I appreciate any of you who check out our blog and I’m sorry I have been so delinquent!
Utah is well! Summer is here, and we’re loving the sun and heat. I was expecting it to be somewhat like Fresno, CA but so far, nothing over 100, and we even had a storm last night that dumped BUCKETS of rain. I went out in it for a second (didn’t want to get too wet) just to reconnect with the rain

Utah is very different, but we are really enjoying it. Sara started swim lessons, and Allie and I are doing a mom-tot class. Sara is really enjoying it, Allie on the other hand, is not so sure about me getting her shoulders, chin, and head in the water, or rolling around in it either. Allie would rather be playing with the toy ducks and whales that they provide at the beginning and end of class.

Sara and Allie are alive and happy and seem to be enjoying each other more and more. The girls love to dance, and Sara wants to get bangs.

Lj and I are doing well, work seem so to be fun, challenging and at times stressful, but I can tell Lj is really enjoy it. His schedule is more flexible which is nice. It’s taken several months to get settled, not that we’re all unpacked, but at least we’ve found some of the lost items we couldn’t find in the unpacking.

I can’t say all of the boxes are gone inside, but it’s getting better.

It’s cool that we’re close to Temple Square, not that we’ve gone a ton, but we took the tour at the new Conference Center with family that was visiting.
Lj at Temple Square.

Allie

The Conference Center Inside

The Ceiling

Brothers between brothers. Sean and Lj between the statues of Hyrum and Joseph Smith, but Lj and Sean had the same injury on the same knee, here in this pic too.

We had a chance to get together with our good friends, and Liz took our pictures for us.
Enjoy

Side note, my mom’s show dog had puppies…had to take pictures of them and they were soooooooo cute!
If it were up to our girls, they would’ve kept them all!

We haven’t told many people, but we have officially moved! We are settling down a little in our home. It’s starting to feel like home and that we’re not just on vacation.

Some of my favorite things about Seattle/what I’ll miss…

1) Pike Place on Saturday mornings. More specifically, the fresh mini doughnuts, spice store, fresh flowers, and local artists. Don’t forget the specialty olive oil/vinegar stores.

2) The view as you cross the bridge into Seattle toward Queen Ann (on a sunny day), south-bound. The water glistens, and you have a great view of the Space Needle.

3) Cherry blossoms at UW in the spring.
4) Paseo restaurant. Any of their cuban style sandwiches rock my world. Fresh, local baguettes, killer, cuban-marinated meat, grilled onion, jalepeno, and romain lettuce. Mmm, my mouth just waters. If you haven’t tried it, do it. You won’t regret it.
5) Specialty’s Cafe. Cranberry Turkey sandwich and finish it off with their huge, chocolate chip cookies. Though the sugar cookies are awesome too. You can’t really go wrong here. You can even check online to see when the cookies come hot out of the oven.
6) Running on the Burke-Gillman trail. It changes names along the way, but it runs from Gasworks to Woodinville. I have run on that trail for 12 years.
7) Edmonds/Kingston Ferry. I have ridden on that since I was 5, probably more than 1,000 times. There is the most amazing, fresh, water/air smell as you cross. That smell will always be “home” to me.
Being 15 minutes away from some of my favorite shopping. And having my favorite stores in 3 different locations, all roughly the same distance from my house. TJMaxx, Costco, PB/PBK, Gap, Target to name a few. The list goes on, but if one store was out of something, head in a different direction and try a different one.
9) Aaron Brothers. If you haven’t been, go. Go in Jan and July. Buy 1, get one for $.1. I have bought more frames than I’ll admit, and I have saved 50%. Beautiful frames. Go there since I can’t.
10) And most importantly, family and friends. We will miss you and think of you often. And we’ll be back

Onward to Easter. We decorated eggs a couple of weeks ago with cousins. Sara was so excited to be with the “big girls” and Allie thought she was the bomb for being able to decorate the egg like everyone else. She did ruin her shirt, and her eggs all were cracked, one had a hole, but she had A GREAT TIME.
The girls have become such good friends. Of course they have their moments, but these pictures will show you how close they have become. Sara takes on the “mommy” roll most of the time and Allie WORSHIPS the ground Sara walks on.

Sara’s 4th birthday has come to a close. Festivities were fun, thanks for all who supported us and helped out!

