Do the Puyallup!

For those of you not from the Northwest (or even not from the Seattle area) you may not know what a phenomenon The Fair is around here. A small town called Puyallup (pronounced "pew-AL-up") hosts a truly awesome fair for three weeks every September, and it's the best one I've ever attended. I grew up loving the fair - my grandfather worked the refrigeration systems at the Oregon State Fair, which was only a few blocks from my grandparents' house growing up, so we made it a family tradition to go to the fair with them every summer and the memories are sweet. I really enjoy everything about the fair - the rides, the animals, the demonstrations in the exhibit hall, and best of all, the food. So it's no surprise that I want my kids to learn to love the fair as much as I do - and I think we're on our way. Yesterday, Justin and I took the kids to the Puyallup Fair and we all enjoyed ourselves tremendously! The weather was incredible - 78 or 80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. We get like 3 of these days per year here in the Seattle area so when it happens, people get crazy!

Last year, my friend Marie came up from Portland for the fair and we took Brooke, then 2, and Justin stayed home with Jack, then 3 months old. Brooke had fun, but there were a lot of rides she couldn't really go on by herself because she didn't really get it. This year, we have clearly turned a corner. She couldn't get enough!! She is a thrill-seeker just like me.

Clean, dressed, and excited, ready to go to the fair...

Moments before slamming her head into the mirrored wall in the fun-house. Oops.

The carousel. Finally, a ride that Jack can go on with us! (At least he could after I fibbed and told the operator he was 2...)

That's Brooke on the yellow airplane, white sunglasses and curly hair are about all that you can see. She grinned at us and gripped the steering wheel every time she flew around the corner!

One of the best rides of all is the Giant Slide. You can see in the top pic how big it is, you have to climb over 100 steps to get to the top. Justin and I each took a turn on this one with Brooke.

Self portrait. Jack will have a lot more fun next year when he can go on more rides.

I caught this little lady with my camera through a window while we were eating lunch. I thought she was awfully cute and patriotic and check her out, partaking in the Krusty Pups (aka corndogs) and curly fries. You go girl!

Of course, an elephant ear was eaten by THIS little girl... who worships elephants!

And so it ended... two tired kiddos who came home and took bubble baths, ate dinner, and fell asleep by 6:30pm. What a day!

So this is the end of summer already?

It's hard to believe that this is the ceremonial end of summer weekend. Afterall, it really only got warm here after 4th of July weekend, so it feels like we just got started! Our holiday weekend is shaping up to be quite low-key.

Brooke had her last soccer practice today. It was very cute, she has improved a lot and actually knows how to kick the ball when she deems it important enough to pay attention to it. The coach invited the parents on the field today for some fun and games, so I took the opportunity to take a little video with my awesome new little point & shoot (and you can see how well Brooke kicks the ball and how well Jack is walking now! Brooke is in the purplish/blue shirt running away from the camera at the beginning.

The little brothers found a way to entertain themselves stacking cones (Jack's on the right).

In other news, we are counting down the days until Brooke's first day of pre-school next Friday. She is SO excited, she can hardly stand it. We get to go in for a "get acquainted party" on Wednesday morning, then starting Friday, she'll be in school every M, W, F from 9:30-12. She is such a little firecracker, Justin and I are thrilled for her. And I am also very much looking forward to having Jack all to myself for some focused time. It seems like our activities are so often centered around Brooke, that it will be nice to do things just for Jack and be able to talk to him the way I was able to talk to Brooke before Jack was on the scene.

Who wouldn't be thrilled to spend some 1:1 time with this guy?

I am also working on some fun things on the calendar for the fall - a family trip to Oregon to visit my parents, a girls' weekend with my college BFF in Austin, TX, Justin's 20 year high school reunion, a visit from Uncle Clark (my brother) and his new gal pal, and of course, Hawaii in December. The rest of this year is sure to fly by with all the excitement that is on the books.

Snoqualmie Falls

Today, we had the pleasure of meeting up with our friends Dandy, Sophia and Gavin, who are visiting from North Carolina. It was a gorgeous day, mid-80's and sun so we went to Snoqualmie Falls. The views were spectacular and the kids had a blast running around on the grass and climbing on rocks. It was really nice to see Brooke and Sophia playing together - they are only 3 days apart in age and both are tall girls, and it was fun to see how much they have in common! They are both very articulate and bright, so it looked like they had a lot of fun playing together. We convened at a local restaurant for a nice lunch afterward, and then came home so Jack could crash. Fun day!

Father's Day

We had a great Father's Day this year! Our tradition on Mother's Day & Father's Day is to do an excursion or day trip as a family... it usually involves one or more meals out and we try to go somewhere new. Today we started out early - we were on the road slightly before 9:00am which is a real feat for the four of us. We were heading to the Washington coast, so we stopped for breakfast at IHOP in Olympia, where they served up a scrumptious and inexpensive feast. The kids were ravenous and we enjoyed every bite. What's not to love about pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream on them?


Then, we drove west on a very scenic drive through timber country to the town of Westport, WA. Not much happening there - we barely got out of the car (kids did not). Turns out Westport is a fishing town and it was D.E.A.D. So we backtracked to Aberdeen and headed to the north side of Gray's Harbor to Ocean Shores. Now that was a cute beach town with a fantastic beach! There were a bunch of very cool gigantic "kites" (or windsocks?) that were being flown on the beach and the kids were FASCINATED. Even Jack saw them through the window as we drove in and started pointing and yelling. Leo had his first taste of the beach. Too bad we only had an hour to enjoy it before we had to head back! Justin did accomplish his one big goal for the day - to fly his own kite, with some help from his little assistant, Brooke.

Dad and kids on the beach - look at those kites!


Mom and kids - that's a rainbow slug behind us!


Brooke loved this penguin.


Justin and Jack - My two handsome young men


Kite flying from the back of the car!

Our kite!

Our plan was to go straight to a very cool new(ish) Mexican restaurant at U-Village and meet Justin's dad, Jim, there for a Father's Day dinner. However... due to the rollover accident on the freeway, we spent over an hour in bumper-to-bumper traffic and missed our reservation (we first called and moved it an hour later, then realized we were going to miss that too and the littlest family member was grouchy having skipped his nap). So we canceled it and met Jim at our house for Chinese takeout, which was delish.

A nice day indeed. Happy Father's Day!

Brooke loves to "drive" the car.

Jack enjoyed exploring the back of the car (and getting out of the wind for a bit).

Our guy, Leo, on his first trip to the beach.

Hot day in the sun

I just uploaded pics from my camera and realized I never blogged about our fun Saturday afternoon. Justin's mom organized a family birthday party for her husband, Jon, at a great park in Redmond called Ferrell-McWhirter Park. This place has farm animals so it was tons of fun for the kids. It was over 90 degrees and muggy... of course, we are major wimps when it comes to heat so we were all wilting but afraid to complain about it. It was the first time I've ever seen Brooke actually sweat. We ended up pouring water on the kids heads, which delighted them and seemed to help keep them cool. I really sympathized with one farm animal there - Dottie the pregnant sow, who was due in "early May" according to the sign on her pen - poor thing was big as a house, panting heavily and clearly miserable. I hope by now those piglets are out and wiggling around in the hay. Having been very pregnant last year at this time (Jack was born June 4th), I couldn't help telling her I knew how she felt!

A few pics...

My pretty girl:

My guys:

Isn't he a doll?

Climbing the big tree: