We love you Dad!

Happy Father's Day!

Elissa decorated a BBQ apron for Dad at school.

Zach got Daddy a hilarious talking card that was from Optimus Prime. It cracks me up every time I hear it!

 I can't get my video to work, but it starts out..."There is greatness in you..."

Here is a funny gift I got Darin. :-) He loves new, bright and shiny. He needs a little help on his dental care. Costco had a great deal on the new Sonicare Platinums. So that's what I got him. He told me that he is going to get me a vaccum cleaner. LOL! :-)

We had a really nice day of church and hanging out.

The Clean Up

Saturday, 1.21.12

Of course, Darin gets started right a way.

He had to go to his Dad's first. We store our trailer and little aluminum boat there under nice framed tarps. We had heard from the guy house sitting that the snow had buckled the tarps. There may be damage it our trailer. Darin dug it out and only the tarps and frames were damaged, which aren't cheap to replace. It looks like the trailer and boat are fine. He moved them under his Dad's nice trailer structure since they are gone and we'll have to figure out what we are going to do to protect them for next Winter.

Then he came home and got to work on clearing out the trees. This is what it looked like at the end of the day.

Darin heard chainsaws and a wood chipper going down the road, so he went and checked it out. It ends up that there is a guy on the island with a business cleaning up this kind of stuff. Darin had the guy come by our house and quote the clean up. It was just too much for Darin to do himself. They agreed on a price and they could come on Sunday.

Sunday, 2.22.12

There were 5 guys with their chainsaws at our house first thing in the morning. They got it all cleaned up in a few hours. It looks like our trees will survive. There is just one by the drive way that may be too far gone. We are also thankful that the hedge was not damaged. We really enjoy that privacy. Having the trees severely thinned has already opened up our backyard a lot.

Here is the new look.

I hope this is my last post about bad Winter weather!

I seriously would take any opportunity Darin had to move to the Arizona area. I would much rather stay inside the 3 months it is really hot and have all the rest of the year to live outside, then have the opposite here. I love the NW and it's beauty and relatively mild weather, but I could use a lot more sunshine in the latter years of my life. :-)

Seafair - The Blue Angels

Friday, August 5th

Darin's favorite things......planes.

Whenever we see a plane/helicopter/jet in the air, he can tell us what it is. He really turns into a kid when he is around them. :-) I think Zach is going to follow his Dad's love for planes too. Jets in particular.

Darin wants Zach to be a fighter pilot.

This is not a smile for the camera. This is pure joy of watching the Blue Angels flying by.

Oh how I love these guys!!

While the guys were enamored with the jets, Elissa was more interested in playing in the water with her barbie.

It is not very often that she plays with a barbie anymore. I love it when she enjoys these simple little girl things still. Too often she is trying to be much older then her 7 years. My sweet girl!

And yes, I did get some pictures of the Blue Angels too. LOL!

Though the weather was cloudy again this year, it was a great time!

Father's Day

Man vs Food Style!

Darin loves to watch Man vs Food, so I thought it would be fun to take him to the Seattle restaurants that Adam went to.

When we were in San Francisco last year, we went to a Man vs Food sandwich shop. It was a fun adventure to find it and cool to eat at a place that we saw on the show.

So we headed out around 10am (a little late) this morning to go to Beth's Cafe for breakfast. As we drove by it just before 11am and there was a line out the door, we decided to just jump forward to Red Mill Burgers. It's a good thing that we got there right when they opened because by the time we left there was a line out the door there too.

It was good. A little spicy. Worth the drive.
But we wouldn't make a special trip out there again.
It wasn't all that.

But it was fun!
(I was really looking forward to Beth's)

Then we headed to the waterfront to walk through the Seattle Aquarium on this drizzly day.

We even got to watch the bridge go up for a ship to pass thru.

Zach and Elissa were very excited to see the octopus.

The Hawaiian exhibition

Watching the sea otters and river otters.

This is a face we see from Elissa a lot these days.

Yes, she is thrilled to be taking another picture. :-)

Here's a better picture!

We ended our day in Seattle with a trip to Starbucks. YUM!

Then it took the kids 2 seconds to pass out in the car.

It was a good day!

We didn't get to all the things I had planned, but I hope you feel loved and appreciated Dad!!

We love you very much!

Darin's New Ride!

Saturday, 7-31-10

We didn't intend this morning to get up and buy a new truck, but that's what ended up happening.

Darin has been looking to trade in his small truck and our Tahoe for a big truck to pull our trailer. Eventually we want to go to a truck/camper/boat combo for camping. This is step 1.

Darin found a 2008 Ford 1 ton short bed with only 9k miles in Kent for a great price, so he decided to go down and look at it. It was a nice truck, so I brought the Tahoe down with the kids (after trying both our babysitters to see if they could come over at the last minute - no luck).

While I was coming down, Darin was looking around the lot and found a couple of 2010 3/4 ton long beds for just 4k more, soooooo when I got there we compared the used to the new and of course the new won out! :-)

While Darin did all the haggling and paperwork, I took the kids to Kent Station and we had Coldstone ice cream and ran around and then had some impromptu time at the sprinkler park.

 (I bought Elissa some clothes at the thrift store so she would have some dry clothes)

The we came back to turn in the small truck and pick up our new truck.

They are getting Darin's truck all cleaned up and shiny!

Look at all the room the kids have. Love it!

It was a l-o-n-g day, but so worth it for Darin to get his new ride!