Seattle Birthday Weekend

We had a wonderful weekend trip to Seattle, 2 weekends ago. We got to babysit both little nieces, celebrate birthdays, and go for a hike. We had the most perfect, sunny, 70 degree days, with clear blue skies and glorious views of the mountains all around. For anyone who doesn't understand how anyone could live in Seattle with "all the rain," THAT is why! Those magical days when you are in the city, yet surrounded by God's creation (mountains, blue sky, sun, glistening lakes, green trees), as He wraps His arms around you and declares IT IS GOOD... those days make all the rainy days in the world worth it! When you come around the bend on I-5 and see Mt Rainier standing tall and looking more like a painting than real life. And then to drive a mere hour away for a fun hike (Rattlesnake Ridge) with great views of the hilltops, trees, and lakes... not to mention the smell of forest along the way... all of these things make me miss the Seattle area so much! I sure hope it is in God's plan for us to return there someday! But for now, California aint too bad either ;). Here's to contentment and enjoying what you have while you have it! Even though our California sunshine and warm temps have seriously been lacking...

Back to the weekend... we babysat Lucca on Friday night and just had the best time with her! She is walking all over the place now and looks so much bigger doing it! She remembered us this time, which was very special for us. Lucca has even taken on Evangeline's obsession with Uncle Matt and saying his name all the time and having to know where he is... we think a lot of this is because Matt is so easy to say and they get excited to say it frequently, but still very fun. We had a great time playing, coloring (she has the longest attention span I think of any 20 month old that I've seen), jumping, dancing, and even went to the park. That girl LOVES the swings! So much that Grandpa ordered one for their house for the girls to enjoy.

Evangeline is constantly on the move! Her little body the runs all over and her little mouth that never stops talking! What a cutie. She is so much fun, but definitely embracing her twos with gusto! She loves to help with anything you are doing, but only for a minute or two, because that's as long as her attention span will go :). My favorite Evangeline quote of the weekend: she was eating her lunch, grabbed a handful of noodles, continued to eat with her other hand, then noticed the noodles still in the first hand, and said, "Oh, noodles in my hand!" She got all excited because she had forgotten they were there, then hastily ate them up :).

We had a birthday party for our birthday buddies... Matt 25 and Evangeline 2. Their joint theme was polka dots (Matt thought maybe next year his birthday theme would be princesses!). The girls were a hoot... Evangeline got a slide for her birthday that was put in the middle of the living room for them to play on. I couldn't even count how many times she climbed up and went down that thing! It had a para-scope thing on it, and every time she looked in it, she was say, "I see you [name]!" to whoever she saw.

That hike I mentioned was with Natasha and a couple of her friends, and then we also got to see Christina and Dan a bit too. I have missed them and my fam so much! Only 2 more months until we return!

Here's a link to pictures from our weekend on facebook.

Operation House Relocation Commences Today!

We start today and have one week to move out of this house and into the new one, yikes! We did get some good news though, a huge answer to prayer, we don't have to paint the walls back in our old house! Or at least we don't have to for now, which means we don't have to by next week, along with everything else. It's going to be a long couple of days! See ya on the flip side.