Avery has been asking about ferry boats for a while, and we knew he’d love to go on one. So for one of our last weekends without a second child we caught a ferry out to Bainbridge Island for the day. It was cold and windy on the ferry ride, but that didn’t matter to Avery. He loved running around the deck and pointing out all the other sailboats.
Out on Bainbridge we went to Fort Ward State Park and took a walk. It’s an old military installation where they looked out for Japanese submarines (which never arrived). It’s one of the last waterways before you reach Bremerton.
We had some lunch in town and then stopped at Pegasus Coffee House. We met a nice old lady who lived on Bainbridge for 50 years. She had four grown sons and they still live on the island too. Finally we visited a huge playground before making the ferry trip home.

We had a great Christmas in Texas this year. It was the first time the three cousins got to spend the holiday together, and having all the kids under one roof made the season especially fun. We enjoyed a lot of good meals and way too much dessert together. Here are some pictures of the mayhem.

This red nose turned out to be a hot item – Avery and Nicole had to take turns.

Jonathan flying his remote control helicopter

Grammy and Papa

Avery trying to make off with Christmas cookies

Visiting doves

Tackling Daddy/Uncle Jonathan

“I’ll teach you to dress me in a Santa suit!”

The Christmas dice game

“I see Rudolph in the sky!”

Santa stopped by on Christmas eve, Avery was not so sure about him


Feeling more confident after making the “nice” list

Santa’s helpers

Visions of sugarplums


The cousins in their Christmas jammies


Trying to get “the shot” in front of the tree



“Watch out! It’s the helicopter!”

The Avery family

Our Christmas feast


At the park

Lindsey ran into Tiger at the airport on the way home

We’re back from our annual trip to Maui. This year it was just us and my sister (nanny). We had great weather this year and spent the vast majority of our time at the pirate ship pool or at the beach. I’d like to point out some highlights from our trip, but really, we didn’t do much besides lay around in the sun and eat the occasional meal. We did really enjoy having Auntie Ashleigh along and getting to spend lots of quality time with her.

Aaaaargggg!


Avery does “the superman” down the slide



Family portraits by Ashleigh King









18 weeks






Chillin’ with Mommy Elephant and Melman the Giraffe