Sunniest Fall Ever

I know, I know, I am always commenting on the weather in my posts.  I am so lame.  But happiness in my life here in Washington is very effected by whether or not the sun is going to be out.  I check my weather app nightly before bed to what adventures the weather will allow for the next day.

Thankfully, September and October have given us more than their share of unbelievably sunny days.  We took advantage of that with morning walks through the trails that we love by our new house, or the park that is just a five minute walk away.  

And of course, several visits to the pumpkin patch!!

Aaron's farm-livin' background makes him drawn to horses whenever we come across them, so of course Adelyn and Barett both had to take a ride.

I feel like most kids love animals, but Barett is really intense about them whenever we spot one.  Even if it is just a crow or a seagull.  Which, sidenote, we saw a bald eagle right above our gym yesterday...even I was excited about that one!

You can't see his face in either of these, but can you feel that intensity?!?!

We had a great time on the hayride...though during this time, Jadyn spotted the "PERFECT" pumpkin, so we had to trudge all the way back here to find it.  She cracks me up.

They had these cute little miniature John Deere tractors.  Anytime he can get behind the wheel, it is hard to tear him away.

Aaron's mom joined us there for a little FHE, with some Chili, Cornbread, and pumpkin painting afterward.

When I told Adelyn to smile, she told me first she wanted to do a pose like this.  Don't know where she got that from, but it is funny the things they start to pick up the more they understand about the world around them.  She is constantly surprising me.

Somehow we didn't take any of the pictures of the final product, but I can assure you, they are amazing.  Come by and visit our new house and you can check out the display on our front porch.

We ended up realizing that we all did pretty much the same thing that we did last year.  What a creative bunch...don't be ashamed Carrie Coleman!!

Well maybe we are not creative at painting, but someone is at posing!  Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings with the costuming and trick or treating.  One thing's for sure is that it won't be sunny!!  Gotta love a good rainy Northwest Halloween.  Hope it is a good one for ya. 

What We Have Been Up To

It seems like the past few posts I have talked about how busy we have been, but these last couple months have definitely taken the cake.  I don't think I have worked this hard or been this tired since my mission.  

Most of you know that we put an offer on another short sale back in February and finally signed the deal in August, which is when the mayhem set in.  I am happy to say though that we are finally coming up for air and coming out of hiding, and I thought I'd share a little of the good times we have had.

The people who rented this house had two large dogs.  Those of you who love dogs infinitely more than I do can at least surely admit that they can cause a lot of damage, especially when the people are gone all day.  The floors downstairs were pretty trashed, so we replaced most of the floor.

My mom somehow convinced us that it was ludicrous to pay someone else to put in laminate and she, my Dad, Kathryn, and Ben all pitched in to help get it done.  

The worst part was tearing out the linoleum in the kitchen.  It had been glued to particle board which was then nailed to the floor.  When Aaron tried to get it up with a pry bar, it would just disintegrate into tiny tiny pieces.  So they rented a little toe kick saw which made it possible but turned the house into a dusty war zone.  Our eyes itched for weeks.  Aaron and Ben may still have nightmares.

We could not have done it without my dad's knowledge...and tools.  He seriously has a lot...of both.  Obviously Barett was an essential part of the floor crew as well, how could I leave him off the list?

Another side effect of large dogs taking reign over a house is that the bottom two feet of all the walls were scraped and scuffed everywhere...combine that with the previous owner not upgrading beyond builder-grade flat paint which is impossible to clean, we decided to paint the entire house.

With 20-ft ceilings in the entry and family room, that was no simple undertaking.  My dad had the genius again...we rented scaffolding.  No, I did not venture up there but I do love my brother for doing it.

  

Adelyn, on the other hand, was surprisingly not afraid of heights, considering she freaks out if I give her anything other than the tiniest of pushes on the swing.  Anytime she saw me painting with the ladder she was anxious to climb up the other side and help me out.

For Aaron's birthday and my birthday, my parents were going to get us a flat screen TV (I know, we are so behind the times that we don't have one), but at the last minute countered their offer with another...a backyard renovation.  

