Trying to Beat the Heat!

This week has been hot! With our house hovering at 90 degrees inside, I have been desperate for ways for Jack and I to cool down. The past couple of days we have hit up the wading pool in the afternoon, but with today's temperature predicted to hit 101 degrees, I'm planning to keep us inside and air conditioned.
This morning we headed to the new movie theaters by Northgate for a free movie. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays throughout the summer they have a couple of movies that are completely free!  Today we saw Igor. We only made it through about 45 minutes of the movie, but that was 45 minutes of cool air conditioning.  Jack loved sitting in his own seat, even though he didn't weigh enough to keep the chair from trying to fold up. He actually thought this made it more fun because then he could push the seat up and down.  He also liked putting his sippy cup in the drink holder on his armrest. Another hit at the movie theater was the escalators. There are 3 of them that we had to ride to get to our assigned theater. Jack was in heaven!

After our movie we headed across the street to Barnes and Noble where they have a train table in their kid's section. We actually discovered this air conditioned adventure yesterday at U-Village with my parents. Jack had so much fun playing with the train table that I immediately called the Northgate B & N to see if they had one too. Apparently many other moms had the same idea, because the table soon became filled with little ones pushing trains on the tracks.

Not sure what we'll do this afternoon to stay cool, but one thing's for certain--it's HOT, HOT, HOT!!!

The Two Families Meet

Well if you haven't heard the great news already, Jane and Tom are engaged! They took a trip to Hawaii with some friends over 4th of July and Tom popped the question on the beach with a beautiful sunset as the backdrop.  There has already been a lot of planning--they've got a date, a church, a venue, a band. But one big thing still needed to be done. The two families needed to meet. Last Saturday night Tom's family, the Moodys, joined our family at John and Becky's house for dinner. It was a blazing hot day, but we enjoyed talking with one another while sipping cool beverages and trying our hardest to stay cool in the shade. Becky prepared a delicious dinner (as always) and we feasted until our bellies were stuffed. Jack had fun playing with Tom's nephew, Ezra, who will turn one next month. We got a small glimpse at how Jack might treat his new little brother--very loving and caring one moment, pushing and taking toys away the next. Our families got along great and we are very excited to get to know the Moody's better!

         

Everyone sits down to dinner.                             Tom's parents.

         

Tom's sister, brother-in-law, and nephew.  The proud parents of the bride-to-be.

 

Jack also enjoyed helping Grandma cook breakfast one morning. He helped beat the eggs and stir in the flour for the Dutch babies. He was such a proud cook!

Day Out with Thomas

On Friday Grandma, Jack, and I went to visit Thomas the Train. Yes, they actually have a life-size Thomas that you can ride on in Snoqualmie right now. Jack was completely in awe of all of "choo-choos". I was expecting it to just be the train that you ride on, but Day Out with Thomas was a complete tribute to Thomas and his Friends. They had music, face painting, a tent full of train tables (we had a hard time pulling Jack away from that), pictures with Sir Topham Hat, and more!  For those of you not currently engrossed in this world, it was a little boy's dream! We had fun exploring the grounds until it was time to catch our train. Once aboard, Jack loved waving out the window at the people on the streets. The car that we sat in looked similar to Annie and Clarabel--Thomas' passenger cars. The train ride was only about 20 minutes, but Jack loved hearing the whistle blow and waving to passersby. After our train ride, Jack got his picture taken with Thomas and then we sat down to a fun picnic lunch prepared by Grandma. The picnic was especially fun because we sat near the tracks and were able to wave at Thomas as he took his next set of passengers for a ride.  Thanks, Grandma, for a super fun day!

Jack and Grandma check out the engine and get pictures with some of the trains.

Jack waves to the people outside and makes "choo-choo" noises on the train ride.

Jack patiently (surprise, surprise) waits for his picture with Thomas and finally gets it!

Coeur d' Alene

We just returned yesterday from a relaxing week spent at our cabin on Lake Coeur d' Alene. What a special time it was to spend together as a family. We had so much fun introducing Jack to all of the "regular" hang out spots on the lake and he introduced us to many new ones that we hadn't ventured to before having children.

