6 months?! holy smokes!

Mimi’s Visit!

After Nana and Papa were here, my mom (Mimi)  came for a visit. It was her first time to Seattle and we were excited to have her here to show her what our life out here looks like. We had quite the adventures while she was here! We had ordered a quarter of beef for the first time and didn’t really realize where the town was when we ordered it. Well, that makes us sound like idiots… we had a general idea of where it was, but thought it would take about 2 hrs to get there. Not 3. For some reason when you’re traveling with a toddler and an infant, that one hour makes a big difference. Thankfully my mom was with us and we enjoyed the roadtrip and the opportunity to see a different part of the state. The landscape and environment changes a lot even 45 minutes away from Seattle. You pass through mountains (big ones) and then it gets very big and open, like Big Sky and is much more arid and desert like. We saw Mt. Adams and Mt. Baker and then Rainer on the way back home. It was a beautiful clear, sunny day so we enjoyed the views. You would have thought I would have seen that cop that gave me my first speeding ticket in 5 years. Funny, my mom was in the car with me on that one too!

We also went north past Anacortes, close to the mountains to go apple and pumpkin picking. We had fantastic clear, sunny, crisp fall weather. Nothing like picking apples with a view of the mountains. We all went on a hayride and I’m still hearing “ay yide”. She LOVED it!

Mom and I also made it to the aquarium on a more overcast day and saw part of the city in the process and we hit the zoo on another clear, crisp day. Hannah Gray had so much fun with Mimi and keeps saying “Mimi no car” (referring to how we picked her up from the airport) and “Mimi phewwwwwwww” (making an airplane noise and arm motions).

We are not going home for Thanksgiving this year as we’ll be home from Christmas, but my parents will be in San Francisco the second week of November. So I will get to see them around Thanksgiving anyway and be able to celebrate my birthday with them as well. I am looking forward to seeing them again soon!

  

My mini-me. Apparently I do this a lot with my sunglasses

 

   

Not enough hands

Ethan had a little campout with Hannah Gray in our backyard on this night too. To be honest, my bet was that they’d be inside by 2 AM. I was wrong, they made it out all night! It was even in the 30’s that night!!

We took a ferry ride (hoping to see some whales or dolphins too) over to Poulsbo, a cute little town not too far from Seattle. We walked around and had a great lunch and amazing ice cream for dessert!

And we had to hit the flagship REI store downtown…

Thanks for coming Mom, we had a great time with you!

5 years?!

On the 7th, Ethan and I celebrated our 5th year anniversary. 5 years?! Where has it gone? I cannot believe it’s been that long ago. It seems like it was not long ago when we were emailing between Colorado and Ohio, when Ethan was doing the 3 1/2 hour drive from Cleveland to Cincinnati to see me. And then the wedding planning and living in our little one bedroom carriage house, and our special trips skiing, to Kauai and Tofino. Not to mention that we have also had two sweet little girls in that time as well. We have been through a lot, 5 jobs and 3 out of state moves later. But it’s all been good. We are here 5 years later as different people, as a different couple, but just as crazy about each other as when we met at the bottom of the aisle. I look forward to seeing what the next 65 years bring for us.

where it all began back in Colorado Fall ‘04

 

Year 1

In Tofino, right after year 2

One of the first family of 3 pictures

Move to Annapolis

4 year anniversary in Puerto Rico

 

HG making the announcement

 

Family of 4

 

HG meeting Tenley

 

  In WA

And believe or not, we didn’t get a 5 year picture… :(

I do have a picture from the day before our anniversary though. Shoot, I am super bummed. We did look cute going out  to dinner though :)

Whirlwind Month!

So I logged into my account to create a new post and realized that it's been almost one month exactly since I posted last! That's because it was Tenley's 5 month picture and today is the day to take her 6 month picture! What a fun, crazy, whirlwind month!

After Marty and Quinn came for a visit, Ethan's parent (Nana and Papa) arrived to spend a week with us. The day after they arrived, we drove north, caught a ferry to Canada's Vancouver Island and drove up north on the island to one of our favorite destinations in this world (so far at least), Tofino. We spent 3 1/2 days up there exploring, playing on the beach, surfing and walking. It was a great trip and crazy for Ethan and I to think that just three years before, we were there celebrating my birthday, our anniversary and had just found out we were expecting Hannah Gray. We were back on our fifth year anniversary, with two kids!

The first night out on the beach, Hannah Gray was playing with the bubbles that would roll in with the surf. When the water retreats back to the ocean, there's that bit of suction in the sand that occurs and Hannah Gray felt that for the first time. It threw her off balance and she fell into a few inches of water that was VERY cold. Great way to start off being at the beach! She was terrified to go into the water or for any of us to go into the water for the rest of our time there. Actually, I did get to show her some starfish and she started to unwind a bit.

Ethan, Gary and I went out for a surfing lesson which was awesome. Afterwards, I began to immediately wonder how close we are in Seattle to some good surfing beaches and how much I could get a cheap one for off of Craigslist. We were in some seriously thick wet suits with hoods which were amazing. Although I did think I was going to need a wig or rogaine with the amount of hair that was ripped out by dry neoprene.

Ethan COMPLETELY surprised me with a surprise message. 3 years before, he had scheduled me for a pregnancy message at the most amazing place. You start outdoors in a very secluded patio type of area with Adorandak chairs, thick blankets and robes and a tub of hot water for your feet and cup of hot tea. You can sit and listen to the ocean crashing and read magazines (which I did not realize three years ago would become such a treat) or just sit and be. So fun to do it again and feel so pampered!

After Tofino, we headed back home to show Nana and Papa a bit of Seattle. We had fantastic weather the entire time in Tofino (sunny and clear which is very uncommon this time of year) and it was cooperative in Seattle as well. We were so thankful for that.