Seattle

We ended up taking kind of a last-minute trip to Seattle over Labor Day Weekend. We left Saturday morning and went to the Woodland Park Zoo.

Here is our "Zoo Crew". This is about as good as it gets for a family picture with us.

I thought I'd post this one to, just to show how good the first one was.


These little black and white guys were a definite hit with the kids.




I think they could have watched the penguins all day.

Okay, I'm sorry I made you turn around, Micah.

Lily even made herself right at home in a penguin nest model.


This guy was also pretty popular, but not for the same reasons. Apparently, gorillas like to regurgitage their food after eating it and re-eat it over and over. Micah was pretty impressed.



The kids took lots of pictures with their cameras...

Micah learned that he is not as strong as an elephant...


...Lucy got to play in an "African Village" hut.

...and the kids all got to be snow leopards.



Hooray for the Woodland Park Zoo!


The next day, we also went to the Pacific Science Center. I think the best thing about the science center was the Butterfly House. They had this big greenhouse with all these tropical plants and butterflies were everywhere. It was amazing. I think we could have spent hours in there. One even landed right on Micah's finger.







All in all, it was a fun family trip. We had a pool at our hotel, so the kids got to swim. On the way home, we stopped at Trader Joe's and the Outlet Mall, so Mommy was happy. Now we can check two more things off our list of places to take the kids :)

Fire Station Field Trip!

Lucy went on her first Preschool field trip to the Fire Station a few weeks ago. She was a little unsure what to think about the big trucks at first.

The firefighters did a great job showing the kids how they put their gear on and explaining how it works and why they should not be afraid of the firefighters. Then, they all had a chance to come up and touch the firefighter so they could see that he wasn't scary at all.

Then, they all got to shake hands with the firefighters.


Here is the whole class, in front of one of the fire engines.

Lucy stuck pretty close to Lola the whole time (when she wasn't clinging to my leg).



She even got to spray a real fire hose! Go Firefighter, Lucy!


By the end of the field trip, she was ready to fight some fires!

First Day of School!

Today was the first day of school for all three kids. It is hard to believe I have a 3rd grader, a 1st grader, and a Preschooler now. They are all growing up too fast. Here they all are before we left for school in the morning. Lily has become quite the little fashionista lately. She had her outfit picked out weeks ago and is really into anything sparkly or glittery. As usual, Micah could have cared less what he wore as long as it was comfortable and had some kind of sport or other cool picture on it. Lucy also picked out her own outfit, which has been a favorite all summer.

And outside of Micah and Lily's school.


After we dropped Micah and Lily off at school, I ran Lucy over to Shining Stars Preschool. I was so rushed, I didn't even have time to feel sad. Micah and Lily both went to the same preschool, so it is nice that it is familiar and that we all know "Miss Jan". Here is Lucy outside of her school. She was so proud of her big girl backpack.


I could tell she was excited, but a little nervous too. She kept asking me to stay with her and I thought for sure she would cry until she spotted her friend Lola.
Here they are giving each other a big hug. I think these girls are going to have a great year!


After I dropped Lucy off, the reality sunk in for me and I just sat in my car holding back tears for a few minutes. Luckily, I had a hair appointment, so it gave me something to do and kept my mind off of missing my kiddos. It is funny how they can drive me crazy all summer, but I still don't want them to leave and go to school. As much as it will be nice to have a little more freedom, it is so hard to let go and let them grow up.

Riding Lessons

Lily has been taking horse riding lessons all summer. So far, she loves it and has been doing great. She just gets right up on that horse and the girl has no fear. She is always wanting to go faster and wants to learn to barrel race. She started out on an older, very gentle but slow horse named Nick. He was great with Lily, but she is now to the level where she wants to go faster so they are "graduating" her to a younger, faster horse named Casey next week.

Here she is meeting Nick.


And learning to lead him.


Riding with Hailey leading.


And, riding on her own.



Lily just loves horses and seems so comfortable on one. She is now bound and determined to be a Rodeo Princess when she grows up. We even got to meet some real Rodeo Princesses at the Fair last week. The only problem is, now she keeps asking for her own horse. She keeps telling me, "Mommy, how do you expect me to be a Rodeo Princess when I don't even have my own horse?" Oh Lily, what did I get myself into. They are planning to continue lessons until it starts getting dark earlier, so I will have more pictures to post when Lily starts riding Casey.

Aloha From Hawaii!

