Monthly Archives: March 2015

March Madness

Here’s what we’ve been up to during the month of March (in between birthday celebrations).

Avery finished up a great season of basketball.
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Silas graduated from his glide bike to one with pedals a couple months ago. He figured out pedaling pretty quickly, but had a hard time breaking the habit of stopping by putting his feet down on the ground. In March, he worked it all out, which meant we were ready for longer rides. I took this picture at the beginning of his first ride down the parkway, which is a long hill where you can gain quite a bit of speed. The little patch of grass is the only thing that separates you from logging trucks going 40 (or 50) mph. Silas took off pedaling like crazy, and quickly was traveling as fast as his little bike would take him. Meanwhile, Kieron and I sprinted along, imploring him to brake. This only made him pedal faster! I was sure he was going to lose control and crash, and I reached full-on Mommy freak-out mode. Somehow he managed to race down the entire parkway, pedaling like a madman the entire way, never braking once, and came to a nice neat stop at the bottom by the stop light. Kieron and I were breathless and Silas was grinning ear-to-ear! Oh boy!

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Great news! Our school bond (finally) passed! They will improve our high school, middle school, and build a new elementary within walking distance of us! There was a ground-breaking ceremony in mid-March for the new elementary school, but little do they know, Kieron broke ground two days prior. Here he is with his little shovel. He will attend first grade here!
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Playing outdoors
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Cookies! We’re more than happy to support our local Girl Scouts!
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At the CleanScapes store with Kieron
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An excavation mission in the side yard/greenbelt. The boys unearthed this beauty which we placed in our front yard.
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Walking over the Snoqualmie river (that’s the top of the falls ahead). As you can see, the water level is very low.
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Climbing at a local park
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Trying on hats at the party store. I think this one fits his personality!
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Avery teaching Silas to catch a football
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Playing with some of his birthday presents
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Play date with Bode and Deacon at the bounce house
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Sleepover in the playroom with all three brothers. Avery was an angel. The other two, ahem, did not do so well – up very late, and rose early. Parents were quite cranky the following day. It may be a while before we try this again!
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Ninjas. Funny story, I was originally trying to make light sabers for Avery’s Star Wars themed birthday party with these long balloons. When I blew some up as samples, I realized they just weren’t going to work. They had little tips at the end that looked like condoms! Although this would have made for funny pictures, I just couldn’t do it! As you will see in a later post, I came up with a better plan that did not involve reservoir tips!
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I love moments like these. Kieron and Silas reading books on top, while Avery writes a story below.
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Silas Turns Three!

Our baby boy is three! Where have the years gone? Our baby boy is not much of a baby anymore! (In fact, according to babycenter.com, he’s passed through the toddler stage, and is now a preschooler).

At three years old, Silas’ personality is much like it was at age two – loud, outgoing, loves to be the center of attention. He is also cheerful, quick to smile, and full of sweet things to say. Unlike his older brothers, he’s pretty extroverted. He is social at school, but is also very observant and pays close attention. It’s like he know he’s one of the younger ones in class and understands the pecking order. Silas enjoys singing songs, riding his bike (fast), swimming, playing with cars, and doing anything with his big brothers. As we found out at his doctor’s visit, Silas remains our littlest, skinniest boy. He is 30 lbs and 37.5″ tall.

Lately he’s been doing this incredibly cute thing at bedtime, which I just have to share. He pretends he’s watching one of Avery’s basketball games. It first caught our attention one night when we heard a series of loud yells coming from his bedroom. We went upstairs expecting to find him in an argument with one of his brothers, but as we approached the door, the noises became clearer. Imagine a group of guys sitting on a couch watching football. When there’s a good play, there’s an eruption of deep-voiced “yeah’s” or other unintelligible cheers, or in this case, “yeah Avery!” Silas must have had a very exciting game going on in his imagination, because this went on for some time, and has happened several nights since!

We celebrated Silas’ birthday with a small group of friends. This little guy loves garbage, so we had a trash-themed party, which he thoroughly enjoyed! I think his favorite part was when we all sang to him and brought out his cupcake. He’s been asking for a cupcake with a candle in it ever since, sings happy birthday frequently, and also keeps asking how many days until his next birthday. I think he had a good time!

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In the morning we opened family presents
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Our big gift to Silas was this BBQ
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Posing for pictures
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Our attempts at a pic of the three of them in their cute plaid shirts.
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Cupcake colors: blue for recycle, green for compost, grey for garbage
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Time for some games. In addition to “trashketball” and balloon bouncing, there was lots of bubble wrap to pop
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Ethan loved the balloons
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Avery with his up-cycled cardboard box/robot
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Time for cupcakes! Silas was thrilled! I love his expressions!
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Party-goer Emmett helping clean up afterward
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The following morning we let Silas have the last cupcake for breakfast. He asked for a candle in it again.
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The Spice Noodle