Since the backyard's slope made it impossible for Barett to play out there and the kid loves being outside more than anything else, we chose that instead...that flat screen can wait a little longer!

After two solid weeks of shoveling, raking, tilling and sifting dirt and rocks, I think my parents probably wish that we had opted for the TV!!

We built two big retaining walls to counter the slope...and make me a perfect spot for my vegetable garden next year!!!  It is no wonder that the grass back there was completely dead because we had about 1/4 inch of topsoil on layers upon layers of gravel.  The soil was so rocky that it took two people to operate the tiller.

 I am happy to report that where my Dad and Ben are standing in this picture is now level with the wall behind them and has grass growing in!!  I have never seeded a lawn before, but it has been pretty exciting.  We have taken the last two weeks off to let the grass start to come in, but we still have to tackle the patio side of the yard.

I will have to take some after pictures of the house and yard when we are all finished so you can see our progress.  And one of these days we will have a little housewarming party so you can come see for yourselves.  Let me know if you need our new address for Christmas cards...it will be that time before we know it!

I don't usually feel that the internet is the best place to express love or gratitude, but as I wrote this post I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming amount of both for my family.  I am always amazed at how they are always there for me no matter how busy or hectic their own lives are.  

My Dad does not have many vacation days at all, and he took one to help Aaron and Ben on the floor when he could see they needed it.  My mom has a very busy job as the vice president of a college, but she would come to my house on her way home from work (I lost track of how many times), change into her work clothes and go until the sun set.

My mom made the comment at Sunday dinner that her overall feeling from general conference was that she needed to do more service...but has she forgotten all this??  Like we learned from Elder Packer at the last conference, service to our families is the most important kind.

I just hope I can be the kind of parent that my parents have been to me.

The Big One

I know, I can't believe it either, but Barett turned ONE last Saturday!!  I thought Adelyn's first year went by fast, but this one has been ridiculous.  It has been a great year and I feel sad for those of you who live far away and haven't gotten to be a part of it because this little guy is irresistible.

Those of you who do live around here know that he is a very good-natured guy who is serious about one thing: FOOD.  Even if he is has just eaten, if he sees someone else eating he goes and begs, if he hears the sound of a wrapper across the room, he goes and begs.  Just like a little puppy.

Last Saturday the 18th was the actual day, but the poor thing got a little lost in the shuffle of us trying to get our new house ready to move in to and our current house ready to rent.  Plus we had Aaron's cousin's wedding reception two and a half hours away that evening.  Good thing he had no clue about the neglect...bread in hand and he is happy!

The reception was at someone's house in their ward with some nice property so we took some birthday photos.  Big sis was more excited than he was that it was his birthday.

We didn't throw a fancy party, but took a break from demolishing and painting long enough to at least have some cupcakes and presents with family.  He was a much bigger fan of the carrot cake than Adelyn was at her first birthday (I have to start that indoctrination early on!)

He goes in for his one year check up this week, but I think he is about 28 lbs right now, with eight teeth and lots of hang time behind his ears.  He is definitely not the talker that Adelyn was, but he does say ma ma ma, da da da, na na na (for food), and a-da for Adelyn.  And he is VERY good at grunting.  Apparently he got that from me (when I was a baby that is).

He is much more physical than she is too, so I guess there is something to those gender "stereotypes." He loves climbing on anything and everything, getting into the cupboards and banging pots and pans; to listen to us trying to change his diaper or clothes from the next room you would think we were torturing him because he does not want to be forced to sit still.  You can imagine how he feels about sacrament meeting!

He started walking a few weeks ago and I figured you could see his skills while witnessing his enthrallment with his new truck.  He is very happy to get some "boy" toys after being surrounding by Adelyn's pink girly things everywhere.

I love him so much and am grateful to have him in our family.

July July

Just when I thought we had a busy spring, we are having an even busier summer!!  For the first time in as long as I can remember, I am actually looking forward to fall.  Or maybe I am just looking forward to finishing fixing up our new house, renting out this one, and being all settled down into normal life again...which all probably won't happen until fall.

