Archive for the ‘Relatives’ Category

June 7th, 2012 by sara

Seattle Part 2

While we were in Seattle, we got to spend time with lots of other relatives, too. We stayed with Aunt Lisa, Uncle Jonathan, and the ever-exciting Phoebe! Nora was especially excited to see her little cousin and they had some sweet times together.

Reading…

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Playing…

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Stacking…

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Cousins on a couch!

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Phoebe showed us some of her favorite parks. The girls liked bouncing together.

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And since we don’t leave home without baseball equipment, Jonah got some games in, too. My aunt, uncle, and cousin joined us one morning for some park fun. Since Riley is on a real baseball team, Jonah was excited to have him play, too. They discussed strategy.

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That same park also had an area down near the water where the kids (and grownups) could throw rocks.

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The other fun adventure of the weekend was going to the Folklife Festival to hear music. The kids enjoyed their first ride on a big city bus to get downtown, and we got to see Riley and his friends play a set on one of the stages there. The weather was beautiful, and the music was great!

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We went back again on Monday to see our favorite kids’ musician, Caspar Babypants, and that was also a good time. Lots of fun stuff to see everywhere.

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June 3rd, 2012 by sara

Seattle trip part 1

Over Memorial Day weekend, we took a trip up to Seattle to visit family and go to the Northwest Folklife Festival. We had a great time and took many photos. Because of this, we have decided to break the posts up into two parts – below is part one:

Nora and Jonah both enjoyed playing baseball in the ballpark that Grandad made for them:

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Jonah even enjoyed being the catcher and calling pitches to strike out Uncle Larry:

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Jonah did a great job of running down his uncle and making the tag for the out, too!

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Nora is ready to make the catch!

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One morning we took a walk down to the ship canal in Ballard to look at the boats:

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Finally some photos with Gran and Grandad:

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When the kids decided to do the wave, Gran got right in the spirit and joined ’em!

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We had a great trip and look forward to seeing everyone again sometime this summer!

May 18th, 2012 by sara

Grandparents Visit!

Grandma and Grandpa just came to spend some time with us this past week. We were all really happy to see them and have a chance for them to see all the fun things their grandkids are up to these days. As a bonus, the weather was pretty much perfect every day, so there was a lot of time spent enjoying fun things outside. Like Phillies baseball. (what a surprise… ;) )

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Oh no! Here comes Grandpa with the ball!

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Phew. Jonah just squeaked by. Safe!

When Nora wasn’t joining in on the game, she was working in the sandbox, alternating between construction work and making ice cream for everyone.

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And the swings, too.

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And riding bikes.

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On Monday, we headed to a rhododendron garden at a local park where there were tons of flowers in bloom, and we all enjoyed a nice walk (well, except for Jonah, who was at school). Lots of spots for good photos.

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I thought it would be nice to get a photo of me and Nora together, so I told her to do a nice smile for the picture. Her response? “How about I will just lick you on the head?” Um. Yeah. She comes up with some real ‘special’ ideas. Crazy kid! :)

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Nora enjoyed being a little chef and cooking lots of funny meals for people. Jonah took some turns with this, too, and made Grandpa all kinds of unusual soups and smoothies.

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Making each other laugh…

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Getting the ‘bugs’ out of Grandpa’s beard. :)

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A bunch of Phillies.

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We all sure enjoyed the visit and wish that it were easier to see each other more often!!

April 9th, 2012 by sara

Portland

On Saturday, we took a trip up to Portland to visit Sean’s aunt, Marie, and take the kids to OMSI, the great science museum up there.

They had an absolutely incredible Lego exhibit with huge, amazing Lego sculptures. Seriously unbelievable. After we went through, they had some areas for kids to make their own creations. Jonah (surprise) liked playing with the Lego train.

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Nora worked on building a tunnel for the train to go through. She showed it to Aunt Marie.

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And then we went to the special photo area to get a picture of the proud builder with her tunnel.

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The next stop was upstairs to a special area set up for little kids to explore all sorts of different concepts. They both enjoyed the water area, playing with fountains, scoops, balls, and whirlpools.

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Nora really liked playing with balls in the vacuum tubes and the air blowers. Watching the ball go up…

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And trying to grab it out of the air.

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She wanted to give Dad a turn.

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Jonah showed Aunt Marie something he made with some people blocks.

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Nora cut up some flubber (which she always sees Jonah playing with at school).

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And Jonah got to touch a snake! He said it was not as smooth as he expected a snake to feel.

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There was also a sand area with all kinds of scoops, strainers, and funnels (and trucks) to play with.

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We took a little break to eat lunch before visiting a few other exhibits and returning to this fabulous room again. While we ate, Jonah told us that he wanted to live at OMSI so that he would never have to leave. We decided that Sean should just drive back to Eugene and get all the clothes and stuff we would need. Nora was eager to get back to playing and was saying, “I so excited for SCIENCE! I really like science, so just GET ME SCIENCE!” over and over. It was pretty great. We all had a super time.

Back at Aunt Marie’s house, there was a surprise for Jonah – a rug that looks just like Citizens Bank Park where the Phillies play! He has had so much fun with it back at home, setting up players on the field and running his train track around it to do all kinds of new stories.

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Both kids mentioned again and again how much they enjoyed going up to the city, and they’re such good car travelers that it makes for a very pleasant trip. Somehow they didn’t even fall asleep on the way home(!), even after all that excitement.  It was really nice to see Aunt Marie, and we sure look forward to our next visit to Portland!

August 22nd, 2011 by sara

Playing in PA

This post is gong to be huge, but I have too many photos left from our trip, and since it’s been a month since we left on that trip, it’s time to just get them all up. Here we go…

Grandma and Grandpa got a sprinkler and pool for the kids to play in. Nora and Phoebe especially liked the water activities.

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And Jonah pretty much just wanted to play baseball at all times. Grandpa was happy to join the team.

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Here’s Nora enjoying the cold water from the sprinkler.

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Then Grandma showed Nora how to cool down in the super hot weather by using the sprinkler to wet her face.

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And since it was so hot (over 100 degrees for quite a few days), we spent time playing inside with everyone as well.

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Reading with the Monkle

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Uncle David provides some mealtime entertainment.

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And Jonah teaches his uncles how to bat like Raul Ibanez (‘gum’ in the cheeks and all).

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Nora loved climbing in and out of my childhood rocking chair.

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And looking adorable with her little baby.

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We also went to a couple of parks in town.

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Jonah loved playing imaginary baseball on a real field.

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A definite highlight of Nora’s trip was having Phoebe around to watch and play with. Even now, a month later, she still talks about Phoebe every day.

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And I love these photos because it pretty perfectly sums up what it was like trying to take a picture of the three cousins together. Hilarious.

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And finally, our happy travelers, all ready to go in their car seats!

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