Josiah was a power ranger for halloween. these pictures are from a "mommy & me" day. Last saturday I took him to the Pacific Science Center for some Halloween adventure. we had a great time walking through the butterfly exhibt, learning about how our bodies work & touching the sea life.



Below is a shot of Josiah scraping ice off the car. He wanted to help daddy, it took a long time but was worth the wait!




Alex's birthday is this weekend so maybe I can get some shots of him to share with you all- he is in a 'no picture' phase and I can't get him in one shot!!

It has been another fun week for us, well for me. I was lucky enough to have an all expenses paid trip back to Southern California for some work and fun. I spent 5 days in Anaheim at the Grand Californian, which is by far one of the more up scale hotels I have ever stayed in and this time was no different.
When I first checked in I had been up since 3:00 am, spent the day in Disneyland running around and was in my sweats when I was told that I was at "VIP" Status in the hotel and would I wait because the check in manager was looking foward to meeting me... yes really. That was a little weird, but as soon as I walked into my room the phone rang from Guest Services to welcome me to the hotel and find out if I needed anything (again... huh?). I was taken aback by all this attention... but After the second phone call the next morning to see how I was doing I felt pretty good :-).
I had a blast on Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, Tower of Terror, Soarin and of course Screamin. I walked until I couldn't walk no more and then enjoyed people watching in the Magic Kingdom. After an exhausting day I always find myself pondering why I love this place so much and then I realize how much magic and joy are held in the park and how the outside world is left behind as soon as you walk through the gates. By then my thoughts are usually interuppted by the screaming kid who wants to stay and see Buzz Lightyear.
The conference was a huge success, everyone was very thankful at all the hard work I put into it, but really it was a blast to organize.

On Tuesday night I got to do something most people never do.... I got to go back stage! that was so much fun (for those reading with little children or a great imagination stop reading now). We saw the costume shop, I will be forever traumatized seeing all those character heads hanging on racks, and buzz lightyear taken apart & laying all over the floor. I saw all the old buildings and heard what they used to be and what they are now. It truly is a piece of history I will probably never get to see again. Sorry, there are no pictures of backstage- I was told that if I pulled my camera out I might get shot. :-).

The bottom picture is hard to make out, but it is by far my favorite part of flying... It is the top of Mt Rainier sticking out above the clouds, usually you can see the whole mountain peering out against the blue sky, but on this day it was only the top part.

The view from my room at sun rise.

Soccer!!!

We signed Josiah up for Soccer this year, in hopes of giving him an outlet and a sport to enjoy. Since three of us are already in baseball, we thought it would be best to direct Josiah's sports interest to another area. After the first practice it was very clear that Josiah should have been signed up for Football instead. He got kneed in the head twice, then at the second practice he learned that he could knock other kids down for the ball. He is a good aim when it comes to kicking it in, but I don't think Soccer is the right sport for him :-).

Happy Birthday Josiah!!!!!

Josiah turned 5 on the 22nd and we had a Pirate party for him.
Grandma, Grandad, Grandma, Papa, Aunt neeners, Uncles Nathan, Andrew, and Matthew all came over for some Pirate fun.

With School comes fundraisers! we may hit you up in person, or if you are out of state check out the website at www.qsp.com Alex goes to Harbour Pointe Middle School #425009629.
Thanks for your support!

Entering Middle School...

I didn't cry when Alex went to Kindergarten, but today I got a little teary eyed. My young man has headed off to Middle School, a time of 6 classes in one day, 5 minutes to get there and a locker on the other side of the school.
I tried to find his first day of school photo last year for comparrison, but I think it's on a cd somewhere. Last year he was several inches shorter.

It's hard to see your boys grow up and I can only hope that Alex becomes the amazing young man I know he can be.

First day of Pre-K
Every year I make a big deal of Alex going off to school, so it was only natural that Josiah expect the same treatment.
Today was his first day in Pre-K. No more games all day, he actually learns to write and other things! how exciting.
Look for Alex's first day of school photos tomorrow!