But while it is still summer, I thought I would share some of the fun things we have been up to.  The 4th of July was a gorgeously perfect northwest day, so we decided to start celebrating early by hitting the Steilacoom parade with Aaron's family.  The gun salutes were a little much for Barett, but Adelyn had a blast getting candy thrown at her.

Yes, she is wearing a scarf.  One of her independent wardrobe choices.

The kids napped in the car on the way back down to a yummy BBQ at my parents, followed by a great night at the Tumwater Artesian Festival.  This is our yearly tradition thanks to my big sis working there, but we weren't sure how little Barett would do.

We decided to all get our faces, or something, painted this year...even Barett sat long enough to get a little lightning bolt on his cheek!

We didn't think we were going to last through the festival and into the fireworks with the young kiddos, but we actually did!!  Barett refused to go to sleep with all the excitement going on and was loving every minute. But even he is only so stubborn and was so tired that he finally fell asleep...sitting on my lap...right in the middle of the booming fireworks show. Ya gotta love him!

Jadyn begged and begged Aaron to do the jousting with her and was surprisingly sad she didn't do better against him.  But she gave it her all...do you see her determination in this picture?

We had the kids in swimming lessons, gearing up for what I hoped was going to be a summer spent lazing by the pool getting tan, but the Washington weather had different plans.

Thanks to the Rosados, we did get a few good days of swimming in!  And crossing my fingers we will get at least a couple more in before all the pools close on Labor Day!!

Fresh berries from Spooner's are another of my favorite parts about July, and it looks like I am not the only one.  I turned my back on the open door to the fridge and found a couple of scavengers when I turned back around.  They were shoving them in by the fistfuls like they hadn't eaten all week!  Spooner's just closed for the season...:(  Maybe I am not happy about fall after all.

While Aaron was gone on one of his too many/too long business trips, we decided to meet up with my sister to go to the Woodland Park Zoo.  Believe it or not, this was my first time ever going, even though I lived practically next to it for two years.  Zoos aren't really my thing, but while my kids love them, I love them.

And they definitely had an awesome time!  Though sometimes they seemed to have more fun with the statues of the animals than the actual animals themselves.  This was our best attempt at getting a cousin shot.  With those two boys being mobile now it was obviously a little out of our skill set.

Since the Tacoma zoo doesn't have lions, this is what Adelyn and I were most looking forward to, and boy did we get a good shot!!  I do NOT have a fancy camera with great zooming, this was just how close we were to it!  It was RIGHT on the other side of the glass, which another lady said this was the closest she had EVER seen the male lion and she goes to the zoo a lot.

The elephants were awesome too, though not long after this my kids started to break down a little as it got more and more past naptime.  It was just a little too big to see everything in the two hour window that Barett can usually stand being awake in between naptime.  He screamed the whole 20 minute walk back to the car and all that beautiful Seattle traffic somehow didn't seem to brighten his mood or help put him to sleep.

 In bigger news, Aaron's sister had her baby, Brynnalise Rose in July!  She came close to sharing my birthday, but ended up coming the 24th, while I was gone at Girls' Camp.

The kids got to see her though...here is a little better cousin shot of the Anderson side cousins.  We are so lucky to have the cousins all fairly close right now!!

Hope you guys have been out there enjoying the summer too!

Maui

I know it has been forever since I posted the first part of our trip, but just in case there is anyone out there that still cares, here I am with the second half.  We start right off with the flight over there, which was most likely the shortest trip of my life.  I thought this captured the spirit of Aloha quite nicely!

We stayed in Kaanapali, so we bummed around Lahaina for our first evening there and ran into a celebrity.  Well, I'm sure it probably wasn't him, but doesn't he look an awful lot like Chuck Norris?!?!

Aaron worked the next morning while I was busy getting a sunburn and reading the super-depressing-I'm-so-glad-I'm-an-American A Thousand Splendid Suns.  He thought he would teach me to surf, hence the long board but my back wasn't up for the challenge.  Maybe next time!  I was content just chilling in the gorgeous water, working a little more on my sunburn.

