Seattle-Friday

Friday morning we lounged around in bed and just relaxed and enjoyed sleeping in. We got in the shower and were in for quite the surprise! The water was either scorching hot or freezing cold NO in between. Needless to say we learned to shower super super fast. We got ready and headed to find breakfast. Sadly we resulted with McDonald's. But we did try their new caramel hot cocoa which was really really good. After that we thought we should find a grocery store since we had a little fridge in our room. We knew we could get something for breakfasts for the next two mornings instead of having to eat out every morning. We found a Safeway and got bagels. They were HUGE! We got a cheese one and then jalapeno and they were delicious. (we're having technical difficulties again and I'm too lazy to figure out what the problem is) After we took our groceries to our hotel room we took the hotel bus to the lightrail and rode over to pike's place/aquarium/harbor. We wandered the shops that were on the pier and then we stopped at the famous Ivar's for lunch. It was a tad bit more spendy than we were wanting to pay for lunch so we each had a bowl of clam chowder and then shared a dish of salted caramel ice cream (heavenly!)

 This was our view during lunch at Ivar's.

 One of the many views from the harbor tour

 Seals! There was a ton of them on that thing.

 Josh touching the star fish

 This was a bridge type thing that had jellyfish all over in it. It was pretty cool.

After lunch at Ivar's we took a harbor tour cruise. It was a 60 min narrated tour of Seattle. We got to see lots of the different views. You could see the space needle, Safeco Field, CenturyLink Arena, and boats, and seals and tons of stuff. There were these huge barges that held these crates that looked like the size of train cars. They were stacked hundreds deep too. They said that usually they didn't lose any when they were traveling but occasionally it does happen. One time they lost one that held rubber ducks in it. :) Josh and I really enjoyed the tour and the site seeing it offered.

After the tour we went to the aquarium. They had tons and tons of fish to see. Some snakes, which I happily skipped. :) They even had an under water dome that you got to go in. I thought we took pics of it but I can't find them. It was pretty cool to see all the fish above you. We were able to touch star fish and several other sea anemia (sp?)

After the aquarium we wandered the shops some more and then headed back to the hotel for a little rest. We decided on dinner at a place called Azteca, which is a mexican place. It was pretty good. We split a burrito and boy was a I glad when they brought it out. It was the size of the plate! It was ginourmous! (I have a pic but it's on Josh's phone) And we split a virgin margarita too. It was all really good food but we were stuffed at the end. After dinner we went to another mall and wandered around and found Josh a watch at Fossil. McKenna broke his on accident and so he has been without one for a while so it was due time for a new one.  After that we headed back to our hotel and relaxed for a bit and then went to bed.

Seattle-Thursday

 This is a view of glass outside the glass museum in Tacoma, WA

 We were able to watch them make glass (which was amazing). The fire behind them can range anywhere from 2100-4500 degrees

 This is what they were making. It was a children's creation that they were recreating for a special museum exhibit they were going to be hosting.

 This is an outdoor ceiling of glass. It's the glass bridge and has pretty creations like this on the ceiling and each side of you as well.

 The Museum of Flight. There were so many planes to see. You even got to go outside and walk through some of the real planes.  Even an Air Force 1 plane!

Here's us at the Museum of Flight.

I can't get my pics and words how I want them so this will be a little backwards but it is what it is. At least I'm blogging about it. :)

Josh went to Chile for 6 weeks right after Christmas. It was the LONGEST 6 weeks of my life. ( I don't know how military women/men do it) Having 2 kids and 1 on the way and running the house for 6 weeks was a lot of work. When he was on his way home he called and told me he had a surprise. (keep in mind that while he was in Chile all he had was skype and my ipod so he could text those with an iphone) I was just excited to see him so I didn't really care what the surprise was. He told me he had it all arranged with his mom and Krystal and that we would be going to Seattle for a few days in March. I was SO excited. We never had a honeymoon and had never been on a trip without our kids before.

We left here Thursday, March 15 at 7 am. The flight was pretty good. The landing not so much. It was extremely bumpy. We were swaying back and forth and our wheels would touch and then we'd be off the ground again. It was horrible and I was glad when the plane came to a stop.

We got our bags and headed to get the rental car. We were hungry so we found some breakfast. We stopped at this place called the Pancake Chef. It was pretty good. We shared the plate cuz it was so much food but it was delicious and some of the best gravy I've ever had for biscuits and gravy. We had an omlet, hashbrowns, and biscuits & gravy. It was a cute little place.

We borrowed Krystal's GPS so we didn't get as lost. :) We started laughing so hard at the things she was saying to us. I don't know what kind of voice she had but it was CRAZY. We laughed and laughed about it all weekend.

After breakfast we headed to Tacoma to the Museum of Glass. We had a blast here. There was a thing called a hot shop. This is where they made all the things out of glass. (imagine that, making glass in a glass shop) They could mold the glass into pretty much anything and could make it any color. The fire they use to melt/mold the glass gets anywhere between 2100-4500 degrees. We were quite aways away from the flames and could still feel the heat. I don't know how they work with it everyday. We really enjoyed the glass museum and all of the designs/creations and what not.

