Family Fun in the Sun!

Well, it appears that summer has finally reached Seattle!!! The weather has been a scorching 75-80 degrees every day for a week. GORGEOUS! I know all of my friends from the south are laughing at the word scorching, but in Seattle THERE IS NO AIR CONDITIONING because it very rarely gets above 65 degrees (I'm not kidding, by the way. Less than 1% of homes in Seattle have air conditioning. Our house in not in that 1% category. Thank the Lord for great windows).

Anyway, today our family decided to spend our family day in a fun & more economical way. So, we stayed at home enjoying the sun & the back yard we have worked so hard on.

This activity was so exciting to all three of us. For almost two years, Dustin & I (mostly Dustin) have worked so hard on our once pitiful yard to get it into good condition. He built our fence, built a playground, mulched it in, leveled our yard, ripped out 60 bushes (not kidding), made the grass GREEN again, etc. etc. etc. We are SOOOOO pumped about spending this summer enjoying it & not working so hard.

Josiah was really excited, too. I mean, look at the set up the boy has. It is like he has his own little kingdom in our back yard. He loves it.

When he found out that our family was doing nothing but hanging out & playing in the back yard, he was SO excited! We were, too!

Here is Josiah playing in his much-loved sand & water table that Granddaddy & Grandma gave him last year. He spent hours playing in it today.

We also got to enjoy a new toy today. Uncle Chris recently bought Josiah a new beach ball sprinkler from Pottery Barn Kids. We hooked it up & had a ball! HA! Thanks, Uncle Chris!

Daddy & Josiah tortured each other with it when the other wasn't expecting it.

By the end of our day in the sun, Josiah's sand & water table looked more like a mud puddle, but he loved it. He has definitely gotten over his phobia of being dirty.

We even took the time to have a picnic lunch in the grass. Josiah picked the menu: Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, chips, grapes & pears. YUM!!!

By the end of the day we were all tired, wet, hot & sun-burned...well, at least the parents were. We were smart enough to put sunscreen on Josiah, but not bright enough to put it on ourselves.

Thanks to God for a beautiful house & a beautiful yard. Our family had such a wonderful day having fun in the sun!

Happy 4th Birthday Grady!

Tonight we headed over to the Fox house to celebrate Grady's 4th birthday! They cooked a scrumptious meal of cheeseburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, french fries, mac-n-cheese, watermelon & cantaloupe. Yummy!

The theme of the birthday dinner was "Cars." So, you know Josiah was so excited! This is currently his favorite theme as well. They even gave everyone a "Cars" party blower. All the guys really liked this cool toy. They blew on their blowers all night long!

After dinner it was birthday cake time! Amanda made a cool race track cake. It looked so cool & tasted amazing!

Here is everyone munching down on all of the terrific food.

After cake time, Grady opened a ton of birthday presents. It seems like the hit of the party was the dinosaurs he received &

the kitchen set & toy food. I think they played with every new toy he received.

We had such a great time celebrating with the Fox Family. Happy 4th Birthday Grady! We hope you had a great time, too!

An unusual day at Edmonds Beach!

Josiah was so ready for a day at the beach! This is one of his favorite things to do. I had to take this picture of his shirt & muscles. It was too cute. I couldn't resist.

When we arrived to Edmonds Beach, we noticed that most of the water was missing. The tide was extremely low & we wondered why. It was the strangest sight. We met a man on the beach who said that once a decade the moon is on the opposite side of Seattle. Well, that day was today. This caused a negative 3.8 tide. He & his family came to the beach today specifically just to see it.

The above picture is normally covered in water. It is actually the deeper area that scubadivers normally swim in. Well, we were walking on it today.

We took advantage of all of the extra sand we aren't used to & went kite flying. Josiah was so excited to bring his lizard kite to the beach. It was super windy & his kite went higher than it has ever gone before. He kept screaming about how high it was. He was so excited!!!

Of course we brought his wonderful sand toys to the beach for some digging & sand castle building. But first, we needed to explore some.

