Our Trip to California

Last weekend, we headed to California to celebrate Abi's Great-Grandpa's 75th birthday. We had a great time visiting and catching up with family and friends (a special thanks to Aunt Lori and Uncle Dale for your hospitality!)

For Josh and I, it was almost surreal to be back in Southern California. We headed to some of our old stompin' grounds and it is amazing how quickly all those memories come rushing back - hard to believe that we lived there for 5 years but then again, we have almost been back in Washington for the same amount of time. In some respects, our life in California seems like a lifetime ago yet in other respects, it feels like it was just yesterday.

For Abi, this trip was the first time she has met some of our family and friends. She took full advantage of the opportunity by being the center of attention and LOVED it!

Here are some pictures from our trip. Unfortunately (and ironically enough), I have no pictures of Great-Grandpa or his birthday party - our main purpose for the trip. Oops...

Abi and I Before Our Flight to California

Keeping Busy Making a Hand Puppet Out of a Barf Bag on the Airplane

Just a Cute Picture...

Trying to Keep Cool While Playing in a Fountain

Helping Grandma Make Salad

Abi Feeding the Billy Goat at a Local Dairy (...a dairy with the BEST chocolate milk - Abi is still asking to have chocolate milk with every meal!)

After Great-Grandpa's Birthday Party, Abi got the honor of letting the balloons fly away into the sky...such fun for a 2 year old!

Checking Out the Birds With Cousin Mickey

Abi Loves All of Aunt Peg's Dogs

-Fun in the Pool-

Watching Music Videos While Waiting for our Delayed Plane...Again, thank goodness for portable DVD players!

Happy Mother's Day!

We had a great Mother's Day. We spent the day celebrating with Grandma Jeanne and even managed to fit in some fun outdoors in between the rain showers. We kept our annual Mother's Day tradition of visiting the Bellevue Botanical Gardens although not much was in bloom yet. We did have a nice walk through the park though. Here are some pictures from our day:

Abi helping Grandma open her Mother's Day cards

-Bellevue Botanical Gardens-

Enjoying some yummy chocolate dessert!

More cute pictures...

A Few Of Our Favorite Things...

Here are some pictures from the past month. We have been enjoying the sun (at least during the few times it has been out this Spring!). We took a trip to Woodland Park Zoo, played in the backyard and went to a Mariners game - one of Abi's favorite past times. Abi loves the Mariners and often asks us to turn on the TV around 7 p.m. so she can watch a Mariners game. Her favorite players are Ichiro (which Abi pronounces "E-E-O") and J.J. Putz. Hopefully we will be able to see a few more games this season and with any luck, they may actually win a few too!

Taking a trip on the ferry to visit Grandma

Who said "Boys don't play with dolls"? (Remember these old school cabbage patch dolls - this was my brothers when we were kids!)

-Woodland Park Zoo-

-Playing in the Backyard-

Thoroughly enjoying an episode of Sesame Street

-Mariners Game-

Our Trip to Arizona & Abi's Second Birthday!

Between our recent trip to Arizona, Abi's second birthday and Easter, we have had lots to celebrate during the last few weeks. I will apologize in advance for the length of this post but I had over 300 pictures, not to mention all the videos we took!

We had a great time in Arizona with Grandma and Grandpa. The weather was awesome (about 90 degrees), especially considering all of the snow we have had in Seattle since we got back. We spent time relaxing at the pool, saw the animals at the Wild Animal Park, went to Mariners Spring Training, celebrated Abi's second birthday with an Elmo Extravaganza and enjoyed all the candy and treats left by the Easter Bunny!

Here are some pictures from our trip and celebrations -

Thank goodness for portable DVD players and snacks,
especially considering our flight was delayed for 2 hours!

-Wild Animal Park-

-Pool Time-

-Mariners Spring Training-

The Fear of the Golf Cart...Abi was absolutely frightened by Grandpa's golf cart, despite the fact that she waved hello and goodbye to every golf cart that she saw. We took this video on our last day in Arizona and it was quite an accomplishment that she was actually touching the golf cart.

Yeah - we finally got Abi to ride on the golf cart!

ABI TURNS TWO...

Along with friends and family, we celebrated Abi's second birthday. We had an egg hunt, pizza party, an Elmo cake and of course, presents!

Singing Happy Birthday...Obviously Abi didn't quite understand why we were all singing to her (sorry about the camera angle - at least Daddy figured it out before we finished!)



EASTER...

We had a great Easter dinner, colored eggs and Abi discovered some goodies left by the Easter Bunny!