Carson's 5 And The Big Fort

Today is Carson's birthday! His party's over (post coming) but tonight he gets to choose what restaurant he wants for dinner (it'll be Red Robin) and he'll get a couple more gifts from Mom and Dad.

Since we still had all the borrowed chairs from Carson's party over the weekend the boys started making a fort and I helped them make it the biggest they've ever had. It was a nine-chair fort complete with a back door, wall to wall carpeting, a pillowed front walkway and outfitted with lots of stuffed friends.


Here are the attempts at a nice picture of them all. Emmett was too busy giving wild poses, making these more fun than just three smiling faces.










We can't believe you're already 5 Carson! You're getting so old! From starting to read several months ago to finishing pre-school and our having to send you off to school this fall for Kindergarten, we just can't believe how much you've grown! But you're still our sweet Carson, my favorite shopping buddy and you still crack us up with your crazy thoughts and comments all the time.

We love you! Happy Birthday!

Diving

Avery sure loves to dive, and from his first attempt his teacher was surprised. Apparently Avery has a natural feel for it. I love that when Carson first is going to jump he puts his hands up like he'd like to dive like his big brother, but he's just so cautious.

Big Snow

Finally, some real snow!

Although the timing could have been better (read: earlier in winter!) Considering how awesome the weather was for my birthday a couple weeks before, this snow is rather depressing!

This snow started in the early hours of last Wednesday and fell heavily all day. Because the schools had already had two cancelled days due to snow, they really didn't want to do another so Wednesday was just a delayed start day when of all the days it should have been the only one cancelled! Sheesh. Lucky for them Thursday and Friday were already designated no school days for conferences. These pictures are from Thursday, which by then was a lot better, but on Wednesday the roads stayed slick because it was just falling too heavily for the traffic to keep it melted. And I was out Wednesday night when I probably shouldn't have been. It was a true winter wonderland and the roads were the worst I remember seeing them for Salem.

Carson didn't really feel like going out, so he happily played snowball target for Avery and Emmett.


Avery and Emmett finally got to make a decent sized snowman. Good thing we had carrots!


And Carson still didn't feel the need to go out, even to help with the snowman.


I mentioned to Avery that next time if put the snowman closer to the patio it would be more in the shade of the house and last longer. Next thing I knew the kid was disassembling his snowman and moving him.


The boys had just come in to have some lunch when  we got a call from Grandma to hurry out to their house and the boys could have a ride on the sleigh before Megan put her horse Vegas back up. So we left lunch and hurried. When we got there Vegas wasn't ready yet, so they got to play in the deeper snow at Grandma's for a while first.


They had rides in the Ranger...


And Avery figured out they could climb the pile of tree limbs from the trees Travis has been helping to cut down and clear out for the makeover of the backyard.




It made a good slide.


Katrina nailing Carson in the head with a snowball. Nice shot, Katrina.


Finally Vegas was hooked up and drove out.


While Megan let Vegas acclimate to the sleigh and the snow, Katrina hauled Avery down in the snow. Nice work again, Katrina.








Unfortunately, when Megan drove Vegas over, we were informed that the snow was too dense and wet so that the sleigh didn't ride over it properly, didn't want to turn and was digging into Vegas' sides. So the kids each just got to sit up there and get a picture.




It's bright, Mom.


I'm glad the kids got to have a good snow this year, but here we are almost to April and I'd say we can be very done now...

My Birthday In Seattle

I had an awesome day on the day of my birthday, but we had a trip scheduled too. Since Travis was going up to Mike's Beach to help with a dive class the weekend of my birthday, it was the following weekend that we went. This year we decided to go up to Seattle. We went up late Friday night and got home Sunday evening. Travis decided to be adventurous and tried out Priceline. This is the hotel we stayed in, Hilton's Homewood Suites. It turned out great, great place, great price!






