Happy 7th

Dating: 10 years ago!

Look at my orange hair...how could he resist! Seven Years Ago
August 9, 2002
Today: August 9, 2009

This hotel was so beautiful The entrance

Us Wow! We made it through another year. HaHa!

Love you Pooptie!

Armand was in Reno at a huge swap meet this week, selling his trailers. I rummaged through the garage and found one of our wedding favors, a CD full of love songs. Then, I picked Armand up at the airport. We had wedding flashbacks as we listened to the CD and sang at the top of our lungs. Just call me 'Celine Dion' and Armand 'R. Kelly' ;)

My Mom and Dad were nice enough to take the kids for us overnight! So, I found a great deal at the Hotel Murano on Priceline. When we got up in the morning we decided to drive to Bremerton and take a ferry. While we waited for the boat to come we went to lunch at Anthony's, it was delicious. We took the ferry to Seattle, then headed home to pick up the kids. It was such a weird feeling not to have them around. After not seeing them for several days, Armand really wanted to get back to them. I, on the other hand, had been alone with them for several days and wasn't as excited:)

The Beast

Armand watchingAJ wants to come see but it's too dangerous
Ayd

Ashten and Ayden in their fort
Ashty hiding out

The fig tree had become completely overgrown with blackberries. Sad, cause figs are so yummy. Maybe next year the tree will get more figs!

James and the Giant Beast

Today, I was so happy for two reasons. One Armand came home early! Two him and his buddy James brought over what I like to refer to as...the Beast! At first he jsut mowed the lawn becuase the allergies are killing me right now. We doubted the beasts powers, until he started knocking over trees!

Sequim...It's Pronounced Skwim.

Daddy picking berries Ashten
Ayden

Aj on the prowl for more berries The boys

After leaving Port Angeles this morning we decided to stop in Sequim or Seequim as Armand would call it. I think we thought there might be something cool there. I saw a sign for Railroad Bridge Park, which I thought sounded interesting, and very generic. At first we just drove around the city. We saw a sign for U-Pick strawberries. YUM! The price wasn't bad, they were $1.50 a pound, which is more than the sale at QFC this week. But, there is nothing better than Washington strawberries. They are so sweet and juicy compared to the dry and sour California ones. We picked about 13 pounds of berries, and I am sure AJ ate about that much while the rest of us were picking. The boys had a good time, we did this last year for playgroup, so they had been before. Armand had a great time! This was his first time, and I am pretty sure we will do this again. The only problem was we had to drive all the way home smelling the delicious berries in the back of the car.

Ashty, Ayden, and Daddy

Anderson calling to Daddy

Bye-bye Aj

Ashten and Aj looking at the Dungeness River. I was ready to leave fairly quickly once Anderson started climbing up the railings. It was very scary and he is a very quick climber. Ayden. Isn't the bridge pretty?

Ayden and Daddy

Ashten

Aj

Next, we followed the signs to the park. It was very pretty there and peaceful. The big boys went down to the water with Daddy, and then we went and played on the bridge. I definitely want to go back and see what else there is there. We didn't spend too much time because we were hoping to beat the holiday traffic. (No such luck!)

When we got home we had a BBQ at mom and dad's house. Which was delicious, especially after a VERY long drive home! It was a great weekend. I can't wait until the next holiday!

Downtown Disney

Ayden's face when revealed the truth Ashten when we tried to tell him to look at Disneyland
Ashten in the Lego Store
AJ and the giraffe made from Lego's Isn't this pic cool? I used a panorama program that my camera came with and turned 3 pics into 1.

Ayden, Ashten, and Darth Vader...they love Star Wars

There were a lot of fountains around Downtown, the kids loved playing in them

Ashty sticking his toes in.

Daddy and AJ

Checking out the stores

We explored other areas, this was leading into the back of the Disney hotels

Ayden was all pictured out

These RC boats were kind of cool. We told the boys that their boats were working, but really we just pointed to boats that someone else was driving. It was cool because you'd be driving and then this one boat would start on fire (really) and and elephant would shoot water from his trunk to put it out. They loved it!

OKAY This is creepy! What do you think?

Ayden trying to climb the wall

We arrived!! It was so cute this morning because at this point the kids think we are still running errands for Daddy's work. When we woke up, it was still early and Daddy needed a little bit longer to rest so I took the kids over to Denny's for breakfast. When we got back, Ayden said "We are going to Disneyland today". I thought our cover was blown so I said "yep, but first we have to drive all the way home and then we'll drive to Disneyland. It will take a long time to get there though okay?" They were fine with that.

When we got to Disneyland Ashten was sleeping so we pulled into the parking lot and sat there. Ayden saw Mickey Mouse and asked if we were in Disneyland. He was so excited he woke up Ashten who wasn't too happy about it. Ayden said, "Mom, when you do the best trick ever you have to say APRIL FOOLS!" hahaha

We went and checked into our hotel and then headed to Downtown Disney, which is open to the public for free. We looked in the shops, bought some stuff, and then watched the firework show that was happening in Disneyland. We had so much fun, but the kids are really excited to see the real Disneyland!

Bowl - O - Rama

Ayden about to bowl a...

STRIKE!! AJ was very tired, he had just woken up from a nap (at 9pm)
Armand played very well

So did Dad (and Ashten is on the left)

Papa. AJ, Ayden, and Grammy

Nice one, Ashten

This evening after a stamping show in the morning and a BBQ at Mom and Dad's house in the afternoon, I had a great plan...bowling! I was surprised that everyone was up for it. We packed up the kids and went up to Secoma Lanes. I haven't been bowling since I was a teenager, but I couldn't believe that for 6 people it cost $72.00! Anyway, it was worth it. The boys had so much fun knocking down pins. They had their own lane so they could play with the bumpers up. Ayden was a little pro though there were very few times out of the two games that he even touched the sides. He rolled several strikes, more than I did that's for sure, and he probably even scored higher than some of the adults;)

What's That Smell?

Anderson, Armand, Ayden, and Ashten My big boy

Armand

Sea Lions

Checking out the skeletons

The Hecta Lighthouse

The kids watching the sea lions

Our famliy at the cave. It was really windy... can you tell?

AJ finally got a little sleep at lunch time.

We wanted to go to The Sea Lion Caves, so we got up bright and early (partially because we had three kids wide awake). We had breakfast, packed up, and drove the 1.5 hours to the cave. The weather was crazy, we were definitely not in California anymore. It was sunny, then raining, and hailing, then sunny again. It was SO windy walking down to the elevator at the cave. I have been there before when I was young, but Armand and the kids hadn't. After talking about it all weekend, the kids were so happy to be there. The sea lions were so loud and stinky! Almost as soon as we got there the kids were asking, "What's that smell?" After we checked out everything, we hit the road. We decided that it would be fun to drive up 101. We stayed on 101 until it was time for me to "go to class." We stopped in the tiny town of Willamina, and stole free Internet from some unsuspecting family, so that I could attend my last seminar of the term. From there we decided to get to I-5 and get home. It was a long trip but, it was so nice to get away!