Mamma Mia! 2 thumbs up!!

Hey, so Janeece and I got a girl's night out thanks to my awesome husband who watched the kids for us. We headed down to the mall for a little shopping, dinner and a movie. We, of course, saw Mamma Mia! I have seen it 3 times on Broadway and absolutely loved it. Janeece had also seen it so we went to the movie. Janeece leaned over to me before it started and said, "What if I start singing?" We bothed laughed because it is such a fun show, you just want to sing and dance, it just makes you happy. Anyway, we loved it, you can't go wrong with ABBA....thanks Dad for having us listen to ABBA on your record player while playing Gray Hockey!! That's when the love of ABBA started for me...my favorite song was Voulez Vouz. I liked them all and knew them all but that was my favorite while growing up, I think my sibling would agree too. I really like Honey, Honey too.

I also remember listening to ABBA with my friend, Nanette, she actually bought me ABBA gold on CD for my birthday once because my original had gotten all scratched up. We listened to ABBA and the Violent Femmes a lot on our road trips to SLC for Photo meetings back in the day of working at Inkley's. Man, those were good times!

Anyway, to sum it up, love Mamma Mia!, love the music....gonna buy the movie when it comes out....gotta get the soundtrack too.

Oh and something hilarious that I didn't know about Janeece.....we were watching the previews and all of a sudden High School Musical 3's preview came on, I was excited but kind of slient about it....but Janeece was like, "Yes!" (totally what I was saying in my head) HA! Yeah, we are both 13 year old girls at heart....our next movie...High School Musical 3, oh yeah! We even toyed with the idea of having Linus and Brooklyn be Troy and Gabriella for halloween, ha ha. So, yeah she will be coming over sometime to play High School Musical kareoke on the Wii soon...Yay!!

Beckham's Poem

So, I write poetry....my own kind of poetry...doesn't really rhyme, just my thoughts onto paper in my own artistic way. I wrote one for Brooklyn and had it done for her baby blessing and that was my goal for Beckham....well look at it now, two days before Beckham's birthday...I am sure my next kid will be 18 by the time I finish it. I just want my kids to know the feelings I have for them. I have written some for Chris too. So here is the poem to share:

A warm gentle embrace
We shared
..in the calm of night

I held You close to Me
My cheek against Your soft head
Your tiny grasp holding onto My finger
……..a silent moment
as Our two Spirits met
and I felt the comfort We brought to each other

Your big blue eyes looked into Mine
..and melted my heart
overwhelming Love swept You and I away
…and in a tender moment
…..I felt Love

…..Love I had never felt before
a Spiritual reassurance of God’s inconceivable
and unconditional Love

…His sweetest Gift

a chosen Spirit entrusted with My care

another piece of Eternity moves forward
a little boy
so Pure and Innocent
here to help change the world

I grew another Heart that day
as You
My Miracle
was placed in My arms
sweetly cooing
so snuggly, so cozy
so Lovable

My Beckham

The Wall

Ok, so my friend has a friend who had her little girl photographed by this graffiti wall....the pictures were amazing so of course, my friend, Karina, who is also a photographer, and I wanted to do photograph our kids there too. So we found out where it was and got Sue to come with us too and we had a blast taking pictures of our kids and they turned out awesome. We had so much fun and this wall is fantastic for photos....I think I'll be using it again. After our photo shoot, we all went to Alki beach for lunch and little playtime before heading home for naps. It was so fun to have 3 photographers shooting each kid to capture every angle. Sue, Karina and I decided to do a photo outing each month to find new spots for photo shoots, swap photoshop secrets, etc.....we are going to learn a lot and have a lot of fun! Enjoy Beckham's one year old pictures (I can't believe it's been a year) and Brooklyn just being a model. Yes, we are doing the whole soccer theme for his birthday so that is why the outfit, the ball, and the collage are all in soccer. We'll also be having a soccer ball cake and pinata this weekend when my parent's come to celebrate!



Here is a little collage of Beckham:

Girl's Night July!

