Our First Seattle trip!!

So we have lived here almost a year now, and apart from visiting Don's campus I hadn't been to Seattle! I know it's crazy, but when you have two little kiddos it's not always easy packing up for a day trip. Our friend Isabelle offered to go with us for our first time to Seattle and be our "tour guide". She knew where all of the tourist sites were so we thought it would be fun to go, and with her around we couldn't get lost! :) Thanks Isabelle, it was so fun hanging out with you and Jordan! Since then we have gone 2 more times. We bought 2 city passes for $120. I know that sounds like a lot, but it was a smoking deal. We could go to the zoo, aquarium, a cruise, space needle, the science center and the EMP (Music museum). The prices are ridiculous! Otherwise, the zoo was $17 for an adult, the space needle was $19...it is highway robbery! :) So I'll have to break my post into the 3 separate days we went because I took a million pictures each time! So stay tuned for our Seattle adventures!

1. Our first stop was the "Troll under the bridge"...it's not exactly a creative name, :) but I was shocked at how big it really was! That's a real Volkswagen under his hand!

2. Our next spot was an amazing lookout of Seattle, the picture doesn't do it justice. But the city and the water is absolutely beautiful!

3. We also stopped at Pike's Place. This a very well known spot for tourists. It's best known for the "fish throwing". When someone orders a gigantic fish the person they order it from throws it across the shop for packaging.  I wasn't able to get a picture of the flying fish :( 

4. The Gum Wall.  I know...I know...very weird! haha, but it's a well know spot as well.  And it's exactly how you would picture it.  Millions of pieces of gum all over the place...it's quite colorful! :)  How does something like that start and become famous?....I have no idea.

5. Our last spot was the Seattle temple. I know it's pretty pathetic to say, but Don and I have not had a chance to make it up there yet! So this was our first time seeing it...and everything about it was beautiful! The temple was exquisite and the landscaping was breathtaking.  It's amazing how well the church keeps up every temple and the grounds.  Hopefully soon Don and I can go up there together on a date! :)

I love this statue. I wanted to get a picture of us doing this with Jackson, but by the end of the day he was exhausted and fast asleep!

 A ginormous bumble bee we found in a flower, Don put his finger next to it so you could truly see how big it actually was. I would never put my hand that close. I have a HUGE fear of bees and such!

Oh and I just had to add this following picture.  I came across Don's to do list today and literally laughed out loud.  He's a funny guy! 

Graduation Celebration!!!!!

 I'm so proud of Don, he is the most incredible man I have ever known! Today was officially his last day of school...he's finally done! Yippee! :) He got straight A's even through the Master's level...he is one smart cookie! I thought we needed to do doing something special to celebrate his accomplishments so I made one of his favorite dinners, ribs! yummy! My two boys loved the dinner as you can tell from the pictures. I don't think I've ever seen Jackson eat so much in his life! :) A lot of the times, he eats more than us! He's such a little piglet.

  yum...yum

Trying to feed himself with his spoon :)

The whole time he was eating he kept "yumming" to himself...and then he would keep sticking his tongue out like a dog  like he was trying to lick his tongue and get the flavor over and over again! haha, funny boy!

Whenever we eat fruit we have to wait to eat it till the end of dinner or else Jackson will not eat anything but the fruit.  That kids LOVES his fruit. So by the end of the meal...we can finally give him his watermelon! :)

I didn't really know a good way to celebrate for graduation but I thought he would love his favorite kinds of ice cream and I made some graduation caps out of delicious chocolates!  I found the idea off of pinterest...I love pinterest! Anyway, it was a fun night...we couldn't eat the goodies though because we were so stuffed from dinner.  I'm looking forward to eating them Sunday though!! :)

Mother's Day and Memorial Day

So I am getting really behind on my posts...I still need to blog about some of our trips into Seattle...hopefully I'll get to that soon. Mother's Day was such a good day for me. Of course I got spoiled rotten by my sweet husband, but we also got to bless Lincoln that day which was the cherry on top! :) Don let me sleep in, he made dinner for me, and he gave me a sweet candy gram! (He wrote it on a diaper box....so resourceful) :) I took pictures of it. Some of the things he wrote made me laugh...he's a pretty fun guy. After church the missionaries came over for dinner and to Skype their families...so the day was a busy one, but we loved it!

