Catching up...

Whew, it has been a long time since I last wrote...I thought about writing several times along the way, & now I have forgotten most of what I was going to write. Probably better, but maybe I'll remember at least a little bit of it! I'll condense it at least.:)

We went to a birthday party for one of Kellen's friends at school, Drew, at the Super Jump Party Zone. It was so much fun!! The kids did great & totally wore themselves out.:) Such a difference from the birthday party there 1 year ago, where neither of them really wanted to do anything. It was fun to see them having so much fun!

Then the next day, Saturday, we went up to Ballard to see Erik's grandparents' house one last time, since it has sold. Kellen & Annika have 2 favorite books, "Larry Gets Lost in Seattle" & "Seattle ABC" which Pete & his dog Larry go to all sorts of different places in Seattle. We told Kellen we would see a lot of them that day. So, on our way up there, at about noon, what does Kellen do? HE FALLS ASLEEP!! He missed all the things he was so excited to see!!!! Silly guy. We ended up walking down to the Locks & saw 1 boat go through, & also a train go over the bridge.:) Annika fell asleep on the way back in the stroller, then we all went out to dinner. We left Seattle at about 6:30 p.m. & ALL the kids fell asleep on the way home...crazy schedule day for them!

We have some remodeling work starting on Wed.: 2 bathrooms are being gutted, then a bunch of odd jobs - kitchen floor retiled, a window replaced in the laundry room, lighting replaced, etc. Sat. Kellen & Annika spent the day with grandma & grandpa while Erik (Kaarin) & I went to look for materials - tile, etc. - for the remodel. Ugh. There are SO many choices!! It is so hard to choose, since so many things would look great, yet we have to decide what 'look' we are going for in each space. We have some ideas, but we need to pull them all together. When we went back to get Kellen & Annika, Kaarin crawled up the entire staircase ALL BY HERSELF! This was the first time she'd done that.:) Good thing we have a gate...

The kids & I are for sure heading down to Palm Desert in a couple weeks. We are going to caravan down with grandma & grandpa & drive it in 3 days. Each day will be about 7 hrs. of actual driving, plus stops & hopefully some fun! We are also looking at having a DVD player installed in the van to help the trip go a little smoother, that was also on our agenda on Sat. (And we looked at beds - whew!)

I guess that is the update for now...kind of just a splattering of thoughts. I'll write better next time.:)