our 5th anniversary!  In some ways, it seems like a long time.  But on the other hand, it has flown by.  This means that I am halfway to getting a three stone anniversary ring!  We celebrated by taking a trip to Seattle, sans the buddy boy.  He stayed back with his grandma and I'm sure he wouldn't have had it any other way!  We left Saturday afternoon and headed straight to the hotel in downtown Seattle.  Brent had made us dinner reservations at Ruths Chris Steakhouse.  Not my favorite, especially for the price, but Brent seemed to enjoy it.  After dinner we went and saw Mamma Mia and I loved it!  Brent did too, more than he thought he would.  Sunday morning we got up and went to Cafe Ladro for breakfast.  We heard about it from a Rachael Ray show and it was just like she said it was.  Really yummy coffee!  After a little walking around downtown, we headed to Bellevue.  I had some things to exchange for Emmett.  I found him some really cute fall clothes at the Osh Kosh store and a pair of shoes at Nordstrom Rack.  Also at the Rack I found some 7 jeans, at a bargain price!  Well, bargain to me anyways.  After shopping, we decided to hit some open houses in Bellevue, just for fun.  We saw 4 houses, ranging from $995,000 to almost $4 million!  The crazy things was that the cheapest, was small, dated and in serious need of a remodel.  The most expensive was large, but nothing special.  I just couldn't believe that people could spend that kind of money for a "regular" house.  Not mansions.  For dinner last night we went to PF Changs, my favorite!  After a little hanging out this morning, we came home.  I was so excited to see my little Emmett!  I thought about him the entire time we were gone.  As much as I love him and taking care of him, I must admit that it was nice to just do what we wanted to do without making adjustments for him.  And now, it's back to reality...

wordy wednesday

We've had too much going on lately to have a wordless wednesday post!  I'll try to be brief, but can't guarantee it.

The fun started last Tuesday when Hannah and Shannon came to visit with their girls.  We have been saying for a long time that we needed to have a Yakima week, but until we moved, I didn't have enough room for very many guests.  Now that we have an actualy guest room, we made it happen!  Sophie, Gracie and Emmett were all born in a 2 1/2 month span.  I am so glad that I have such good friends that are also first time moms!  Since the weather was so nice we went swimming at my parent pool, fed the ducks at Randall Park and let them sit in little chairs and dip their feet in the kiddie pool.  When it was too hot to go out, they ran around the house driving in Emmett's car, read books, danced to some music and just played!  At meal time, we would line them all up in their seats and pile their trays with food.  I think we decided at the beginning of the week that we weren't going to even try to keep their sippy cups straight.  We filled three and they each got one, but then spent all thier time trading (stealing is more like it!).  Although there was a little bit of fighting, they generally got along really well.  We were very sad to see them leave on Friday morning.

Our sadness didn't last long because on Sunday morning, Emmett and I drove down to the Portland area where our friends live!  Sunday we had a shower for our friend Kristen who is adopting two kids from Ethiopia.  She and her husband will travel sometime in August, so we needed to get them prepared.  It was fun to be at a shower for kids instead of babies.  They got a lot of really great stuff!  The other reason we made the trip down was to see my friend Mandy who just moved back home!  She's been living all over the country for the past few years, and I am so excited that she is now driving distance away.  Monday we had a picnic in the park with all of the girls from our college house that are currently living in Portland.  I think we had 7 out of 13 there.  I had originally planned to come home Tuesday morning, but I didn't get enough Mandy, Shannon, Hannah time, so we came home today instead.  Yesterday Mandy came down to Hannah's for the whole day.  We met Shannon for lunch at Baja Fresh and then headed to Baby Gap.  Shannon's mom works there and the sale stuff was an extra 25% off!  As ususal, there wasn't a ton of boy stuff, but I managed to find a few things.  That night after all the babies napped we had a bbq and decided to include Hannah and Shannon's husbands.  And of course we stayed up really late talking!  Sometimes I just can't get enough of those girls.  I really wish we lived closer, but for now we will just have to take what we can get.  Thanks  girls for being such great friends!

Victoria, BC

We got back from a wonderful vacation yesterday afternoon.  Last Thursday we packed up and headed out for a long weekend getaway.  We first drove from Yakima to Port Angeles.  The total time it took us was aound 6 hours, I think.  That includes the wait for the ferry and the ferry ride itself.  We opted to spend the night in Port Angeles, and then take an early ferry to Victoria.  The only problem was that we arrived at our hotel early enough that our room wasn't ready yet.  We had fun waiting in the lobby, talking to the old people that were there on tours.  The group we met had come all the way from Australia!  Anyhow, back to the trip.  We stayed at the Empress, which is a very old hotel.  All over were pictures of famous people that had visited.  While it was a very nice hotel, the rooms were a little small.  Our room looked over the harbor, which would have been really cool if we didn't have a small child.  Basically all everning long people hang out down on the waterfront watching street performers, going to restaraunts, etc.  We couldn't have the window open because it was so loud!  (The other reason we couldn't have the window open was that there were no screens, so anyone of us could really have just fallen out.)

Saturday was our first full day.  We first visited the Royal London Wax Museum.  It was pretty interesting, but we were both expecting it to be a little bigger.  Emmett slept the whole way through, and I was glad.  I don't think he would have enjoyed it a whole lot.  After that we went to Beacon Hill Park and visited a small children's zoo.  There was a huge area with tons of baby goats that we were allowed to go into.  Emmett had a great time petting the little goats and giggled when the would nibble at his shorts.  They were so tiny and so cute!

Sunday we went to Butchart Gardens.  I don't think either of us we really excited about going there, but everyone said we just had to.  And they were right.  It was very impressive.  I don't think I could even capture the enormity of it in my pictures.  We wandered around for a long time and then ate lunch there too.  I think that was Emmett's first meltdown.  I don't really blame him because he had been strapped in his stroller a lot, with no time to walk around.  He made it through and when we got back to the hotel we went swimming.  Finally something fun for the little one!

Monday we had Afternoon Tea at the hotel.  (This was the place of his second meltdown.  Let me just say that a fancy tea room, full of people enjoying their tea was not the best place for him to chose this behavior.)  We started out with strawberries and whipped cream.  Then they brought out scones with jam, assorted little finger sandwiches and yummy little mini desserts.  They even brought Emmett a plate with little ham and cheese and plain jam sandwiches garnished with little tomatoes.  Once he had that in front of him, he was much happier.  He even enjoyed milk from what was probably the most expensive cup he will ever drink out of.

Tuesday we headed back out on the ferry to Port Angeles and then spent the night at Brent's grandma's house in Port Ludlow.  Emmett had a blast there and I think it was due to the fact that he could roam around freely!

All in all, it was a fun trip.  I told Brent that I really couldn't complain about Emmett's behavior.  (He reminded me that in fact I did complain, which I may have.)  When I really think about the fact that his routine was way off, he ate way more baby food than normal and spent most of his days in either a stroller or cramped hotel room, he was a pretty good little boy.  And he was a pretty good sleeper too, which was a huge relief to me!!  I think next time we'll try to go somewhere that he can be a little more involved.

I'm going to post an album of pictures, but it might take a while since I have a lot!