Seattle Trip 2012

Road Trip!

This summer we took P on his first road trip to Seattle to visit my family.  To prepare for the trip, I consulted Pinterest regularly and found several projects and ideas that I used to make the trip more enjoyable.  Most of those things were completely pointless, because all P needed was the I-Pad.  I even  pulled out my sowing machine for the very first time, read the entire instruction manual, and made one of these, which P loves...but did not use even once on the trip.  He sleeps with it now every night.  

There were a few highlights of the trip, including stopping in Granger, WA, aka Dinosaur Town.  This town had huge dinosaur statues all over the place, and a park (that was pretty ghetto...and a little scary) that was probably amazing back in the day...before spray paint covered all the dinosaurs.  

 We also stopped in Yakima for the night and picked up some delicious fruit while allowing P to run through the orchard.  Fun.

The low points of the trip included P sleeping for a total of 30 minutes during a 10 hour drive one way and the 12 1/2 hour drive on the way back.  This would not have been so bad, except that then when we stayed in Yakima for the night, P refused to go to sleep.  He was so excited about being in a hotel, and he tried to talk to me all night long.

Birthday Camp Out

For Dan's birthday (and in preparation for our upcoming trip to visit Nana and Papa), we had a camp out in the back yard last week.  P was SUPER helpful when dad was setting up the tent...

 P quickly devoured his first Smore, and he absolutely loved this adventure... so much that he could not sleep.  He finally fell asleep around 11pm, then woke up around 1:30am to switch positions, nestling his head into my back and his butt into my head, forcing me to snuggle with the side of the tent and causing me to accidentally elbow him in the head at least 3 times during the night.  And his late night helped him to sleep in until 6:45am.  When he woke up, he was a little freaked out, but then he looked at me and said (in a super loud voice) "It's sunny today, mommy...time to wake up!"  Yeah for camping!

Swimming Lessons

P loved his swimming lessons this year.  He was in a small class with only 2 other kids and a teacher named Matt.  P was kind of obsessed with Matt... he loved telling us what he did with Matt each day during his swimming lessons.  I was able to swim with P after two of his lessons, and each time he called me Matt and he taught me how to be Matt.  P really loved going around the lazy river and stopping at all the "train stations" (stairs) on the way to play little games (like "Chop, Chop, Timber" and "Monkey's jumping on the wall") and practice his new skills (like floating on his back and kicking).

 P loved playing "Fish in a Basket" (seen below) and, as is his style, every day he was a different character "in the basket".  I heard them singing "Puss in a Basket", "Buzz in a Basket", "Daddy in a Basket", etc.  

 On the very last day of lessons, Matt was planning to let the kids go on the slides and just have a fun day.  All morning, P was talking about how he was going to go on the slides with Matt.  But when we got to the pool, it was closed because of lightning.  P did not understand why Matt would not take him on the slides.  Poor thing.  And, unfortunately, P does not understand that swimming lessons are now over, so I am dreading having to tell him on Monday that he does not get to go swimming anymore.  

Fireworks

Go Bees!

A few weeks ago, Grandpa took us to P's first baseball game.

 A balloon artist was kind enough to fashion a "Puss in Boots" belt and sword, and P proceeded to smack every person sitting around us with the sword... "accidentally".  Luckily we had some really nice neighbors who did not give us a hard time.  

 P saw the Bee and was excited to go and meet him.  But when we got close, he just wanted to get away.  This is the best shot we got...

 This is one of our favorite new faces that P makes... it is the "I-am-going-to-make-this-mad-face-because-I-don't-want-to-smile-but-really-I-am-holding-in-the-cutest-laugh-in-the-world" look.  When he makes this kind of face, we tell him not to smile and that always does the trick...instant giggles.

 After the game, there were some fireworks (this was the week of the 4th).  P really enjoyed the game and did a pretty good job for his first time.  

Happy Independence Day!

This year, to celebrate the 4th of July, we took P to his first parade.  He spent some of the parade like this:

and some of the parade like this (on the I-pad):

and some of the parade like this:

and some of the parade like this:

But he spent most of the parade running around with Mommy's camera taking pictures.  Here are some of my favorites: 

 I have no idea who this poor girl is, but we have about a dozen pictures of her butt...

 Mark's belly

 This is a pretty great photo...I just wish I knew who this guy is...

Puss N' Boots in action...

Thanks for the cape Aunt Jen... he ran around like this for about 30 minutes, he was soooo excited to add a real cape to his ensemble.  

New Ways to watch TV...