End of Summer and Back to School

Oops!  Out of order, but before all the birthday celebrating we ended summer and started school.  Before school started we snuck in one more trip to the Point Defiance Zoo.  The boys love going up there and since we have a membership we are lucky to be able to go often.  It's not too far to drive and it takes the pressure off of feeling like we need to see everything.  Usually we head up, do half the zoo, have lunch and play at the play area and head home before traffic hits.  It's a favorite summer activity for us!

Ashton being a little birdie in the play area

This peacock was really interested in our lunches!

And just like that, summer was over and school started!  The boys love any excuse to put decorations up, so I decorated and had a special breakfast waiting for them!

Ethan was excited to start 1st grade with Mrs. Stewart this year.

Carter started half-day morning preschool.  He was so excited to finally go to school like his big brother!

The end of summer is definitely bitter sweet for us.  Luckily, both boys looked forward to school starting so that made it a lot easier to give up our lazy days of summer!

Ashton Turns 2!

Ashton's birthday is three days after Carter's so Transformers came down and Dinos went up!  Ashton loves dinos!

 It was a school day, so we did a low key cake and ice cream at our house with my parents.

Ashton is a joy to have in our family.  He is funny, smart, loving and LOVES his big brothers.  I'm so glad he's ours.

Carter's 4th Birthday

This boy turned 4 in September.  He wanted a Transformers birthday, so I delivered the best I could.

 He also wanted donuts for his birthday breakfast!

 Tristan was at work, so Carter Face Timed with him in the afternoon.  Later that evening we met my parents at Dirty Dave's for dinner and cake.  Carter loves going to Dirty Dave's (mostly because of the video games) and luckily I really like the pizza.  So it was a win-win.  We brought his chocolate Transformers cake with us and played for a bit.

 Brotherly love!

I sure love this sweet boy.  He is caring and wants people around him to be happy.  He is sensitive and likes to be loved and snuggled.  Our family wouldn't be the same without Carter!

Celebrating 9 Years!

For our ninth wedding anniversary I surprised Tristan by setting up the whole evening.  I arranged for the kids to be gone and had dinner waiting for Tristan when he got back from dropping them off.  It was nice to enjoy a quiet dinner at home with each other!

 Then I set up a scavenger hunt with clues from places we went and did things while we were dating.  We went to each stop, did something and then moved on to the next.  We had to stop at Cash and Carry for some syrups for a treat later that night.

 We eventually went to play frisbee golf and had some sparkling cider.  It was such a nice evening!

 We ended the night by going down to the waterfront where Tristan proposed to me for sunset.  It was a lot of fun to reminisce about our dating days and to be kid-free for the evening.

 After we picked up the kids and put them to bed, Tristan made "scones" for us.  This was something we did one of the first night we hung out with a group together.

Yummy!!!

It's amazing how it feels like not that long ago that we were married, but here we are celebrating 9 years of hard work, fun, love, tears and growing as a family.

August 2015

Not sure what the story with this is...but again, it's just a cute, messy Ashton picture!

We headed down to Sand in the City again this summer.  Our boys love to do all of the fun activities and see the sand sculptures.  Ashton had fun at this fun construction booth.

 They always love getting some time in at the giant sand boxes.

 This was the favorite sculpture of our kiddos this summer.

 Carter really loved this station where they had a big cardboard castle that you could paint.

Sand in the City has been a family favorite for us since we moved back from Louisiana.  We are really sad that they discontinued the event and that this is the last summer for it.  It's so sad to see family oriented fun leave our city!  I hope they bring it back some summer!!

For my birthday we headed out to Northwest Trek for the day.  We like to get out there once a summer and it seemed like a fun way to spend my special day!  A picnic lunch was first and then we played.

 Silly boys.

 We got lucky, because even though it was really hot, we saw almost all of the animals on our tram ride.

Can't think of a better way to spend my birthday than with all my guys!

 Even all of the enclosed animals were out and in good view!  They must have known it was my birthday!

 A little coyote.

 I NEVER see the wildcats doing this, so it was fun to see the Bobcat actually out for a change.

Tristan was loaded down with kiddos.

 Ethan wanted to take this Wolf home with us.  No thanks.

 We found out that you can go back and get another token to take another tram ride for free.  So we decided to take advantage of that since the tram ride is a favorite for our family.  This Caribou was right up against the gate when we were waiting in line.

 Happy camper!

 We got another good view of most of the animals on this ride.  I can't remember if we ever saw a moose or not, but I'm pretty sure we saw most everything else!

 Carter got a picture of me and Tristan for my birthday.

We had a great, HOT day.  It was so nice to be spoiled by all of my boys on my big day.