Maddie Turns 9!

This past weekend we celebrated Maddie's 9th birthday.  Like everyone knows, these birthdays are not just one day, rather they stretch out over many day..but hey, isn't that how you'd want it too!  Things going rolling on Friday when she brought home her report card.....straight A's for the 3rd straight QTR!!!!  Nice Job Kid.

We kicked things off on Saturday evening with a visit to old faithful, The Spaghetti Factory.  Maddie has always loved this place (just like her mommy and auntie) so we got all the grandparents, and even great grandparent down there to celebrate.

On Sunday, we had a bowling party with Maddie and 15 other 8/9 year old girls!!  Wow.  The girls did great, and a fun time with it all.  2hr of bowling, homemade cupcakes from mom and sherbert ice cream...doesnt get any better than that!

Sunday night we met up with our friends; Jenn and Glenn and their two boys Owen and Ian.  It was like 70 degrees so we headed to the beach.  Although it technically wasnt another celebration of just her birthday, we had a great time playing on the swings, slides, and the whale.

Finally, on Monday, her actual birthday, Maddie had fun filled day.  It started with a class field trip to the aquarium, planned I'm sure just for her birthday :-)...then later a ride on the Water Taxi to another favorite spot of hers, Red Robin.  I think she likes all the attention and people singing to her!

We are very blessed to have such a great little girl.  She has always been positive and we love that about her and love celebrating her birthday.  Happy Birthday Binks!

Spring Break Recap

Last week we had that chance to get a few days out of town with our good friends the Doerrs.  In a last minute thought, I got a hold of Roslyn Properties and they had this house for rent at Suncadia.  4 bedroom, 3 bathrooms, game room, etc.  Sounds like the perfect option for us.  As luck would have it, the weather decided to act up.  The night before we left, about 4 in of snow fell in the mountains, and in the morning tractions tires were required to get over the pass.  We had to google what a "traction tire" is to see if we had them and if we needed to get some chains.  As we pulled away from West Seattle, we had decided to make a pit stop in North Bend, and good thing, because I-90 had just closed!  oh boy, here we go.  By the time we got to North Bend, the pass had re-opened, and the snow had stopped...but as we looked over to the west a storm was looming so we decided to get going.

Our drive over the pass was pretty uneventful, with the exception of having to stop to fix our windshield wiper, which was literally barely hanging on.  We rolled into Suncadia and found the house.  It was exactly what we expected, and started to settle in.

A little light snow started to fall so we decided to head into town for some "supplies"...and by the time we got back to the house, there was a legit 1-2 inches of snow on the ground.  The kids immediately threw on their snow gear (which was a last minute add to the list) and headed out to the golf course.  The house was about 20 yds from the 4th hole, and a nice small slope..the whole 4th fairway was quickly covered and the kids got to work on their snowman!

By the AM, we had a good 4-5 inches on the ground, with some steady flurries....The kids headed outside right after breakfast and we played for HOURS.  By early afternoon, the sun came out and we had a giant snowball fight before all the snow started melting away.  With the sun out we headed out on a drive up to Lake Cle Elum and along the way we came across a heard of Elk feeding on the hillside.  Our car missed them on the way up, but we snapped a few pics on the way back...pretty cool to see.

For dinner that night we headed to one of our long time favorite spots, Village Pizza in Roslyn.  We used to always go there when we went rafting on the Yakima river.  They are famous for having Trivial Pursuit cards all over, and more importantly honey for the pizza crust.  We wrapped up the day by checking out the Suncadia lodge, which was also pretty cool.  By that time, almost all the snow was gone, and the views were pretty amazing.  This is a shot of the Cle Elum river from the back side of the Suncadia lodge...I started to get the itch to grab a fly rod and go fishing!

The next morning we had to up and out pretty early, but we had a small little delay when the power went out about 7am.  We headed into town for a nice small town breakfast, then packed up and headed out.  On the way home we stopped by Snoqualmie falls for a quick visit.  Unfortunately there had been an incident with a lot of search and recovery activity, so we couldn't see a lot, but we got a couple pics of the amazing falls.  An awesome couple days with great friend and family for Spring break.

Easter Beach Trip

This weekend we set off on our annual trip to Gearhart, OR for Easter.  Always a great time to get away, visit the coast, see friends, and of celebrate Easter.  With the coast, you never quite know what kind of weather you will run into...could be sunny (one time it was like 80), could be (likely is) rainy, and for the first time this year, it was COLD.  By Maddie's account it hailed 11 different times! Here is a look at the kind of storms that rolled in often.

 I actually threw a hail ball at Maddie!  Even with all the cold and hail and rain, we made our typical walk into "town" for coffee and goodies.

After a visit into Seaside to the arcade for some skee ball, we figured we HAD to make a trip to the beach some how, some way...so we drove onto it. There are a couple spots where cars are allowed, so we tried our luck and made it to the beach..luckily we didnt get stuck :-)

Like always, a great trip.  This is fun area to come to and the kids love it...wish we could actually come down here more.  Actually, there is a nice 5 bd, 2 bath house for sale right across from where we stay...just a cool 1.6M..anyone???

HAPPY EASTER!!!