Happy Easter

 

Every year we enjoy a morning Easter Egg Hunt and the coloring of Easter eggs as the Easter Bunny visit our family. 

The girls were so happy to receive some new games, grab some eggs around the house, and dress up in Easter Dresses for church.

They could barely contain their excitement.

And the colored eggs turned out perfectly.  Here the pink, purple, orange, yellow, blue and reddish eggs.  We used Wilton cake decorating colors and they made very bright and fun eggs.  We will do it again next year.

Ken’s 20 years of Service–and conquering my fear of heights.

 

Congratulations to Ken!  He has been at Alaska Airlines for 20 years.  To celebrate he was allowed a small allowance to do something with his team at work, and he decided to go to Vertical World in Ballard. 

So Ken, myself, and 8 of his co-workers climbed the walls of an indoor climbing gym.  If you can’t tell, Ken loved it.  He went up at least 6 times during our two hours there. 

 

Ken had gone two years ago, and decided he needed more of a challenge, so he did some rock climbing where it jutted out.  After he did it, four men from his team tried it out as well.  I wasn’t one of them.

Corina, one of his co-workers, is on the left in this shot while Ken is on the right.  The staff at Vertical World were wonderful, we had two dedicated people to help us climb, show us what hand or foot holds to go on next, and it was a great two hours.

But I am not a rock climber.  In fact, I really don’t like heights in general.  So for me to climb was a way to try to conquering my fear.  The only problem is that by the end of my first climb (on the easy wall that slopes in instead of out) my leg was literally shaking.

 

The man helping me encouraged me to try again, so the second time around the wall didn’t slope nearly as much, and was a harder climb.

I did one last climb in the corner of the two walls, but I never tried any of the harder walls Ken did.  I was just so glad I got the chance to climb for the first time.  The walls were all the same height up, just some leaned in, out, or even across the ceiling for those who are true rock climbing enthusiasts.  Now we are planning a trip Memorial Day to rock climb outside with some friends who have the equipment.  They even have outfits small enough for Olivia.  I’m not sure what I got myself into, but for now I am excited for our new family activity.

Woodland Park Zoo In the Rain

My good friend Jennifer and I took our families to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.  We tried to go on a sunny day during spring break, but there never was one.  So we grabbed the ponchos and rain coats and braved the storm.  Luckily the zoo is used to rain and had lots of little caves and overhangs to get out of the rain whenever we could.

Here are Tabatha, Hunter, Olivia, Lily and Tabatha trying to stay dry, if only for a second.

Did I also mention it was windy and very cold.  Olivia tried to smile through the cold, but she was shivering too.

I have never taken my girls to Woodland Park zoo.  I have always taken them to Pt Defiance in Tacoma.  They loved it. They had lions, tigers and bears.  They had red pandas and a panda cow (really, they did).  They had a building called Zoomania just for the kids to climb on. It was wonderful.  Then, as if it couldn’t get better, they are adding a dinosaur exhibit.  It won’t open until next month, but the kids loved just seeing them practice the sounds and movements of these life size animtronic reptiles. 

Here Alicia is watching T. Rex, who hasn’t even had the plastic taken off of his tail yet.

Alicia, don’t let him eat you!

The girls pretended to sail in the Arctic Ocean, and with the wind and rain they looked very real.

Here Lily and Olivia chase each other.  They really are great friends.

I now have proof my kids are apes.

And they narrowly escapes a mutant worm.

Tabatha really wanted to see another panda, but this Panda Miniature Cow had to do instead.  He really was very panda like in coloring.

Thank you Jennifer for inviting us, and letting us use your coupon.  We have to go back.  We saw almost everything, but I am sure on a sunny day it would be even better.

34th Birthday

Usually I like to post pictures with my posts, but somehow I never got a picture on my birthday.  Instead of worrying about a camera, or getting the right shot, I spent my entire day with my family.

This morning Tabatha, Alicia and Olivia were so excited to hug me and wish me happy birthday.  They had made paper hearts and written letters that they put in a paper bag to give to me as my present.  It was very sweet.

Then, after lunch, Ken’s parents came over and watched the girls so Ken and I could spend the rest of the day together in Seattle.  A friend gave me tickets to the Star Wars Exhibit up at the Pacific Science Center, so Ken and I got to see some of the actual costumes, droids, and other movie items.  But even better, they had hands on exhibits were you could build a small C3PO, or figure out how to make a magnetic train with small magnets (because hovercrafts aren’t doable, but mag trains are).  We saw how science from the movie is becoming science of today, although humanistic droids are not one of them.  It was fun going around, we don’t do these things without kids often.

After Star Wars we ate at a great restaurant near the space needle called Quincy’s.  They had delicious burgers, shakes and fries.  I would highly recommend them.

After some shopping for a few new outfits for me we ended our day watching The King’s Speech at a small theater in Tacoma called The Grand Cinema.  Only 5 others were watching the movie, so it was practically empty, and the seats were nice, the room small and cozy, and the atmosphere really brought me back to when the cinema was a treat.  I felt like we had gone back in time to when The King’s Speech was happening, WWII, and with the quality of the movie which I highly recommend to anyone, I ended my birthday on high note.

We couldn’t have done it without my in-laws and parents watching my children all afternoon and evening.  I really am lucky to have loving and kind family members all around me.  Thanks for making my birthday extra special.

Carrot Man

While starting to prepare my garden for this summer I found a surprise lurking in the weeds.  As I cleaned up, he seemed to jump out smiling.  I grabbed him and showed him to my girls and they all laughed at how silly he looked.  He didn’t have arms, and his face was quite flat, but we knew with those legs who would run off if given a chance.

There was only one thing to do.  Olivia was brave, but she ate our carrot man.  He disappeared, but at least we knew he was nutritiously nourishing our little one.

We will miss the carrot man, but will always be grateful he made us happy, if even for a short time