The Evergreen State Fair...

We had a great time at the fair yesterday. The first thing we did was find Josiah's blue ribbon cookie.


We then headed off through all the booths and let the boys ride some rides. We had a LOT of, David & I were exhausted... Josiah & Alex were not.

Sickness in our house...

Well, I honestly have never been so sick in my entire life. Last Tuesday afternoonn I went home from work a little early feeling achy... I had know idea what I was in for. With in two hours i was totally SICK. I couldn't move from all the pain and my throat felt like it was swelling shut. I had a tempature of 101 degrees and I questioned whether in not it warrented a trip to the doctor. After spending all day Wednesday in bed with my tempature at an all time high of 102.6 David decided I should hit the walk in clinic.
Well, I suffer from a kidney infection and strep throat with a cold starting. WHAT? so I have spent four days in bed, taking lots of drugs and sleeping more than I have ever sletp in my life. Today is saturday and I ventured out of the bedroom & out of the house. I am taking life VERY easy, but I have to also get back to normal soon. today was my first meal in five days and I am excited. Continue to pray that I will not over do it but also that the special day David & I had planned for the boys on monday will not be hindered by my energy.

Hope you all are doing well! The exciting news of the day is, David's brother, Nathan is on his way home from Iraq!!!! YAHOOOO! time to find him a nice girl :-).

One more ball game photo... I love this one of Josiah, you can even see all his freckles!

Mariners Vs. Yankees 8/22/06

For my dad's birthday & father's day we treated him to a Mariner's game. We choose the Yankees game because Alex has always been a HUGE fan of A-Rod, and so, he is a fan of the Yankees... I know, I know, seeing the Yankees hat on one of my children's head is so sad and the worst part about last night was when we realized Alex's hat was too small and my mom treated him to a new one so Alex gave his kids one to Josiah. So now I have two boys with Yankees hats... where in the world did I go wrong?

The evening started out innocent enough, until Alex took a bite of his sandwich from Subway and broke a tooth... What did he put in his sandwich? It was one more reminder that Nathan had originally broken the same tooth of Alex's in a pillow fight two years ago...

Overall we had a great time! Josiah kept himself busy with my digital camera (I think i deleted more than 40 useless photos). He learned a bit of patience, on a digital camera you have to push the button & wait. We got lots of photos of the guys on the field, of the flags behind us, the lights, several of the sky... there was nothing in the sky. He learned to get peoples heads instead of their feet and at one point he was directing us so he could get silly pictures. And did I mention that he took great effort in taking a picture of his finger? After a few failed attempts, Josiah finally got this picture of me & David.

Here is a self portait of Josiah...he looks a little tired...

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. The Mariners tied the game up in the 7th and Josiah learned what the Rally Rag was used for... we all received one when we entered the staduim. My poor dad had to hold his hand up to keep from getting hit in the head while Josiah swung it around. He got really excited when the staduim went bonkers and he was right there to join in.

and then there is my quest to get some great family photos in different places. Will I ever get all three of them to look at the camera and smile??? The joys of boys :-).

We had a good time at the Branley Family Picnic this year. It was at my Aunt Mary Jo's in Enumclaw. Josiah got to ride a horse and Alex and the other kids played crochet, football & baseball. It was hot, but a lot of fun to connect with the family.

See what I mean by hot pants?

The last two weeks have been really busy. Sorry for the lack of posts, but my camera died while camping and I have been waiting for a cord to my new camera to download all the fun stuff we have been doing.

Last Friday we enjoyed one of the Seafair festivities by going to the Tour de Terrace to enjoy some great food and watch a smaller version of the Torchlight parade. It is a great parade and you get to see the Seafair clowns, Seafair Pirates & the Lake City Vigalanties, all with a lot less crowd to deal with. All three of these groups is something that I remember from when I was a kid going to these parades and I am excited to get the chance for my kids to have the same memories.
Alex has been hiding away at Grandma Billie's for the last few weeks so unfortunatley none of the photo's contain him... I will try and get a bunch when we pick him up this weekend!

