May

May brought visitors.  Ashton's grandparents came to visit as did his family and Grandma Jenks we had fun!

First we had Grandma and Grandpa Hansen here.  They camped at Fort Stevens and we went over to play with them.  The first night AShton was with us, but the next day I went with just the kids and a friend I was watching, Kable.  We went down to the Peter Iredale, the shipwreck.  

We just relaxed down by the ocean while the kids played in the sand.  I absolutely love Juliette in her tutu getting all dirty.  It is 100% her.  Cute and frilly, but getting down and dirty.  

Grandma and Grandpa Hansen just relaxing.  I brought some stuff to study too.  Oh ya, did I mention I had gone back to school?  I am doing online courses through Utah State in a communication disorders major.  

May was also Ashton's yearly meeting for Costco managers in Issaquah, Washington.  The kids and I joined him and we got to play while Daddy was in meetings :)

First we went to Pike's Market, the famous fish market in Seattle.  Here is a view from one of the windows.

The kids and I set out to have some fun.  I let them choose where to go.  This was Dexter's choice.  The museum with dinosaurs.  We went to the Burke museum.  They had fun seeing all the dinosaur bones and other things they had on display.  

He wanted his picture taken with the stegosaurus

The triceratops

The brontosaurus leg bone

and how could we forget something that lived in the ocean?  

We also found a target to go walk through.  I had to pick up a couple things and hadn't been in a Target for about 5 long months.  I miss Target.  You could say I was addicted to Target.  Not having one close was hard at first.  We ate lunch there and they had an icee machine, so we got some :)

The next day was Juliette's pick.  She chose the Children's Museum.  I was going to go to downtown Seattle to their children's museum, but after having gone to the fish market with Ashton and seeing how expensive it was to park, $6 for a half-hour, we found another smaller Children's museum much closer to Issaquah.  

It was small but they had fun and got wiggles out.  What more can you ask for?

Then AShton's family came with his Grandma Jenks.  I somehow got no pictures of Grandma Jenks.  I don't know how that happened. Juliette loved her.  She would snuggle in her lap and fall asleep.  It was very sweet.  

This was a rough time for me.  I was prepping for 2 test the next week, and had my first 1 hour SLP session observation due.  We made it work though!

 We went to the Maritime museum with them.  The kids got to make little boats there.  They had fun.  I got to chat with Grandma Jenks some and I had no idea that this was her and Grandpa Jenks old stomping grounds.  They used to go across the Columbia River to Ilwaco, WA and do some deep sea fishing.  She even drove Grandpa back there when he was very sick after his cancer treatments, a couple months before he passed away.  I had no idea this area held so much sentiment to her.  It was very touching and I am so very grateful for that opportunity I had to learn that.

On our venture to Washington, we went to the North Head Light House. This was the first light house I have ever seen or been to.

On the way back we saw these snails.  Juliette picked it up but then touched the "squishy" part and dropped it.  Poor snail.  That was probably the fastest it had ever traveled in its life :)

We went to Long Beach, WA and played in the sand.  Juliette of course was an absolute mess.  Crayson and Stratton went and jumped in the ocean.  It was chilly, but we had fun.

After all of our visitors had left, we had a fun time as a family.  We took Ashton down to Indian Beach, one of my favorite places to go.  It has sea anemones that you can go and touch and you can let kids play in the water but not be right at the ocean.  We went at high tide, (we forgot to check the tide schedule) so we couldn't show him the anemones, but the kids got to play.  It was chilly but fun to watch all the surfers.

Preschool and soccer

Earlier this year, oh say around April-ish, Dex got to do soccer. It was a "mommy and me" style class trying to teach kids the basics of soccer. Each practice we would rotate through different drills and the last day, they finally got to play a little game. Dex both hated and enjoyed it. He liked to be doing something, but soccer really isn't his thing and if you ask him now if he wants to do it again, it is a firm"NO!"

Juliette was also a trooper. I didn't know it would be a mommy and me class when we signed up so JJ had to hang out. She did have fun basing after rouge balls though. 

He also got into preschool for speech therapy to help reduce his nasality. He took and picked him, but it was hard to see him so grown up. 

Here he is waiting in line with the others while they get the rest of the kids off the bus. He looks so little!  

Easter

Easter morning!  The kids got a new book, pajamas, and some fun treats.

Dexter got shark pajamas and a robot book.

Juliette got a Fancy Nancy book with matching pajamas.

For the Easter egg hunt, we joined in the cities festivities.  They have the middle school football field divided up into sections for each of the different age groups.  All the eggs were just thrown out on the field.  They challenged the older kids by not allowing bags/baskets and making them figure out different ways to collect their eggs.  The eggs were filled with coupons from the different businesses  around town and tokens to the carousel at the carousel mall.

It was cold and rainy the whole time.  

JJ almost got her picture in the newspaper, but a different kid made the page.  

I love that she went in her pink tutu.  It is very much her style!

JJ was the only brave one to sit on the easter bunny's lap.

The kids showing me their pj's

Then on sunday, we colored easter eggs.  The kids had fun and made beautiful eggs.

Part of April

During April Juliette learned how to pedal!  She caught on all in one day!

We had fun with the "popcorn tree" across from our apartment building.  It is so beautiful!  We had fun spotting "popcorn trees"  all over town and found a lot of different colors and "flavors" of popcorn.  The kids decided the pink popcorn trees were strawberry trees and the orange colored trees were, well, orange.  

 After hanging out with our friends the Clydes, Dexter was determined to climb this tree.  

He tried, 

and he tried,

and he tried,

but then he made it!

On one of Ashton's days off, we went exploring. We explored the estuary across from the apartment complex.   

We walked through the woods and learned about the 4 wind indian tribes that once called this place home.  

We found lots of animal tracks and found pretty areas.  

During one of the library story times, they had the firemen come and talk to the kids about fire safety and they got to see one of the fire trucks.  My kids were terrified to the practice drill of crawling on the floor to safety and they were almost as equally scarred of the fire truck.  They finally worked up the courage and went in and then sat on the back.  

We planted some food:  cherry tomatoes, peppers, strawberries,  spinach, and carrots.  We also planted some herbs.

We also got our flowers planted as well.

On another day off, we went to the beach.  This little girl loves to walk barefoot on the beach, or "in her toes" as she would say.  

We went early in the morning and found the crab carnage left from the seagulls breakfast feast.  

We also found this, but don't know what it is.  It is very jelly like and from the ocean :)