recap of a good week.

Spring is still struggling to arrive around here but we are doing our best to get outside when the sun peaks out. I think there have only been 6 sunny days in 2017....sheesh! I'm so ready for more sun, longer nights and outdoor play. 

Anytime it's not raining we head outside for an after dinner family walk. The kids love this and usually beg to do it each night. We put dishes on hold, grab random shoes and walk our loop around 3  nearby neighborhoods. 

Another fun activity lately? Coloring. All the time! We've been busy printing off random coloring pages every day and Simon's usually involves some sort of sports theme. It's so funny how at such a young age his interest in sports has already come through.

 He's also finally mastered building a train track. These little wooden pieces are somewhat of a morning ritual for him. We build choos choos together and he just loves pushing his little trains around. The other kids enjoyed this but never really got into it so it's fun to see him learn how to put them together all by himself.

 Carter started flag football this week too! He's been great about wanting to try new sports this year and we love having him learn some new skills and meet new friends. He did great his first night and now we'll have 2 nights a week of practices and games....plus an extremely supportive Dad who volunteered to be the assistant coach this season!

 Simon, Lucy and I headed to the Children's museum this week too. While all the exhibits are fun the water room is always a favorite. I think we spent over half our time just in this room alone.

 Lucy is taking a break from tennis lessons and started her 3rd year of spring soccer this week too (yep, our weeknights now consist of sports 4 days/week....oh.my.goodness.). Matt is the head coach and they named their team the Elephant Goalies...ha! She is playing with 3 other friends who she loves and some other really great kids too.

 And luckily the sun came out for the first hour of practice!

 Yesterday we needed to take baths before a trip into Seattle to meet Matt at work. I got Simon out and dressed and let Lucy play for a few more minutes. Little did I know that Simon snuck back into the bathroom to jump right back in the bathtub while I put his other clothes in the laundry hamper. He quickly realized it wasn't such a great idea but had Lucy and I laughing hysterically.

 Yesterday was beyond beautiful! I think everyone in the PNW got outside and soaked up all the vitamin D. It's such a tease since today's forecast calls for more rain but we were so happy to be outside all day long. The Space Needle was beautiful, lots of sun, no clouds and plenty of time getting dirty in the sandbox. Carter's teacher even let the kids have an extra recess in the afternoon so they could enjoy the sunshine...only in the PNW!

 Here's hoping we can juggle this busy season....this weekend it's time to rest!

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Easter 2017.

Our Easter weekend was full of simple traditions and I'm starting to learn that's really what our family thrives on. Time spent together, doing our traditional activities, a relaxed schedule and remembering years past. It was a great 2 days celebrating together.

We spent the day before Easter at Grandpa and Grandma Vance's house, as we usually do. 

 After a delicious breakfast the kids headed out to feed the squirrels (and eat a few peanuts for themselves too!)

 Simon went down for a nap which was the perfect opportunity to let the big kids dye eggs. Every year this just gets more fun (and less messy). Carter worked hard on his eggs, was content and left to go play. But Lucy spent 1.5 hours meticulously waiting for each egg to dye, then move it to another cup to change the color. Over and over again. Her patience is truly remarkable sometimes and I really don't know where she gets it from!

 The eggs were so pretty and sadly we completely forgot to take any home with us.  Oops! Hope Grandma didn't mind eating 18 hard boiled eggs all week.

 After a quick lunch we were ready for our annual egg hunt! Simon always wants to copy everything his big brother and sister do....just not always in the exact same way. Ha! This picture will forever make me laugh.

 Need a good way to keep egg hunts fair for multiple children? Color code the eggs! We started doing this a few years back and it has saved egg hunts. We can hide eggs harder for older kids, put different candy and toys in each kids' eggs so they get what they like and no more worrying about who has more eggs. The kids love finding their own colors and we do the same thing at our house too. Brilliant!

 They devoured most of their candy and loved their new little toys they each got. After a delicious steak dinner we headed home to prepare for Easter Sunday.

