Wednesday, October 29, 2008

October Fun

Backyard Camping

OK, so we didn't really go camping, but the girls still wanted to put up the tent and pretned that we did.


Brooklyn's new "goshes"

When we went out to the Washington Coast a couple of weeks ago, Kennady and Brooklyn got some new galoshes and they were so excited to wear them, but we forgot to take them when we went to the beach. There is a little part of the Puget Sound that extends down behind our house so we decided to take them down and let them try them out. Brooklyn thought her pink polka-dot "goshes" were pretty cool.

Shilter Farm Pumpkin Patch

Kennady and Brooklyn were so excited to go pick out their pumpkins this year. There is a farm that is set up like a little fall carnival not too far away, so we took them down to let them play and find their pumpkins. They got to go on a hay ride behind a tractor, play on a big pyramid of hay bales, pet some farm animals, and walk through a hay maze. It was a lot of fun.

"Shredding" Pumpkins

Brooklyn had been asking for weeks when we were going to "shred" pumpkins. We weren't quite sure what she meant until she said, "You know, like the princess castle from last year".


The pumpkin on the left is Scott's, in case you couldn't tell. Kennady and Brooklyn were pretty excited about it too, though. By the way, if you ask Brooklyn what she wants to name her little brother, she always says, "Derek Jeter". Scott is so proud.

Halloween Costumes

This year Kennady is a Halloween Minnie Mouse, and Brooklyn is TinkerBell.



Brooklyn's pre-school Halloween Party


My Cute Wife
Tara is very mad at me for adding this picture, but fortunately for me I can move a lot faster than she can right now. Well, let's be honest, most anything can move faster than she can right now. This has not been an easy pregnancy by any means (I don't think Tara has slept for more than an hour or two at a time for the last five months) but I've got to give her credit, she never complains about it. We are so anxious for the baby to come, especially Kennady and Brooklyn. We were at the store a few days ago and Kennady was looking at all the baby toys and asking how much they were. She picked up one and asked how much it was, and we told her it was twelve dollars. She reached in her bag and started pulling out money. We didn't think anything of it until she started pulling out fives and tens, and asking if she had enough. We were were shocked that she had that much money with her, and asked where she got it. She told us that she got it out of her piggy bank, something that we have told her not to do. Not understanding, we started to get mad at her and tell her that she shouldn't have done that and she needed to put it back. She looked down, and with a little tear in her eye said, "but I just wanted to buy something nice for little brother". We felt so bad for getting mad, and ended up letting her buy it. She is so excited that she wants to spend her own money (that she is saving for our next Disneyland trip) to buy something for the baby. She is such a sweetheart, and is going to be such a good big sister.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Great Wolf Lodge

This past weekend I had a "golden" weekend where I actually had both Saturday and Sunday off. (It's kind of sad that a two-day weekend is considered "golden" but hey, I'm not complaining). Some friends had told us about this really cool hotel with a giant indoor water park attached to it. It is only about 30 minutes from our house, but it was still pretty fun to get away for a little while. I think Brooklyn was more excited to stay in a hotel than she was to swim at the water park. I think that girl would live at a hotel if she could. Inside the place looks like a giant log cabin with a big fireplace and log furniture and everything. Even the rooms had log furniture and bunk beds for the kids. At night they have a pajama story time in front of the fireplace before bedtime (read by a guy in a freaky-looking wolf outfit, interestingly enough). The girls had a blast and ask just about every day when we're going to go back to "that wolf place".

You would never guess that it was pouring rain outside

Just after story time


This is the guy who comes to scare your kids off to bed. Brooklyn wouldn't go near him.

Point Defiance Zoo

So we decided to take advantage of one of the last remaining days of good weather here and go to the Point Defiance Zoo. It's a really cool little zoo that is right on the coast of the Puget Sound. Being this close to the water they actually had a lot of sea life there. Kenna and Brooklyn thought the sharks were pretty cool, and Tara thought the Balooga whales had "cute" faces. After the zoo we went and had dinner at a little restaurant out on the pier. Tara and I have never been big seafood fans, but we're venturing out a little and have decided that clam chowder is pretty good. Who knows, maybe at the end of our three years here we will have tried something else.

Kenna & Brooklyn with the penguins


They thought the sharks were pretty cool

Brooklyn liked touching the starfish, but Kennady didn't want to have anything to do with them. (Tara is mad at me because this picture shows her pregnant belly, but I think it's cute)

This is about as normal of a pose as we can get Brooklyn to do. She is the main reason why I take as many pictures as I do. On average I have to take about 10 pictures to get just one where she has a normal smile. We love her anyway.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Washington Coast

A week ago the pediatric department at Scott's hospital had a resident retreat, and we went to the Pacific Beach Resort on the Washington coast. The girls loved playing in the sand and finding all sorts of "treasures", most of which we quickly threw back in the ocean when they weren't looking. It was actually pretty cold, but that didn't stop them. One night we went to a luau that the resort had with Hawaiian dancers and everything. It was nice to be able to get away and relax a little bit. We had a great weekend.