End of Summer, Gus's Birthday and a Visit from Shannon

Summer is over and kids have started school.  We are back to getting everything back into the school structure.  We had a few fun activities and visitors before school started again.

The first was the Amazon company picnic.  It is hosted at CenturyLink field (the football stadium).  We had a lot of fun as a family.

Dad Helping Gus up a bouncy house

Lilly Crawling through a bouncy house

Face Painted

Face Painted

Twiners

Gus and an Amazon mascot

Jess and Gus on a ride

Sarah coming down a slide

Jess's brother, Richard, and his family stopped by our house to visit.  The kids loved to play together and we hope that next time they can come and stay longer.  I was at work so I was unable to see them this time around, but the I heard none of the kids wanted to leave.

My cousins Anna and Victoria and Victoria's kids came to stay with us overnight.  Jess, Sarah and the cousins went to breakfast in the morning, and I went with them to a ropes course in the afternoon.  I had a little accident where I slipped and slid down ropes about 12 inches or so.  It caused a bunch of rope burns on my hands.  It was still fun despite the pain in my hands and the couple weeks that it took to heal.

Cousins

Ready to go

Picture of the course

Victoria coming down in style

Summer finished off with Gus's Birthday.  He turned four years old and we are still waiting for the terrible threes to stop.  He asked for a firetruck cake, but he wanted the firetruck blue (after changing his mind a few times).  He LOVED the presents that he got and plays with them a lot.  He got a set of monster trucks from one of Mater's Tall Tales, (the monster truck wrestling one).  He got a marble maze tower game.  And he got a remote control car.  He loves each of them and plays with them over and over again!

Gus's Fire Truck Cake

Gus and his marble maze

Blowing out the birthday cake

Gus doing his marble maze

The kids started school in the beginning of September.  They moved to a different school, Highland Terrace. New house = New school.  They get to ride the bus to and from school as well.  Lilly's teacher is Mrs. Williams and Sarah's teacher is Mrs. McCary-Smith.  Both girls like their teachers and they enjoy being back in school, even if it does cut into their play time.  Lilly is in class with a boy named Joseph from church, (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).  Sarah is in class with a couple of girls that were in her kindergarten class at Parkwood Elementary last year.

First Day of School

Waiting for the bus can be crazy

We heard about one of the local fire stations getting renovated and they had an open house.  Gus and I stopped by to see the fire trucks and the fire station.  Gus got to sit in the fire trucks and was really excited.

Let's Go

Ready for the fire

Trying on the Equipment

I am in trouble if he thinks he can drive at 4.

Lastly, my sister Shannon visited us over this past weekend.  In July, Jess and I were looking at the theater and seeing if there was anything that we wanted to go to.  Brian Regan, Shannon's favorite comedian and one that helped made her smile during her recovery, was scheduled to come to Seattle in September.  We booked tickets and pinged Shannon to see if she wanted to come.  She jumped at the chance.  She flew in on Friday, when there was both a Sounders and a Mariner's game scheduled.  I ended up driving the car to work in the morning and taking the train to the airport to get Shannon.  

Shannon at the Airport

Brother and Sister

Jess, Shannon and I were able to have a fun night out.  There was another Mariners game on Saturday, so it took us an extra 30 minutes to get downtown.  That caused us to not go out to a sit down place for dinner but we grabbed something quick.  Shannon had scheduled for us to be able to meet Brian before the show (since he was leaving right after).  There were a bunch of groups that were meeting with him, so we only had a couple of minutes, but it was nice to be able thank him for bringing a smile to Shannon's face during some of her hard times.  Needless to say, but the show was hilarious! I know that Shannon knows most of his jokes by heart, but it was Jess and I's first show of his.  After the show, the three of us walked to the Cheesecake Factory for some cheesecake.  It was nice to get out and have a fun evening.

Don't forget that I am still looking for people to both run the Winter Pineapple Classic with me!!!  If you are interested, send me an email or sign up.  Also if you want to donate, see the previous post as it has the direct links.

Catching up - Vacation and a House Break-in

So it has been almost two months since I last posted anything on the blog.  A lot has happened.  This will be a longer post.

The first half of July we spent in Utah on vacation.  We were able to spend time with family.  It was nice to get away from work and spend some time with those we love and those we don't get to see often.  We missed my older brother and his family while we were there with some of the extended Blackham family.  It would have been really nice to see him, Kim, and the kids.

Gus with a Sparkler

Gus with a Sparkler

Gus lighting a firework

Lilly lighting a firework

One of the weeks, we were able to go up to Park City and spend a few days in a condo that my parents have up there.  One of those days, we spent time at Park City Mountain Resort, doing the activities there.  Lilly and Sarah had a lot of fun on the Alpine Slide and the Alpine Coaster.  Lilly did her final run on the Alpine Coaster with me.  She told me not use brakes at all.  We went really fast and had lots of fun.

