Visit from Alaskan Cruisers

Yesterday, our friends Amy and Brandon flew up from Texas and they visited us before their big cruise up to Alaska on the Holland America cruise ship, the Noordam. (As a random aside, Matt and I once had lunch on the sister ship, the Oosterdam, while it was docked here in Seattle. Just fabulous!)

We hired a sitter last night and enjoyed a scrumptious Pacific northwest style dinner at the Yarrow Bay Grill on the waterfront in Kirkland. And too bad the weather was so cold and cloudy -- we had a perfect seat for a sunset!

It was SOOO good to visit and catch up. Amy and I became friends back when we were 19 -- on a mission trip to Jamaica with our church college group. We later became pledge sisters, and the fun continued from there. Great memories! Amy was up here in seattle 3 years ago when she worked for Women of Faith. but the last time Matt and I saw them both was when we were down off the water in south Texas and we had to help board everything up for a looming hurricane before heading back to Houston. Boy that's been too long!

Fiji: So close, yet so far away!

Random story, but I had to share, as my husband thinks I am so silly...

Back in late winter, shortly after my "retirement," I saw an ad on TV to name the little car on the Pierre Auto Money Mart Commercials. The name Turbo immediately came to mind, so I found their website and submitted an entry for the car. I'm a marketer -- I can do this! The winner was to receive a trip to Fiji.

I told Matt about submitting this entry, and I told him how I had the perfect name that was going to win. Fast forward almost 4 months. So I'm watching TV this morning and their new ad announces the winning name of the car: TURBO!

Hey, that was my entry! Am I destined for a trip to Fiji and the announcement made it to my Hotmail junk folder? Am I THAT far behind in opening my mail? Nope. I guess my entry was one of several exactly like it...they must have conducted a drawing, because here is video footage of the winner (see lower right corner of page): http://www.pierremoneymart.com/

Fiji -- so close, yet so far away!

Hawaii

Colin loves his turtle floatie!

What do I do with the shovel?

Colin's first day at the beach

Majestic Sea Turtle Swims Nearby.

Colin had a fabulous time in Hawaii, and Mom and Dad enjoyed a little relaxation, as well. The pool was a big hit for Colin -- he spent several hours a day floating around in his turtle floatie, watching people. We also fed him his lunch there (at the pool edge). He must have been on a growth spurt this week, as we kept packing in the food -- just amazing!



The beach was not a hit with Colin. We were all geared up with eagerness and a vast quantity of sand castle building supplies. Once he got the sand on his hands, they went to his mouth to "check it out," and then he used his other (sandy) hand to try to remove the sand that the other hand had just introduced...a vicious cycle that gets worse with each attempt to clear it!



His favorite afternoon activity was joining Mom and Dad for an early dinner at Leilani's, a beachfront patio restaurant with a band playing and plenty of people to watch. Colin made friends with the people from Michigan seated next to us, and we all enjoyed the band's Aloha rendition of "Boot, Scoot, Boogie" (bet you didn't know that country music could be put to a Hawaiian type of tune!)



Our other big food outing for the day was early buffet breakfast. We even walked one morning down to the Hyatt's buffet (and checked out the penguins in the lobby of the hotel). Their food was better quality, and we enjoyed a water front view of a pond with swans -- it was like something from a fairytale and very gorgeous. Of course Colin's favorite birds at each meal were the little outdoor tweetie birds that would hop under his highchair just waiting with certainty for the food he dropped -- smart birds!



During Colin's naps (he's still taking 2 a day), Mom and Dad took turns going on mini outings. Sarah shopped at Whalers Village, snorkeled at the north end of Kaanapali Beach, and enjoyed a massage as her Mother's Day treat. Matt enjoyed a few days of snorkeling and boogie boarding. One day a turtle hung out nearby as he snorkeled -- the picture captures the majesty of these primitive creatures.



On the flight home, by the grace of God, we had a row with the one seat not taken on the entire airplane! Yeah! Colin curled up in the seat and slept and then curled into Dad's lap to continue sleeping the remainder of the flight. We are slowly adjusting his schedule back from Aloha time, though we like this part where he sleeps in a bit longer.

Colin Homecoming

This morning Colin and I went to visit Miss Adel at The Ark. She was his daycare teacher until the end of January and Colin adored her so much! I'm not sure he recognized her face, but when she started talking with him he immediately smiled as though he knew her. He also enjoyed seeing Lillian and Judit.

There are so many fun toys at The Ark that I think Colin would be content to climb up and play for a while with the toys. I am now trying to alternate his toys at home so he doen't get bored with the same things over and over.

I don't miss the routine of getting up and driving him to school each day, but I still feel so blessed that we found such a warm and loving environment for him to enjoy when I was working.

BCC Class

Colin's class at BCC

Fun with sand and water table

This year Colin and I have really enjoyed a parent-infant education class at Bellevue Community College. We only have a few more classes for the year, so today we took a group picture -- about half of us were here today, as it is really a much larger group of around 25 families.

Today they had one table set up with partially crushed cheerios encased under a clear plastic liner and mallets and dump trucks on top for the kids to pound away and roll their trucks right over the cheerios without making a complete mess -- such a simple thing that they really loved!

He also LOVES the water table in class, so he got one for his birthday that is half sand/half water. Now he can have endless fun on his own patio!

Grandma and Colin playtime

The weather had been just fabulous this week, so Colin has tried out the play areas at three local parks with Grandma Walker here visiting from Texas. He and Grandma "horsed around" here at the local "down, down" park (named that by our neighbors' children because you go down 2 hills in our neighborhood to get there.)

The Bellevue City Parks are by far better than any parks I remember growing up -- there are lots of parks here to explore all summer long with some along the beach, as well. Yep, no beaches in Panhandle, Texas as I seem to recall!

The Amazing Icecream Sundae

French toast and a rubber ducky -- what could be better?

Wow - it's SOO big! Do I eat it?

Water painting is alright, but can I rip the paper Miss Kathy?

Colin has had a good birthday week! We have had a few days of temps in the mid seventies, which has made for fun play out in the yard. On Wednesday, his actual birthday, we took him out to dinner at Red Robin and they sang him the happy birthday song. He loved the attention and was so amazed by the large ice cream dessert they placed in front of him (the picture speaks for itself.)

On Thursday we went to our class at Bellevue Community College, where he had fun experimenting with a paint brush dipped in water...he was much more interested in ripping the paper canvas than he was in painting with the water-dipped brush. Tearing paper is one of his favorite past times when Mommy isn't watching.

Today we are capping off the week with a visit with our PEPS Mother/Baby group to the Cougar Mountain Zoo in Issaquah to see reindeer, cougars, and other wild animals...you know, we take our wild animals to see the other wild animals : )