Ok, so technically we have been back for about a month and a half now, but I am finally getting around to this post. Yes, Isaiah and I really went to Hawaii with no kids! It was so hard to leave them (for me at least), but it was great for us to reconnect as a couple and to remember what life was like before kids. We went with our good friends, Sarah and David and had a great time. Here is a little itinerary of what we did.

Day 1:
Our flight left out of Portland, so we got up at 4am to leave for the airport by 5:00. I was bawling as soon as we in the car to leave and I seem to remember Isaiah telling David to punch the gas or something before I could get out and run back inside. The flight there was long and we were all pretty tired by the time we got there. As soon as we landed, we were off to get our rental car(a really cool jeep) and to Walmart and Costco to stock up for the week. We stayed in Haleiwa on the North Shore of Oahu and our house was beautiful-right on the beach.



We even saw sea turtles right on the beach outside our house!




Day 2:
We wandered around Haleiwa, had lunch at Giovanni's, the original "shrimp truck", stopped at a Farmer's Market(where I'm pretty sure we totally got ripped off), stopped at a couple other beaches, and just kind of took it easy.





Day 3:
Pearl Harbor-what an experience. It was pretty sobering to be in the place where such a tragedy happened and to read and hear some of the stories of the men and women who either lost their lives or survived.









Afterwards, we did some shopping at the Ward Center in Honolulu and had lunch at Kua Aina, which was supposed to have the best burgers in the world. Then, the guys went to see a movie while Sarah and I did some shopping. We ended up in this cute little swimwear boutique where Isaiah convinced me to buy a bikini that I will probably never wear again.

Day 4:
Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. It was kind of windy that day and there were a million people there. We weren't allowed to step on the coral, which was everywhere, so we pretty much had to float the whole time while being thrashed around by waves. I tried it for a while, then spent the rest of the time laying on the beach. Plus, we ended up having to charter a shuttle because the parking lot was full on top of what we paid to get in. And we had to hike down a monstrous hill just to get to the beach. We also all ended up getting sunburned. Oops.



It was a beautiful beach though, and we even got to see a lifeguard rescue someone. It was just like "Baywatch". Ok, maybe not exactly.


Afterwards, we went for a hike up to see a really cool, old lighthouse.


The view was amazing! Isaiah kept hanging off the cliffs and almost gave me a heart attack.




The guys even posed for a few modeling shots. I'm sure we'll have agents pounding down our doors after this gets out.


Day 5:
In the morning, we stopped at this cute little bakery and had some amazing pastries.


Then, we did some shopping at the Aloha Bowl fleamarket. This is where we bought most of our souvenirs. David and Sarah had a dinner boat cruise planned, but Isaiah was worried about getting seasick, so we decided to pass. I thought it would be fun to ride the bus to Chinatown for dinner, which was quite an adventure. Let's just say, I don't recommend going to Chinatown in Honolulu. The streets were full of homeless people and I was sure I was going to get mugged. We ended up walking a couple of miles and ending up back at the Ward Center shopping mall where we met up with Sarah and David. Whew!

Day 6:
Isaiah had had enough shopping by this time and was dying to try out his new snorkeling gear some more, so while David and Sarah drove back into town, we went to Sharks Cove for some amazing snorkeling. I even started to get the hang of it. Next time, I will definitely bring my water shoes, though. The lava rock was pretty sharp.

Day 7:
This was our last day in Hawaii. We went back to Sharks Cove in the morning for some more snorkeling fun. Then, we ended up taking a tour of the Dole Plantation, which we all decided was another rip-off. We rode a train around the plantation to see the fields, which were in their "resting" stage and paid $7 for a pineapple that we could have gotten at Costco for $3. I did learn something about pineapples, though. I honestly have always thought they grew on trees, kind of like coconuts and mangoes. Apparently, they grow in the ground. The top part of the pineapple is just cut off and planted and grows into a whole new plant. Who knew?




The rest of the evening was spent relaxing at our beach house, walking on the beach, and watching the sun set.


Day 8:
The week went by so fast and before we knew it, it was time to go home. We took some last minute pictures, stopped at Matsumoto's for some shaved ice, and we were off to the airport. One thing I am going to miss is all the tropical plants and trees. I'm not sure of the names of all of them, but everywhere we looked were gorgeous palm trees, plumeria trees, hibiscus, birds of paradise, and many others. These were just taken around our beach house.





Oh well, I guess it's back to desert life for us. We were all ready to be home and see our families, but I really loved the island life. I told Isaiah that any time he wanted to pack up and move there, I would be game. Now if we can just find a church there that needs a youth pastor...