We did some exploring underneath the Edmonds ferry bridge. Everyone was walking under this bridge because you normally can't. It is normally filled to the top with water.

We came upon all sorts of sea creatures. Josiah was thrilled to see his first real starfish. This first one we found was HUGE! The center was bigger than Dustin's hand. It was beautiful. Josiah was so excited to touch it.

Then we found two smaller starfish hanging around. After looking around for a few minutes we noticed that starfish were everywhere.

Here, there were two starfish & a live crab hanging out together. The guys decided to see what the crab would do if they put a stick into his claws. Josiah was fascinated.

By the end of our exploring, we had seen starfish, crabs, sea anenome, sea cucumbers, a huge dead fish & lots of seaweed. Josiah thought this was the coolest beach trip ever.

After a few minutes of walking, for some reason Josiah got a burst of energy & decided to take off & run down the area of the beach that is normally covered in water. Well, you can probably guess what happened...

He fell down flat on his face.

He was covered in wet sand. Poor little guy had sand in his mouth, eyes, nose, ears & all over his body. He was miserable. Our fun trip to the beach was brought to an upbrupt end. He was tired, hungry & ready to get in the tub.

This was the perfect ending to a most unusual day at Edmonds Beach!

Potty Training Rewards!

Josiah has been doing such a great job with his potty training. Every book & person we talked to said a rewards system would work really well with potty training. We tried candy, stickers, etc. & nothing really seemed to work at first. Then, we realized that he loves collecting coins in his piggy bank. So, we began giving him two coins every time he had a successful potty time.

It has worked great & can you believe that in such a short amount of time the child earned $20. We may need to come up with another reward, because this could get expensive. So, we went out shopping tonight. Josiah knew exactly what he wanted to buy. He wanted to buy "Buzby & the Grumble Bees" (a Christian Hermie DVD), a "Cars" puzzle & a rubber snake...yes, a snake. Go figure! He loves playing with it.

Josiah, we are so proud of you!!!

Our quick trip to Yakima!

Yesterday we headed to Yakima for a quick 24 visit with family. Our nephew, Justin, turned 17 years old this week & we went for his birthday dinner.

It seems weird to me that it has been 12 years since I met Justin for the first time. He was only 5 years old. Now he is 17 years old. How fast time flies!

Here is a picture of Dustin & Justin at his birthday dinner.

Todd & Shelly had both of their families over to their house Thursday evening for Spaghetti, Lasagna, Alfredo Ravioli, salad, garlic bread & birthday cake. YUM!!!

Josiah had a blast, of course! He loves Justin & Cody so much. He talks about them every day. He especially enjoys going to their house to swim. He went swimming there only once last summer & remembers that day vividly. So, he was so excited to see that the pool was open at Justin's party.

Dustin was so sweet to get into the pool with Josiah. As you can tell from Dustin's face, the water was a little chilly. Josiah didn't mind in the slightest. He was thrilled to get in.

Dustin & Josiah had so much fun splashing around in the pool. Josiah especially enjoys it when Dustin throws him high into the air. He wanted to get thrown again & again &

AGAIN & AGAIN!!!!!

They even had a slight swimming lesson. Kick, kick, splash, splash!

It was so wonderful to see all of our family again. This is Janet "Meme" (Dustin's Mom) & Helen "Nan" (Dustin's grandmother) at the party.

Josiah was especially excited to see our other nephew, Cody. Josiah thought it was so cool to hang out with Cody while he was playing X-Box. He kept wanting to sit closer & closer to him.

This picture was taken this morning at Papa & Meme's house. We just thought it was too cute to pass up. Josiah just wanted to rub Bonnie's tummy & Bonnie was loving every minute of it.

Thanks to Todd & Shelly for having us over to celebrate Justin's birthday. Thanks to Papa & Meme for letting us all stay with you for the night! We had such a wonderful time in Yakima, even if it was just a quick trip!

Happy Belated Mother's Day!

