See Ya Later

Aidan has become obsessed with saying goodbye and pretending to leave. Usually this includes a backpack or purse and a round of kisses. This time he added a nice blue hat. I only wish I knew where he was going.

Smoothie time

Help me down!

Smoothies are delicious! Why don't I make more of them? Yesterday Aidan helped me make one by adding the fruit and stirring. Then I turned on the blender and I think it scared him. Too bad I didn't get any pictures of him before he stopped 'helping'. What I love about smoothies is that they are different every time. Here's what we had (more or less)

Delicious fruit smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt
• 1 banana
• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
• 1/2-1 cup frozen mango/papaya
• 1/2 cup frozen strawberries
• 1 tbsp ground flax seed
• 1/2-1 scoop protein powder (optional)
• 1/4 cup or more water, juice or milk

Mix in blender and pour into a glass. Add straw (it makes it so much better!)

July

July was a month full of many trips and noteworthy events. Aidan and I left for Leavenworth at the end of June and David came up on the train a few days later. We enjoyed spending time with Mamaw and Papaw, many walks and parks, throwing rocks in the river, visiting the fish hatchery, and spending time with Daniel & Laura when they came up to visit.

Playing at the cabin. Aidan entertained us for hours.

We also spent a lot of time at parks and at the river. Aidan loved throwing rocks and made up some sound effects to go with it. Sort of a Pshewww

When Daniel and Laura came to visit one of the fun things we did was go to a petting zoo just outside of Leavenworth. We had no idea it would be so fun! We checked out all the animals, pulled the boys around in wagons, all went on a cow train, played at the park and spent hours having fun in the sun.

The boys loved their wagon ride!

The half-birthday boys

My dad came up for the 4th of July (which happens to also be my dad's and Aidan's half-birthdays!) We spent some time outside throwing pop-its.

Other July events include spending time at the Greenlake wading pool with friends. Here Aidan and David are enjoying a snack on the blanket before a second round in the pool.

We also went as a family to pick strawberries at a farm in Arlington. We were worried that it would be hard to keep track of Aidan since he loves to run and usually has his own agenda. We forgot about the fact that he would have an endless supply of delicious strawberries. Turns out that is enough to keep a busy 18 month old occupied for hours.

mmm....strawberries

23 pounds of fresh strawberries!

Aidan and Daddy playing in the sand

The last notable event from July was our camping trip with our PEPS group. Five of the families were able to go and we went up to Lake Easton for 1 night. We had a blast eating good food, playing at the beach, going for a short hike and spending time around the campfire. Sleeping was not such a good time.

June

Late June we went to the Zoo with Daniel, Laura and Danagan and checked out the new Dinosaur exhibit. It was pretty cool but I think the boys weren't thrilled about it.

We saw many of the awesome animals at the zoo including the petting farm area. Aidan wasn't too keen on petting them but loved washing his hands afterwards

New blog goals

So I realize that I have been terrible at updating our family blog and have decided do something about it. I wanted to just start over and make a new blog but  I spend a lot of time perusing other blogs and keeping up with what is going on in everyone's lives through Facebook yet rarely update on what is going on in our life. I'm going to try and be more regular at posting so I've set a personal goal posting twice a week.

So with that said I have a few months to catch up on and then can start recording more of our day to day adventures. Hopefully our blog will get a facelift soon too!

April and May

In April we went to the tulip festival with our friends Phil and Rachel and their new baby Katheryn. It was a lovely day and we spent most of our time chasing Aidan around the fields. We managed to get a few pictures.

There is a fine line between smelling the flowers and picking them. It was difficult to know which he was doing.

 Here are some pictures of Aidan playing around the house.

Aidan and his buddy David. Usually David is not so happy about Aidan trying to ride him.

Aidan decided to wear his hamper and made it all the way from his room to the living room like this.

He found a new favorite spot to sit

Phone obsessed

 For my birthday we took a drive up the peninsula and then a ferry ride back. We tried to keep up with Aidan but he was pretty fast.

1st quarter 2011

 Well we've already completed the first quarter of 2011 and I haven't posted a thing. Time to catch up. 

Here are a few highlights of the last few months:

Aidan turned one! We celebrated with an "uno" fiesta at our house. It was the first time we had many of our friends over and it was fun to celebrate Aidan's first year and our new house. Aidan got this great teepee from his grandma Cheryl. It doesn't look like he enjoys it but don't be fooled. He loves to look out the window and give kisses to those looking in.

 

Aidan started walking. He now walks all over the place and gets into more places than before.

 We took a day trip up to Concrete, Wa to see the eagles. This is my favorite picture from the trip. We did see lots of eagles and enjoyed the beautiful drive.

 Aidan loves to play and is such a happy boy. He says mama, dada, "Auntie", go, up and down. He signs "ready set go" and "up and down" and sometimes will sign "more"

 In March we took a family vacation to Phoenix, AZ. David had a conference there so we decided to head down the week before and have a family vacation. It was so much fun getting to be together as a family and to get away from the rainy weather. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed exploring the city, hiking and lots of good food. We drove up to Sedona one day and got to see some beautiful sights.

  We got back from Arizona and then spent a lot of time with family. David's sister Bekky got married so we were busy with that. Aidan and I got sick last week but have now recovered and I think things are back to normal.