Waterlogged in Washington

I don't think it really hit me that I live in Seattle until yesterday. We woke up at 8 am to get ready for Hunter's 2nd soccer game and it was pouring down rain. I immediately went to the soccer website to look for the rain policy or the rain hotline. After searching for 20 minutes, it hit me. This is Seattle. They don't cancel ANYTHING for rain. Duh. So my boy played in the rain. He was soaked. Everyone was there too. No no-shows. I was hoping to go home, get dry and curl up with a good book. No such luck.

Alex had gone camping with Dylan for Scouts. They camp home soaked and muddy. We had to unpack everything and set it up in the garage to dry.

Then Alex got to change another tire in the rain. Actually it was the same tire he changed on our last camping trip. I just finally got around to fixing it on Thursday. I don't know what it is about Washington, but we have had sooo many flats here. I'm getting to know the guys at Big O tires intimately.

Finally, we decided to go to the Puyallup Fair. It was supposed to be a pretty neat affair and Megan had one of her art pieces in it. She found out when her piece was described in the Milton-Edgewood Signal, our local paper. The fair ends today so if we were going to see it, yesterday was it. I figured no one would be there because of the rain. WRONG. It was packed. There were babies too. They just covered the strollers in plastic and went on like nothing was any different. Strange place this is. Actually, the fair was rather fun. We would have stayed longer, but Megan had to get home to prepare for her first stake dance. She couldn't be rushed, you know.

Hunter's First Soccer Game

Saturday, Hunter had his first soccer game. He's on team Crush. This is a picture of him with his buddy Kaden from preschool. Kaden also rides the bus to school with him.

Here are the kids running through the parent tunnel.

Looking rather pleased.

Giving the coach a high five.

Huddling up.

Did they win? They are all winners at this age. Right? Okay, they got smoked big time, but as Hunter puts it, they did come in second.

The little man in action.

Hunter's First Day of School

This would be me putting Hunter on the bus. He was rather annoyed to have to pose. We actually missed the bus his first day and had to chase it down two more stops, but he got to get on with his friend Kaden. After I put Hunter on the bus, I followed it to school and got another picture of him in front of the school. He is in a school that only has Kindergarten and 1st grade. There are 17 Kindergarten classes!

Hunter stands in front of Mrs. Requa's Stars door. Getting settled in and finally trying to ignore Mom. How embarrassing.

For some reason, it was a lot harder to let this one go. Maybe because he just seems younger than the other ones. (Still working on the potty training. I know, I know, . . .) I'm glad I will have some more time with him this year. He will go to school all day Monday, all day Wednesday and all day every other Friday. He is completely wiped out when he gets home, but he has a whole day to recoup in between.

Inspiring Impressionism at the SAM

Hunter and I went to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) on Friday. We went with a homeschool group here in the ward. We saw the exhibit entitled Inspiring Impressionism about the influences on some of the Impressionist artists. It was really interesting. Hunter loved it too because he went on a little scavenger hunt and tried to find all the painting on his sheet.

Here are some of my favorite paintings from the exhibit. This one is by Renoir entitled Child with a Hoop. I love it because it reminds me of my nephew Christian. Renoir captured his expression perfectly.

I love this one for obvious reasons. It's also by Renoir entitled Woman Nursing a Child.

This one is by Mary Cassatt entitled The Family.

The exhibit also included works by old masters that were influences on the impressionists. My favorite tidbit of info I learned was that Monet claimed he wasn't influenced by any old masters. He got a license to copy in the Louvre, but instead of copying the masters, he turned his easel to the window and painted outdoors. I thought that was funny. Anyway, Hunter and I had a good time and we decided that on the Fridays he doesn't go to school we are going to go on our own fieldtrips from now on.


P.S. This was Hunter's favorite work of art from the regular collection. I must admit it was rather impressive--all made of metal dog tags.

Labor Day 2008

This is what we did over Labor Day this year. We went up to Deception Crag off exit 38 (I-90) in Olallie State Park.
We went hiking, rock climbing and repelling. After a couple of hours, the girls got a little bored and decided to hit the outlet mall. The boys had a rather big shake up. One of the teenage hikers up there (not in our group)fell about 100 feet right in front of them.



This is an old trestle train bridge.



Most of our group.

Daredevil Megan is her father's daughter.

Totally in his element.


Hunter likes his feet firmly planted on the ground. (He's his mother's son.)