On saturday we went to Mikayla's birthday party at an Aqua Sox game. We had a great time watching the game and just hanging out with our friends.

FAMILY CAMP!


This year David & I decided to join a long standing tradition in our church. We decided to join several families for the annual camping trip. We have been preparing for this trip for a little over a month now. We purchased everything we needed and packed the car up for a 45 minute drive north of our home to a Christian Camp site named Warm Beach.

We arrived early Thursday morning and got our camp site all set up. The reason why we have never gone to family camp is because I am not really a camper and Family Camp always falls on the week of my birthday, so going camping is not my idea of fun, but this year was going to be different. David & my dear friend Kim set out to make the day a special one. Late in the afternoon I returned to our site to find a Strawberry Shortcake table cloth with party hats, noise makers, birthday cards & a everything else needed for a party, including a nice banner that I wore that said "Birthday Diva" on it. It was definitely a birthday that will go down as one of the best- even if we did have to roast marshmallows in the pouring down rain.

Friday, Saturday & Sunday were also a blast, so much so that I want to go camping again before the end of the summer. Josiah learned to ride his bike and Alex had a blast will all his friends running around the property causing trouble and having fun!

Tomorrow starts another week, one I am not really looking forward too, it will be the first full work week we have had to endure in two weeks- it may not seem like a lot to some, but having some time off has really been wonderful the last few weeks and it will be hard to go back to the daily grind.

Love you all!!!

PS Alex doesn't like having his photo taken so this is the best I got :-( and my camera broke on saturday so I didn't have the chance to take more pics :-(- thank goodness for Ebay!

The opportunity came to me a few weeks ago, someone at worked offered me some airline miles and I took them. They had to be used sooner rather than later so I chose to take one of the boys to Disneyland. Since Alex and I had made our own trip a couple of years ago, I thought it would be a great idea to take Josiah on my own. I knew it would be an interesting trip, I just didn’t realize how interesting it would really be.

We left for the airport at 2:30 for a 5:00 flight. We made it to the airport with an hour to go, I got through security, juggling a backpack, carry on, stroller, carry seat and a cranky four year old. What was I thinking, not checking a bag??? We managed to make it to get something for dinner and headed for the gate. I was so consumed with juggling all I had that I didn’t even notice that THE Ty Pennington was waiting for a plane at the next gate. Who would have thought?

We got on the plane and were settled and awaiting take off. We took off a little late, but it was great. I was worried Josiah would freak out, but he thought it was a lot of fun! As we ascended into the clouds I managed to get an amazing look at Mt. Rainer sitting just above the clouds. I wish I had my camera handy, it was a view that could not be described.
As we were landing in LA our plane caught a little bit of wind and we tried doing a barrel roll, thanks to the quick pilots they were able to pull us out of it before we went completely upside down. This was something Josiah thought was so “COOL”.
When we landed at LAX and this is when I started to learn from my mistakes.
Mistake number 1- if something is a really good deal there is probably a reason for it. I found an amazing deal with Budget car rental. But what I didn’t realize is that I would have to wait 30 minutes for a shuttle van (Remember all the stuff I was Juggling?). Then once I got the rental car I got a mile down the road and a light cover from the break light in the back fell off and knocked Josiah on the head.

Mistake number 2- flying in so late. We didn’t arrive to the hotel until 10:30. By then Josiah and I were very exhausted, but Josiah was way to excited to go to sleep. Josiah is the type of kid that if he misses out on any of his normal routine than he can be a little stinker for days after. Mistake number 3- letting Josiah get up at 6:45 the next morning. Friday morning we were both awake first thing and ready to go. So we hit the road headed for the Magic Kingdom for breakfast.

It was already 80 degrees out with the forecast of 102 for the day!?! I didn’t realize what I had gotten myself into until that moment. We got into the park and headed straight for Pirates of the Caribbean. Since it is the hot ride we thought we would jump right on so we didn’t have to wait in line. It was a great morning. We headed for Mickey Mouse pancakes at the River Belle Terrace and were greeted by some friendly birds who wanted to share our breakfast.

