Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Vacation!!

The following is a really long picture blog of our trip to Washington. We had a wonderful time, the weather was perfect (highs in the mid 70's), the house we rented was awesome (it was a beach house in a town outside Seattle and sat right on Puget Sound), it was great to visit with all the family that was in town for my cousin's wedding and the kids did awesome with all the traveling!! It was such a great location for a summer vacation that we plan to rent the same house and go back next year!! (NOTE- the pictures are in reverse chronological order, sorry!)
When you looked out the back windows of the house we rented you could got a great view of Mt. Rainier in the distance, on the last day the sky was really clear and the Mt. looked beautiful!!
Bryan's first experience with sand, no so much a fan!!

Emma building sand castles on the beach

Patrick and Juan roasting marshmallows for s'mores, hmmm!!

Haley and Bryan waiting for s'mores!

Emma painting at the children's museum in down town Seattle

Bryan investigating a plastic taco at the children's museum (they had miniature restaurants that the kids could explore and pretend to be working in, Bryan just wanted the taco!)

Emma doing some grocery shopping at the children's museum

Bryan the firefighter, children's museum
Emma the firefighter, children's museum

Both kids sitting inside a whale at the children's museum

The family walking in Seattle (notice the Starbucks in the background- my mom is in heaven when we are in Seattle because it is the home of Starbucks!)

Emma and I on the ferry we took over to downtown Seattle (most everyone else stayed inside the ferry but Emma loved being out on the deck and watching the water and boats that went by)
Emma and Patrick on the ferry
Emma at the wedding reception
Wedding reception- everyone else was outside enjoying cocktails but Emma saw the dance floor when we walked into the reception and she wanted to dance right away!!

The reception was at this beautiful golf course that overlooked the water, it was in one of those big white tents and the back was open so you could see the awesome view!!

The four of us at the wedding reception (no it's not a flying saucer at my head, it's a heat lamp- yes I said heat lamp in the middle of the summer, it got down in the 50's at night)

The happy couple, my cousin Pat and his wife Kelsey!!

Kodak moment while we explored downtown Gig Harbor

Chelsey and Brandon at the rehearsal dinner with sleepy Bryan

Lindsy and Juan at the rehearsal dinner

Me and my sisters at the rehearsal dinner (the dress was Hawaiian attire, thus the flowers in our hair)

Emma with Ryan, Emma was the flowergirl in the wedding and Ryan was the ring bearer- the two got along great!!

The four of us in the matching outfits I made

The deer that hung out along the road our house was on

I LOVE this picture I took of my dad on the beach!!

Emma loved all the Adirondack chairs they had on the deck
Patrick and Juan found this type of seaweed on the beach that they kept calling "whale sperm" real appropriate when the 3 year old asks "what's sperm" but I guess boys will be boys and I get the feeling it will be a inside joke between the two of them for a long time to come

Patrick and Bryan on the beach

My sister Chelsey and her husband Brandon missed their flight because they had to drive back to their house to get Brandon's wallet (they live two hours from the airport) so Lindsy wrote in the sand on the beach "What's in your wallet?" and poor Brandon suffered through lots of wallet jokes the rest of the weekend!

Patrick and Emma dancing on the beach

Emma checking out the views with the binoculars
The weather was so nice we just left the back doors wide open and the kids played on the deck for hours each day! (no we didn't travel with the exersaucer, my aunt had one that we borrowed)

Emma eating breakfast on the deck

A view of the houses next door
The living room, the windows went all the way around the backside of the house, it was awesome! (Yes, I am feeding Bryan)

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Handsome Boy

While Emma napped the other day I took Patrick's camera and snapped some pictures of Bryan playing with his train, a couple turned out pretty cute so I thought I'd share...hopefully I can get some of just Emma soon (she doesn't sit quite a still as Bryan does)!!




Sunday, June 7, 2009

Picnic Lunch at the Park

We enjoyed a picnic lunch at the park this afternoon with Nana, Boompa and Aunt Haley, a couple pics from the kids on the swings...













Hugs for Daddy

Bryan was sitting on Patrick's lap before Patrick left for work this morning and every time Patrick said "give me a hug" Bryan would fall towards Patrick and give him a big bear hug...it was too cute!!


Playdates

A few pics from some playdates this week....



Early morning playdate with the girls who live down the street
Playdate with Gregory

The boys are just two weeks apart in age, they really enjoyed playing with each other

Monday, June 1, 2009

Lake Travis

It is already half way through the week and I am just now getting around to posting pics from our weekend in Austin....it's been a crazy week so far!!! We spent last weekend on Lake Travis, celebrating Patrick's cousin's wedding (they got married in Europe three years ago and never really got to have a reception/party with family and friends). They rented a neat house right on the Lake and we got to hang out and visit with Shortall family all weekend. It was such a fun idea for a relaxed wedding reception (delayed by a few years)...the couple even jumped into the lake with the bride in her wedding dress!!

Bryan (with assistance from Patrick) attacking Emma with the super soaker!



Emma attacking Grandpa with the motorized water gun.



Patrick's brother Chris & his girlfriend Michelle with Bryan, they drove up from New Orleans for the weekend.



Emma and Patrick's cousin Meredith (I guess that would make her Emma's second cousin, I think?) Emma was infatuated with Meredith, she hadn't seen her since last year. We also realized that Meredith was Emma's age when Patrick and I first started dating, man time flies!


View from up by the house looking down towards the lake, as you can see the water level is way down...we heard anywhere from 18-30 feet!


There were lots of family and friends of the couple at the party, including some of their friends that came all the way from Europe. This is a pic of those from the Shortall clan that were in attendance.