At this stage in Sara’s life, she is:
-Fun, Smart, kind, tender-hearted, curious and contrary
-Says “no” to everything, even though she may mean, “yes”
-Predicatably, unpredictable
-Loves attention
-Loves to do everything her dad loves to do
-Doesn’t like to go to Preschool, but is always happy when I pick her up
-On occasion sleeps in her own room, after 16 months of trying to take over Mom and Dad’s bed
-Loves her Grandparents
-Hates to be alone
-Loves to explore and do treasure hunts
-Is happy when she has had food and sleep.

The band in the cabana sang, “We’re Leaving on a Jet Plane” and it was so depressing to think about leaving the next day.
This was right outside of our hotel:

Family


The whole evening was just playing on the beach and in the water. Sara became very confident swimming with her life jacket, and Allie preferred to play with sand on the beach. We weren’t far from the airport, so Allie kept on pointing out the airplanes




Final Sunset in Hawaii

So, I’m sure a lot of people have been to Hawaii, but I honestly never thought I’d make it there. The opportunity arose though, and we went! It still feels like a dream though. It’s so different then the cloudy, Seattle weather. I don’t need to say much what we did there, the pictures will speak for themselves.
Cove Outside of the Resort

Waikiki Beach


We pretty much just played in the sand the whole time. It was sooooooooo relaxing. The most relaxing place I’ve ever been…hmmm…yep, even more than Thailand.

Sweet Shades

Sara let Allie borrow the sunglasses…she didn’t wear them long, but they were cute!

We tried going to Pearl Harbor. My opinion? Don’t take kids under 4. Completely non-toddler friendly. We made the best out of it though and I’m glad we did it.


On the USS Arizona Memorial.

Hanuama Bay
Snorkel and Beach Fun

Then we headed up to the North Shore. A totally different terrain, and it was hurricane season, so the waves made it unsafe for us to swim

We headed to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Seeing the hula dancers was the what Sara had been waiting for, the whole trip.


Too Much Fun

I still can’t believe we were there.

Next, we headed to the LDS Temple. It was exactly what the pictures show, but more.

Our Family

Fellow photographer, business partner and best friend.

Statue of Jesus

This statue is different than the one on Temple Square in that it was hand chiseled.

Our lodging on the North Shore was completely not what we expected. The whole place was covered with a film of salt, yet it was supposedly clean per our cleaning fee included in the tab, we ran into cocroaches and then this cool gecko in the food cupboard. The cute gecko was the last straw and we asked for a refund and headed back to the southern side. If we hadn’t been there with babies, it would’ve been more manageable.

Lj and I love Seattle. It so beautiful. You can’t beat the summers. And we could totally do without all of the clouds. But we had an awesome, warm summer. It’s so convenient that he works downtown because we would go into the city and do Pike’s Place, and the piers and walk back to his building for free drinks, Sara’s personal favorite I think.


Beautiful Blue Eyes

The Source of the Beautiful Blue Eyes



Red Lion/Westin

We had family birthday celebration at the Kyser Parent’s house. I think Lj took this one, and all I can do is notice my teeth…it’s a good shot of my egg-shell tooth.

The last, fully visible tooth in my smile is completely dead inside. The root slowly became shorter and shorter, so luckily I don’t feel a thing. It could crack any day. No one give me peppermint bark this holiday season!

I have been meaning to take pictures of these cute cousins for so long. They are so sweet!

August also brought a trip to see friends!
Warm weather, dirt, water, and a little finger paint= Baby Heaven.

These two kiddos get a long soooo well!

My mom has a beautiful garden and as kids napped, I headed out to enjoy the peace and quiet.

Wheelbarrow

August also brought a trip to Grandma’s house and the county fair! It’s been 10 years since I went, and there were many things I was looking forward to doing and eating . I used to show dogs and one year horses, and my favorite things to eat were definitely gyros, the homemade scones with raspberry or strawberry filling, mini doughnuts, curly fries… I didn’t even have indigestion the next day! The kids loved the animals and the food, and it was so fun to show Lj the fair.


Baaaaaaaa

4 Inches Deep in Wool

Leaving the Animals

Beautiful Butterfly

This was the coolest butterfly. It had a homing beacon to the dandilions, so as long as Sara carried the dandilion, the butterfly came with us. It sucked nectar out of the whole thing and we’d pick another dandilion and it would go to it. Even if it flew off of the flower and flew around for a while, it came and landed back on the flower Sara was carrying. Pretty cool. Our friend stayed with us for about 20 minutes.

Winning a Prize

Thanks Mom for taking us and getting us tickets!