August 2011

The road trip home from Utah was nothing short of a nightmare! Leo hates the car seat and car rides - with a passion. He cries every time we drive anywhere. He cried so much he started foaming at the mouth. It was awful. It took us about 18 hours and I plan on erasing it from my mind entirely.

Thankfully, we were able to have Alissa spend a month in Washington with us after our trip to Utah. Always always always a good time with this girl around! We played with our food and with her hair and one night, she pulled lost TWO teeth - I pulled one and then she pulled another herself. That's one tough niece of mine!




On our tour of Seattle, we first took her to the Seattle Aquarium (which was new to us too)! For its small size, the Aquarium is really pretty amazing.




The octopus was everyone's favorite.



"Hey kids, pretend the octopus tentacles are getting you!"




Ooh- maybe Charlie is too good at pretending..... scary!





I love this next photo because you can see Charlie's astonished expression reflected in the glass.








Now hows about a nice hot bowl of clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl? Only in Seattle can that be appropriate and appetizing option in the middle of August.




This is a photo of all the children begging James and I to take them to the Lego store.... a considerable distance out of our way home. We totally caved. How could we not?



At home, the memory of last Summer's animal shelter lemonade-stand fundraiser was fresh in the kids' mind. They begged to do another one here. Instead of raising money for the animal shelter, they raised exactly $53.91 for Ariella Horne - a sweet baby who nearly drowned in the bath tub - to help with the family's medical bills. They were so cute about it.






Her parents were so worried we wouldn't be able to get her to eat while she was here.





Oh she ate alright! She gained FIVE POUNDS!!!

Playing with the baby provided endless hours of entertainment..... And the kids liked to do it once in a while too!






A friend of mine from the ward does a soccer club every year. They're called the "Little Saints." I may or may not have forced Annabelle and Charlie to participate - Annie cuz I thought it'd be cute and she'd get to play with her friends, and Charlie because he just needs to be forced to do stuff.




Turns out they both LOVED it AND it was pretty cute :)





And this is just to make you smile ------->

l