So when I moved up here I started a dinner group with some friends and we all got together once a month and had a theme and everyone brought food that went with the theme and the recipes to share and we ate and hung out and had a blast. It's been going for almost two years now, crazy how time flies. Anywho, this month we decided to chill on the beach and have finger foods, it was great! It was perfect weather, the food was good and it was a great way to have a girl's night out. I meant to take more photos, but only took a few of me and my friend, Janeece, so here we are. I guess that's all you need, I mean, check us out! I love Janeece, she rocks!!

We are going to do the beach thing again next month so hopefully I remember to take more photos.

Perkins Coie Retreat

So, this past weekend we were able to go and be pampered by Chris' internship company. It was so nice and relaxing. We went to a new resort called, Suncadia. It's about 80 miles east of Seattle up in the mountains. We left Friday afternoon and came back on Sunday. This place was really nice. We had a nice big room with a view of the mountains and river. The kids really enjoyed exploring the room and jumping on the beds. We were fed very well while we were there. The dinners were very nice and we met so many nice people. We were surprised at the # of mormons that were there. Besides us, we counted up 6 other families that were LDS. It was really nice and it was funny because we all stuck out like sore thumbs because everyone had there beer or wine glasses and we had our soda or juice and 2 or 3 kids a piece so you could tell who was and who wasn't. Oh and our kids were a big hit....of course we had comments on the red hair....but everyone was in love with Beckham's mohawk and he put on quite a show walking around and flirting with his cute little smile.

the lodge

Brooklyn and Chris waving out our window

the views

our hotel room

the view from the room (another pool!)

the lobby

the lobby

the courtyard

We really loved the relaxing down time we had there, we have been running around so much this summer it was nice to just be fed and have no schedule or things we had to get done. We hiked around a little and then we enjoyed the pool facility that was really awesome. There was a really big pool outside with a giant hot tub and a cute little toddler pool and we had our own cabana to relax in. The kids absolutely loved the pool, it was Beckham's first time in a big swimming pool and he was so funny. He was in his little float tub and would kick and splash and then just let out a giant squeal and smile and giggle, it was so fun. Brooklyn loved kicking around and chasing Beckham, it was pretty cute. The views from the pool were beautiful, overlooking the mountains and a cute little pond and amplitheater area. There was also an indoor pool with waterslides.

So the weekend pretty much went like this, checked in, explored, ate, relaxed, slept, ate, went swimming, relaxed, ate, slept, hiked, ate, relaxed, slept, ate, relaxed and then went home.....my kind of weekend!

indoor pool

outdoor pool

our cabanna

the waterslides

We were also able to meet with a couple of LDS attorneys besides the interns (part of the 6 I mentioned above), they were super nice and it was fun to get to know them. One was a partner in the firm and on the hiring committee the other was Chris' tracker sooooo, hopefully we made a good impression. We'll see if we have a job in the next 5 weeks!!! Cross your fingers

little fish pond

summer interns group photo shot at amplitheatre

entertaining everyone at the amplitheatre

Sunday afternoon in the sprinkler

just being cute, check out the cute sandals!

As Requested by many....my new PINK bike!

Isn't it cute?

Snoqualmie Tunnel Bike Ride

It's been so nice lately that we just have to take advantage of the sunshine. First we headed down to Lincoln Park by our house and drove along the water's edge. It was beautiful out and we really enjoyed ourselves. The water didn't feel too cold on our toes since it was pretty hot, Beckham enjoyed throwing rocks and Brooklyn enjoyed finding gross crab legs and bodies like she always does (Yuck!)

Then we had been talking about this bike ride you can take through an old train tunnel. It's 2.5 miles long and dark, we decided we were up for some adventure. So we headed to the mountains, the trailhead was right at near the Snoqualmie Ski Resort. We took glow sticks for the kids, which they loved and a flashlight for us....which next time, we'll take two and headed into the tunnel.