Swimming at Arrow Point

Each day after Jack's nap we'd jump in the boat and head to one of our favorite spots on the lake, Arrow Point. We've always loved it there because you can get there by boat and it is a great place to grab drinks and soak up the sun. Now that we have Jack, we've realized it is the perfect swimming spot. It has a completely sheltered beach, with great sand---and you can still get those drinks we've always loved (well, just lemonade for me this year). Jack loved playing in the sand and splashing Boppa (what he has begun calling my dad) in the water.

Another favorite part of swimming was having snack time. Jack loved getting bundled up in a beach towel and having his snack.

 

Driving the Boat

Jack LOVED driving the boat. Boppa would let Jack  carry the key down to the boat where Jack quickly learned to put it into the ignition. Then he'd sit on Boppa's lap and together they'd drive the boat. Jack, like his grandpa, has a love for speed. He thought it was really funny when the wind blew in his face. As you'll see in the below video, he wanted to do the driving all by himself, one of many things that Jack now wants to do himself.

 

 

 

Hudsons for Hamburgers

No trip to Coeur d' Alene is complete without a trip to Hudsons for hamburgers. If you've never eaten there, it's a must. Serving just hamburgers with pickles and onions and pie (they don't even do fries!), Hudson's is a no frills joint with some of the tastiest burgers you'll ever eat. Jack ate his first Hudson's and surprisingly our finicky eater actually ate a good portion of his burger.

 

Mom and Dad's Nights Out

Tom and I actually got a couple of nights to spend together without Jack. One of our first night's there we attended a wedding in Spokane for Justyna Plichta and Bryan King. It was a beautiful ceremony on Gonzaga's campus followed by a lovely reception at the incredible Davenport Hotel. Since my parents were also at the wedding, Jack hung out with my uncle and cousins. We weren't sure how he'd do when we left him at their house, but as soon as my cousin Holly pulled out the Brio train set, Jack didn't even acknowledge that we were there. We had a great night catching up with friends and dancing at the wedding.

Perhaps a little tough to see, but this is the baby bump at 26 weeks.

Tom and I also snuck away one evening and had a fun dinner in Coeur d' Alene. Tom found this great bed and breakfast that had a martini and tapas bar. We had an amazing 2 hour meal (neither one of us could remember the last time we had spent that much time sitting down and eating!) sitting on the patio of the restaurant listening to a live band. It was a much needed opportunity to just be together and we are so thankful to my parents for giving us that evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4th of July

We spent the 4th of July weekend in Kitsap with Tom's parents. Tom took the day on Friday, which was so much fun to have an extra day together as a family. We took a morning ferry over and spent the rest of the day exploring the farmer's market and play in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard on the slip-n-slide!

On Saturday morning we headed into Kingston to watch the annual parade. It was super hot by the time the parade got started, but Jack especially enjoyed the fire engines and the motorcycles. He clapped a lot and said "bye" each time a portion of the parade went past us.

Once back at home, Jack was introduced to his very first fireworks. We all sat on the porch while Tom put on a show for us. We tried to only light non-explosive fireworks, but the kid in Tom couldn't resist letting off a few loud ones. There were a few tears and some white-knuckled holds on Mom, but it seemed like Jack enjoyed them for the most part.

On Sunday we ventured to Sequim to the Olympic Game Farm. It is one of those wildlife treks where you drive through with your car and the animals are all around you. We thought Tom was joking when he told us that you purchase bread and feed it to the animals as you go (can't be good for the animals, right?). Sure enough, when we went to pay, they had loaves of bread available for purchase. Soon after entering we were surrounded by zebras, elk, bison, deer, yaks...all wanting their fair share of our bread. We even saw a bunch of grizzly bears, one of whom would sit on his haunches and wave for pieces of bread! BTW, the bears are behind an electric fence, although I am sure if they really wanted to, they could easily get to a car!

By the end of the trek, we had fed the animals two whole loaves of bread, and had enough wild animal slobber on our car to prove that we had truly experienced the game farm!