Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium

Mark put Sawyer up on the ledge against the glass to take this picture-he didn't realize just how scary this situation was to a 2-year-old who has a 1/2 inch of glass between him and the biggest creature he's ever seen. About a second after he took this, Sawyer freaked out and jumped into my arms. He may need therapy someday but...cool picture :)

We're in front of the walrus in this picture-I'm pretty sure Rig is watching him.
Check out the antlers on that reindeer!

FYI: You might have noticed this before, Tessa is really in to "posing" for pictures. Now, I know that most kids get a cheesy grin when they see a camera but Tess takes it one giant step further. She comes up with poses that she calls "ballet" or "gymnastics" or some where she just does bizarre things with her face. She might not be the most normal child but she's ours :)

Penguins (you probably need to blow it up to see them) (Tessa thought this pouty lip face was great)
Otters-I've always thought they were pretty cute but I think this picture is changing my mind. They look a bit too rodent like for me.
I took several pictures of them in front of the elephants and in all of them Tess had to put her chin on her shoulder-goofy kid, I know.

1st Day of Preschool

Tessa started going to a little preschool in September. She LOVES it! Her favorite parts are: "learning letters, playing with toys and...when we play again" (already such an overachiever :)

I had to take this picture because the backpack she is using is the same backpack I used when I went to preschool-cool huh?

The Good, the Bad, & the UGLY

Seattle, like anywhere else has it's good things and bad things. To illustrate my point...

The Good:

No I did not take this picture, but we do see bald eagles a lot.

Nope didn't take this one either but we have seen killer whales a few times

Took this one! This is at the Tulip Festival this past April. So, before I move on to the more negative portion of this post I should say that it is BEAUTIFUL here and what we lack in quantity of sunny days we make up for in quality. Now...

The Bad:

Opposums are maybe the ugliest creatures on this planet. In fact, when I see one dead on the road I think "cool 1 down 300 million to go" (sorry to those who love them) So, that being said, you can imagine my excitment when Tess noticed something walking across our back fence a few months ago. Yep a cat-sized rat thing in my back yard-luckily we haven't seen him since.



Me and the kids actually kind of like snails (Tess and Sawyer keep themselves busy lining them all up on the sidewalk) Mark, however insists that they make it on the "bad" list because they attract moles which ruin our yard.

The rain is of course kind of a bummer but I'm determined to not let it slow us down this year. Plus-the kids look pretty cute in their coats don't you think?

The UGLY:

When I get to heaven I'm determined to inquire about slugs-I mean seriously.

An Eventful Summer

Silly Kids

I thought this was pretty cute-please excuse the off-centeredness (is that a word?) Oh and I have no idea what the headband is about-he doesn't wear those normally...so don't worry dad :)

Olympic Fever!!!

Just have to say I'm obsessed with the Olympics! I've been looking forward to them since January when I walked into Costco and all the fancy TVs were showing great moments in olympic history and I heard it...the olympic song! Ever since then I've been counting down to
8-8-08! My kids are obsessed too. Tessa started crying tonight because she didn't want to go to bed before we turned it on. Don't worry I caved and she and I watch the recap from yesterday. Are any of you as into this as we are? Weren't the opening ceremonies cool? Did you see the mens 4x100 freestyle relay? (If not watch it www.nbcolympics.com) Go USA!

July & Beyond

4th of July

The 4th of July is tied with Thanksgiving for my absolute favorite holiday. Every year I'm determined to pack in as many holiday festivities as I possibly can. This year we went to a breakfast at our church (complete with bike parade), went to a parade, had a BBQ with some friends, and watched fireworks.

One of the coolest things about eastern WA is that fireworks are legal (even the big, huge ones!) so instead of loading up to go to a fireworks show you sit in your front yard and watch the neighborhood put on a show for about 5 hours. It's seriously the coolest thing EVER!Look at them, so excited to be a part of the bike parade!
Bike parade drop-outs. Taken approximately 4.5 minutes after the previous picture.

Swimming Lessons

Summer games 2020 here she comes!

Rig's Blessing
Rigdon Cole Jones

Blessed July 20, 2008

What an awesome day! The blessing was beautiful and we had so much fun spending time with family and friends.

Finally complete!

Well kinda :)

About mid-July marked the end of our 5-week siding/painting project-and by "our" I mean Mark. He tore down and replaced the siding on 2 sides, trimmed out all the windows, preped, painted and added some new fixtures. We decided a while back that he should take on this project right after Rig was born in order to take full advantage of his "my wife just had a baby sick time"-needless to say I was excited for him to finish so that we could have a husband/dad again.

Trip to Canada
While my parents where here we took a quick trip up to Vancouver and Victoria B.C. They are both beautiful cities and we crammed as much sight-seeing as we could.

The Butchart Gardens were beautiful-thanks mom and dad for a great trip.
SeaFair
SeaFair is a big festival in Seattle, the hydroplane races and the airshow are the 2 biggest attractions. This year we went down to a park with our friends the Owens to watch the Blue Angels-they're amazing! Whenever I see something like this I always want to get decked out in American attire and watch Top Gun or something-what can I say it's cool to be an American!

(Apparently this is the only show "the blues" put on over water. If you blow-up the picture above you can see all the boats out to see the show.)
Isn't summer great?!

Our Little Smushes

This is Rigdon (our most recent addition). He is 6 weeks old and super cute-in case you couldn't tell :) Likes: being held, eating, sleeping, swinging occasionaly. Dislikes: not being held, riding in the car, tummy time. It's amazing how fast new babies just fit into your family.
Sawyer is 2 now and is such a sweetheart. He loves balls, cars, tools, ANYTHING outside, and wearing his swim trunk...every day. Like most 2-year-olds he's passionate about whatever he's doing and is willing to throw a tantrum if need be.
Tess is 3 1/2 and is such a sweet easy-going girl (most of the time). She loves riding her bike, and playing "mommies"/house with dolls, ponies, cars, Sawyer, Mark, Me and anything else she can find.