We have been very fortunate to have lots (and lots) of beautiful weather this winter! A trip to the top of the Space Needle (or the Spice Noodle, as our boys affectionately call it) was high on our list of things to do on a sunny weekend this year. We didn’t have to wait long. At the end of February, we ventured to Seattle to pay a visit to our local monument.
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Checking out the views
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The building in the middle is BlackRapid. (Notice the yellow ‘R’ on the roof).DSC_0408

Photo Credit: Avery King
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The boys really enjoyed zooming in on scenery below with this joystick and screen.
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Side note: After visiting the Space Needle, we had lunch at The Old Spaghetti Factory. We were seated in the trolly, which the boys loved (coincidentally, across from our neighbors who live across the street from us). We thought it was strange that Silas wouldn’t eat and acted so tired and withdrawn though. Then on the drive home, minutes away from our house, he threw up all over himself and the car. Poor guy hadn’t been feeling well all morning! I felt terrible that we’d dragged him around not realizing he was feeling so bad all along!

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Sayulita

In February, we flew to Mexico to celebrate our friends, Ron and Shawna’s, wedding. We spent four nights in town together, getting to know the other guests, eating delicious food, and cruising around town.  The ceremony was beautiful, laid back, and down-to-earth, with about 30 friends and family present. We had a fantastic time, and couldn’t be happier for Ron and Shawna.

We met Ron back in 2002 when we were planning our own wedding and vetting photographers. When we chose him, we had no idea it would be the start of a long friendship. The following summer, Jonathan second-shot with him at weddings to build a portfolio to start our own wedding photography business. Not too long after that, Ron started BlackRapid, an innovative camera strap company, and Jonathan has helped with the IT side of things over the years.

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Where we all stayed. The building at the top (also the tallest point in Sayulita) is where the ceremony was. We stayed down below in the yellow building.

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Our villa
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Breakfast!
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Almost time for the ceremony!
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The handsome groom
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And the beautiful bride
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Friends/musical entertainment (he’s in the Brian Waite Band)
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Beautiful reception location
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Don’t scoot your chair too far back!
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Ron’s Aunt & Uncle
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Pretty views
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The group
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Fireworks at the carnival across the way
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Post wedding jam session
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BlackRapid supports Sayulita Animals, an amazing organization dedicated to helping the animals in Sayulita
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It was great to get away, but we really missed our boys while we were gone. And we kept seeing such cool things that we thought they would appreciate. Here are a few pictures we took just for them:
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While we were there, we rode a golf cart through the jungle to a secluded beach to do a lifestyle shoot for BlackRapid and Kavu. Here are a couple shots that Jonathan and I took while we were there.
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Fish tacos and margaritas! Nom nom nom!
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More margaritas!
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Missing the boys
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Up at Ron and Shawna’s villa. It was so neat! There was lots of ornate, antique furniture, and eye-catching details. Here’s Jonathan on a swing in the living room.  There was also a treehouse suite up at the very top.
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Some more pics for the boys. Here’s us with locals dressed in traditional Aztec gear.
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Sayulita garbage
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During college I worked at The Olive Garden. My old manager owns this restaurant now, so we paid him a visit.
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We also connected with a friend-of-a-friend here. He was once my girlfriend, Heidi’s roommate, and now owns this bar.
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OMG! Another garbage picture!
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On our last night, we checked out the carnival that had been keeping us up late all week. We opted not to try the ferris wheel, but watched the ladies perform some zumba numbers on stage.
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Our last hour in Sayulita:
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Early February

I’m getting behind on blogging already, so please excuse the brevity. There are lots of descriptions below. Here’s what we were up at the end of January and early February:
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Girl’s night with Caroline and Heather
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That night we bumped into local celebrity anchorman, Dan Lewis. Considering that during college, there was a period of time when I wanted to go into broadcast journalism, I was just a little bit starstruck!

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Hiking with the boys
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Our picky eater recently added a number of new foods to his “yes” list. These include rice, quinoa, cucumber, tomatoes, and his favorite: celery (specifically, ants on a log).
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The boys returned to swim lessons. Last session, Kieron and Silas ended up in a private class together!
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Silas got a little swimmer’s ear. He was such a sport about the ear drops!
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Here’s Silas scooting down our hill on his flashy pink scooter
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Wii fun
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Love when this happens
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After lunch at the Redhook brewery, we drove home through Sammamish, swung by my old homes, and took the boys to play at my elementary playground.
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I remember doing the “fun run” on this field. Twenty(ish) years later, here are our boys racing across it!
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At the Superbowl tailgate party
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Love this little face smiling back at me!
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While volunteering in Avery’s class they were dismissed for recess. I snapped this pic of his little desk.
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Back at home. A little playroom madness.
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Playdates at the King house
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This is a typical scene after Avery comes home in the afternoon. Silas makes a b-line for Avery’s backpack, goes straight for the lunchbox, takes it to the kitchen table, unzips it, and consumes anything that’s leftover. Can’t say I really mind. It’s nice that food isn’t wasted.
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Playing at Avery’s school
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