After the glass museum we headed to the Museum of Flight. There was so so so much to do/see here. We could have spent a few more hours there. It was fun to see how the planes have evolved over time and definitely become better. They had some that you could sit in too. We even got to walk through some of them that were outside. They had an Air Force 1 plane open that day too. I can't remember which presidents it was that used that plane but some of the stuff they had on that plane was insane. I can only imagine what Pres. Obama's plane looks like on the inside.

After the Museum of Flight it was lunch time. We didn't know the area so we thought since we had the GPS we would see what the suggestions were for eating. We found one that said gyro & falafel. We selected it and got started. Let me tell you, if you ever get on Martin Luther King Dr. in Seattle, get off as fast as you can. We finally found it but let's just say I was a little nervous to eat there. It not only had bars on the windows but bars around the whole cement building! I was pretty sure we would die if we ate there so I said let's pick a different place. We then picked panini inc from the GPS choices. It lead us to some subdivision type area. I told Josh he should pick a house and knock on their door and tell them our GPS said you are Panini Inc and we would like a sandwich. :) He wouldn't go for it. We decided to find our hotel and check in and get food around there. We ended up just skipping lunch and had a little bit earlier dinner.

We stayed at the Red Lion Hotel by the airport. It was a nice hotel but we were told with our paperwork that they provided continental breakfast. When we checked in we found out otherwise. They had "continental breakfast" but you had to pay $7.95/person/day. We decided on other breakfast options. (see friday post)

After checking in we went to dinner. Josh's boss is from the Seattle area and told him a few things to check out while we were there. Claim Jumper was one of them. It was an amazing restaurant! We started with an appetizer, Southwest Egg Rolls. They were amazing! Then we decided we really wanted to try the 3 cheese potato cakes. I had never had potato cakes before but I came home craving them. We then had the entree. I was stuffed at this point and really shouldn't have eaten any more but what the heck, we were on vacation. We had Hickory Chicken w/ mushrooms, cheese, and their homemade bbq sauce. It was to die for! We loved this place so much that we went back another time. ( See Sunday post)

After dinner we wandered the southcenter mall to work off all those calories we just consumed. :)

Then headed to the hotel for a much needed rest.

Behind again...

I'm behind again and quite frankly I don't know that I will ever catch up. I did want to note a few things while I'm thinking about them. The holidays were fast but good. We were able to enjoy time with both sides of our families which was nice. 3 days after Christmas Josh had the opportunity to go to Chile for 6 weeks and basically run the company that they own there. It was an amazing career opportunity for him but we are sure glad we have him back. Six weeks without a daddy is a long time!
We are super excited to announce that we are adding another member to the family. We found out on Halloween night. We are having a little boy and he is due around July 8th. We are so excited and nervous all at the same time. We are still trying to decide on names. The kids are excited about having a baby, especially Hunter. He will share his room with the baby and can't hardly wait.
Since I survived six weeks as a single mom (w/ the help of Krystal) Josh decided that he would surprise me with a trip. :) We never have had a honeymoon because we couldn't afford it. He received a little bonus for going to Chile so some of that money will be used for a vacation for him and I. Grandma Alvey & Krystal are splitting up duties and taking care of the kids while we are away. Josh is so wonderful and arranged all of this while in Chile and only being able to text them. We're going to Seattle. He's been a few time but I never have so it will be lots of fun. He's such a great husband!
We just switch things to big kid style around our house this weekend. (sat 18th) We have been telling Hunter for a while that if he stops peeing the bed he could get a new mattress. Well (knock on wood) he has been doing great! We purchased a new mattress for him and he gave his old one to McKenna. She was still in the crib. We wanted to transition her into a big girl bed before the new baby comes so she doesn't freak out as much when we put the baby in the crib. The first night I had to go in about 3 or 4 times to tell her to stop playing with her toys and go to bed and then she woke up at 3 am having diaper issues. I fixed her diaper for her and she went back to bed with no problems. Sunday for her first nap was a little more work. Hunter kept trying to lay with her and she thought it was play time. Once Hunter got out and left her alone she went to sleep. That night I had no problems with her going to bed. She went in and laid down and I didn't hear from her til morning. She has been doing amazingly well since the first bed/nap. She loves her bed and loves that she gets to sleep in her princess bed. Hunter loves his sports set too. He even went in and took a nap Sunday all on his very own. :)
That's the basic updates for now. Hopefully I will do better at updating.

Newport Beach, California, Part 2

While we were here we went to church. It was fast & Testimony meeting because the week before was General Conference. I've never been to another church that I was visiting family at so I was a little nervous. I know the Gospel is always the same so that helped. I was more nervous about how Hunter would do going to Primary with people he didn't know, but he did great!

Testimony meeting was quite entertaining. There was a kid passing the sacrament and right in the middle of passing he got a text so he pulled his phone out and checked his text...all while passing the sacrament.

