Date night! (AGAIN!!!)

Aaron and I were so excited when we heard that one of our "Desert Island Disc" favorite artists was coming to town. We bought tickets IMMEDIATELY!!! After dropping off the kiddos at Grandma and Grandpa's, we had dinner at Romano's Macaroni Grill in Northgate. Then it was off to the concert. There was a mix up with when the doors were supposed to open (tickets said 8pm, artists thought it was 9pm), so we ended up standing in line outside for a good half hour and it was FREEZING. But once inside, we got pretty good seats and enjoyed the show. He is such a talented performer. (www.martinsexton.com in case you wanna check him out.) It was the perfect date night!

Trick or Treat!

Here's the boys giving me their best scary faces. I hope you're not so frightened that you have to leave our blog. They really had fun helping carve the pumpkins this year.


Last night we carved our pumpkins. I decided to buy the little carving kits with the tools and the patterns this year. I was amazed at how much easier they are then they look! I was pretty impressed with how they turned out.


This year Landon is going to be a pirate and Levi is going to be a cowboy. The boys had their halloween party at preschool today and got to do some trick-or-treating there as well.

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins

We decided to try out a different patch this year since we've been alternating between the same couple for a few years now. I still don't know if it really paid off, but it was pretty memorable. First, it took longer to get there than expected, including a few wrong turns. Then upon arrival, it was much smaller than the website made it appear. And of course it started to rain.

Levi chose this pumpkin all by himself.

Landon had some help choosing this since he was pretty much cold, wet and miserable. He warmed up though once we got some hot cocoa.

The most memorable part was this mini ferris wheel. The ride operator INSISTED that even the adults ride... and so we did. Since nobody else was in line we got an extra long ride and got extra wet. I think next year we might play it safe and go to the old patch!

Date Night

Last night Aaron and I enjoyed a date night in downtown Seattle. We found a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Bruno's (it was Italian) and had yummy calzones for dinner. Then we walked over to the Showbox and saw Gavin DeGraw. He was amazing! He is such a natural performer. It was really fun because he played songs from his old album and the new one. We had just purchased the new album before we left on our end of summer road trip, so by the time we came home we pretty much had it memorized! We got a pretty good place to stand (since we stood in line for half an hour) and really enjoyed the show. (Well, with the exception of the drunk lady next to us who insisted on doing a funky chicken type dance during ever fast song! Oh well, it made it all the more memorable!) The only real bummer is that I grabbed the camera on our way out the door, but forgot the battery sitting in the charger, so we have no pictures!

Girls weekend in Portland

This weekend, Cammie, Angie, and I went on a girls weekend to Portland. The first night our hotel that I had booked turned out to be a total dive so we splurged a little and went for a nice hotel the second night. That hotel was amazing. We did a ton of shopping while we were there. I believe we hit at least 4 major shopping malls. It was even a bit much for ME!!! (and I really am the shopping queen!) But we had a great time and got some amazing deals! My favorite meal of the trip was at Romano's Macaroni Grill. This was my first time eating there and it is so YUMMY! Here we are at Cheesecake Factory eating yet another great meal...


Here's one last shot of us on a very anti-climactic end to our day. We shopped so much and drove around so long that by the time we could settle on a place to go "out" the only place open was Denny's! Oh well, it made it memorable!

Road Trip!

We ended our summer with an 8 day road trip hitting up Spokane, Coeur d'Alene Idaho, and Leavenworth. While in Coeur d'Alene, we went to Silverwood Theme Park and the boys had a blast! The boys especially liked the ride where Mommy got splashed and we all got pretty wet! We also visited our friends the Walkers in Colville and Aaron got to do some archery hunting. We took a canoe ride on their little lake and saw some turtles! The boys enjoyed playing with their son Logan and the freedom of playing in the countryside. In Spokane, we went to Pig Out Spokane (kind of like Bite of Seattle only smaller) and ate WAY too much! Our hotel had an indoor pool (which the boys loved) and hot tub (which mommy and daddy loved). We then headed to Leavenworth where we shopped, hiked, played by the river, and went to a farm. When I asked the boys what their favorite part was, Levi said, "the pool," and Landon said, "the aMOOZment park." We really enjoyed spending time together, seeing old friends, and having some time to relax!

YAY for vacation and no root canals!

We have been running around like crazy preparing for our big trip to the Spokane Valley/Coeur d'Alene area. Amidst my errands between Target, Walmart, the pharmacy, Costco, the church, etc. I started to develop a lovely toothache. So with a little advice from my sister-in-law (dental assistant) I got an appointment to check it out. (A trip to the dentist! Just what I needed to add to my schedule!) Since this is a tooth that was recently worked on and had a filling, I feared the worst! After taking an x-ray they determined that it was just aggravated from my clenching associated with not wearing my nightguard for 2 nights and from stress/anxiety from getting ready for our trip. Now, I'm thinking to myself, how sad is it that I caused myself a toothache by being stressed and anxious about VACATION??!!! Yet another sign that we Americans are far too busy. So luckily, I will not be starting out our vacation with a root canal or any other type of dental work! YAY! what a relief!

So, we leave tomorrow. I plan to take lots of pics of our trip and post them when we get back. We will be coming home on Sept. 5th in time for Aaron to be in a wedding on Sept. 6th!

Muffin Tin Monday

My kids have started requesting muffin tin lunches throughout the week! They call it the "lunchable" meal. This meal includes: Goldfish crackers, Enlish muffin w/peanut butter, Laughing Cow spreadable swiss, Ritz crackers, Raisins, More english muffin, peaches, strawberries, graham crackers, applesauce, Mrs. May's Almond Crunch, and gummy fruit snacks.

The Schooling Decision

So the kids are away staying the night at grandma and grandpas so that I can get some work done. So what am I doing? The all so important updating of my blog! That should really top the priority list, right? Anyhow, I think I have finally decided on Levi's schooling for next year. Homeschooling it is. I have changed my mind MANY times, but in light of the number of uncertainties looming in our future, I'm thinking the flexibility that homeschooling offers will be better suited for our family. Now I just have to break the news to Levi. He's going to be dissapointed, but I'm hoping to divert his attention by enrolling him in soccer and some other activities. So, any of you teacher friends out there in blog land, I'm all about any ideas you can give me!

Muffintin Monday

So once again, I have stolen an idea from my friend Lisa -and I'm so glad I did! Yay for a new easy lunch idea. The idea here is to put together a quick lunch while offering a variety of "finger" foods. The kids think it's super fun to eat from the muffin tin as well!


From top left, Row 1: Graham crackers, applesauce (to dip the graham crackers in), cashews, cheeseburger quarter for boy#1
Row 2: Salt & Vinegar potato chips, raisins, string cheese bites, cheeseburger quarter for boy#2
Row 3: Lunchmeat ham, gummy fruit snacks, chocolate chips, mandarin oranges

It was a hit! My kids ate a much more than normal!

Thanks Lisa!!