Thanksgiving Weekend

One of my favorite times of the year is Thanksgiving weekend.  I think Christmas is my ultimate favorite holiday, but Thanksgiving comes in at a close second.  And I love the entire Thanksgiving weekend not only for Thanksgiving day itself, but also because it kicks off the Christmas season. Thanksgiving is so good because it's all about family, reflecting on what I'm grateful for, and experiencing/building traditions. This year was all of that and it was a special weekend.

We started out Thanksgiving day with our new favorite tradition for just our family of 4.  Issaquah does a great Turkey Trot run that benefits the Issaquah Food Bank.  I've always tried to do something active on Thanksgiving day and this event forces us to really make it happen and it's a great way to start out the day.  Last year it was bitterly cold.  This year it was a downpour.  But both times we got our butts out of bed, bundled up, and made the best of it.  I decided this year I would easily take rain over bitter cold.  And our boys did great in the stroller--kids are so resilient!  Nate started out running with me and then rode the rest of the run until the finish.  Both boys loved finding the stations to get their card punched so they could get a prize at the end.  Fun times.

Afterwards we raced home and the boys watched the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade (another tradition) while we got ready for the day.  Of course we couldn't leave the house until good ole Santa Clause came down the parade route.  :)

This year we enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with my family.  And our special guests were Carly and her sister, brother-in-law and nephew.  It was a really nice day of great company, yummy food, good conversation, and relaxing. (I realized after going through photos--we need to get my mom in more pictures!  She's always the one taking them.  Sorry mom!)

Annual tradition of putting out the "village" for Christmas

Pops and his boys

After the meal we went to the Spauldings to have dessert and enjoy time with the other side of the family.  Sadly I didn't get any pictures from that part of the day.  But we had delicious pie, watched football, digested, and enjoyed great conversation as usual.

We were ecstatic on Friday to watch the UW Huskies clobber Wazzu in the Apple Cup while hanging out with our friends the Ridges.

Then Saturday was another annual tradition of going to downtown Seattle to enjoy Black Friday sales and all the fun Christmas activities including seeing the Macys star and the Westlake Christmas tree lit up, watching the model trains in the Macys display window, riding the Carousel, and seeing the Gingerbread Houses at the Sheraton Hotel.  This has always been one of my most favorite days of the year with my family and I love getting to experience it all with my boys now and have it be a special tradition for them too.

Riding the Carousel!

This year the gingerbread houses were Harry Potter theme!

To cap off the weekend of fun we ended the Thanksgiving break with a visit to see Santa.  Nathan was fully prepared this year with his list of 47 ITEMS!!  Nana helped him compose his list a couple weeks ago.  Santa was astonished and a little overwhelmed.  He asked Nate to narrow his list down to 3 things.  :)  No tears this year with the big man.  I thought maybe Cam would be scared this year because Nate melted down at his age, but he was fine.  Just curious as to who the weird man was with the white beard and red suit.  Both sets of grandparents came along and then we all enjoyed a fun dinner at Red Robin.

Cheers to a successful, memorable, special Thanksgiving weekend!

Annual Mountain Drive...resurrected

For many years we enjoyed doing an Annual Mountain Drive in the fall with my parents.  That tradition was put on hold when little kids came along because we couldn't imagine that long of a drive and day with 2 little ones. But the event has finally been resurrected!  We finally felt like the boys are at a good age that we could probably manage the trek this year.  And it was a great success!

Starting from our home we drove through Carnation, Duvall and on to Highway 2 to the town of Sultan.  First stop: Sultan Bakery for a yummy breakfast complete with enormous doughnuts.

Second stop: along the Wenatchee River after going over Stevens Pass to enjoy the beautiful colors of the leaves.

Third stop: the bavarian-themed town of Leavenworth complete with lunch at a very German establishment

Final stop: Smallwood Farm to get apples and enjoy the kids activities including a crazy train ride through the farm and orchards

It was such a fun day and the boys did great!  They actually slept the entire way home through Blewitt Pass since we tired them out so much.  We're so happy to have brought back this annual tradition and now we can share it with the boys!