It was crazy! It was so dark and damp and little sprinkles of water would fall from the ceiling now and then....we were driving through a mountain! Beckham got a little freaked out but Brooklyn loved it! We sang some songs until Chris said it just sounded spooky with how it was echoing in the tunnel. So we just said Toot! Toot! every now and then like we were a train.

The whole way through, you could see a little tiny dot of light (the light at the end of the tunnel) :) and soon it started to get bigger. It was really cold in there, we prepared the kids with jackets and a blanket but didn't think of ourselves in short sleeves, shorts and sandals...the cold wind made my eyes cry for part of it, but it was interesting how when you got closer to the light it became warmer, really neat. So on the other side, it was beautiful...breathtaking views and a really pretty waterfall. The trail goes on but we decided to stop there and let the kids play.

We had to laugh at the hard core bikers who had their gear on with head lamps, nice mountain bikes and everything and here come two people on their leisure beach cruisers with two kids and one flashlight, it was pretty funny. We had a great time and on the way back you could see for a lot longer until it went black because of the sun shining in that way. It was really fun.

my little front facing baby

He can't be this big already....but he is, my little Beckham is in a front facing car seat and stroller seat. Times flies (I don't know why it doesn't when you are pregnant) but it does fly and kids grow way too fast. So here are a few pics of my cutie in his big kid position.

Leavenworth, WA

Nooo, we didn't go out of the country....it's right here in the great state of Washington. Leavenworth is about 2 hours from us and it is the cutest Bavarian town. We decided to head up there and check it out yesterday. It was a beautiful drive up there, we saw a lot of waterfalls, snow capped mountains and a really pretty river that we followed into Leavenworth. We took our time and stopped in a little town along the way because Chris had forgotten to pack DVD's with the DVD player, so we stopped and bought a $2.50 hello kitty movie and then we went to the $1store and the kids got to pick out a toy for the ride, it was just fun to relax and enjoy the ride and take our time.

Now this town Leavenworth is all Bavarian, from the post office to the McDonald's. I thought it was just going to be a street of Bavarian shops but, nope, it's the whole town. It was really quite cute. We ate at Old McDonald's(as Brooklyn calls it) for lunch and then headed into the main part of town for some window shopping. They had some really fun shops to look at, I loved the Christmas store the best. All the clerks in the stores were all dressed up as well. The whole experience was fun and it was a beautiful day. We want to go back at Christmas time for their lighting festival and snow sculptures. We'd even vacation there winter or summer, there are a ton of things to do there. The skiing, rafting, sleigh rides, etc, we will definately be going back.

We got some yummy huckleberry cheesecake and blackberry ice cream and headed home. When we got home, we went to the wading pool and the kids had a blast. Beckham just got right in his tube and ran around in the water chasing after kids and smiling and squeeling. Brooklyn got a new floating tube and enjoyed using that and had fun kicking around in the water. It was a good day.

Aquarium lunch date with Daddy!

Friday morning, I took the kids to the West Seattle Street Fair. It was fun to see all the fun booths and I got the kids magic bubble wands and they were excited about that. I think I am going to try and get a booth there next summer for my Word Boutique business, so I probably should start making stuff right now.

Anyway, after that we went and got on the water taxi and met Chris for lunch. We took him a yummy gyro from the street fair....sooooo good, and Brooklyn loved it too! Good girl cause I love Greek food. Anyway, we went to the aquarium and we hadn't been for a few months so Beckham was still small when we had taken him before. But this time was so much fun...he and Brooklyn had a blast looking at all the fish and touching the starfish and sea cucumbers and the other weird things. Beckham loved the jellyfish and they both loved the seals and sea otters, it was so fun to see both of their reactions to everything and be excited for each other. Beckham is into pointing, so he would look at us and then point to what he saw and smile and get all excited it was so cute. And, you'll have to see Brooklyn's interpretation of a jellyfish sometime, it's hilarious. Anyway, it was a good day and Chris was happy to have lunch with us rather than his lawyer associates, a lot more relaxed.