Weekend getaway...

Our WA friends surprised us with a gift of a weekend getaway before we move back to Maui. Let me also include, this was a Cade-less getaway! Yes, we survived (ok, mostly Lynn ) leaving Cade in the more than capable hands of Aunty Trisha. Uncle Kyle helped out a little bit too. :)

Cade enjoying WA beach time with Aunty Trisha, Uncle Kyle and Sporty.

Notice the sand isn't very nice looking

We started by taking a 3 hour boat ride from Seattle to Victoria. I didn't take any pictures of the boat, because we didn't have very happy memories on the way up to Victoria. Yes, we both got a little seasick. Blah...

Then we were picked up by a ziplining company and went on a 2 hour zipline tour!

Map of the 7 lines we zipped down. Once you get on the course, you go from tree to tree; they've built platforms onto the tree that you zip in and out of. It was amazing!

This was the longest line: 1000 feet. I thought it was wierd that they used feet, since we were in Canada, a metric country.

Picture of our gear. It's basically rockclimbing gear. Not comfortable, but very safe!
Victoria Harbor view from our room. Apparently, we learned we stayed in a haunted hotel, although nothing wierd happened to us.
Famous Empress Hotel

The Empress at night (the hotel, not Garrett)

Parliament building at night

We had a wonderful time together, enjoying such a historic and classic city. We walked around the city, went on a ghost tour, and just enjoyed our baby-less time. Although, everytime we saw a baby or stroller, we always made a comment about Cade or wondered what he was doing at that time. We didn't make it to Buchart Gardens, so we'll have to make it up to Victoria again.

Oh, and we're happy to report the boat ride back to Seattle had a happy ending; neither of us got seasick! :) Ginger candy does help!

May visitors...

We are blessed with three sets of visitors this past weekend. First, Garrett's mom and aunty Lorraine came to visit.

We headed up to Pike's Market. While we were waiting for coffee at the first Starbuck's, Garrett and Cade snuck off to take this picture. It's hilarious!

Famous Pike Pig

We went shopping in Oregon and stopped to eat at a Burger King. Cade wore his crown and ate like a king!

Our second set of visitors, Derek, Stephanie and Lori came up for the Red Sox vs. Mariner's game. Cade was happy to help his Uncle Derek and Uncle Kyle cheer on their favorite team!

Before the game
Family pic at the game
Cade giggling with the rally monkey!
Cade loved watching the game! He clapped a lot because he heard everyone else clapping! He did fall asleep for a few innings in Grandma's arms, but woke up as we were leaving.

Cade got to FINALLY meet his Aunty Lori! :)

Our last set of visitors were Garrett's classmate, Levi, and his family. Andren is 7 months older than Cade, but looks way older! They ate dinner and had fun playing together!

Garrett bought a new game and gave Cade a remote to distract him.

Mr. Photogenic smiles so nicely when he sees the camera. He was happy Daddy allowed him to play with the controller!

For those of you who don't know by now, we are getting ready to make a big life change! No, we're not having another baby, YET. We are preparing to move back to Maui at the end of June! We always planned on moving back and didn't realize what a hard decision it would be when the time finally came. We have made MANY lifelong friendships with genuine and caring individuals here in WA, who have supported us like family. So, sorry but this blog may be a little neglected in the months to come as we move!

May Happenings...

So I was politely reminded today that it has been nearly 3 weeks since updating the blog. Here's a quick review of what we've done since May started 11 days ago!

Our little ham smiles at the red light on the camera. Smart kid. He uses this cheesy smile to get food from us. Hard to resist, huh!

For a little guy who is now only in the 5th percentile for his age, he sure has some chompers! He uses them to carry things around while he crawls. This little cell phone that goes with his car toy is his favorite to carry in his mouth.
Four bottom chompers and a 5th popping up on the side. He's getting better at brushing his bottom teeth, but hates brushing the tops.
Four top chompers. Every once in awhile we have to dig in his mouth for something he's not supposed to be chewing and he BITES down on our finger! OWWEEE!

On May 5th we celebrated Boy's Day! In the Japanese culture it's a day of honoring the boys by dressing them up in hapi coats (like a kimono for boys) and displaying koi fish outside for good luck! It is not easy to get a 9 1/2 month old to sit for a nice picture! He kept getting up and moving all over the place!

We celebrated Lynn's first Mother's day! One of our friends told us about a fundraiser at the zoo, so we ventured out in the morning and were able to see the animals. The last time we were there, Cade was only about a month old! Boy, has he changed!
Cade got to meet a peacock up close! Don't worry, he didn't peck us or get any closer!Cade sent me flowers at school for Mother's day!

Cade is learning new things so quickly and he is full of ENERGY! He understands how to play with Sporty and is learning the word "no" better. Don't worry, Green Doggy is clean, Mom! :)

Cade is getting better at walking with assistance. Since we took this video a few days ago, he walks with the car without falling!