Cameron's 2nd Birthday

Now that I have finally moved through the dense fog of busy-ness at work and to distract myself from the craziness of the election, I'm finally doing a post about Cameron's 2nd birthday.  It was only 2 months ago....sheesh!  But man this time of year is hard to stay up on documenting our family.

Cameron is a lover of animals.  So of course the natural choice for his birthday this year was the zoo. We did the same thing for Nate when he turned 2.  There's just something about animals when you're a 2-year-old I guess.  Our wonderful family joined us for a beautiful day exploring the zoo and visiting all the animal exhibits that we could fit in.  Cameron was in heaven!  Then we drove a few blocks north to celebrate with dinner and cake at Zeek's Pizza.  Photos to follow.

But first I wanted to record what Cameron is like at this age:

*Cam is super funny.  He brings so much laughter and humor to our family and loves to be a "ham."
*He is our rough and tumble kid--loves all things sports related and loves throwing, catching, kicking any ball he can get his hands on
*He also has no fear whether it's climbing to the top of the play structure, jumping off our furniture, or trying brand new things Cameron has incredible bravery and courage.  We also have to watch him like a hawk though too
*He is still cuddly and sweet...thank goodness!
*He loves animals, trucks, trains, legos, "guys," wrestling with his brother, playing baseball or soccer, watching Lion Guard, and reading books
*Nathan is his absolutely hero.  He's at an age where he copies Nate and always wants to do what he's doing.  They are pretty good buddies.  Obviously they have their moments, but for the most part they really love each other's company
*After a slow start he's talking up a storm and learning new words and phrases all the time
*he's a big helper.  We're always amazed at how good he is at picking up toys or being helpful around the house.  At the same time though he's also definitely 2 and has an opinion about what he wants to do or not do.  But once we get him going with helping out, he is awesome.
*We can't imagine what we would do without Cameron's fun, funny, sweet, happy personality in our family.

We love you Cam and Happy Birthday!

Summer 2016 Highlights

Well it is definitely starting to feel like fall.  Labor Day has come and gone.  The last few days have been rainy and colder.  The sounds of football on the TV are now filling out house.  I'm very excited as I love fall and all the season has to bring.  But before we officially say goodbye to summer, I wanted to make sure to record the highlights from this summer through some photos.  It was a great summer overall since the boys are at such fun ages.  And the weather was really great too--not too hot like last summer.

Here is our walk down summer 2016 memory lane:

Celebrating Father's Day with Pops at the Edmonds Art Festival

Celebrating Father's Day with Grampa and James watching the Mariners Game

Nathan's 1st Movie in a Theater--Finding Dory!

4th of July neighborhood celebration and parade!

ChelanMan weekend (which I already posted about)

Nathan's soccer class

Cameron's Dedication ceremony (which I already blogged about)

SeaFair Torchlight Parade (sadly they cancelled the run this year :(  )

Celebrating Papa's Birthday

Mariners Game celebrating Ken Griffey Jr.'s retirement

We got to run the bases!

Trip to Camano Island with Warners

Crazy fun in the mud flats!

Other fun memories that I don't have photos for:

• Cameron got his first balance bike; fun to watch the boys ride our back alley together
• Eating meals outside on our deck and the boys playing in the yard
• 2 family bike rides in Snoqualmie
• Beach time with both sets of grandparents
• Washing the boys feet every night because they got dirty running around barefoot
• Buying treats from the ice cream truck

It was such a fun summer with lots of special memories and wonderful family time.  I feel like we took advantage of the season and lived it well, but it also didn't feel overly busy or overwhelming. We rested a lot too and enjoyed each other and the lazy summer days.  It's always sad to say goodbye to summer, but I feel ready for fall.

Farewell summer!  See you next year!