Go Huskies!

I have to admit, I'm not a huge football fan. I enjoyed it in high school when I knew the players and Friday night football was part of the scene. I enjoyed it at college as a social thing and because, well, PLU football was awesome. I've enjoyed the couple of years I've played fantasy football, but that's a numbers game and I really only pay attention to my scoreboard online. So these days, well ... the food is fun on Super Bowl Sunday.

 

Andy, on the other hand, gets into college and professional football. So, I have to admit, the lovely fall season is marred a bit by Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Really, we non-football fans only get Tuesdays and Wednesdays?!?!

 

Don't worry, I keep myself busy while the games are on. And usually I keep the girls busy too. But as they get older Andy is trying harder and harder to get them into watching football with him. Is it working? Ummmm, no. But he'll keep trying and maybe one day....

 

The girls all decided on their Halloween costumes about a week ago when we found Husky gear at Costco. We'll have two Husky cheerleaders and a Husky football player come October 31st. And boy, are they cute! In order not to completely wear out their "costumes" over the next two months I told them they could only wear them on Husky game day when Dad was watching the game. So tonight -- Husky opening night -- they've got their Woof gear on and are very excited about it! Andy has his jersey on too, so of course the camera came out and the smiles went on and we got some fun pictures.

 

Enjoy. And if you hear cheering or crying in sync with the Husky game tonight, that's probably Andy, 'cause our windows are open.

 

Go Huskies!

 

 

 



Minnesota Visit 2013

We drove to Minnesota to visit family earlier in July. We took three days, enjoyed the hotel swimming pools (not so much the 102 degree weather through Montana) and saw lots of rest areas along the way.

 

Our first morning started early, so we stopped along the freeway to enjoy "breakfast" out of the van. The girls had their books, readers and headphones, as well as a movie set-up to pass the time on the road.

 

We got to stay at Aunt Sharon and Uncle Arnie's farm for a couple nights and the girls were shown around and entertained by cousins Jonny and Nick. We had a blast out there on the "new" golf cart, the four-wheeler, and the combine.

The Fourth of July was spent on the lake with more cousins, kayaks, fishing, boating, surf-boarding, and skiing.

It seemed like everyone was setting off fireworks around the lake that night. The kids had sparklers while we watched the show.

Silje got up on skis!!

The most important part of our trip was visiting my grandmas. We got to spend the 4th with Grandma Hazel, then visited her in town one day too.

We spent a day out at Grandma LaVerne's lake cabin too.

Aunt Vicki kept the girls very busy with dress-up galore.

 
We got some "quieter" time at the lake with just us and Gma Linda and Gpa Mark. The girls really enjoyed swimming in the lake.

Later we also had lake-time with cousins Luke and Sam.

(A rare moment when we weren't in swim suits.)

 

The Minnesota sunsets are some of my favorites.

Uncle Dan had us fishing, skiing, surf-boarding and boating. Including the remote-control kind. I think the below is my favorite picture from the whole trip: Uncle Dan looking on as Ailey drives the boat.

 

 



Despite our moving back and forth from the farm to the lake to other visits, it was a really relaxing trip. And we are really grateful that we got to see as much family as we did considering we were only there for about a week. Hopefully it won't be three years before our next visit.

School's Out!

We had a few Last Days of School around here this week, and they came just in time. Because I'm done with get-ups and homework and assignments and bring-this and don't-forget and everything that goes with being a school parent. It's summer time!

Today was Ailey's last day of school and I decided I wanted to compare the girls with their first-days last fall. So here they are last September just before heading off to preschool and 2nd grade.

 

I know for a fact they have been growing like weeds. Especially Marin and Silje. Their clothes have been shrinking at an alarming rate lately. Luckily the weather is warmer and the sleeves and pants are shorter, so no one should notice.

 

Here they are today after we got Ailey off the bus. So excited!

And now, since I have neglected this blog since way back last October -- Halloween to be exact -- I'm going to do a little catch-up. We've been doing a lot of the routine -- school, play, Girl Scouts (Ailey and me), gymnastics (Marin and Silje), golfing (Andy) -- and a little bit of the not-routine. So here's the last seven months in 60 seconds (give or take, depending on how much you skim).

