Category Archives: places

Salt Lake City

In early February Jonathan and I flew to Salt Lake City with Layla for his company’s annual spouse dinner. We arrived on a Friday and spent the weekend there. Saturday morning we were having breakfast at a delicious hippie joint when we noticed people passing by with signs we liked. So naturally, we followed them. Pretty soon we were at the Federal Building with a sign in hand marching to the capital in solidarity with refugees.

Jonathan and I have wanted to join in on the protests and marches since, um, November. But when you’re living in the suburbs with a job and four little kids, it is not an easy thing to do. Randomly happening on this march (in a pretty conservative state, no less) was perfect, and incredibly inspiring. There was a huge turnout, everyone was peaceful and civil, there were people of every color and age, and we did not see anger, but fear, love and hope. It was a great experience and we will march again.

We started at the Federal Building

Her first march! After today Layla’s first words may be “No hate, no fear! Refugees are welcome here!”

Descending on the capitol

I liked the Mango Mussolini sign. Another of my favorites was held by a girl of about twelve, which said “if you build a wall my generation will knock it down”

She’s got him wrapped around her finger!

A dinner out with our little girl

Here we are at the spouse dinner. It’s such a fun event and I’m glad Jonathan’s company hosts one each year. It gives me an opportunity to meet and get to know some of the people he works with on a regular basis. I wish Layla’s dress was down, but this was the only picture we got that night, so it will have to do!

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Christmas 2016

This was our first Christmas morning completely on our own, just our “little” King family. It was nice having a relatively quiet house in the morning and doing our own thing, although we missed our family and having everyone together for a full house on the holiday. Fortunately we didn’t have to wait long. Grammy & Papa, Nana, Uncle Scott & Aunt Manivanh, and Nicole & Andrew joined us late in the morning for the rest of the day’s festivities.

Snapped this pic from up above of the boys discovering their presents under the tree

Of course we told them they could open their presents after they posed for one quick photo-op in their Christmas jammies


Later in the day… all the cousins

“It’s my first Christmas!”


     

The kid table

And the adult table

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Christmas Eve

Grammy & Papa hosted Christmas Eve at their new house this year.  We had a fun time being together. Santa even stopped by to say “hi” on his way through Washington.









Look at that giggly face! She loves her Auntie!

Nicole is getting so grown up!






The boys

Posing with Grammy

Time for “the dice game”!
    

Santa!

Looking out the window for Santa’s sleigh

All six cousins in their Christmas jammies!
                   

Back at home…

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Santa and His Reindeer

We returned to the Cougar Mountain Zoo for their annual Reindeer Festival and to see Santa. The kids had a lot of fun. Layla was completely unfazed by Santa. Silas insisted on wearing his elf hat and seeing if Santa could “make it magic so he could fly.” He was starstruck and would have chatted with Santa all day if he could have. Avery and Kieron played it cool. So far Avery is the only one “in” on the big secret. Kieron is asking a few more questions these days, but our answers were satisfactory to him.

Layla was all business with the man in red. We’ll see how she does next year.

Feeding the reindeer
     

The cougar looking all regal

The tigers got very close, and one even sprayed right in front of us.

Just the boys

The wolves really liked Silas. In fact, we’re pretty sure they thought he looked delicious. They weren’t even near the fence when we walked up. Then one noticed him. Pretty soon another joined him and they followed Silas the perimeter of the fence as he ran up and down exclaiming “look, I made some friends!”

Silas was feeling pretty wild on this particular day.

Meanwhile:

“Look! I’m picking his nose!”

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Maui 2016

Wow, we have a ton of fun pictures from our recent trip to Hawaii. I am well aware that I am posting way too many, but I just don’t have the time or cut throat attitude to cull (or even organize) these anymore than I already have. Obviously we had a great time. We were in Hawaii. In December. With a bunch of little kids. We kept it simple and mainly stuck to the pool and the beach. We exhausted the littles each day so they slept deeply at night. We ate a lot of donut holes, sandwiches & fish tacos. We did have one (successful) fancy dinner at Roy’s. So without further ado, here’s what we were up to on our vacation:

My entourage

At the first hotel


We overlapped one day with our friends/neighbors. Here is Avery & Hamza together on Maui.

Heading from our first hotel to the timeshare

Silas loved his tatoo!
        

I don’t know why, but I love her expression here.                         

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Baby piggies

These boys devour Hula Pie like a pack of hungry wolves!

While his friends made snow angels at home…

Kieron loved the waves. I imagine him saying “come and get me!” here.

We love snow cones!
  

Hide-and-seek

My pokemon!

A little morning reading

Learning how to crack a coconut

We nick-named this bird Captain Ahab (notice his peg leg). He was a regular at the kiddie pool.

Jonathan and Avery before heading off to the slide races. Jonathan won a free coffee one day.

In our room

“Wow, that was a great trip! Time to catch up on our homework before we get back!”

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