New Firefighter Boots

Jadyn had to try on Daddy's new leather bunker boots

Just a little bike ride...

On Monday, Mark went for a 55 mile bike ride with a friend, Manfred, around the north end of Lake Washington, through Seattle, and back across the I-90 floating bridge to the eastside.

Manfred (seen on the right in his disguise for a Junior High event) is a Lance Armstrong protege and easily showed me that he's in much better shape than me. We had a great time though, and when we were done, I could almost force my screaming and cramping legs to carry me to my car and drive me home. The next day, I was even able to get out of bed in the morning with much convincing and walk around a bit.

As we crossed the Ballard locks, we ran into another firefighter I know from Seattle. As you can see in this picture, the best part of the trip was wearing my 20-year old helmet and

Manfred's cool "make sure the cars can see you and don't run you over" patriotic shirt! I swallowed my dignity and had a great time anyways.

Thanks for a great day, Manfred!

Swimming vs. gymnastics

Jadyn and I were talking about swimming and gymnastics this morning. I asked her if she liked one better than the other or if they were both the same amount of fun. She thought for a bit, then replied: "I like swimming better because my body doesn't get in the way so much when I try something new. And you get to splash when you jump in. Gymnastics, you get to jump in, but it only makes a squish noise." (The "squish" noise happens when they get to jump into the large pit filled with cut up foam pieces.)

Is she management material?

A short anecdote from last week when Julie's mom was visiting... (her nickname is Gramda)

Jadyn and Daddy were out washing the car when Gramda came walking out to see what they were doing. As she scrubbed a tire with her rag, Jadyn looked up at Gramda and, without missing a beat, said, "there's another rag in the bucket, Gramda!"

Delegate away, my little girl! We're so proud!

Our little wedding dancer

A busy weekend

Over last weekend we had Julie's mom and her friend, Naureen, come stay with us. Naureen made an awesome wedding cake for some great friends of ours that got married Sunday (congrats Doug and Meghan!).

Here's Jadyn with the happy bride and groom!

Jadyn got to be one of the flower girls - here she is with Lilly as they walk down the aisle dropping their flower petals.

Number Two!

Happy Birthday, Karina!

Easter weekend, part 2...

On Easter morning, Mark and I stayed with Karina in her classroom at our church. It was so sweet to see all the little girls dressed up in their fancy outfits! Our little one definitely fit right in.

Here is Jadyn in her class with her best buddy, Katie. The girls picked out the same dresses just for Easter morning.

Between the three of them, we had enough pink fluff to cover about 10 girls! They had so much fun twirling around together- it was hard to get them to say goodbye.

After church, we headed over to Mark's parents house for brunch with the family. It was nice to see everyone all in one place again.

Jadyn was very excited to see her baby cousin Caelan and her Aunt Stephany. She couldn't get close enough to them!

Easter weekend, part 1

Saturday, we were invited to spend the afternoon at Chad and Cindy's place. All together, there were 8 adults, and 8 little ones. We had an amazing brunch and a lot of great playtime together. It is always so much fun to meet and get to know new people.

After we ate, the kids all received their own overflowing Easter basket, then headed outside to hunt for hundreds of eggs in the backyard.

Before we ate, the kids went outside to run off some excess energy. Jadyn got to ride a scooter. (She has been saving money for weeks to buy her own-so she loved it!)

Sisterly love...

Gearing up to start the festivities!

Karina loved everything in her basket!

Baskets are empty, just waiting for the word to start the hunt!

Hunt, grab, store safely, repeat, repeat, repeat...

This is definitely the best way to use your basket!

We had such a fun day! Thank you to Chad, Cindy, Andrew, and Nicholas for sharing your home and love with us! Can't wait to see you again!

Swimming

Jadyn started swimming lessons last night. As we expected, she loved it! She will get to go twice a week for 2 months. Here are a few glimpses of her first class...Getting ready to go in--notice that Karina is in the background ready to jump in with everyone, too!Meeting her new coach, Krista.
Blowing lots of bubbles.
Look at that smile!

Fun and games!

Tonight, Jadyn got to go to the end of the year carnival for Discovery Kids, the Bible class she has been involved in on Wednesday nights since September. It was a lot of fun. They had many different games/activities set up in rooms around our church that you could choose to go to.

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Here's Jadyn enjoying cuddle time with a "real life" sheep and her shepherd.
She tried to catapult a ball at a target on the wall.

Going through the obstacle course.

She spent a lot of the evening with her best buddy, Katie. They were supposed to be shooting basket balls at a hoop here, but they were having much more fun trying to hit the poor junior high boy that was running the event instead! Silly girls!
Jadyn's favorite part of the whole night: getting to meet another little girl with her name! She was so sweet helping "baby Jaden" try the obstacle course!