Sarah and Uncle Chad - Alpine Slide

Lilly and Aunt Kate - Alpine Slide

Gus on the Merry-Go-Round

Sarah on the Merry-Go-Round

Lilly on the trampoline

Lilly doing some flips on the tramp

Lilly doing some flips on the tramp

Sarah on the tramp

Sarah on the tramp

While we were on vacation, we got a call from the young women we had left in charge of the house while we were gone.  When she came over Sunday, the 6th of July;  she found that someone had broken into the house!  The master bedroom was ransacked and Jess's computer was missing.  We had a friend come over and meet the police who dusted for fingerprints and took a police report.  Our home teachers cleaned up our bedroom before we came home.  The thieves took a couple of computer's, some electronics, and jewelry.  We are still getting stuff put back away and listing everything that was taken.  At least there wasn't anyone in the home to get hurt.  It seems like they were interrupted, since they only took a few things.  They left my computer, as well as the TV and other electronics.  We have tried to take the attitude that it is only stuff.  However, it is still painful to have to go through and decide what needs to be replaced, as well as those things that can't be, like some of Jess's jewelry that she had since she was a child and wanted to hand down to our girls.  Some of it doesn't have much value, but has a lot of value to Jess.  We also need to decide what we need to do to the home to make it safer.

Our Bedroom

June saw us getting the home setup and settling into Summer, with the kids finishing school in their old school and getting out for Summer.  Shoreline and Seattle both have school through most of June.  The kids finished on June 20th this year.  Jess is already ready for the kids to get back to school.  We are looking for a few extra curricular things for the kids to get involved with this year.  We need to start the kids with piano lessons and do swim lessons as well.  All in good time.  :)

We planted a garden last week.  However, we did have to build it ourselves.  There wasn't a spot for it, so we dug out 5-6 feet from the fence line to make space for a garden.  It looks like there was a garden there at one point but the previous owner used wonderboard underneath the dirt.  We had to pull that out as we cut back the grass.  We have a few things planted and hopefully will have some stuff from the garden this year.

The kids helping to build a garden

The kids helping to build the garden

Gus and his chocolate addiction.  This was from a fondue night.

We are so grateful for all those who are around us and help us in various ways.  Thanks for all the support.

Large update, Backfilling the last few months

I am really behind on posting to the blog.  There have been a number of times that I have wanted to posted but thought that there was too much to write about and I didn't have time to post anything.  Hopefully, I will cover the highlights over the last few months without missing too much.

We stayed in Seattle for Christmas.  It was nice to have just our family.  We tried a new Christmas dinner tradition of having crab.  It was fun and the kids loved it.  We will have to see if the tradition sticks.

The kids and Jess were sick in December and January.  I had to take Jess to the ER in December because of it.  The doctor thought it might have been pneumonia, but it ended up being bronchitis exacerbated by some asthma.  It took her a few weeks to get over it, but has been fine since.  She has also been going to a doctor about her stomach and reflux issues.  She is trying a hefty dose of Protonix, which is seeming to help most of the time. She also found out that she has anemia, and has been taking iron supplements and enjoying some good steaks to help with that.

I flew to Utah the end of January to attend a co-worker's wedding.  It was a nice wedding and it was great to see them take that step in their family.  A couple of our co-workers from Germany were in town and came down to the wedding as well.  One, Frank Becker, stayed an extra day and went skiing with me to Deer Valley.  It was fun to have some time on the slopes.

We had a snow day on a Sunday early in February.  We took the time as a family to have some fun together.  It doesn't snow much in Seattle and it was nice to be able to have some fun with the snow as a family.  All the kids loved to throw snowballs and build some snow men.

Sarah and her snowman

Lilly with Snowballs 

Jess and Gus

Dad and Gus

Sarah fixing gloves

Lilly and Gus

Lilly

Lilly and I have been skiing a few times.  Sarah has come once.  We need to just take a ski vacation as a family and put all the kids in lessons for a few days.  They are at different enough levels that it is hard to teach them together.

I am currently in Dresden on a work trip.  I took Friday off and went with Frank Becker and son as well as Frank Arnold to Austria to ski in the Alps.  It was really fun.  We stopped outside of Munich on Thursday evening.  We headed to the Tux valley, where we skied a glacier on Friday.  The slopes were different from where I normally ski but it was still lots of fun.  We skied another resort on Saturday lower in the valley, so we could leave to head bak to Dresden early in the day.  The rentals I got were really good for carving, so I had lots of fun on the snow.  I can say that I have been in Austria, skied in the Alps and seen /skied on a glacier.

Lilly will be turning eight years old on the 20th of March, and she is getting excited to be baptized!
Jess and I can hardly believe we will have an eight year old in the house soon, (makes us feel OLD). Grandmas and Grandpas will be coming to Seattle to help us celebrate, we can hardly wait!!

Countryside of the Tux valley

Hintertux Glacier resort

Hintertux Glacier resort

Me in the Gondola going up Hintertux

Hintertux Glacier resort 

View from Spieljoch resort

View from Spieljoch resort