 The Easter bunny stopped by at night to drop off a little chocolate while Matt and I helped with a few extra things.

Then it was time to get dressed up for church. I kept Easter outfits simple this year but I loved their bright, cheery colors.

We came home from church and Simon just crashed! All the fun and excitement, plus a lot more sugar than they are used to helped him take a long, well deserved nap.

Then it was time for our family egg hunt in the backyard. Simple, easy and still so fun.

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some time away.

Let's be honest. We don't get out much. Between both of us working, 3 small children, extracurricular activities, church, school/preschool and working out there is little time left in the day or...we are just exhausted!! But, date nights and adult time are so needed and we've definitely been making more of an effort lately to schedule in some time alone. Plus, this year we will celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary so we knew a little getaway was well deserved!

After our original plans fell through we came up with Plan B and snuck away this past weekend, celebrating our anniversary just a few months early. Thanks to grandparents for offering to watch the kids it worked out perfectly!

8 out of 10 years Matt has either been away on business trips, we moved, I had surgery or we had a newborn so we never got to celebrate our anniversary. Lame! This year we new we wanted to do something big! After saving up some money the past 9 months we booked 2 nights at Salish Lodge and took full advantage of all the amenities. It was amazing and now I can't wait to schedule another getaway!!

We started the trip with brunch at Barking Frog, a beautiful restaurant in the heart of Woodinville's wine country. It's not often we eat out and at home we are usually focused on 3 small children that we don't get to sit and really enjoy our food. We really made an effort to slow down this weekend, take hours to eat and talk and laugh. It was perfect.

Then we headed over to see the newest Cirque du Soleil show. This was our 2nd time seeing Cirque du Soleil and they did not disappoint. While I think I liked the first show's performances better the music and costuming was done so well.

We had a short drive to Salish Lodge and checked into our deluxe room. We were hoping to get some sort of upgrade for our anniversary since it's been a running joke we didn't get a darn thing for our Honeymoon. Little did we know the staff at Salish Lodge had a few surprises up their sleeves and really gave us over the top service during our entire stay.

Starting with complimentary champagne delivered to our room and a view of the falls right outside our deck. While the weather was a bit hit or miss the view was amazing.

We ended the night with dinner at one of the restaurants, so yummy!

The next morning we had spa treatments scheduled so we opted for some room service. We both wanted just a small bowl of oatmeal and fruit but ended up with a gigantic saucer that could have fed a small army!

After spending 3 hours down at the spa we came back to our room for an afternoon snack of champagne, cheese and bread. Soooo good!

Even though there were some beautiful hiking trails nearby it rained most of the day so an afternoon nap was a much better choice (especially for this always tired mama!). We put on some fancy clothes and headed down to a 2.5 hour dinner with a perfect view of the falls.

They surprised us with more free champagne and flowers at our table!

And a special little note on our dessert, so pretty and really delicious!

The room was beautiful!

Our last morning we woke up and got ready for brunch as the sun finally came out.

Matt was worried any more upgrades would be a little cheesy (aka flower petals on the table again) and was expecting just a "normal" meal. But nope! They led us back to a private room in the restaurant with an even better view than the night before as we got settled in with mimosas and a 4 course brunch.

Even a basic cup of coffee wasn't presented in a simple way! Served with cream, 2 types of sugar, chocolate shavings and vanilla whipped cream! So good!

The 4 courses started and it was a TON of food (and no, we didn't finish it all. Not even close!)

A double rainbow came out while we were eating and stayed for most of the morning.

They ended with a high drizzle of local, raw honey over the homemade biscuit. It's their signature meal and tried to make it super dramatic!

As we rolled ourselves out of the hotel with full stomachs we both agreed the weekend was so needed, deserved and very much appreciated. To have time to sleep in, relax and just talk and laugh was what we had been wanting for a long time! We missed the kids and were ready to head home but can't wait to plan another trip away (this took 3 years in the making so it'll be a while but still fun to dream!)

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