Hello Seattle

I meant to blog more last week, but two close family friends got married and our week was devoted to helping out with their weddings. The next part of our trip was the stomach flu part. Matthew got the stomach flu and decided to pass it around. It was LOADS of fun. Luckily it was a mild one, and we were still able to do all we had planned. These pictures go to Seattle but not through Seattle. This does go half way through our vacation. If you're sick of our vacation, you might want to skip this one. Especially since there is at least one more vacation post in the future.

From this lighthouse, you can't see the beach. It's just beyond those threes. Lighthouses are another necessity in our family vacations.

We drove through Aberdeen. Which happens to be the birth place of Kurt Cobain. Not really my thing, but I was still excited because my cousin Sarah LOVES him.

This is the Star Wars shop in Aberdeen, probably the high light of the trip for Alex.

We went to a temperate rainforest in Olympic National Park. It was gorgeous. It was amazing to see plants growing out of other plants because they don't need the soil. The average annual rainfall is 12 feet! It was raining while we were there. :)

For all of my crazy friends who love twilight.

After a two vomit incidents, Matthew had to wear Hailey's extra shirt for a while. He looks so pretty in pink.

In Seattle we stared at the aquarium.

Hailey was much more squeamish about the touch tank than Matthew.

I love these kids!

I think it's funny that Matthew has the darkest brown eyes I've ever seen.

And Hailey has the lightest blue eyes.

This is the view from the Harbor Cruise we took.

Creepy Mermaid that was in this shop:

It's like Ripley's and a gift shop mashed together.

We may have wore them out our first day in Seattle.

They completely slept through Pike Place Market.

This is the bridge we took to Whidbey Island. It's a gorgeous place. My dad has a mission comp that lives there AND an old family friend lives there.

Walking over that bridge with the kids is the scariest thing ever. Although no cars are coming, that is a lane on the other side of the barrier. the bridge is hundreds of feet up.

The island is full of amazing signs.

And another lighthouse, to fill our quota.

I still can't figure out what this is supposed to mean.

This is the ferry we took back to Seattle. Hailey thought it was pretty cool to drive onto a boat. AND that takes us to the half way point. Sorry my friends.

It's All For Grandma Y

So this may be a little picture overload of our vacation. If you don't like it tough. It's for Grandma's Benefit. ;)
When it was time to meet up with my parents, we were still car-less. We need a new engine, again. :( My awesome brother-in-law and sister-in-law, loaned us their car so we would make it on time to meet up with my family in San Francisco for the rest of our vacation. The drive from SLC to SF is WAY worse than the drive from SLC to LA. Nevada is the stupidest state in the whole nation.
From there we started family vacation with my family. My family's vacations are not for the faint of heart. My parents usually pack as much as 4 days worth of stuff into 1 day. So this will take me several post and you will probably be sick of all of the pictures. But don't worry, I'll won't talk too much, I'll let the pictures do that for me. Today We'll go from SF to Portland.

Hailey loved hanging out with my Uncle in SF. He let her go up on the ladder with him and pick plums!

The drive through tree that our car was too big to drive through.

I LOVE redwoods!

This shows you just how big some of the trees we saw were. This one wasn't even THAT big.

See Hailey's hat? It made lots of appearances on this trip. Isn't it lovely, or something? Thanks Grankey!

Us inside a tree.

These Elk walked right through a campground we drove through, it was pretty cool.

This is the beach that the opening of Jurassic Park 2 was filmed on. It's not that impressive of a beach BUT...

The fern canyon less than a mile away is one of the most gorgeous places you'll ever see.

So they used the beach and then headed to the canyon for more filming.

Christmas Card? Greetings from Team J...

Hailey was most impressed by the fact that he waves.

No J vacations are ever complete without at least 4 waterfalls.

This one may have had more.

Waterfall two

Waterfall three, and those were all in the same day.

The best books store on earth. I would move to Portland just for this book store.

Maybe for these doughnuts too. They were as amazing as everyone says.

This picture is dedicated to Alex's cousin, Allison.

This is a mansion overlooking Portland. The grounds and view were gorgeous.

The required family pyramid. Luckily P girls are light.

I think that makes four.

Oh! And five. And that doesn't even cover half of our vacation. ;)

 

 

Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jog

So, where have I been? That is a very good question. I'll start at the beginning and when I get to the end, I'll stop.

I spent the lasts three weeks on family vacation, otherwise know as PJY Hoopla 2011. I'll start with the first week and maybe break this into a few post so I don't over load your brain.

We started out in Utah to spend some time with Alex's family. On the way up we had some car trouble. We ended up needing a new timing belt, a new chain thing, and a new radiator. This is why I hate Newton. Anyway, there will be more on that later.

We spent the week relaxing and hanging out with Alex's parents and siblings. It was so fun. I love hanging out with them. I especially like my kids getting a chance to hang out with there cousins. While we were up there we got to go to our niece's baptism and our sister-in-laws wedding. It was really a wonderful week. So now here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

Matthew Loves the swings!

He loves the splash pad even more.

I didn't know if we'd be able to tear Hailey away from Kenna when our Utah trip was over.

I love his smiles!

Hailey matching with her cousins.

In the ski lift on the way to the wedding.

Hailey loves lemonade.

Grandma Y bought all the kids matching shirts for our day at the Homestead.

Such a ham.

Dress up time for Kenna's 3rd birthday!

Another One Bites the Dust!

Alex just finished his last final of the quarter! He did great this year. I'm SO proud of him. Another year of school survived! Only 2 or less to go!

Goodbye Curls!

I know 15 months is a little old for "baby's first hair cut," but my babies grow hair VERY slowly. I was not a bald baby, I blame their daddy. On Sunday I was playing with Matthew's hair and realized I could make a little pony tail with the curls in the back. It was time. So here are some before and afters of the tiny guy.
He started to look a little fearful when he saw the scissors.

Both the kids only get curls in the back at the base of their heads, it's strange.

He can see again!

No more curls. He looks even more like a little kid and less like a baby. I love it and hate it all at the same time.

The Cherry Festival!

Yesterday we went to the Cherry Festival with Amanda's family. It was really fun. We started out watching Mini Kiss, which is a Kiss cover band that is made up of midgets. Hailey is apparently not a Kiss fan though, so we only watched for a little while. Then we checked out all the vendors.

Here's my hot husband being a rock star.



After that we got to see Air Supply. It made me think of when I was a kid and my parents would put on their CD (or maybe it was a tape, yikes!) and dance around the living room. I am not sure if I should be proud or ashamed that I knew all of their songs except two.
Matthew mostly danced around and fed me Kettle Corn while we watched. But he also liked to sit in Hailey's princess chair and read. This is what happens when you have an older sister.

I think it may be time to get him his own chair. Air Supply sounds almost exactly the same. They just look old and gross. They walked around the audience for a while and there was all these old ladies who were DYING to touch them. They walked past us a few times, but lucky for them I am not creepy or old, so I did not touch them.


Hailey seemed to like their music a lot! She was dancing like crazy. Here is some awesome video of her mad dancing skills. She definitely takes after her mommy and daddy in that area.