Sunday Visit

This last Sunday we headed over to Poulsbo to catch up with Chip, Sandy, and the kids. It’s always exciting to take the ferry and on the way over we scored a prime spot right up in the front. We had a ton of fun with the family and tried to beat the Seahawks traffic home and instead got caught in a two plus hour wait. It all ended well – Gavin got a great nap in, we saw and heard an awesome thunderstorm, and our battery died right when we needed to start the car to get onto the ferry. Good thing I married the fastest-jump-starter ever (we had a portable jump start on us). We made it home in time for the lightning delay so we could catch up on the Seahawks game, so not all was lost. Enjoy!

It was SO foggy out – typically you can see land beyond here, but everything was lost in a sea of grey. Such a Seattle fall day!

My family tolerates me, haha. I was out taking pictures and Gavin wanted to come with me, so we did a quick hand off.

Then Carter had to come out too, so we all walked around for a bit.

Goofing around back in the car.

Our ferry arrived! We rode the “Puyallup” over to Kingston.

Our gorgeous view of more grey off the front of the boat.

Now here is where things got interesting. Auntie Sandy brought out the army guys to play with. Charlie had a princess castle. Together … well, the boys had the army storm the castle – I am guessing it was a hostile takeover given the man down on the balcony!

Homework and football watching for the older kids.

And finally we have some endured candid’s too (oh Chase … you know you are the best!)

Extended Family

Here are four of my favorite people: my brother Mark, Sister-In-Law Kim, Nephew Ryan, and Niece Nikki at Nikki’s Birthday Party:

And yes, those are half-complete tats on my brother and sis-in-laws arms … to be continued for when they are filled in…

Works Like A Charm…

I don’t know what I am going to do when he outgrows the jumper.

Adventures in Potty Training

As Jeremy and I were looking at our schedule in January, we realized that this last weekend really was the only weekend where we could devote the entire time to potty training Carter. While I am ecstatic about not having to buy diapers again for him, I wasn’t so sure how this was going to work since he adamantly opposed it every time we tried to prep him leading up to it.

And then we bought Jelly Bellies. And chocolate. “Oh yeah I am not above bribing my children,” (to quote Denise on how she got Domenic potty trained).

We decided that all diapers must go and he goes straight to underwear. We knew there would be accidents, it would be messy, but we were following a three day program and hoping for the best.

First day lived up to all my expectations. For the first part of the day he pretty much soaked himself each time. But then by noon, he started getting it. We were loading him full of liquid and he still had a few messes, but he started telling us RIGHT before he had to go.

He was dry through the night and second day was even better. He was starting to recognize the signs, only wet himself a TINY bit before stopping and waiting to get to the toilet. And he pooped on the toilet without an issue. Knowing he got a giant piece chocolate after that, that removed any sort of issue or fear there. THANK GOD.

He woke up wet at 6:30 this morning, but today he had only three accidents. Granted I wasn’t loading him up with liquid like I was before, almost every time he would ask before he needed to go with enough time to get to the bathroom. And he made it through his nap without issue. While I know we need to keep asking and watching it, I am pretty sure he is now more or less potty trained! Here’s to hoping there isn’t ever a relapse.

I thought about posting a photo of him here, you know, so I have ammo when he finally gets a girlfriend. But even I am not that mean, lol.

Wine Tasting Over The Summer

In August while I was still on maternity leave, we got my parents and Aunt and Uncle together for wine tasting in Woodinville. Since moving to the area, we thought it would be a lot of fun to explore all the hidden gem wineries in our neighborhood. Little did we know there were over 80 of them now. Too bad for us!! This is definitely something Jeremy and I will continue to explore since all of them are about ten minutes from our new house. As Carter would say, “SCORE!” and then give you a high five.

The below photos were taken with my 40D and I can tell the difference immediately when editing them. The images just aren’t as crisp. Could be the camera, could be that I was taking photos after several glasses of wine…

(Upper Left: Uncle Norm & Dad, then dad; Middle: Aunt Deirdre and mom, Jeremy giving me “the look”; Bottom: Mom & I, Aunt Deirdre & Jeremy, Uncle Norm)