Summer 2019 Highlights

We are officially into September, school has started, and soccer is going strong.  Fall is truly upon us.  I'm sad to see summer go as I love the pace, beautiful sunshine, and all the fun activities we get to do.  But I also love fall so I'm pretty ready for the change in season. 

Before it's totally gone away, I wanted to reflect on our summer highlights (in addition to Chelan which I already wrote about).  Here are our fun summer memories captured in photos:

Started off summer with our annual Snoqualmie Ridge 4th of July Parade and Celebration. Yes, summer in Seattle really doesn't start until 4th of July.

James and I got away for the weekend to go camping with friends in Leavenworth at the KOA. We love our summer trip tradition with this group of wonderful friends!

Nathan made great progress on swimming this summer!  And he got over his fear of the deep end!

The boys got their faces painted for the first time!

The library put on a fun event called the Stuffy Sleepover where the boys took their stuffies to spend the night at the library and the stuffies got into some mischief.  :)

Watched the amazing Blue Angels perform at Seafair

Went on our annual camping trip to Johnny Creek with the grandparents and Uncle Johnathin and Aunt Jacky

And celebrated James' birthday while camping!

Megs had a fun girl night at another Chateau Ste Michelle winery concert seeing Amos Lee.  This has become a fun tradition!

Nathan had tons of fun at summer camp this summer.  He did a Disney camp and performed for all the parents at the end of the week

He also went to several weeks of Camp RAD where they go out and build and play in the woods at a fun place called
Elk Horn. Gramma, Grampa and Cam got to visit it one day.

We capped off the summer visiting a special place for the Spauldings--the cabin in Packwood, Washington that Barb's dad and family built by hand when she was a teenager.  Someone else owns it now, but rents it out!  It was a special walk down memory lane for James' family and such a fun weekend!

We celebrated Cam's 5th birthday at the cabin too!

Whew! And sprinkled in among all this were smaller family fun times too like riding bikes down into Snoqualmie, nights spent outside by the firepit roasting smores or eating dinner on the deck, lots of visits to the park, playing outside with neighbor friends, and seeing summer movies.  So many great memories to look back on.  Thank you summer for refreshing us, giving us Vitamin D, and helping us slow down a bit and really soak up time together.  Until next year! 

The Family Who Triathlons Together, Stays Together

A couple weeks ago we made our annual trip over to Lake Chelan for the annual ChelanMan event.  This has become one of our favorite annual family traditions. We are pretty sure that James has participated in the annual tradition 6 years in a row (I've only missed one of those years for a wedding I was attending out of town).  And now the event has become an entire family affair!

First of all, Lake Chelan is by far one of our favorite places as a family.  It feels like true summer when you're there (if there's no smoke from wildfires).  It's beautiful, warm, lots of fun things to do and the lake itself is just so clean and refreshing.  There's truly nothing like that lake.  And now we've been there enough times that we have our favorite restaurants, activities, etc. that we like to do every time.

The other fun thing about the annual ChelanMan trip is it brings us back together in sort of mini-reunion style with our friends/community from Eastlake Church.  We don't really see each other during the year, but without fail the group makes it to ChelanMan every year.  Even people who aren't competing in the race still come back just to all be together.  Instead of renting a big house this year like we usually do, we basically all took over the Lake Chelan Motel.  A darling little place just 2 blocks from the race location (no parking drama this year yay!) with a major bonus--a pool!  We've never had a pool before and it was a game changer.  It was so nice to just hang out at the pool and have an activity for the kids.  We had a room without a kitchen which was a little tricky, but we've already booked the place for next year and made sure to get a kitchen. ;)  It was so so nice being walking distance from the park where the ChelanMan is held.

James did the Olympic triathlon on Saturday and did awesome.  He came in at around 3 hours, 10 minutes and felt strong and good.  The weather wasn't terribly hot either--it was a gorgeous day.  We celebrated afterwards by hanging out in the pool all afternoon and then had a pizza dinner at a rented house that one of the families stayed at.

My Sprint triathlon was on Sunday (always hard having to go the next day--builds up the nerves too much!).  Except for a challenging swim this year, I had a really good race.  I got overwhelmed in my swim and couldn't catch my breath.  It took me awhile to get in my groove.  I finally did and made up some time, but man I felt like the swim would never end.  The bike part was great--that's always  my favorite.  And I only stopped once to walk during the run!  I came in under 2 hours (1 hour and 50 minutes I think) which is always my goal so that felt good.