With all of our trees in the backyard, which still number large despite cutting several down over the last few years, jumping in the leaves is a fun pastime that lasts at least a month. The girls just love burying themselves in a pile ... of stinky, dirty, damp, rotten leaves.

I believe FIVE teeth have fallen out in the past year. Which would explain all the lisping and Tooth Fairy talk. Ailey lost two last fall and has now lost all eight of her front teeth. Next week she is getting an Expander put in her mouth to help reshape her upper set of teeth. A precursor to braces later on. Yay.

Silje surprised us all and lost two teeth last November. At 4 1/2 years old. What?! I actually took her to the dentist because I was afraid something was wrong. However, her last set of pictures showed that her permanent teeth were indeed pushing their way up and there was nothing to worry about. Talk about growing up too fast. (The fifth tooth comes out below....)

We had some fun around Christmas, first with a trip downtown Seattle to see all the lights and activities going on there. Grandma Sue and Grandpa Tony were with us for a fun new tradition.

Grandma Linda and Grandpa Mark took us to the Lights of Christmas again this year, this time with cousins Luke and Sam.

They were quite the conspicuous bunch! Here they couldn't be bothered to smile for the camera as their mouths were full of fresh donuts. Yum.

Marin and Silje had their preschool Christmas program. They sang beautifully, of course. (They're in the back row.) I'm going to miss these programs.

With Mrs. Crossen after the Christmas program.

In January we went a bit east to try to see the bald eagles. We were at the end of their visiting time, so we only saw two across the river, but it was a fun hike on a beautiful day anyway.

Marin and Silje turned FIVE in January with a bunch of friends at Jump Planet. They were so excited to get a friend-party at last!

We went to the assembly at Ailey's school when she received her reading medallion. She was a super reader all year and got an Outstanding Reader Award at the end of the year too!

Silje took a fall onto a toy block one morning. The gash looked bad enough that I took her to the walk-in clinic to have it checked. Her nose wasn't broken, but she ended up with glue stiches, some lovely tape in the middle of her face for several days, and now a crescent-shaped scar. Since Silje is always trying to run faster than her feet I'm just grateful that this is the worst of it in her first five years of life!

We only had one short snowfall this year. In March. Luckily it wasn't enough to cause school to close, though we did have to use alternate bus routes. But it was just enough to pull out the snow gear for a day and have a little fun throwing snowballs and rolling around in it. Cousins Luke and Sam came to visit that day.

Happy Easter!

Happy Birthday, Ailey!

We celebrated Ailey's golden birthday -- she turned 8 on the 8th -- with an all yellow/gold party!

Snow in March was countered by 80-plus degrees in May. We even pulled out the sprinkler and popsicles, though I did keep reminding the girls that this probably wouldn't happen again for another few months.

 

Marin was feeling left out with all her sisters' Tooth Fairy visits. I kept telling her that Silje lost hers REALLY early and that it would likely be another couple of years before she lost one. Poor girl, she was just not having that. So just a few weeks ago she went and lost one too. She kept saying her tooth was loose, and I kept thinking she was wishful-thinking. But sure enough, it loosened up and fell out and let me tell you ... she was SO STINKING EXCITED.

 

I mentioned at the beginning that there were a few last-days this past week. The first was on Tuesday when Marin and Silje had their last day of preschool in their classrooms. On the way out the door I realized how glad I was that we were spending their official last day at the beach on Wednesday, because it was all I could do to not get teary right there. We spent four of the last five years in Mrs. Crossen's classroom. I spent three of those years on the preschool board and this past year helping to operate the espresso stand. It's definitely a second home.

Thankfully, we saw Mrs. Crossen and Mrs. Roth at the beach the next day. (Thankfully, the forecasted rain didn't show up.) We spent the morning searching the tide pools, playing with friends on the playground, taking pictures, and promising to keep in touch. It made for a nice way to say goodbye.

And now on to summer. First for a week off of everything. We might go pick some strawberries, visit the zoo or the museum, catch up on sleep and laundry. Then the girls will be in Bible School for a week before we make a trip back to Minnesota. Ailey is going to two Girl Scout camps in July and August, and Marin and Silje are going to do a sports camp later in August. Otherwise, we're hoping for some nice weather and plenty of down time before heading into Kindergarten and 3rd grade in September. Hopefully there will be enough down time that I can keep up with this blog a little better. :)

Happy Summer!