let's go on a hike up in the mountains...

I meant to post this quite a while ago but unfortunately during our road trip my camera broke and I lost a bunch of pictures from this adventure. Thankfully I had downloaded a few of the photos before this happened. :(

Ethan, my dad, and I were able to head up to Mt. Baker near Bellingham, WA to go and explore since the snow was pretty melted by this point. We picked the perfect day to head up and take in some sunshine, play in the snow which I could not keep Ethan out of, and explore the great beauty of nature.

We are going to sign Ethan up for the ski bus this year so we should be back to pay Mt. Baker a visit in the winter.

fly by weekends...

This past weekend was mostly a blur with Jeff's reunion, Ethan's party, and a concert but we had a lot of fun. It was definitely a weekend that I felt I needed more time to rejuvinate so I'll leave you with a couple of photos to sum it up.

let's jump and sing happy birthday...

Ethan's birthday party was a success but boy am I exhausted.  I was a little worried at the beginning of the party because evite was down so I was worried people may not remember what time it was at.

Ethan had a blast, loved being the center of attention and hanging with friends. And Elevated Sportz cleaned up after we were done. My kind of party! ;-)

cool for back to school...

Back to school is just around the corner for Ethan. He is starting kindergarten at a brand new school this year so it is a very exciting time at our household. We have our new school picnic coming up and he is attending a camp in the next few weeks where he gets to hopefully meet some of his new classmates. Then after labor day he begins his new adventure and is off on his educational journey or something like that. :)

the good old goodie bag...

I am in the midst of getting ready for Ethan's first 'school' party this weekend. Typically his parties have consisted of hanging out with our family in the backyard and having a cookout. It is usually a pretty big ordeal for me since I am a little of a freak about decorating for the occasion and always serve a TON of food. This year will be a little different.

You see, Ethan told us earlier in the year that he wanted to have a kid party. Yes, we have had kids at our party in the past but he wanted to have it at an actual location outside of our house with a bunch of kids from his school. He even had chosen a specific venue for the special occasion, that being Elevated Sportz which is a large trampoline party place close to our home. I was a little hesitant about it but it has worked out pretty well recently considering we have been on vacation for the last week and a half and my husbands (eek) twentieth reunion is this weekend. I have had absolutely no time to get ready for this party besides ordering a cake and picking up goodie bag supplies. Thankfully for us, they take care of the rest so all we have to do is show up and let the kids go crazy and someone else gets to clean up the mess.

Speaking of goodie bags, Target is my new best friend. I actually have a closet full of old goodie bag items that I either have not used or on a few occasions forgot to hand out. Ethan refers to this as my closet full of fun and it indeed is. Let me just put it this way, we never run out of bubbles. My stash was a little low so I made a run to Target and picked up an assortment of fun stuff without blowing up my wallet.

Let's hope that this party goes off without a hitch and we all survive!

cleaning house...

I've had a love/hate relationship with my old blog layout for the past several months and I finally came to the conclusion that we needed a break from each other. So I scoured the web and found a new format that works much better and personally I think looks absolutely fantastic.

I also wanted to share with you one of my favorite pictures I captured from our most recent road trip to Sun Valley. It really makes me want to build a cabin in the forest and have this as my view everyday.

I hope all of you enjoy the new layout and please keep coming back for a visit!

happy birthday ethan...

This past Sunday Ethan turned the big 6. He is just growing up so fast and I wish he could be little forever.
We made it a point to come home in time for Ethan's birthday. We like to make his day special and all about him. Here is a list of what we did.

-ihop for breakfast
-game works (where he won a couple of banana stuffed animals which were actually moons.
-trip to fireworks to pick up an ugly doll.
-lunch at red robin on the waterfront with a sundae and song.
-trip to toys r us to pick out a toy. He got a huge teenage mutant turtle play set.
-dinner at burger master
-cake and presents.

Ethan absolutely loved his day.