Category Archives: avery

Avery the Teenager!

We have a quaranteenager in the house now! Avery celebrated his thirteenth birthday at the end of March. Shortly after we planned his party and sent out invitations the country started shutting down and it looked increasing likely we might have to postpone. He had planned a “fancy” pizza party at the golf club for a dozen of his nearest and dearest. We waited, held our breath, and prepared Avery for bad news. On March 16 the governor closed all restaurants and bars throughout the state and expanded social gathering limits. Thank you, Jay Inslee, for making the call and getting Mom and Dad off the hook!

Avery is such a trooper. He took it in stride, and if he was disappointed, he didn’t show it. We celebrated his birthday with surprise Easter buns for breakfast. (Currants are very hard to come by these days, but we managed.) Instead of cake he wanted ice cream, and requested to have it at every meal. Our vegetarian health nut got what he asked for.

In the afternoon we had a repeat of Avery’s twelfth birthday and went to the Fisher Creek bike park where we let the kids ride around on bikes. He heard from a number of friends on his birthday which made him feel special.

At thirteen, Avery is sweet, smart, responsible, steadfast, a serious student and a goofy son. He loves his siblings, being outdoors, being active, and is always impressing us with what a genuinely good kid he is. It is so fun being his parents! Happy birthday, Avery Liam. We love you!



Easter buns!



Birthday spanks

Salad for lunch








Riding back home

Watching parkour videos on YouTube

He’s only 1/2″ shorter than me now! (And his voice is dropping!)


Next to the clock at 9:01 AM, the time of  his birth.

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Avery Turns Twelve

Avery’s twelfth birthday means we now have less than a year left without a teenager in the house. If his personality now is any indication of what is to come, I think we are ready to take it on. I am constantly impressed with the young man we are raising. Avery is sweet, sensitive, self-motivated, and hard-working. He is fiercely loyal to his siblings, chooses very nice friends, and is so sweet to his parents. I’m just trying to enjoy every second of it because I know soon his friends will become the priority in his life and before long girls will take precedence over Legos.

At twelve, Avery says he wants to be a firefighter. I honestly thought he was going to say software engineer though, and we also see his dental skills evolving as he continues to remove his brothers’ teeth, which I am incredibly thankful for.

For his birthday Avery wanted to go to the local bike park with a few of his buddies and then have a sleepover. It made my heart so happy to see what a sweet group of friends Avery has decided to surround himself with, many of whom were part of his original crew from our previous days in Snoqualmie.

Happy birthday, Avery Liam. We love you more than you’ll ever know!

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August

Here’s what our family was up to in August. A walk on the North Lake Whatcom Trail.

The waterfall dried up, so we were able to climb up it. The boys loved it!

Playing chess downtown

This cradle once belonged to my childhood best friend, Aron, who passed away a few years ago. She was a few years older than me, so when she outgrew it, her mom passed it on to me. It’s been refurbished since then, but still always reminds me of her. I love seeing Layla play with it.

Layla playing Legos. Her brothers built her this home for her Lego animals. It’s so cute to see how she plays with the Legos differently. She definitely cares more about the people and animals than she does about he engineering!

Kennedy, Kambell, & Layla

Layla and Silas, watching Avery at sailing camp.

Layla & Clare, a tea party

Silas & Ethan, with trucks

Sprinkler fun!

Movie night at Caroline & Chad’s — The Greatest Showman

Walking to Swenson Park with the Maresca boys.

Ben & Layla

Silas was invited to a birthday party for a girl in his class

End of summer BBQ with the neighbors

Worst snow cone machine ever

At the pet shop

Target run

Our friends, Laura & Georgia, visited from Snoqualmie
 

I discovered a lizard on our living room floor. He ran under the couch…

…never to be seen again!

Floating the Bismarck

Feisty girl playing dress-up

Zonked out

The boys playing Dungeons & Dragons

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July

Here is the rest of what we were up to in July:

On the North Lake Whatcom Trail with Kayden & Eli

Sleepy selfie with my little girl

Ice cream on the deck

Jonathan and his team did an axe throwing team building activity while he was in Salt Lake City. He came in an impressive 2nd.

Layla tired out on a walk, so Bjorn gave her a lift

And so did I

Dr. King

They came home with their faces painted at the end of camp

At Boundary

At the Silver Beach playground

I did a little painting project in the basement

When the lake is too far… cooling off on the deck

Dance party

Layla is fearless on the playgrounds. Ladders and two-story slides don’t intimidate this girl a bit.

At Waypoint Park

Layla loves Maui & Whidbey

Showing Grammy his ants

Found these two in the workshop one afternoon. Glad they’re being safe!

At the Pride parade.

Silas checking out the old RV at Nana’s barn before both were sold

Nana took Silas to OMSI. Here’s one of the robots they saw.

Back to Waypoint Park

Microwave s’mores

Avery, the smoothie chef

Layla checking out Avery’s ants

Root beers with Henry (they thought it was so funny to turn the bottles around).

Fishing

More fishing

This girl loves corn on the cob!

Relaxin’

When she plays Duplo, she’s all about the animals!

She can go in the field now!

Smiley girl

At one of our favorite parks in Snoqualmie

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Lake Whatcom in July

We took so many pictures in July, and as usual, I’m getting caught up posting them. Here’s some favorite pics of our lake fun in July.






Our little fishy





There’s our house!

Silas asked Jeff & Mary for a ride in their Bullfrog. They were happy to oblige and take him for a sunset cruise. They even let him drive, which he loved!

Grammy and Papa came to visit, it was good to be sailing with them again!





The boys caught this poor fish with a net. He looked like he’d seen better days.

These two! Avery is so sweet with his little sis.

Kieron, Avery, and Eli

The Smith’s came for their summer visit from Singapore. We sure miss them!

Bjorn & Avery, friends since birth

Layla & Elina (with Kieron, the photo bomber about to attack).

We had a lake play date with a couple of my girlfriends and their kids. We even remembered to get shots of us with our kids!

Here are all the kids: Avery, Kieron, Silas, Layla, Klay, Kennedy, Kole, Kambell, Knox, & Addie.

And the moms – Amy, Jeni & me.

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