Surprise weekend with Auntie

Auntie Adrienne surprised us and came to play for a weekend!!  Auntie and mommy took Natalie bowling (her first time ever) and after throwing a fit about the ugly bowling shoes, the little booger actually won.  And yes, we were actually trying.

Yup, that's right.  Three years old and already rolling a strike.

Then a little girl showed up a few lanes down and was using a PINK ball.  So naturally, we had to go find a pink ball too.  Magically, the extra pound didn't seem to matter since it was pink.

 Final scores?  From top to bottom: Auntie, Natalie and Mommy

 

Thumbs up for winning.

Hours of watercolor painting with Auntie.

Bathroom ballet

She may refuse to admit she took ballet lessons and may never want to take ballet again, but man, she LOVES reading about ballet....

Wettest day on record

We knew it was supposed to rain, but I don't think any of us knew it was supposed to rain SO MUCH.

I heard it start to rain at 3am - you know, because I'm pregnant and I hear everything while I'm sleeping.  Ahhhhh, finally, some rain.  Went back to sleep.  Then I heard dog crying at 6am.  I pulled the pillow over my head but it didn't help.  So I got up, looked out the window and saw this pathetic sight...

"Uhhhhhh mom, I need a lil help.  I'm surrounded by WATER."

I let poor Gus inside and told Scott the patio was flooded.  Like more flooded than ever.  So he woke up and assessed the situation.  The sump pump in our side yard couldn't keep up with the rain.  And our pool was a few inches from overflowing.  So we began to drain the pool and try to help the sump pump.

Natalie didn't seem to mind.  She finally had a chance to wear the raincoat mommy bought months ago when she found it a size too big and hiding on the clearance rack.  I dropped her off at school knowing they'd find puddles to play in and fun to be had.

Back in the neighborhood, Gus and I went to explore the extent of the "flooding" in and around all the parks.  He seemed to love walking in the rain, which is odd, but he's a strange dog.

View of the entrance to the neighborhood park from the mailboxes.
Water was backed up into the street.

Trying to leave the neighborhood to go to doctor appointment.
View down the street leading to our new City park.  Waves in water are from my van.

After school, Natalie had a blast splashing in puddles.  Mommy only let her in the nasty water up to her knees... other kids had swimsuits and pool toys and were literally swimming to the park through all the nasty runoff water.  This made mommy throw-up a little bit.  While there was at least there was probably a little chlorine in the water from everyone who had to drain their pools, there was not nearly enough to kill all the nasty in the water.

When all was said and done, we received nearly 5" of rainfall in less than 24-hours.  For reference, we generally get 7" of rainfall in a year.

The next evening, it rained another 1.5" at the house.

First trip to the movies!

While daddy was out of town, mommy and Natalie went to the movies for the first time.  We saw Planes: Fire & Rescue and Natalie really seemed to enjoy herself.

28-weeks

This is what 28-weeks looks like when you're growing a giant.

Babymoon in Washington

Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Huxter, we were able to travel to Washington to attend the wedding for one of Whit's Friends.  We made it a long weekend and made a road trip to/through Olympic National Park (which neither of us realized was so huge) and Tacoma.

Scott loves waking up early to fly.
And by early I mean before 4am.
And by loves, I really mean hates.

After our arrival, we spent the morning in Seattle walking around, shopping, eating and drinking beer (only one of us).

We took the afternoon ferry out to Bainbridge Island and were pleasantly surprised to learn that the room we rented in someone's house also happened to come with a wonderful home cooked dinner and fresh baked homemade cookies because, well,  they happened to have too much crab to eat.

 

View from our super fantastic house on Bainbridge Island.

A nice amber before Jerry and Amber's wedding.

Beautiful day in Washington for an outdoor wedding.

And a beautiful wedding.

  The next day it was off to Olympic National Park...

Due to Whit being pregnant, we didn't get to do too much adventurous hiking.
View from the easy walking trail at Hurricane Ridge.

Dinner at the only restaurant in La Push included fish and a million tater tots, each. Even after I called it quits, there were still 44 tots remaining on my plate.

Exploring the beaches around La Push... at 7pm.

And because the sun never sets, we still had more time to go walking to find First Beach (no really, that's what it is named).

First Beach at sunset... at 9pm.

After spending the night in Forks, WA, we headed to check out the Hoh Rainforest a bit.  Thankfully it was dry season, but that made for a warm and muggy day.  On average, the Hoh Rain Forest receives between 140-170 inches (i.e. 12-14 feet) of precipitation each year.

Again, because Whit was pregnant and not up to any big hikes, we checked out the weenie trails around the Visitor Center to get a taste of the area: the Hall of Mosses Trail and the Spruce Nature Trail.

Whit and the Big Sitka Spruce tree which is 191 feet tall and 1,000 years old.

We arrived at Ruby Beach just in time to check out the changing tide and check out some of the sea life on the rocks.  It was perfect weather for just walking around leisurely.

After leaving Olympic National Park, we headed to Tacoma to explore before heading home the next day.  Someone spent most of their time in Tacoma sampling beers at the local breweries.  The other someone did a fair amount of Root Beer sampling...

Happy Birthday Grandma Becky!

Grandma Becky showed up in her red bus at our house just in time for her birthday!!  Happy Birthday Grandma!

Happy Birthday Gus!

Natalie has vowed to help teach Gus how to be 3, since she's been 3 since April and all.  For his birthday, he got an extra big carrot and 8 new tennis balls.  It was a good day.

 

Annnnnnnnnd, we have a teenager!

Katie turned 13 this year which means we now officially have a teenager.  For her birthday she requested a dinner/swim get together with family and cupcakes with Nerds sprinkled on top.