Happy 5 to us!

Can't believe it has already been 5 years. The past 5 years have been incredible, exciting, random, and an adventure. Spence and I have grown a ton, and absolutely love every minute with Lance. He is the best addition of our family. Can't wait to see what the next 5 bring!

Park, Tramp, and a Move (tear, tear!)

We are super bummed that we have to move out of our studio on the water tomorrow! However, the new place we are moving into is AWESOME and a lot bigger, so that should definitely be a plus!

Yesterday I took Lance to the park, we had so much fun!

Of course his favorite thing to do is sit on the grass and pull it out!

He is at the stage where he puts everything into his mouth! It is a little tricky - but I absolutely LOVE that he is scooting around. It is so fun to see him explore new places and things.

This picture basically sums up - what Lance thinks of Washington - yep, big fan of that!

One reason we are sad to move is that they have a tramp, and Lance absolutely LOVES playing on their tramp. Look at that crazy static hair! (yep, that's about all his hair!)

So who knows when I will have internet again - - - we are now off to a summer concert in the apple orchard! So until next time - have a fun weekend! (we will - it is our 5 year anniversary saturday, hurray!)

Point Defiance

We spent Saturday exploring Tacoma. It really is a neat city. There is a huge park which I think may actually be a national forest called Point Defiance. There are walking, hiking, and biking trails, ponds, lakes, a beach, and the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. We spent the majority of the day at the Zoo and Aquarium. It was a blast!



We went with Jorge and his family - he and Spence work together.



This picture is for Marti and Shawn... wouldn't you say it is quite "national geographic-esque!??"




Not bad pictures of the Tiger, wouldn't you say!



Lance loved looking at the Sharks at the aquarium. They even had a seahorse exhibit!



What the shark mouth? I certainly don't want to run into any of these bad boys?

YiKeS tO bE!

Well, after 11 months and 2 days, it is finally official... Lance's two bottom teeth popped through! Woo Woo!



Here is a cute picture I took of Lance this week! He is such a doll.


And lastly, I took a picture of Lance in his little hooded towel this week, and couldn't believe how big he has gotten over the past 11 months. So here he is at about 11 days and 11months! Where has the time gone?

Man I love these guys!

Yes Lance, I agree - - - daddy is #1! We love you Spence! Happy Father's Day '08!

PORT TOWNSEND!

(for all you Twilight fans out there, this is their getaway town where they went shopping, to dinner, and to movies)

Amazing Day!

Something happened yesterday that hasn't happened since we have been in WA - - -

THE SUN CAME OUT!!!



And much to our delight, with the sun beaming brightly, we were able to see this beauty right in our backyard. Mt. Ranier! Man, this state is beautiful!

Is Lance getting his daddy's curls?

We secretly hope so... but I guess only time will tell!

Space needle anyone?

Our first trip up to Seattle was a hit. We went to Pike's Place Market, the Space needle, Seattle City Center, and even hit up the activities for Philipino Independence Day. Overall we had an absolute blast! The best part of the week is that the forecast shows a few days of SUNSHINE! Horray!

Waterskiers Heaven?

With this view out of our window every night, we can't help but want to jump on the boat, grip the rope, and yell "hit it!" Maybe one day...

The Pad... per Erika's request.

Welcome to the Simple Life! It is amazing how you can totally simplify. We only brought what we could fit in our small car, and it has been perfect.

Here is the outside of our puget sound studio! Big fan of this!



There is a tiny bedroom off of the main room with our one closet and where we put Lance's porta crib. As you can see, no other furniture!



Here is our family room/main room/kitchen... The only piece of furniture we have bought is that air mattress. Surprisingly, it isn't too bad to sleep on, we are getting used to it. A guy at Spencer's work let us borrow a TV and stand for the summer. And - yes - we fit Lance's jumper in our car, he just loves it too much not to bring it.



Here is another view of this room. It is nice because he has an island with two stools, so that way we didn't have to buy a table and chairs, WAHOO!



And finally this picture was taken tonight, this City seriously is BEAUTIFUL! Well, at least when I can see it - - - it probably has stopped raining for a total of 3 hours since we have been here! And the high has been 54, yea it is FREEZING! That is a long way from the 100 in Phoenix. But I am not complaining it will be nice to have a cooler summer.

Our new adventure!

**********************Warning: TONS OF PICTURES **********************************

After 8 days, 1900 miles, and 32 hours of travel time, we arrived in the great state of Washington!

We found a studio apartment above a guy in our bishopric's garage. It is fantastic. This is the view of the Puget Sound: picture taken right out of our window! The sound stretches as far as we can see either way. It is incredible. The bad news - he already has a 2 year lease on this place starting July 1, so we are only here for a month. This way we thought we could get acquainted with the area and then find somewhere else to live for 2 months. The ward is fantastic, our first week there everyone was so nice and we had four offers for dinner!

We are probably 70 yards from the water. We walk down a tiny hill, across the railroad tracks (yes there are probably 35 trains that come by every day - the first time we heard them we thought it was an earthquake, now we don't even notice them)





... to the beatiful water. It isn't like a beach, there is just a small opening of sand/rocks/logs off the side of the RR tracks. There are several homes that front the water.

Here is a picture from our stay in Tilamook, OR - we ate at this place called The Rodeo. When you walked in they gave you peanuts and you just threw the shell on the ground. Then we got warm rolls with honey butter. We had the most amazing meal - We had prime rib chili, I got a salsa/jalepeno burger and speen got a steak sandwich. Lance loved it cause there was a band playing. Two of the band members came over and sang a private song "puff the magic dragon" to Lance. So fun - I wish I would have thought to record it.

Here are pictures from our stay in Fresno, CA.

Here is Lance and Allie. They are best buddies. Lance is such a polite little guy, he totally "lets" Allie beat up on him. (At least we'll pretend he lets her!)

Sweet Em and Soph got kicked out of their bed and to sleep on the floor in the closet: Thanks girls for sacrificing so we could have a bed!

We hung out with our favorite Fresno friends: The Lawson's and Smith's.


Lance and Alster - what great eyes they both have.

We even took a little family picture!
The whole clan minus Abi who is in Argentina. Maybe we can photoshop her in!

This is our car loaded up and ready for the trip to WA! Yes, we could only bring what we fit in our car and we chose to fit in Lance's bouncer!!!

The week we left, my friends Lindsay and Jessica came to visit. We had a blast hanging out with them and their cute little girls. We had fun swimming in their hotel pool.

Ok seriously - do I even need to say any more - there is a somebody named their restuarant the "Pink Taco?!?" And for the record, it was NOT good!


Here is a group shot - Lance what a lucky guy to be surrouned by all the cute girls. I love this pic of Linds and Taylin - they couldn't stop laughing at the funnythings Spence was doing while taking the picture!