Thanksgiving in Seattle

It has been a while since the last post: July - November. That's a long time I suppose. Here is the update from then until now: we went to Hawaii at the end of July, came back and experienced the abbreviated Seattle summer of 2010, football season started (Huskies decidedly average, which is an improvement), Halloween, a quick snow in November and then Thanksgiving.

• Clara: 17 months now and can walk and "jog" wonderfully. 
• Clara: Has many words now but many sound similar. Noted recent words: daddy (good diction), baby (great diction), mommy (great diction) and others like football (I taught her that one), bye-bye, kitty, doggy, bottle (the "tt" comes out like a "th"). Still, many things are "eehhhh!".
• Hadden: Can do a somersault. He started gymnastics in September (once a week for 45 minutes).  
• Hadden: excellent at being difficult. 

Hawaii

Went to Hawaii and stayed with the gang at the end of July-beginning of August. Lots of fun. Everyone got along well (especially considering they are kids of 1, 3, 4, and 5). Lots of fun at the beach. Went to the Kailua tidepools (by the boat ramp for those in the know) and saw a few fish - even caught a couple. Saw a dead puffer fish (cool) and a live turtle (in the water swimming nearby). 

Starlettes avoid the paparazzi near the pool.

Fun in a big hole at the beach.

Look what Auntie Michelle has in the bucket (a small fish).

What was left of the Seattle summer

It's a la Nina year so summer was short, colder than normal and wet. Such are the hazards of living in Seattle. In August we went to the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe. Lots of fun seeing the animals and rides. Everyone got to pet the animals and Hadden got to go on a ride ($8 for about 3 minutes of fun). Afterwards the kids sacked out on the way home (see photos). 

Petting the goat in the kids farm area.

Baby pigs in the kids farm.

Hadden the Chiquita banana.

Kids have had enough for the day.

Dad came in September for 2 Husky games. Uncle Ron came for the second one against Nebraska. No pictures of that game as there was nothing that needed to be preserved in anyone's memory as the Huskies got trounced. Ugh.

Here's Clara at the Burke Museum (being such a cultural family, we often take our kids to University museums such as the Burke) for the Bug exhibit. Pretty cool. I've no idea what they're looking at.

At one time, we considered mailing the kids to a relative as a joke (and also to get some rest). Turns out they both fit in one shipping box with room for food. USPS will mail this for one flat rate.

Clara loves to feed herself. She even gets some yogurt into her mouth...although I'm not sure it's much. At least she's happy about it. Dad cleaned this one up but figured it was at least worthy of a photo. Please see the Noodle video (below) for more messiness.

Movie night in the kids room. Hadden and Clara are in the same room now at night. I set up the projector in the room along with an old-school slide screen and we watched Kung Fu Panda from my laptop. Yvonne was traveling so video entertainment was at the top of my list.

Halloween
This year Hadden was a firefighter and Clara was a cow (Clarabelle the Cow - get it?). The firefighter costume is a real winner. Hadden wears it several times a week and we have to convince him that he can actually wear other clothes. We did the usual Greenwood Avenue trick-or-treat on Saturday morning (October 30th) but it was pouring rain. The following night the weather was great and we did an abbreviated half-block walk in our neighborhood. They all loved it and Hadden was very sweet waiting for his little sister and making sure she didn't get behind.

Clarabelle the Cow

The firefighter

Going to the mall in a firefighter costume some time in November.

Some Snow
The week of Thanksgiving it snowed on Monday and stuck around until Thursday. Even snowed a bit more on Thursday morning. This made us realize that despite all the clothes the kids do have, they don't have any warm winter clothes that fit. Had to buy them but managed to take advantage of stores jumping the gun on Black Friday. We played outside in the snow on Tuesday morning and Thursday morning. Everyone had fun - Clara was a bit skeptical about being outside but she warmed up to it.

Clara and Mommy outside in her new snow boots. Cute.

Hadden helps Daddy "clean" the car for work. I put on chains Tuesday. That's rare for Seattle but then again, we don't do much in this town when it snows. 

Clara in her styling new coat and hand-me-down hat.

That's all for now. Ta-ta!

Steve