Today we celebrated Mother's Day! Since we were in the middle of potty training last weekend, we didn't really celebrate Mother's Day. So, my boys wanted to spoil me with a day just for me.

My boys started my day with flowers from my favorite bush in our yard,

Kisses, kisses & lots of kisses,

& a wonderful breakfast prepared for me. Coffee cake, fried eggs, bacon & fruit. Yummy!!!

With it being Saturday, we still needed to get ready for Sunday morning service. So, Dustin went down to his office to study & prepare while Josiah & I played "Elefun" in the living room. We had a blast catching butterflies in our nets.

After playing with my sweet boy, Dustin & I sent me away for some relaxing time at the movies. They needed to cut the grass & continue setting up for service in our home.

They sent me to see "17 Again." It was so cute! The time in the peace & quiet, just relaxing & enjoying movies (one of my favorite things to do) was wonderful.

After the movie was over I came home to Dustin, baking triple chocolate chunk brownies & to Josiah, who was sound asleep.

After nap time & watching another movie, we headed to dinner. Dustin & Josiah took me to my favorite steakhouse in town called "The Keg." It is a beautiful restaurant with the best steak. We really enjoyed the conversation over dinner as well. Josiah has become quite observant & enjoys talking about anything & everything. He really keeps us laughing.

Here are the men in my life enjoying their dinner together.

As you can tell, from the mouthful of food, Josiah was enjoying his dinner as well. After dinner, we came back home to enjoy another game of Elefun before bedtime.

What a wonderful, belated Mother's Day! It was more than I could have ever asked for.

I'm a Big Boy Now!

YEAH!!!!! That is the only word I even know how to say this week! Josiah is using the potty...FINALLY!

For those of you who have known Josiah his entire life, you know that he has always sailed through new transitions. He slept through the night at an early age & has slept well since then. He is still sleeping 12 hours every night & napping 2 hours every day. That's really good for a 3 1/2 year old. We also didn't have any trouble transitioning through the different stages with food & he still loves to eat. He did really well with our move across the country & with the time change. So, I just assumed, like everything else, he would do really well with potty training. Well, I was wrong.

We tried to potty train him back in the Fall for a while & he had a really hard time with it. So, the doctor told us to stop for a while. We have been having "potty time" every day since then, but with little success. So, at the beginning of May, we just decided to give it a whirl again & went straight to wearing underwear again. After a week of tears, from all three of us, something just "clicked." In one great moment, he just decided to "get it." That day was Sunday & I am pleased to announce that he hasn't had one accident since.

Josiah is now even running to the bathroom on his own, undressing himself & going without us telling him it is potty time. We are very excited & proud of the progress he has made.

He continues to tell us, with a proud smile, "I'm a big boy now!"

Family Day at Alki Beach!

Today we decided to go on a little family outing. Josiah's favorite place to go is to the beach. He really enjoys walking around & throwing rocks into the water. We always go to the same beaches, so we decided to be different today & go to Alki Beach. Alki is in West Seattle & we always hear people raving about this beach. So, we decided to give it a try.

This beach is GORGEOUS!!! It is a long beach with beautiful sand, tons of rocks near the water, shops, restaurants & in case you didn't notice, BEAUTIFUL snow-capped mountains overlooking the amazingly blue water. It was all so breathtaking.

Josiah was a very happy camper. We had peanut butter & jelly sandwiches on the beach, followed by play time in the sand. A boy's dream!

We all built sandcastles & dug holes in the sand to pour water in.

Then, of course we had to throw some rocks into the water. Check out this HUGE rock Josiah found. He was so excited about this one!

After we packed up everything, we went for a walk to look around the rest of the beach. We found the Statue of Liberty that was placed in honor of the first settlers of Seattle.

Then we decided to end our perfect family outing with some ice cream to cool us off from all of the hard work sitting in the hot sun, doing nothing! HA! And yes, this is a kid's cup of strawberry ice cream & somehow he ended up with more than me & Dustin combined!!! How funny!

What a great family outing at Alki Beach!