And if you promise not to judge me, I'll tell you the truth about these pictures. I completely spaced taking pictures on his blessing day...I just got busy with other things and completely spaced it. So 4 weeks later...tada....Lincoln will never know ;)

 Such cute boys!

 Love his smiles

Don had the day off for Memorial Day so we went to a Rainier's ball game. Our sweet neighbor Roxanne hooked us up with some sweet deals...we got free tickets, free parking, free food, free hats...and the list goes on! Thanks Roxanne! :)  We went to the game with our amazing friends, Marv and Andrea. They are just too good to us, and the kids just adore them! Jackson had such a good time at the ball game he went wild with the crowd and tried his hardest to cheer with them! It was a good day! 

All of the awesome ticks Roxanne gave us!

Trying out his new hat and playing peek-a-boo with mom 

Waiting for the ball game to start 

Hanging out with Marv 

 Me and the boys with Marv and Andrea

 The playing field

Cheering his little heart out

 Watching so intently

 Lincoln did so good at the game, and he was just full of smiles!

 Haha, I love this face

 Eating his hot dog

 All ready to go home after a great ball game

 All tuckered out

 aw....

Jackson's surgery

Jackson had to go into the hospital for eye surgery today.  Since birth he has had a closed tear duct, which has been zero fun to deal with!  I can't even count on my two hands how many eye infections the poor guy has gotten because he has had so many because of the closed duct, well hopefully we will never have to deal with it again!  The surgery is a success 9 out of 10 times, so the odds are in our favor! :) We couldn't let him eat 12 hours before the surgery and we had to wake him up 3 hours before he usually wakes...so he was a grumpy grumpy boy who wanted his bottle!! There were several other children there for the same surgery, but Jackson had the hardest time with it.  He had a bloody eye and nose, and could not stop crying! The nurse even gave him a popsicle which made him fell better (for as long as the popsicle lasted) I felt so bad, I hate it when my kids hurt and I can't do anything to help them. While we were waiting for the surgery we took Jackson to the play room where he played with the fun, new toys and the other children. He seemed to forget all about his hunger while there! :) They had to put him under for the surgery...so he's pretty tired today!

Getting all dressed and ready for the surgery

 Not very excited about it....haha...so sad!

 Loving the toy cars!! He was trying so hard to honk the horn...smart boy! :)

 :) I love his shocked look

 Eating his popsicle with dad!

 Poor guy....his eye/nose isn't bleeding anymore

 Waiting for big brother at the hospital

Don's accident...

Well today I got a phone call that nobody wants to get.  Don called and told me he had been in car accident. The first reaction is instant panic, but he told me everything was fine and that he wasn't hurt.  I felt relieved, but was still very anxious.  I had to go pick him up from the crash site but unfortunately we just got a flat tire on my car from driving over some glass in a parking lot. (It's been our lucky week) :) Thank heavens for amazing friends. Our friend Andrea came over to watch the boys and she let me drive her car to go pick him up. She was such a blessing in a stressful time. When I saw Don I instantly teared up, I just felt so relieved and felt so blessed, especially after I saw what the car looked like. Well, Don had some meetings tonight from 6:15-8:30 so even at a time like that he had me drop him off at the church for his meetings. I told him he didn't need to go but he said he didn't have a good excuse not to.  I told him a car accident is a pretty good excuse but he said it wasn't since he wasn't hurt! What a trooper :) Blessings are coming our way for his diligence! :)
Attached are some pictures I took of the accident. Luckily the other guy wasn't hurt....in fact he didn't even get a tiny dent in his car!