In the morning we had a big filling breakfast at the hotel to brace us up for the better part of the day and the cold water we headed out to dive at Alki Cove II. Because who doesn't want to go diving when it's snowing out? Seriously, the water was extremely cold (about 44) and coming out into the cold air made it extra chilly! Still, we did two dives!


I love that we found this very tiny sunflower starfish eating a tiny crab claw. That's Travis' finger it's sitting on.


Vermilion Star, Red Sea Star (Mediaster aequalis)


Red anemone


Plumose Anemone (Metridium)


urchin


urchin


Anemone Metridium Giganteum


Anemone Metridium Giganteum on a boat


A school of tubesnouts


Lots of life on the buoy rope


Chitons look so weird and ancient to me and sure enough, they are. Chitons have a good fossil record going back 400 million years. And check out all the straight scratches on the base and all the footprints left behind by things that have grown there.


Alabaster Nudibranch (white-lined dirona) (Dirona albolineata)




The rhinophores of the Alabaster Nudibranch


Copper rockfish


Kelp crab trying to get his fight on with me


The same kelp crab from behind


Feather duster worms (Serpula vermicularis)


Feather duster worms (Serpula vermicularis)


Feather duster worms (Serpula vermicularis)


A big lingcod guarding eggs


I think this is a baby Striped Seaperch (it was maybe two inches)


Another starfish. I just like this one's long feelers waving in the water.


Metridium Senile Anemone


Metridium Senile Anemone


Sunflower star


And the tubesnouts again, I wanted to get closer to them and then suddenly a school swam right through me.


After we cleaned up I took a shot of the Seattle skyline from the dock


This seagull was sitting fat and happy, ignoring me.


Also a shot from the dock, look at the sea lions hanging out on what looks like a mooring buoy that that barge is hooked up to.


The we went in search of a higher perch to photograph Seattle's skyline.


The Seattle Space Needle


I'm not sure it translates well to the picture, but there was a great circular break in the clouds right of the Space Needle that I thought was cool.


From another location, a view of the Puget Sound.


After we cleaned up, did a little more driving around, sight seeing, had some dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory, and walked in a park, we went back to the hotel to collect warmer clothes and we went back up to the overlook for a night shot of the Space Needle and Seattle's skyline.


And for good measure, since it was my birthday trip, I actually got out from behind the camera. It was so chilly and windy up there. I had a lot of layers on, my coat and then Travis' big jacket on over the top since he was even using his rarely used heavy winter coat.


The next morning we met up with Justin and Debbie from Blue Element scuba back at Alki Cove II to say hi. I think Justin hates the thought of anyone diving when he's not and since he hadn't been to the Seattle side of the sound for a while he just couldn't not go when we were. When we got there they had just finished their first dive and Debbie was freezing and not looking forward to a second dive. Turns out a good thing they did dive! They found some great treasures! Old china and silverware.

After we said goodbye to them we went to the Seattle Public Market, Pike Place Market






Pike Place Fish Market, famous for the flying fish! See the guy below, he's just caught a fish.


Another catch


And more throwing and catching.


Crabs, anyone?


Sightseeing is not really Travis' thing, particularly if it includes crowds, bad parking, etc. Since it was my birthday so he had to go with the flow but I was nice and gave him the motivation to go by telling him that the Pike Place Bakery had donuts the size of a dinner plate. He got a glazed and I got an apple fritter of course.


I loved the rows and rows of colorful produce.




And the bouquets were gorgeous. Honey, please buy me flowers?


Hanging chilies outside another shop


And one last shot of Pike Place Market before we had to head home.


We stopped at Ivar's for a quick lunch at the outdoor Fish Bar and then we had to be on our way.

Later, on the way home we broke out the donuts. Mmmm.


Travis had me take the shot with his phone to Facebook.


And I shared this one. See my two bites out of the top? That's one big donut. No I did not eat it all at once. Yes, Travis ate all of his in no time.


What a great weekend!