Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Today is Grandma's birthday!

 We had a pre-birthday dinner yesterday at Auntie Laura's apartment...

 where we got to eat on the roof!

After dinner lounging. :)

 Today, we met Grandma in Tacoma, making a stop at the cemetery to visit Grandpa's grave,

We also stopped by Grandma's brother's and parents' graves, too. All the flowers are from our gardens!

 

 Then we went to this deli that Grandma had read about to get some yummy sandwiches for dinner

 Oh, they were delicious!

 Daniel was so full, he almost fell asleep.

 It was a super sketchy place, but the sandwiches were incredible. We'll definitely be going back.

 Afterward, we went to a nearby park to burn off some energy before heading home.

 Things got pretty silly on the way home...

[disclaimer: all silly car photos taken by Auntie La-La, who was in the passenger seat.]

Happy Birthday, Grandma! We love you!

Fly Days

Back in June we stumbled across a really cool event at Paine Field in Everett. Paul Allen has a museum of historic aircraft called the Flying Heritage Collection, and every other Saturday throughout the summer they pick two or three of the planes to do a flying demonstration. We just happened to go on their first free fly day of the summer, and it was so much fun we've gone again.

The first day we went was gray and drizzling, and they almost cancelled the flight because it's not safe for them to fly with any precipitation in the air. But, lucky for us, they waited a bit and were able to fly a little later. These two planes are the Focke Wulf Fw 190 and the boys' favorite, the P51 Mustang. The 190 crashed in Russia in 1943 and wasn't found until the 80s (!); it is the only 190 in existence that still flies. These two planes are flown by a father and son team. And, since we had purchased admission to the museum that day, we were treated to a meeting with the pilots and signed photos of them flying the planes.

 I'm not sure if Aaron was more excited for the airplanes, or for the kettle corn snack we had there.

After the free fly day on the 14th, Daniel kept asking if we could go back for the next one on the 28th. I'm not much for going on big outings on my own with the boys, but this is such an easy event to go to that we went even though Chris was out of town. We almost didn't make it in time (there were quite a few tears when we pulled into the parking lot and saw the planes taxiing toward the runway already), but we somehow managed to make it over just in time. Today's planes: the IL2, the P47 Thunderbolt, and the P51B Mustang.

Since Paine Field is in operation during these flight demonstrations, sometimes larger aircraft get in on the fun. The boys LOVED seeing this 787 up close!

After the flight demonstration, the pilots taxi by the crowd. Here's the IL2.

 The P47.

 The P51 Mustang.

The lady in the wheelchair is THE Tallahassee Lassie, who the plane was named and painted for by the man standing next to her, the pilot.

Today was supposed to be another free fly day, and we were excited to go and introduce Grandma to the festivities. But, when we approached the museum we found that today is actually a huge event called Skyfair, and there wouldn't be any flight demonstrations till much later. Having been out so late last night, missing naps was not an attractive option (neither was joining the massive crowds) and we opted to go to a nearby playground instead. 

This new-fangled playground equipment is fun, but it's no free fly day. Aaron cried all the way home. :(

Trip to Bremerton

A good friend of ours retired from the Navy today, and he invited us to the ceremony over in Bremerton. The boys did pretty well, considering the ceremony started at 2 (so naps happened in the car on the way there) and lasted for well over an hour. We went to the reception afterward at his home in Manchester, stayed late and took the ferry back home. It was a long day, but fun to celebrate with Michael and his lovely family.

 Getting pinned with a new medal (I can't remember which one...)

 Michael with his siblings, who were each presented with a certificate thanking them for their support of his career in the Navy.

 Michael was presented with a flag to give to his mother.

 At the reception, the view of the city from his home.

 Sunset from the ferry.

Daniel was sure that the ferry had a gun sticking off the top. :/

 When will they ever all look at me and smile for a picture?

Better Times

Today was a rough day, with everyone waking up around six and fighting for most of the day. I did get a few key jobs done today, so the day wasn't a complete loss, but I am definitely looking forward to a new day tomorrow. Since today wasn't great, I'll post a few more pictures from yesterday. The rain stopped sometime around dinner so we took a pre-bedtime walk down to the lake to look at the ducks. [Which almost was cancelled shortly after we left due to a bee stinging Matthew. Luckily, the thought of missing the ducks was worse than the bee sting, and it only took a bandaid to get Matthew ready to go again.]

My favorite from yesterday.

Rainy Day

It has been raining pretty much all. day. long. It was a bit of a blessing, though, since we've been running around like crazy people lately. It was nice to spend a day together, and the boys had lots of great ideas of ways to spend the rainy day.

 Daniel's been asking to do another recycled art day. Today was a perfect day for that.

Aaron and Matthew lost interest after about an hour. Daniel continued working on his "flat gun" through quiet time and beyond.

 After quiet/nap time, we built a tent and got out the flashlights.

 Flashlights are so much fun!

 Then the tent got turned into a volleyball net to play balloon volleyball.

 Blurry Matthew.

It's only a matter of time before balloon play turns into this.

Day 4

Busy day today! It was music day at our moms group summer camp and we made shakers and learned about different aspects of music. Then we had some good friends over to play after lunch time. The boys were invited to play across the street for a bit after that and we ended the day with a trip to Costco with Auntie Laura! Whew!

Hurray for churros from Costco!

Blueberry Picking

On our trip to Rochester, we also went blueberry picking with Grandma. I think this might be the first time the boys have gone berry picking. They did pretty well!

Daniel got really into it. He picked lots of berries himself, and would often wander by to check everyone else's buckets to see how they compared.

Matthew did okay--though he did ask to go back to the car anytime the sun came out. And he and Aaron definitely had more fun playing than picking.

Aaron would ask after every berry picked "is this a good one?" 9 times out of 10 the answer was "no," and Aaron loved throwing the bad berries away. 

Fun at Grandma's

We spent some time at Grandma's farm this weekend. We had lots of fun, as usual...

We found this little guy outside. Matthew and Daniel wanted to put it in a jar and bring him home with us...

Mommy thought he'd rather live here.

We also helped Grandma pick garlic from her garden. Look at the size of those bulbs!

No trip to Grandma's is complete without sweets. This time it was fresh raspberry pie. Yum! The boys are already asking to go back. (Can't imagine why...)

Dinners with Daddy

In order to get some good quality time in before leaving for his last session of classes in Minnesota, Daddy took each boy out for a meal on his own. We decided Matthew would get to go first, since he's been feeling pretty middle child-ish lately. Needless to say, Matthew was super excited about his solo dinner date with Daddy...however Aaron and Daniel were feeling pretty left out. So, we tried to make dinner at home just as fun.

Cereal and yogurt for dinner while watching tv?! This is the best night ever!

Meanwhile...

Matthew had requested Red Robin for dinner, but it was closed for remodeling so the Ram was a good substitute. I think the giant cookie and ice cream made up for it very quickly. :)

The next day was Aaron's turn. His pick?

Now, if that's not the look of pure joy, I don't know what is. 

Even I was jealous of Aaron's trip out...it included a stop at a nearby outlet of Molly Moon's ice cream.

Daniel spent the few days leading up to his lunch with Daddy considering all of his dining options before finally settling on  Greenlake Bar and Grill. 

This big guy ordered for himself, and after lunch requested a trip to Starbucks for dessert--chocolate milk and a slice of lemon bread.

All in all, the meals were a big hit. Too big, probably, as now the boys all think that this is our new dinner routine and Matthew is convinced that it's going to be his turn again when Chris gets home.