Of course we couldn't leave out the boys!  ChelanMan has a great Splash n Dash kids triathlon to wrap up the event weekend.  This is the third year Nate has done it and second year for Cam.  They did terrific!  They basically "walked" the swim part through the shallow water.  But then both were super fast on their bike and run.  They did great!

We spent the rest of the day at Slidewaters--the wonderful waterslide park in Chelan.  It was the best thing we could have done because it kept our bodies moving and it was refreshing to be in the cool water all day.  And this year we decided to stay an extra night--another fabulous idea so we could just enjoy time as a family and relax.  We went to the Lakeview Drive-In for dinner and then played in the pool again the next morning.  It was a fantastic weekend and not long enough.  Can't wait to go back to Chelan again!

10 Year Anniversary

10 years ago on May 24, 2009, James and I said "I Do" in front of all our favorite people in the world and started on our marriage journey.  On one hand it feels like it was just yesterday that we were dating, planning our wedding, living in Seattle, and getting ready to do life together.  And at the same time I look back on all that has happened in these 10 years: buying a house, having 2 kids, traveling, developing our careers, growing our little community in Snoqualmie, etc.  It's been a full, rich, challenging (in a good way) and happy time--definitely the best decade of my life.  One of my anniversary gifts to James was a word art piece that took over 150 words/phrases that meant something to us or signified a memory and the artist put them all together to form the number 10.  It was such a fun and overwhelming exercise to think back on all that has happened and all that these 10 years have meant to us and try to capture them in words.  I am so grateful for the gift of an incredibly loving and fun partner who so understands me and accepts me. And grateful for this life we've been gifted and have worked together to create. 

To celebrate our anniversary we decided to travel to one of our favorite cities again--Victoria, BC.  We also traveled there for our 5 year anniversary.  We love it because it's just far enough away to feel like a real getaway and it has such a great European vibe to it.  This time around we decided we just really love the Canadian culture and people.  Everyone is very friendly, laid back, and polite.  It was a nice break from the Seattle city intensity and "keep to yourself" mentality that we sometimes feel. 

We took the ferry up to Sidney, BC from Anacortes, WA which is actually one of our favorite parts of the trip. It takes awhile, but it's so beautiful and relaxing.  Random puzzles and games are left on the tables around the ferry and we got hooked on a puzzle that we almost finished.  I can't remember the last time I worked on a big puzzle!

We stayed at one of our favorite places--Abigail's.  It's a sweet little historical inn in the middle of the city (it's walkable to pretty much everywhere).  After checking in and resting a bit, we ventured out to walk the city and explore since the weather was so nice.

Upon returning, Abigail's had their daily happy hour snacks out and we grabbed one of the bottles of wine we brought.  Just as we were about to sit down, I recognized some people in the lobby.  It was Carol and Paul Abodeely, DeeDee's parents!  DeeDee has been a dear friend since childhood and so Carol and Paul feel like second parents (as do many of my childhood friends' parents).  They were randomly staying at Abigail's too and just enjoying a long weekend in the city like us.  They joined us for appetizers and we had a wonderful conversation.  It was not lost on me that we had this serendipitous moment with a couple who has been happily married for a long time and truly enjoys life. Definitely a God moment. They are wonderful role models for us.  We saw them throughout the weekend which was nice--such kind and loving people. 

One of the highlights of our weekend was a long bike ride.  We brought our bikes up with us because we're training for ChelanMan.  I had no idea Victoria was such a bike friendly city.  Lots of trails, bike lanes, etc.  I guess many people commute by bike.  We went along the Galloping Goose and Lochside Trails up north, took a short lunch break in Oak Bay and then rode back along the coast.  It was beautiful and such a fun ride.  I think we'll definitely do that again in the future!

Other highlights included visiting a new neighborhood area called Cook Village and eating at the yummy Pizzeria Prima Strada, an anniversary dinner at our favorite restaurant Il Terrazzo, an afternoon stroll through Butchart Gardens (and a fun ride on the most beautiful carousel), seeing the "Biggest Little Farm" movie in the theater, eating dinner at the bar and meeting new Canadian friends at Fiamo's, and the delicious breakfasts every morning at our hotel.  The biggest highlight for me aside from quality time with James was he surprised me and gave me a diamond band to add to my engagement ring and wedding band.  So sneaky!  It took my breath away. 

