6 squared

Brent's birthday is tomorrow but he's headed out of town for a fishing trip so we've squeezed in all our celebrating him this past week. The sun came out (finally) so we spent lots of time outside. All of our dear friends ventured to the cabin and we dined on some delish foods in great company. We even managed to squeeze some gardening in. Bennett has mastered climbing and made his way to the top of that ladder unassisted (but with a spotter of course).

Avery making the long car ride more entertaining by emptying and purposing everything in Amber's purse.

Setting up tents and Avery calling her peeps...making sure everyone's coming.

Ahhh...sun and an afternoon brewsky...the life.

Wearing his hat proud

Our monkey man.

Little Picasso

We inherited an easel from big cousin Lexie and it is a hit! We've only explored the crayons so far but he loves to draw - we're still working on the idea of only drawing on the paper. It's a fun new activity for those rainy days we've been having.

Brent and Bennett braved the See Kai Run warehouse sale while I was at work and ended up with 4 new cute pairs of shoes. And Bennett wants to wear them...all the time, even without socks and pants...because they stood in line for 3 hours for them!

(Re)

Our trip to San Diego was so many good things - I rarely pulled out the camera because I was trying to savor and live within every moment of the vacation. I had a few days to myself with my dear friend Chels before my boys joined me on Wednesday evening. Bennett was a dream traveler and slept great the whole trip. The wedding was top notch and the celebration of Ross and Kate's love was very inspiring - we feel so lucky to have such great friends. Reconnecting

Relaxing

Rediscovering

Rejuvenating

Restful

Recharging

... and just plain fun!

The proof

This is night one at Granny and Grandpa's. The rest were sleepless. Not sure why - stage one of toddlerhood? new teeth? a cold? time change? Who knows; but here is the proof that he can sleep, and is so very cute when he does. Sorry to all of our housemates who lost some sleep due to our middle of the night shenanigans.

All dressed up

We went to Pittsburgh this last weekend to celebrate my Aunt Kay's wedding. Bennett was very excited to travel on the airplane and thanks to our travel companions (Aunt Jenny, Aunt Sarah and Maya), did quite well on the long cross country adventure.

We got all dressed up for the rehearsal dinner but that didn't stop Bennett and Caleb from playing around at the restaurant.

Grandpa and Bennett all suited up and enjoying the 80 degree weather post ceremony.

Bennett loved the band at the reception and wore himself out - he took a quick 45 minute nap and then was back on the dance floor.

I love this little man so much!

Of course, we explored the local parks and found some fun tunnels to crawl through!

April

Excited to see Grandpa on Easter morning
Hugs and books with cousin Lexie

We did away with the pacifier a couple of months ago but he saw these (sippy cup tops) and was very persistent in asking to use them.

A trip to the zoo with buddies Maeve and Avery

His sign for "Where?"; we also know "Eat", "Milk", "More", "Please", "Thank you", "Bath", and "All Done".

Water exhibit at the Everett Children's Museum

We always play at the park at Greenlake after my run around the lake. On this day, we learned how to jump in mud puddles and got so wet/dirty, we had to strip down for the ride home.

A new way to enjoy asparagus

Mmmmm, yogurt!

Eggs and Rabbits

The Laurelhurst Community hosted a great egg hunt for kids of all ages - Avery and Bennett participated in the 0-2 age group.

Warming up at the starting line, talking strategy.

I got one!

Checking out the loot, making sure it's all still there.

Walking around with Miss Amber, showing off my rabbit ears.

An attempt to get a cute picture of the two bunnies - this is the best one of the bunch (Bennett has a mouthful of cookies).