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When we moved out "to the sticks" a few months ago, people kept telling me that there was so much wildlife out here. I believed them but didn't really think we'd see all that much. WOW, was I wrong! Really, not a day goes by that we don't see some sort of animal not normally found in neighborhoods! Even as I'm doing this post, a deer just walked across our front lawn. Aaron saw a bear in our backyard last week (which I would have LOVED to get a picture of...oh well), and he has also seen a bobcat on his way to work. We also have a herd of elk that frequent the area. We of course have raccoons who we frequently see raiding the neighbors deck for cat food. And most evenings we have at least 5 bunnies frolicking in the yard. It is so funny to be sitting watching TV and to see bunnies go BOING, BOING, BOING out the front window every few minutes! Yesterday we looked out the front window and saw a mink on our front porch. I tried to get a picture of that, but the boys beat me outside and scared it under the porch. Unfortunately these animal sightings usually happen to quickly for me to grab my camera, but I have been able to catch a few here and there.
So this might be considered NORMAL to some of you, but I think most of you know that I'm a city girl through and through. This is so AMAZING to me! It just never gets old. I love that the boys are getting to grow up seeing all the animals and enjoying God's creation!
Aaron took the boys fishing last week with Chad Boyd and his oldest son, Cole. I think they caught 8 fish total and each boy got to take turns reeling them in. The boys had a blast and while I would've loved some actions shots of them actually reeling a fish in or something, I wasn't there and am happy to at least have these pics! Yay for boys fishing with their daddies!
One of the boys' special treats is to get to fall asleep in our bed occasionally. Usually Aaron goes to bed before me since he gets up so early and that leaves me to move the kiddos to their own beds before I have a place to sleep! The other night when I went to move Landon, this is how I found him! How crazy is this? He was completely asleep when I found him this way! He gave me a little frown from the orange camera light shining in his face, but other than that he didn't even move!
The recent sunny days have turned our monster sized yard into a blooming field of lovely dandelions. Landon has found a new pass time of gathering bouquets daily and presenting them to me. It is pretty sweet. We do, however, need to work on getting longer stems. Most have stems about a 1/2 inch long so are pretty challenging to put in water and wilt within the hour! But the look on his face when he gives them to me is priceless and that's enough for me!
We celebrated my birthday this week by basically eating, eating and more eating! I think it's time to hit the gym now... We used my free Red Robin burger on Sunday with the family and it was so yummy! Then on Monday, Aaron arranged for me to have lunch with my friend Sarah and to go shopping for the afternoon. All this while he stayed home and CLEANED THE HOUSE!!! Then when I got home, we dropped the kids off at Grandma's and had dinner at my favorite restaurant, Thai Bistro and then wandered around Southcenter mall (man that place is so different these days...). We each got a new book at Borders and then ended the evening with dessert at Cheesecake Factory. It was the perfect birthday!
We have finally been having some nice weather around here so we went to the lake to enjoy it! The shot of Landon and I was taken by Levi and it's a little blurry but not too bad! We are inside the "pirate ship" playtoy at the park. Landon thought it was so cool that Mommy came inside with him. The picture with the stump is such a classic representation of my boys right now. Levi posed obediently and Landon acting all crazy! The boys loved playing on the stumps and especially on the footbridge. A little stream runs beneath the bridge and the boys loved dropping sticks and dandelions on one side and watching for them to appear on the other side. I'm loving this great park just a few minutes from our house. I foresee many summer days here!
So today we had an appointment to get the boys' pictures taken at Yuen Lui. I had already rescheduled this appt. once due to illness so I was bound and determined to make it happen this time. I had their outfits all laid out and ready to go so all was going well. Then I realized just as they were getting dressed that Levi had outgrown his "church" shoes. He only had tennis shoes, snow boots, or rubber boots. That obviously wasn't going to work out with the Easter outfit I had planned for the pics so that left me with the only option of stopping by Target on our way and buying him some shoes. Well, along with me missing every single traffic light, Landon fell asleep on the way there. I ended up carrying him the whole time while we went in, got the shoes, and came back out. When we got back to the parking lot, it was pouring rain/snow so we made a run for it- me still holding Landon. (By the way he weighs 40 pounds now so this is no easy task.) Levi decided to walk right in front of me and then tripped and fell, causing me to trip over him and then, still holding Landon, we both fell flat on our faces as well! So there we are, on the ground, in the middle of the Target parking lot, dirty, and getting absolutely soaked. Both boys were crying hysterically since Levi had scraped his hand and knee and despite my best effort to take the brunt of the fall, Landon's head had hit the pavement and was growing a large lump. The new shoes, my keys, and purse were scattered across the road. AND we had pictures in 5 minutes. A kind woman was nice enough to help us up and get us out of the street and to our car. I decided to go to Yuen Lui and run in to reschedule AGAIN, but once we got inside, I thought things amazingly weren't looking too bad and decided to go ahead with the pics. I told the photographer what had happened and she said if they noticed any dirt on their clothes or anything they would just digitally edit it out. So the pictures turned out pretty good, all things considered! I, on the other hand, have a scraped up hand and am going to have a really pretty bruise on my knee! I'm just sorry to say that there is no picture to accompany this post. I'll let you leave that to your imagination!
The boys have discovered that our entryway bench by the front door doubles as a very nice place to showcase their latest works of art. Here we have a masterpiece by Levi on the left entitled, "A Day at the Beach." I am told by the artist that the circular shape on the man is his backpack. The second piece we have on display today is by Landon. It is creatively being displayed sideways and is entitled, "Robot Daddy." I think that piece goes without interpretation!
Lately it seems I can never be sure what Landon will eat. He has become so picky that even getting him to eat a PB&J (which used to be a staple) is a challenge. Here he sat all by his lonesome at the dinner table, long after the rest of us were gone. As I came back to check on him a few minutes later, this is how I found him... ASLEEP!
On Saturday we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. We spent the day in downtown Seattle just wandering around and checking out shops. We went through Pike Place, ate a piroshky from Piroshky Piroshky, window watched the people walking by at the Virginia Inn Pub, and walked up to Westlake. 
On Friday evening there was a ring of the doorbell and these were sitting on the front porch! Aren't they just beautiful?
We also enjoyed a crumpet from the The Crumpet Shop while we were downtown. If you haven't had one of these, you really need to. My mom used to take us here when we were little and it is a favorite childhood memory of mine. 
After heading back from Seattle, we went to Spiro's in Kent for an authentic greek dinner, complete with the entertainment of a belly dancer! After dinner we rented a movie and headed home. It was a fun day and great to enjoy some alone time together!
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