Bear encounter at the zoo!!

Today Heidi and I took Thaddeaus and Blakely to the Woodland Park Zoo. We had such a fun time! My friend Jessica and her daughter, Riplee (who I watch a couple days a week now) met us there as well.
Just before Jessica called us to let us know she was there so that we could meet up, we had the most amazing encounter with a bear! We were in the area that you can view the bears and otters from half under the water and half above, where the kids can run around and play while the animals swim around and go about their day. There was no one else around, so the bear came to the window with a big stick and started to give us a little show. He blew bubbles and put his paws to the window...it was incredible!










The boys had so much fun together too. I wanted to share this picture of them on the stroller, it is just so sweet. When they are much older, I will show it to them and I think they will get a laugh out of it.

3 in 3

Thad will be 3 in three months!!

Each year seems to go so fast. I am anxious to know what he will be like, what he will look like, and his likes and dislikes...but, I LOVE having my "little baby" still. Soon, there will be nothing baby about him.

Ocean Shores

I had been meaning to get this up. This was Thad's first trip to the ocean. We will have to be sure to get him out there at least once a year, he had so much fun.

A prayer to be forgiven

"Heavenly Father,
We come before you today
To ask your forgiveness and
To seek your direction and guidance.

We know Your Word says,
"Woe to those who call evil good"
But that is exactly what we have done.
We have lost our spiritual equilibrium
And reversed our values.

We have exploited the poor and
Called it the lottery.

We have rewarded laziness
And called it welfare.

We have killed our unborn
And called it choice.

We have shot abortionists
And called it justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline
Our children and called it
Building self esteem.

We have abused power
And called it politics.

We have coveted our neighbor's
Possessions and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air
With profanity and
Pornography and called it
Freedom of speech and expression.

We have ridiculed the time
Honoured values of our
Forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh, God,
And know our hearts today;
Cleanse us from every sin
And set us free.

Amen!"


This is just something I think we all should think about....

For me, I have to admit, I have "coveted...and called it 'ambition'." It makes me look twice at myself and wonder, "Am I pleasing God?".

All we have is through Him, shouldn't we live our lives for Him?

Some fun we've been having..

Saltwater State Park

We have so many amazing days with my mom's group, and though I don't have time to, I just feel like I want to post everything! The kids have so much fun together and they learn so much too. I just love it.

Thanks to Jill and others, I have these wonderful pics, because I just can't seem to ever bring my camera! LOL!




















It was great to check out the water and see what life we could find and after we got changed and had lunch on the grass near the little cafe. They have really good smoked salmon chowder. Yum!



We also had lots of rainfall lately, so I decided to let Thad get out and have some fun in the parking lot with his rain gear on. He had a blast!

Thad's first sleep over!!

Last weekend Thad had his first sleep over..well, the cousins visiting, but that was family ;-) I wish I'd gotten pictures of them the night before- what little monsters! They had a blast. Daniel really likes the train table in Thad's room and they both love to put together the huge track we have that the train goes around and around on.


I set them up to the counter with their waffles in the morning and then it occured to me that I should probably snap a pic of this memorable occasion.

















I can't wait to have sleep overs for Thad in the future. I have some really great memories as a kid- wow, we're making memories!!

After the house demo, we went to the zoo for a while

Thad really enjoys our visits to the Woodland Park Zoo with our membership. He enjoys most going to the big play area that has the "spider web", the wolf caves, the slides, and the turtle shells you climb into; and I can never get him away from that waterfall!





















Thad has sort of made friends with this goat. He has all but named it and even tried to kiss it!

...and the house came tumbling down

These pics are from when Grandma and Grandpa's house was torn down to build the new one! This has been almost a month...we just today, finally got the pictures out of the camera..LOL!























The boys entertained themselves pretty well. We were there for more than two hours, and not really any tantrums, yippy!!

Keira's visit

My sister came up this month for a visit from Texas. I have not seen her since she was barley pregnant with my nephew Ethan, so it's been a while! We had a great visit with her and her family. It was really nice for them to meet Thad and we got to meet Ethan who turned 3 years old on the 10th during their visit.


We went out to spend some time with them and some other family over on the Hood Canal. My sister has a brother with a home out there, so we stayed the weekend. It was really beautiful out there on the water.

We went hiking up to Lena Lake, which was very long...I carried Thad just about the whole way up. In the first picture it looks as if David carried him the whole way, but I had put him down because he asked to get down like our friend Raquel's little girl, Sunday and then he threw a huge fit to get back up and I didn't want to give in, so David carried him for a bit.


The hike to Lena Lake out at Hood Canal
























On the trail



















Since Ethan had a birthday while they were here, we had a little party for him. It was fun for the kids to have a reason to eat cake!



A little party for Ethan's 3rd Birthday











My sister with Thad and her two, Ethan and Kayla...they are showing off their muscles.



The kids had fun sleeping all together in Thad's bunkbed. Don't they look so cute?! We got up early the next morning and headed to the airport :( Sad to see them go, but glad that we got what time we had together :)