We hit up Duke's that night and took this picture just for you Erica!  The infamous Hula Pie came courtesy of our condo, so we couldn't resist.  It was the only thing that made Aaron partially forget about the tiny rock that had imbedded itself in his foot that afternoon.

He asked me to look at his foot for him to see if there was a cut there, but there was much more than a cut!  Poor guy...I had to pretend I had any nursing skill whatsoever and try to dig it out with tweezers and a needle from a basic first aid kit.  We think there may even be a little piece left in there now a month later!

At least he had an excuse to drive this around the grocery store.  He was having a BIT too much fun with it I think.

Because I get car sick so easily, we did not commit ourselves to the Road to Hana.  But we had a little extra time the next day after our boat excursion so we decided to head out there to see what all the fuss was about.  The bark on these Eucalyptus trees was so cool and they smelled amazing.

I thought it would help if I drove, but wow those turns were unbelievable!!  I was loving the scenery, but we decided to head home after hitting our first waterfall.  

This was the view from our balcony.  So beautiful!  And we didn't have to make any sharp turns to see it, just roll over in the morning and open the eyes.

Since I was feeling all the Asian love, I figured a visit to the Giant Buddha in Lahaina before heading out was a must.  Apparently it is the largest of its kind outside of Japan.

Speaking of giant, we had to snap a photo of the ridiculously huge Banyan tree they have there as well.  When it was first planted, it was 8 feet tall, but now is close to 60 feet tall and spreads out to cover over a 200 ft area.  Crazy. 

We also visited the Iao Valley, home to this Iao Needle, a famous landmark of Maui and a formal sacred burial ground.  Apparently this was an important location anciently and was where the battle to unify the Hawaiian Islands was lost by Maui's people.  

The rest of these pictures are all from the boating adventure that we took.  When deciding which little splurge we would do, i said I wanted to see turtles and dolphins, and supposedly this one saw both.  We weren't prepared for how rough the ride was--it was a pontoon boat that felt like a jet ski ride on the open waters.  It was awesome, though a bit nail biting at times!

This ride (Blue Water Rafting) was also unique in that it took us down around the southern tip of the island, the Kuhio Coast, where the lava flowed into the ocean most recently.  If I were a geologist, I am sure I would have gotten excited about the formations.  We just thought they were gorgeous.  And don't you love the color of the water?!

Of course we got to do some snorkeling while we were out there.  This is us at the Molokini Crater.  Try not to be scared by my snorkeling face.  Or my weird finger formation.  Yikes.  I thought the reflection on the underside of the water was pretty cool.

We thought the snorkeling was better when we were down in Key West, but some people on our boat saw a shark and the scuba divers saw an eel, so maybe we just weren't sleuthy enough!  I WAS glad that there weren't millions of tiny jellyfish and barracuda though like in Key West.  This was much more relaxing.

Aaron got pretty far down.  We had thought about trying out that Snuba thing, but the water was so clear there that we were glad we didn't.  Anyone tried it before?

 So yes, we did manage to see some turtles!  We saw quite a few of them at this place they aptly call Turtle Town.  Aaron and I followed this one for a long time before he decided he was bored with us and dove back down to the bottom.  I was surprised at how fast they are.

Not on the list of things to do: have a bird eat right out of my hand.  But it happened and we captured it for posterity.

And finally the moment came that I had been most anticipating: DOLPHINS!!!  Ever since I was a little kid visiting Galveston, TX in the summers, I have wanted to see one up close.  One time we were down there and someone spotted them in the distance and I swore one came and nibbled at my feet because it wanted to be my friend.  

The excitement in the video is 18-22 seconds in.  That's when Aaron got smart and decided to just stick the underwater camera down into the water to see if we could get a better glimpse of something more than the dorsal fin.  So cool!

Anyway, we had a great time and really appreciate Michelle for watching the kiddos while we were gone and making it all possible.  I think I am ready to do something like that again as soon as she gets back from BYU next summer.  I don't know how we are going to get along without her. :(