Quick trip

On Friday Maggie & I took a quick road trip to Portland to visit my friend Stephanie and her family. Funny story - I met Steph when we were in college but we went to different schools. She went to Colorado at Boulder and I was at UW. Her boyfriend from high school was a Fiji at the UW so she came to a dance with him and we met there. She & I kept in touch and then she ended up moving to Seattle after graduation so we became roomates for about 3 years. The boyfriend didn't last but our friendship did! Hard to believe we've known each other for 12 years now.

Mags & I hit the road Friday afternoon and it took us a grueling 4 hours to get there. It's normall a 2.5 - 3 hour drive. The rain was coming down in buckets the entire way and the traffic at the border was crazy because of the March Madness games at the Rose Garden. Anyways, we finally made it just in time for an early happy hour - boy did I need it! Maggie had a great time playing with Jacob (4) and Meredith (2) but seemed to have a special connection with their lab, also named Maggie. She was asking where the "hoo-hoo" could be at all times. We had a fun evening catching up and enjoying their new wine cellar and then spent some time the next day at the park. We headed home and luckily had smooth sailing the entire way.

I am so lucky to have Steph in my life and it was wonderful to get to spend some time in person even if it was brief. I look forward to her heading north next time! It was such a quick trip, I didn't even think to take any pictures of Steph and myself. Here's a picture from a visit she made up here when living in San Fran.

circa 2003

Meredith & Maggie playing Dora dress-up

What Dora might look like if she were on American Idol

Joel reads bedtime stories to Maggie & Jacob (Mer wasn't at all interested)

Getting some fresh air before hitting the open road to come home

Maggie & Maggie - buddies for life.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

May you find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow today! I feel very lucky to have these 2 little leprechauns to call my own!

Seriously?!

I think you're as sick of reading posts about snow as I am of writing them! We has another 2-3 inches of snow this morning which was totally unexpected to me. Let me remind you it's March 15th for goodness sakes! We packed up the kids and went to get coffee thinking they could take a few sled runs at Lakemont Park behind Starbucks. By the time we got everyone suited up and on our way, it had turned to rain so we didn't stay outside very long. The kids loved it all the same!

On a side note - we'd like to wish Auntie Roons a very happy birthday (yesterday) and Bailey a very happy birthday (tomorrow)!! 7 years ago, I remember that it snowed the night of March 15th...the next morning was when Bailey was born! We love you guys!

Make a point to go to Point Defiance!

I've lived here my entire life and had never been to Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma. On Friday, Maggie & I met my dear friend Jenny and her kids at their house in Tacoma and then decided to check out the zoo. It was a beautiful sunny day and all 3 kids had a great time. I was in awe of this place! I loved how much smaller and more managable this zoo was compared to Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. The animal exhibits seemed to be much closer so the kids really interacted. There was a great kids playland as well. It's amazing to me how large the Point Defiance property is and it has some of the most incredible views I've seen in the Puget Sound area. Since Ragen wasn't with us, we will definitely be making another trip down so he can enjoy it too! Thanks Jenny for being our tour guide :)

Will, Sydney & Maggie

Elephants were so close!

Beluga whale show

Feeding the goats - a highlight!

Maggie on the spider web in the play area

Syd & the alligator

Lego Mania

If you're a regular blog reader, you'll remember how Maggie threw up in the car last week on the way to the mall. Luckily we were really close so we were able to drop Ragen off with Nana & Bumpa to go to an exhibit where they were creating R2D2 out of legos. He made a few brick blocks that helped construct the body and then we went back the next day to see the finished product. Here he is with the final R2D2, Lego Master and also two smaller versions. Since Maggie doesn't know her Star Wars, she really couldn't have cared less but loved the Lego building stations.

Pretty amazing to think those are all made entirely out of Legos

Maggie's creation

Pac-10 Champions!!

2 Unexpected Things

We woke up today to 2 things that were unexpected...snow & puke.

It's March 7th for crying out loud and around 8am we had a full-on blizzard going on here. I have a strong love/hate relationship for the snow because I love to watch it fall and think it's so pretty but at the same time, my heart stops when I first see it because I'm afraid I'm going to be stuck. I'm not a very confident driver in the snow and we live atop a really big hill.

Today the roads were passable enough so I decided to venture out to the mall where they had a Star Wars Lego thing going on. We were going to be Jeremy's parents there while Jeremy was at the office (yes, on a Saturday...grrrr). As we drove along the street that is parallel to the mall, Maggie started puking in her car seat and it was EVERYWHERE. Luckily I had a towel in my gym bag to catch some of it but I missed alot of it as I was swerving all over the road. I called Nana who was inside in line at the Star Wars thing so she ran outside to grab Ragen from me and take him back in. Why should he have to suffer the puke too?

So now it's still snowing and poor Maggie and I are settled in on the couch watching movies and praying for nothing more unexpected. One thing that is expected today is a Husky win vs. WSU in basketball for the Pac-10 championship. GO DAWGS!!!!