The executive secretary (I think), jumped over the pew instead of walking around to get in and out of his seat. It was very odd.

The funniest thing though was this lady bearing her testimony. Her testimony wasn't funny but while she is in the middle of a sentence she spots someone in the audience and says, Dan is that you? and is pointing to someone in the audience. Then she proceeds to have a conversation with this man. They apparently had both recently lost their dads and she talked about how heaven gained to spiritual giants. Maybe this is a California kind of thing to do but in Idaho, we don't have conversations over the pulpit. The funnier thing was...she was visiting from I think Texas.

Newport Beach, California

We were able to go on a vacation and it was FANTASTIC!!! I want to go back already. I loved being with my family 24/7 and not having to worry about life too much. These pics are not in order. We went to Newport Beach for the first few days of our vacation. We left Meridian the night of Oct. 7th and headed to Burley to pick up Mom & Dad Alvey. Dad got a suburban from his work and we all rode together. (Mom, Dad, Josh, Me, Hunter, McKenna, Krystal, and Reed) It was a tight fit but we did it. We drove all night thinking that the kids would sleep for most of it. My kids are good in the car and usually sleep, but not this time. They were still very very good but didn't sleep much. They didn't want to miss out on being in so many states! Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California. (I think that's all) Thanks to Brad & Andrea (Josh's uncle & aunt) who we met in Newport, for hooking us up with a sweet room for all of us to stay in. We were here til Tuesday.

McKenna was exhausted from going to the beach. She loved the water and thought it was so much fun.

Hunter likes being close enough to see the water but not close enough that it touches him. The first day we got there we went to the beach and the wave came and he fell down and is a little nervous about those big waves now.

We had some extra time before we could check in to our hotel and we all really wanted to see the San Diego temple, so we made a pit stop. It's even more beautiful in person. We want to go back and do a session!

My cute, tired, dirty children at the temple. We had been in the car for about 15 hours or more at this point. They just wanted to run around and stretch their legs.

The hotel had a basketball court, golf course, playground, hot tubs, pools, and tons of other stuff. This place is actually a time share so it has lots to do. Hunter and Josh went and played basketball one morning. He loved it!

Hunter said a ton of funny things on our trip and of course I didn't write them down and I sure don't remember them all. But here are a few.

*On the drive to CA, Krystal let Hunter listen to her I pod and then he started singing his own songs. It went something like this: I know you and you and you and you're a dump truck...

*When we were packing the car to head to Disneyland, Hunter was in the car up front while we loaded. And a lady came out and Hunter asked her where she was going. She replied, home. Where are you going? We all thought for sure he would have said Disneyland, cuz he was so excited to go, but he said NUTS!

Hunter's 4th Birthday

Josh and I decided that Hunter could have a friend party this year. In the past we have done family with a few friends. I was feeling guilty too because I was doing the St. Luke's Women's Race, on his birthday and didn't want him to feel left out on his birthday. We invited a few friends to go bowling with us. I made a cute bowling pin invitation (that I didn't take a pic of).

This is the whole group that came to spoil Hunter at his party. L-R-Landen, Hailey, Hunter, Cole, Ali, and Dylan. (I hope I got the twins right)

Hunter bowling

These are supposed to be bowling pin cupcakes. The book looks much better than the real thing. It was kind of hard because the cupcakes and donut holes I used are not all equally proportionate. And the fruit roll ups that we bought were not regular ones, they were design ones so they don't have straight lines like they are supposed to. They started melting on the way to the bowling alley, so they were kinda messy, but the kids loved them!

Hunter opening up his presents. He loved everything he got and he definitely got spoiled!

In the group picture, Hunter is holding a bowling pin. Yes, it's a real pin. The guy at the bowling alley, Ron, knew it was his birthday (and it was the same day as Ron's brothers). He said he wanted to give Hunter something for his birthday and wanted to know if I wanted the party date on it or his actual birthday. I had no idea what he was giving him so I didn't know what would be best, so I told him to decide. A few minutes later, Ron comes back and has his hands behind his back. He told Hunter he wanted to give him a present and to hold his hands out. Then he put the bowling pin in Hunter's hands. Hunter was right up against me so I didn't see his face but Heather and Lisa said it was priceless. Hunter loves his bowling pin and thinks he is the coolest kid on the block because he has it.

P.S. those pins are heavier than you think!

Hunter had family over on his birthday to help celebrate his special day. He had Grandpa & Grandma Alvey, Grandma King (we missed Grandpa King), Krystal, Reed, Great Grandpa & Grandma Mathews, and Becky. The girls all did the race that morning and then we came home and had sandwiches and chips for lunch and he got to open his presents from everyone.

He had a fantastic day and we are grateful for our friends and family who got to share in his special day.

McKenna's 1st Hair cut

I know I am way behind on blogging but we've been busy.
McKenna had her 1st hair cut and did GREAT! She sat there and let Candice cut her hair without fussing once. We did bribe her a little with goldfish but I say whatever works.



I didn't really get any after shots for some reason...