Kate’s clean bill of health

As some of you know, Kate recently went in for minor surgery. She had a mole removed from her leg that she’s had since birth. Her doctor decided to do this just to be on the ultra safe side but we went back to Children’s for her post-op check and the pathology report on the mole. She received a clean bill of health and if you can’t tell, Kate is very excited that she won’t have to return to Children’s Hospital anytime soon.

Also, Kate wanted me to make sure you noticed her new hair cut. Styled à la Auntie Tricia’s cut.

A visit from the East

The Godfather was very pleased to welcome his Godson for the weekend. Ryan, Dan, and Kim Griego drove over from Spokane for a toned down High School Reunion so the kids got to hang out with each other for the whole weekend. They didn’t have any fun at all

Here are Jacob and Ryan enjoying their breakfast.

And then Kate and Ryan just hangin’

A weekend away

Kate, Jake and I just spent the weekend on a family trip. Pete was supposed to join us, but work reared its ugly head and got in the way (and unfortunately it got in the way for no good reason–Pete’s project was canceled at the last minute after he hadn’t gone with us, but we don’t want to dwell there). The first day of the trip we drove down to McMinnville, OR to visit with my grandmother, Grandma Darlin’. It’s been a little over a year since we’ve been for a visit, so Gma Darlin’ was just in heaven getting to see how much Jake and Kate have changed.

Jacob’s talking and singing alone was enchanting to his great grandma but add in how much Kate does a great job taking care of Darlin’ and she loved every minute of getting to spend time with the kids. Here are the 3 hanging out:

 

Then on Sunday morning, after breakfast and some more time with Darlin’, the kids and I headed out for Portland and the Children’s Museum. The Portland Children’s Museum really is quite a nice facility. Kate and Jake started out in the “outdoors” play area. Jake playing with the chow toys and Kate on horseback.

 

Then we went on to the water play area. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get Kate and Jake to leave.

That is of course until the kids realized that there was even more to see. Next Jake fell in love with the CB in the ambulance. When I told him he could talk into the CB, he thought I said ABC and so he sang the ABC song over and over.

The kids and I had a lovely day at the Museum and rode the Max Light Rail to and from Washington Park for all our fun. We returned to the Modera hotel for our night in Portland. We initially thought Pete was going to be with us for the trip so we were staying in downtown Portland to be able to visit the Portland Art Museum for the Esher exhibit. Without Pete with us, I wasn’t sure the kids would be as excited about the museum visit. So after we woke up

and walked to breakfast at our neighborhood Starbucks, the kids and I headed out for the drive home. We stopped in Jantzen beach for some school shopping and were home in time for lunch. I think I will try this again in a year or two when I don’t have to worry about naps blowing up our travel schedule.

Kate gets to visit the XBOX building

As many of you know, Candice started her new job with XNA on 8/3/09. For those not familiar with XNA, just know it’s a part of the XBOX team. On Thursday, Kate spent the day with Gma Roo going to the Grossology exhibit at the Pacific Science Center but she needed a place to hang out until Gma Roo could fight her way through traffic, so Kate spent the morning in the office with Mommy.

Now Kate’s been to Microsoft many times, but this was the first time in Candice’s newest job and Kate had no idea the fun things awaiting her in the new building. For those of you who know XBOX games, there are many characters that you can visit: Kane and Lynch, the Splinter Cell main character, Lara Kroft, Master Chief… Kate even recognizes some of the characters from watching Daddy playing his games. So she got to pick who she wanted to pose with. Thus without further ado, Kate with a Fall Out character, then with a Big Daddy and a Little Sister.

  

Where does ketchup come from, Mommy?

We’ve had a beautiful harvest from our container gardens so far this season with herbs, peas, and tomatoes. In fact my peas have already been done for a few weeks but the tomatoes are fully producing right now. Kate likes to join me for our periodic checks to see what’s ripe and ready for picking. This morning we went out for our normal ritual and found a few more.

 

On the way back in I asked Kate if she was ready to finally try one of our tomatoes as she hasn’t yet. I got the best reply… “Instead of eating the tomatoes why don’t we just squeeze the ketchup out of them?”

Pete’s legacy lives on.

And in additional to the beautiful tomatoes we’ve hauled in to date (here are the ones I haven’t eaten already),

my cantaloupes are starting to form. They’re looking pretty good. I just hope the weather holds until they ripen.

A duck and some blue angels

The kids and I book-ended the Denver vacation time with some quality Mommy and kid time. The day Pete and I left for Denver, we spent the morning doing something we had never done before but will definitely do again–we rode the Duck. For those of you not lucky enough to have this tourist attraction in your area, the Ducks are amphibious vehicles that do a road and lake tour of Seattle. It really is very fun. Here we are with Bob, Allen, and their family.

Then, the weekend after Denver, the Blue Angels were in town for Seafair. So we packed up our picnic lunch and headed out for the fun at Madrona Park. Here is Jake in his new iPood t-shirt and Kate snuggling with Gma Roo.

 

Then the fun began. It was a spectacular show again this year on an absolutely beautiful day.

 

Kate and Jake are already looking forward to next year.

Goldfish for Kate

Kate has been wanting a fish tank for quite some time now, so I had her help me with my 55 gallon tank for awhile.  Doing a bit of the cleaning and helping to feed the fish twice a day.  She did a great job with the responsibilities, and was better about feeding them than I had been, so we tried to find a way to reward her.  After two weeks of solid contact wearing + eyepatch she finally earned her brand new fishtank.  Today we went down to the local pet store and picked up a pair of goldfish for her 6 gallon tank that sits on her desk in her room.

Kate showing off her new tank.

Her two goldfish, which as of now are nameless, but Kate is working on it.