Labor Day Visitors

A few weeks ago month Ryan, Melanie, Jordan and Anne came up to visit us. Our house was still more in boxes than out, but most of our furniture had arrived the day before at least there was somewhere for them to sit and sleep!

The first day of their visit was spent laying sod and bark. Totally what you'd like to do on your vacation, I know! We'd planned to pay someone landscape it for us, but Ryan insisted that it'd be a quick and easy thing that we could knock out if a few hours for a fraction of the cost so that is what we did. Ryan might have been regretting that half way through though! ☺ It looks great and we really appreciate all their help!

For the next few days we made our way to all of the usual Seattle tourist spots. We took a cruise along the waterfront, went to the Locks to see the boats come through and spot some salmon swimming up the ladder, brunched at the Space Needle, shopped and people watched at Pike's Place Market, and last but not least...won some money at the horse races!

We had so much fun with them up here and hope they come back soon...because you know, we've been wanting to plant some trees and shrubs and like their free labor the best. Oh yeah, and we kinda enjoy their company too. ☺

Wedding and then some

Last month we made our way down to Utah for Anne & Jordan's wedding. It was the first time in years that our entire family was together at the same time...no small feat.

Our first family sighting was outside the temple. We tried to keep from melting hung out in the shade until the lovely couple made their appearance.

After the temple was a luncheon and then the reception. It was great to see a lot of people that I grew up with that I hadn't seen in years...and as always, the extended family.








The remainder of our stay was a mix of kids swimming, family bowling, movie & lunch with the girls and a lot of relaxing.










It was so much fun spending time with everyone, and as usual it went by much too quickly!

Visiting ALL the way from Utah!

The last week in October we had some fun house guests, who we've been waiting to come and visit us for a LONG time! And as if they weren't fun enough, Chase came up with them as a surprise. Good surprise!

We had lots of things planned to do but it being Seattle and all, the rain kept us from doing a few of them. We actually lucked out and got a couple days of really good weather.

First things first, we hit Pike's Market to get some hot mini donuts and see some flying fish. And a visit isn't a visit without your picture atop Rachel the pig.

We headed down to the waterfront for lunch at The Crab Pot...more food than we could handle!

The next day we went to the Seattle Aquarium. Chase posed with giant carved pumpkins, the girls got their faces painted and we all got to touch on slimy sea things.

From there we made our way down to the Family Fun Center for nothing but fun. How can a family not have fun there? It's in the name.

We went on ride after ride and played games galore. There were quite a bit of tickets racked up that were cashed in for loads of silly little trinkets. Yep, we had fun.

The next day we all went to the Zoo, costumes and all. Now, aren't they the cutest fairy and cheerleader you've ever seen!? Thought so.

Erika, the little navigator, checking out the map.

All they really had their hearts sent on seeing was the bears and we nearly struck out. All the bears were hiding or their exhibit was closed, except for the sloth bear, and that wasn't really that exciting.

A couple hours and a few feet of cotton candy later (seriously, a lot of cotton candy!!) and we were ready to head home to get ready for some good ol' fashioned trick-or-treating.

Yes, Jackson had a costume this year, and he only hated part of it...the hat. He did sport his bat wings without any complaint. We brought him along with us as we all took the girls out trick or treating and I was 100% surprised that he didn't tackle any little kids and scarf down their candy.

After the girls scored some treats they packed up and headed back to Utah.

We did lots of things in between, but since I don't have pictures, I can't remember what they were {yep, I'm getting old, my memory is going}.

One night the guys took over kid duty so Melanie and I could keep up our tradtion of seeing all the Twilight Saga together and we saw a late showing of Eclipse. They made fun of us for doing it, but I don't care!

Their stay seemed to go by way too fast. Can't wait until they come back again!