We then hit the rides in full swing. Now that Josiah is 44” he was able to go on almost everything and that he did. Including Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Railroad and Space Mountain. I was more scared about him going on Space Mountain than he was. I love the ride, but I know that it’s dark, fast and scary for a young child. The only thing was… he LOVED it!

I also learned on this trip that I am a push over, and when I am in Disneyland I am an even bigger push over. Josiah didn’t want a nap so I didn’t mind; but by 1:30 we both needed one. So much to my dismay we left the park for a few hours.

When we returned the park was packed. We still didn’t wait long for any of the rides, and we had a great time.

We left Disneyland at 9:30 that night (another Mistake). And were in bed by 10:30. This time Josiah had no problem falling asleep. But once again he was awake & Ready to go by 7:00.

Saturday was going to be another HOT day. I have never experienced this kind of heat, it was a heat that made me realize I NEVER would want to or could handle living in Southern California. We were only going to spend ½ the day in Anaheim so we set out to make it a productive day. About ½ way through the day Josiah brave “Tower of Terror” a ride that I had tried to discourage him to go on. But he wanted to be like Alex. When we were done with the ride, Josiah thought it was “Awesome!” when I asked if he wanted to go on it again he said “no, I didn’t like it that much”.

We left the park and drove to Malibu for the Walt Disney Company picnic. It was a lot of fun, but one hour after arriving Josiah had a major melt down and I decided we were done with California. We headed to the airport 6 hours before we needed to with the hope that we could get onto an earlier flight. To my surprise & relief there was a flight 90 minutes after we arrived that had 73 open seats and we were able to hop on. It was an interesting trip home. The DVD player didn’t work and we were both struggling to find something to keep us busy for two hours.

Overall it was a good trip, would I do it again? No Way!! Traveling with a four year old is hard work, traveling with a tired four year old in 100+ degree temperature, in Disneyland was insane.

I have never been happy to leave Disneyland, but on Saturday I was practically running for the car!!
I can’t wait to return to my home away from home. But next time I won’t go alone J.

Fourth of July!!!
First we enjoyed our annual church picnic...
The kids got to play games, including the church's parachute which is a favorite.



Happy Birthday DJ! Even though you weren't there we still had cake & set off fireworks just for you!!! Just remember you are still younger than I am! HAHA!

Then we went to Cori's parents house for some fireworks. It was a lot of fun watching them light off. And in good Seattle spirit we even got rained on.





Did I mention that Alex also got his first cell phone this weekend? I feel a little better now since he is spending the summer at home by himself. I can't believe how much he is growing up.


I hope you all had a good and safe fourth of July. Now it's back to life for most. Josiah & I go to Disneyland tomorrow for two days and then we all go to family camp with our church on the 13th for a few days. I love summer!

A Day at the Beach

David (hot pants) Lewis and his spring softball team took second place in the league championships last night. They started the evening by playing All Side Windows and beat them by 10 runs. In the second game the white team (david's) watch as our church blue team lost to the crabs. The Crabs is a tough team, one that is very competive. Last year David's team managed to beat them in the championship game and so this year it was a re-match only this time the results were different. The Crabs pulled out a victory by just three runs.
Now that the season is over it's time for some rest and relaxation- for a week, then tournament play and summer league.
Cori's team has started the year off to a rocky start with 1 win and two losses but we are having a great time!
We thought Alex was done for the year, however we got the call this morning that his team was invited to a tournament that will last most of this week- there is really no rest for the weary. Thank goodness we have decided to put Josiah into soccer instead of baseball. :-)

I have the best looking family. :-) Josiah is the only one that likes his photo taken. I am not looking foward to the day when all three of them fight photos.

Josiah has a fancy way of going down a fire pole. I have a video that shows it more in detail, but for now you get a picture until I figure out how to post a video. This makes my heart stop every time. he hangs off the pole and swings around a few times before latching his legs around.

It's Baseball Season!