Goodbye Friend

Just an acquaintance at the gym... turned into a close friend who has shared the last few years of mommyhood. There are no good words to make it easier to say goodbye. We will miss you Jill and Jacob. And Christy....we aren't saying goodbye to you even though you moved across the river.

Father's Day

A quiet day working in the yard and a BBQ with Papa Jim was exactly what was needed. Beautiful afternoon to relax and enjoy.

Lawnmowers

The boys got to build thier own lawnmowers at the local hardware store. The first saturday of every month they have a different thing to build. I was a bit nervous with the paint but we managed to escape with all the paint on the craft and none on us!

Strawberry patch

We found a new place to pick this year and a new friend from the neighborhood to join us. Nate was totally on task and filled up his bucket. Logan served a more supervisory role. And I had fun talking to a new friend. Afterwards we got to climb on the tractor turned jungle-jim. Perfect start to our day.

Rose Parade

The parade is a summertime tradition. The weather was beautiful this year. Papa Jim went down early and saved a spot for us. The boys had fun together with pump rockets, running after candy that was being tossed, eating, and being with their cousins.

Bubbles

Summertime fun with a college friend and her kiddos. Bubbles are always entertaining..... even more so when they are coming from a play lawnmower! Sandboxes are fun too!

Planes, Planes, Planes

It's what we are all about these days. The boys love planes. We were reminded by a friend about a nearby "family owned" airport that has a pancake breakfast one Saturday each month and decided to give it a try. There is no control tower just a farmhouse, runway and a few hangars to store planes. So it's pretty exciting to watch the planes take off in one direction and land in the other direction. The boys loved it. We brought our binoculars and watched the planes come in for a landing. This is a small airstrip and about 50 pilots fly in from all over just to have breakfast! So we got to each across from the pilots and then an hour later we watched them take off on the runway. Nate was also pretty excited about the junior cadets in army fatigues that were helping keep pedestrians off the busy runway.

Museum of Flight, Boeing Airfield

We took a last minute trip up to the Museum of Flight in Seattle. I thought it would be fun, but it completely exceeded expectations. We went over Memorial Day weekend so there were a dozen old war planes that flew in for the day just for show. The boys were able to climb inside a few of them and ask many many questions of the pilots (some were happier to oblige than others :-) Nathaniel spent the most time talking to a search and rescue Cessna pilot and learned about what pilots do when people go missing on the mountain. Both boys got to sit in the cabin and push buttons and flip levers. Pretty cool. Inside the museum itself we visited a few of the historical areas including Boeing's first workspace. Then over the skybridge to look at the NASA museum and board some of the retired planes including AirForce One (President Kennedy's plane). We also went on the Concord which apparently can cross the Atlantic in under 3 hours!!! I think the boys enjoyed the pedal planes most of all.... I mean why wouldn't you want your own plane right? It was a really great place to go. I think we should go again soon.