The next few weekends will be busy with visitors from all over the country: Hawaii, Oregon, Idaho and Illinois! We'll try to update when we're not busy!

Memorable weekend...

We had the opportunity to take a short vacation to a small beach community, Seabrook. It's located on the coast, about 2 hours west of Olympia, near Aberdeen/Hoquium.

Seabrook is a new community of beach houses. They're very cute and quaint! They look small from the outside, but they're very modern and big on the inside! This is main house; 2 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. It also has a side mudroom and outside shower, which came in handy later!
Garrett, Cade and I stayed in the carriage house next door! It was a little one bedroom, 1 bathroom, with a small kitchen and living room.
The house allowed pets and was baby friendly! We didn't have to bring any furniture for Cade!

Cade had fun all weekend playing with his friend, Roxy. They played with the plastic bottle together for at least a hour one night!

One of the main reasons to take this short vacation was to try out clamming! Notice, the sky isn't as blue and the sand isn't as tan as Hawaii! It was a cold morning! We were not very optimistic that we would be successful. There's a 15 clam limit per license, and we didn't think we'd find anywhere near that limit. We also thought 15 was a small amount to eat!
So we starting digging...
and digging...
until finally we found one! Once we were able to recognize the air bubbles in the sand and that we had to dig REALLY deep, we were very successful!

I even tried my hand at it and found a few

The only one who probably wished they stayed back in the warmth of the house was Sport. He was not a happy camper that he had to walk through water as the tide started to quickly come up!

YAH! Clam diggers! Our clams and a few sand dollars! We estimated we found about 40 clams (estimate because some of the clams broke as we dug for them)
The next step was to wash off the sand. This is where the outdoor shower with warm water came in handy!
Then we had to take off the shells! Trisha and I formed a successful clam-shelling assembly line.
Almost cleaned clams! We still had to dissect them, oh, I mean cut out the gills and guts. Fun! (Yes, for a biology teacher, it is! :)
Sunday was a much sunnier day, so we took a stroll on the beach again.
Cade and Daddy
Successful weekend getaway with fantastic friends!

Happy Easter!

Whirlwind Florida Spring Break...

Around January, Mom and I realized we had Spring Break together, so we started planning a trip out to Florida to visit Lisa. We planned and researched and planned even more, since this was the first time traveling so far with an infant! (Traveling to HI doesn't count, since we are familiar with everything there!)

Here's a recap of our trip:

Friday night- Red eye flight to Houston. Cade slept the entire time!

Saturday morning- flight to Jacksonville. Cade slept the entire time!

Saturday afternoon- we drive down to Orlando and settle into our hotel.

Sunday, Day 1 of Walt Disney World
Animal Kingdom in the morning
Cade loves the characters! Laughed and giggled evertime we met new ones. Notice our lovely attire! To say it POURED is an understatement. Luckily, we were prepared! We bought $1 ponchos at Target for us and a clear shower curtain and clips for Cade's stroller. Grand total = $7. Had we bought ponchos inside Disney World, it would have cost us around $50!

The rain didn't last too long. Cade on a ride with Lisa and Gammy.

Meeting Eeyore

Laughing at Tigger

The sun came out, so Garrett bought him a pair of Mickey shades.

Sunday afternoon/night: Epcot.

No rain! It's amazing how the sky just cleared up and was blue again!
Japan

This demonstrator was amazing! She could make any animal out of taffy like candy by molding and cutting it. Here she's making a swan.

Monday, Day 2 of Walt Disney World.

We spent the entire day at the Magic Kingdom. No rain! It was HOT!

Cade was able to ride any attraction which didn't have a height restriction. He's getting ready for Buzz Lightyear!

Cade meeting Chip and Dale

Posing with his first Mickey and ears! What a big boy!
We went back to the Magic Kingdom at night to watch the light parade and ride attractions again.

Cade's own sign! (It's really the Arcade sign cut off by another building.) But, pretty cool, huh...
Enjoying a turkey leg!

Tuesday, Day 3: Hollywood Studios.

Forcast for rain in the afternoon, which we thought by then we'd be leaving. We stopped to shop for some last minute gifts and got caught in the rain. Again, it POURED! I've never seen bigger drops before!

Fantasmic hat and High School Musical 3 performance. Notice the dark clouds overhead!

Family pic with Mickey!

We drove back to Jacksonville Tuesday afternoon, in the pouring rain. We had so much fun at Walt Disney World and weren't able to do some attractions. That's ok, we said we'll just have to visit again!

FYI- If you plan on visiting Disney with an infant or child too small to ride height restricted attractions, do Ride Swap! Basically, you avoid having to stand in line twice! It saved us so much time!

Wednesday we visited Lisa's work place. It rained the entire day, so we weren't able to see the infamous 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass.

Sawgrass clubhouse

Drove to St. Augustine and went to the World Golf Hall of Fame

Cade helping Daddy practice his putting

Cade exploring Lisa's apartment

Bye Florida!