It was just the trip we needed after a busy winter season and just the right trip to celebrate 10 amazing years.  Plus there was a bonus--our puzzle was still there on our way back on the ferry and we were able to finish it!  Looking forward to seeing what the next 10 years brings!

Nathan's 7th Birthday

I think I've said it before but more and more I'm realizing the old adage is true: when you are a parent, the days are long and the years are short.  How in the world Nathan is already 7 is beyond me.  This such a fun age, but I also am feeling the need to stop time because it's just flying by. 

We celebrated his birthday a couple weeks ago with a fun Art Party.  He invited 6 of his friends along with his brother to do a painting party at Color Me Mine.  What a wonderful party idea.  The Color Me Mine Studio in Snoqualmie did such a nice job.  They have a separate little party area with a long table.  Their staff was so friendly and helped the kids the entire time with their creations.  Each kiddo got to pick one item to paint.  It was such a calm party too because everyone was enthralled in their project.  Plus what a nice favor to take home!  After painting, we enjoyed the beautiful, creative and delicious cake made by Grampa. 

Earlier in the day we had family over to enjoy lunch and Nathan got to open his presents.  It was a really nice, low key, fun day. 

Amazing cake made by Grampa!

Laila joined the party too!

For Nathan's actual birthday on May 10, we went out to dinner as a family to Chipotle and then enjoyed some Baskin Robbins ice cream. 

Nathan's favorite gifts this year were Zoobs (building set), Legos (of course), a make your own comic book set, a build your own birdhouse set, Pokemon cards, and a movie gift card.  He's definitely much more into gifts that allow him to be creative or that involve art which is fun.

Here are aspects about Nathan at 7 years old we don't want to forget:

• He is an extremely creative kid: always building things, drawing, making things, setting up forts or imaginary situations, etc.
• He has a true love for learning and enjoys school.  He's constantly bringing things home from school or talking about things at school that's he loving learning about
• Nathan plays well with his brother--involves him in his plans or imaginary scenarios, shows him how to do things and appreciates his companionship (although there are lots of conflicting times too ;))
• Nathan can fully read now!  He's getting more into chapter books such as Magic Treehouse, Magic School Bus, Andrew Lost, etc. and he still likes being read to.  Lately we've been reading James and the Giant Peach and Harry Potter
• Nathan constantly says he wants to be a scientist when he grows up.  We wouldn't be surprised.  He loves all things science: animals, plants, weather, earth, experiments, etc.  And he has an uncanny memory--he retains tons of information and loves to teach us what he knows.  
• We are definitely at the age where Nathan is sometimes crafty and tricky and experimenting with lying.  So we as parents are at a new stage of trying to navigate discipline and character development in a slightly different way than when our kids were little.  It's definitely not terrible and our kids are really good in general, but we're definitely more in the character building territory of parenting now.  
• It's fun to see Nathan get more coordinated and active.  He's swimming more on his own, loves riding his bike all over, improved a lot this past season in skiing and is getting more into sports such as soccer and flag football.  And man that boy is fast!
• Luckily even though he is now 7, he still loves and appreciates lots of snuggle time.  In his classroom presentation on family day this year, he said his family is a superhero family because we like to snuggle.  Melts my heart that that is so important to him and stands out to him.  
• He has started learning the piano!  He started lessons a couple months ago and it's been fun to watch him learn yet another skill.  It's so nice to have regular music playing in the house too.  
• Nathan is still very social and his friends are very important to him.  We're grateful he has some really kind, thoughtful, and interesting friends at school.  They build each other up and like to just have fun and play at recess.
• One of the things I love most about Nathan is he is utterly comfortable in his own skin.  He has great self awareness and likes just being who he is.  Even if other kids tease him, he just laughs it off and doesn't let it get to him.  Although I know it will be challenging in the adolescent years, I pray he can keep a lot of this trait as he gets older.  

Each year is fun and challenging in new ways.  Loving this parenting journey and grateful to witness these little lives as they grow.