When did she get so grown up?

This was taken at our annual Daddy Date to Garden D'Lights at Bellevue Botanical Gardens. I love this girl!

P.S. Here is the post from our visit to Garden D'Lights from last year.

Growing up

Because I see them every day, I often don't realize just how quickly our kids are growing up. I guess it is a variation of the frog-in-slowly-warming-water phenomenon. But when I saw these pictures of Drew and Sam from the Sounders game the other night, I was struck by how grown up they both look!

A necklace for mom...

I love that Sam made this necklace for Missi. The "chain" is a few pipecleaners and the pendant is a piece of construction paper that says "the best Mom is right in front of you".

Big 'ol update from spring and early summer 2011

Sorry for the insanely long post, but I figured I needed a big huge update to somewhat make up for my lack of blogging the past few months.

Crazy Dress-Up Days
This year Drew and Sam went all out in their outfits for their school's crazy dress-up days.


Here are Drew and Sam on "crazy appearance day"


This is Sam on "Favorite Character" day. She was Fancy Nancy. If you've ever scene the "Fancy Nancy" series of books, you'll recognize that she absolutely nailed this one.


Drew on "Favorite Character" day. Not hard to realize that his favorite character is a soldier just back from deployment to Afghanistan


Drew and Sam together on "Favorite Character" day

Easter 2011
This year's Easter celebration was one for the memory books. First, our church held one massive service at Qwest Field in Seattle with thousands of people attending. It was an amazing service, even when it started to rain a bit. Second, our son Drew decided that he wanted to be baptized at this service and John was able to baptize him at the Easter service. After the service we had dozens of friends come over for a big meal and Easter Egg hunt.


The set up for our church's Easter service


Drew at the Easter service

Drew preparing to be baptized


An amazing moment


The big 'ol Easter egg hunt


Family picture on Easter


It was great to have Grammy and Grandpa (John's parents) in town to help celebrate Easter

Tee Ball and Sounders FC


Our little tee ball player


"Swing, batta, batta, batta..."


There are few things in life more adorable than watching little kids play tee ball!


Missi and our friend Jessica at the Sounders game


At the Sounders game

Sam's Seventh Birthday Party!
We had a great time celebrating our little lady's seventh birthday. There were about 12 of her friends who came over for a makeover themed party and sleepover.


Sam and one of Drew's friends who came to assist with the party doing an at-home manicure


The birthday girl getting her nails done. (notice how her hair has been crimped as part of the "makeover")


Dance party to Hannah Montana!


Massive pillow fight!


I loved the irony in the fact that the girls had a "makeover" themed birthday and then promptly went out into the dirt and worked on building a fort.


I can't tell if "Pillow Pets" are popular among 6 and 7 year old girls

End of School Year and Visit from Alaskan Cousins


Hazelwood Elementary Class of 2011!


Drew and his great teacher at the graduation ceremony


We LOVED having the Alaskan cousins in Seattle for a short visit. So fun to catch up with them!


Sam and her wonderful first-grade teacher.


It was incredible to have this guy be Drew's teacher for the past two years. He'll be missed! Notice Drew rocking the end-of-schoolyear mohawk

Our Little Capitalistic Entrepreneurs

Lest there be any doubt, our kids look like they will be entrepreneurs when they grow up.

Some context: last Sunday we had one of the nicest days in what seemed like weeks. The clouds dissipated and we were able to accomplish some long-overdue yard work. Drew and Sam were both helping me, and Sam had her friend Kylie over. Kylie lives a few houses away from us, and she and Sam are frequent guests at each others houses.

As first-grade girls are wont to do, Sam and Kylie lost interest in the yard work after a short time, and they decided they wanted to open a rock stand. That's right, they decided they would pick out the best rocks from a gravel area across the street and then sell them to whoever would like to purchase them. Here are Sam and Kylie with their rock stand:



The price started out at $1 per rock, but they quickly lowered it to 4 for a dollar.



Now Drew was being his "I'm almost 11 and way too cool for that" self while helping me with the yard work. But you could tell that he was keeping an eye on Sam and Kylie. And once Sam and Kylie started to see revenues roll in (Missi), Drew sprang into action.

He promptly set up his own competing rock store directly across the street from Sam and Kylie.



Talk about competition! This is like a Stumptown Coffee setting up shop next to the original Starbucks in Pike Place Market! And Drew wasn't just idly sitting in his "rock store" waiting for business - he was yelling across the street trying to get Missi's attention in an attempt to lure her away from the girls' store and to his store. What a ruthless businessman! Well, apparently his tactics worked - Missi made her way over to his store and purchased a few rocks. Here is a short video of their negotiations (the audio isn't great, but you can get the gist):



I loved this whole experience. I loved Sam and Kylie's initiative and creativity in setting up their stand. I loved Drew acting "too cool" and then jumping in to join the "market." I loved Missi negotiating with both of them but judiciously ensuring that each received the same amount of money at the end of the day. And I hope that my kids always follow their passions and dreams, especially if that means that they will be entrepreneurs.

In Which I Blog About What Has Been Going On...

It's always crazy for me to look back at the last time I posted something on the blog, when I realize that it has been several WEEKS since the last post. I guess I just need to resign myself to the fact that with the current pace of life, that is about the frequency that I can reasonably expect. In any event, here are a few tidbits from our life lately:

- We celebrated our eleventh anniversary! It is hard for me to believe that we have been married for 11 years - it certainly hasn't seemed that long. But what an adventure it has been. We celebrated by going winetasting in Woodinville, where there are dozens of tasting rooms.


"I think I'm getting some notes of blackberry and with a hint spring mist..."


"No, actually I'm getting a nose that consists of wild mushroom and toasted oak..."

- We celebrated the wedding of our great friend Monica Kerslake to her husband David. We met Monica during my first year of law school in Eugene and she has been such a great friend ever since. Missi was radiant as the matron of honor and Sam was completely adorable as the flower girl. After the ceremony, Sam completely stole the show on the dance floor. It is completely apparent that Sam has received her mother's dancing genes. An added bonus of the wedding was the chance to catch up with my friend Ryan, who was up from Eugene to film the ceremony.


Sam coming down the aisle.


Mr. and Mrs. Chin!






This about stopped my heart when I saw Sam in the veil.




Ryan hard at work.


Missi did an AMAZING job with her toast. A great combination of heartfelt encouragement and humor.

- Baseball season has arrived! I have the honor/privilege/burden of being a head coach this year. We are the Cardinals. I am a mixture of excited and anxious.

- We took a trip to Great Wolf Lodge with our friends the Foglios. This was one of the kids' Christmas gifts and we had a blast. If you have kids, I recommend checking out Great Wolf. If you haven't been, think of a fairly large hotel with a huge indoor water park included in the price of your room. They also don't allow non-hotel guests to use the water park, and this limited capacity means that you don't have to wait in line for 45 minutes to use a water slide. They also have this crazy treasure hunt throughout the entire hotel called "MagiQuest" where you have a wand and have to point it at certain features (picture frames, plants, lights, etc...) in order to complete certain quests. It was a great time.


Drew hit it big in the arcade.


Sam and her BFF Taylor.





- We went to see The Decemberists in their "Popes of Pendarvia" tour. What a great show. I can't emphasize this enough, but please go see this band if they come through your town. They are total stage performers and you will have a great time, even if you don't know much of their music. Here is a review of their show in Portland, which took place on the night following their show in Portland. Without a doubt The Decemberists are one of our favorite bands right now.





- Speaking of music, I am listening to "Sigh No More" by Mumford and Sons a lot right now. Check it out. It's a great album.