Grandpa and Grandma come to visit- Part 2

 Saturday afternoon several of Annaliese's birthday presents from Grandpa and Grandma were delivered so naturally, we had an impromptu birthday party and let her open her presents while they were here! She was very excited about what she received! 

We then headed out for an early dinner at Infusion Cuisine. The owner recognized us from the last time we were there (which was back in March!) and talked to the girls in Spanish the whole evening!

After dinner, we relaxed at home, the girls did Grandma's hair, and Lydia used a tape measure to measure everything (length of hair, foot size, nose length, arm length, etc)!

On Sunday, we went to church and then had my parents come over for lunch. We spent the afternoon at home enjoying yummy food and good company. Grandpa and Grandma flew home early Monday morning, so we said goodbye to them Sunday evening when the girls headed to bed.

Photo credit: Lydia

Grandpa and Grandma come to visit- Part 1

The girls had off from school for a few days last week due to Parent/Teacher Conferences and Veterans Day. It was the perfect opportunity for Grandpa and Grandma to come for a visit. 

On the first day, we headed up to Canada and checked out the Bloedel Conservatory. It's a small bird sanctuary with over 100 birds, incredible flowers, and a lot of mice!

We went to a vegan restaurant for lunch where the hamburgers were 'okay' at best and we never did figure out what they were made of! We were hoping to do some five-pin bowling after lunch, but the bowling alley didn't open until later in the evening so we headed back home. Thankfully, we had very quick border crossings!

Friday had discussed going on a hike, but Annaliese convinced us that it would be better to do that on Saturday when the sun was supposed to be shining and that we should stay indoors instead. We played some games, ate an early lunch, and then went to the local bowling alley. 

Saturday did turn out to be a much prettier day, so we packed lunches and hiked Vedder Mountain. It's a pretty steep climb, but we made it to the top in just over an hour and had spectacular views of Mt. Baker! It was still pretty chilly out, and there was snow on the ground in places.

Soccer

 Both Annaliese and Lydia were very excited to play soccer this fall. They were initially both signed up to play with Lynden Action which practices in Lynden and then has Saturday games at the Northwest Fields. However, they weren't able to pull together a team for Annaliese's age group so she ended up playing with Lynden Youth Sports at Bender Field.

Lydia's age group played 3-on-3 and each week they played four 15 min games. They rarely had more than 3 girls show up, so Lydia always got a lot of playing time! From a parenting perspective, this season has been very frustrating- there have been days when no one has shown up to play, not even the coach.  And there is one girl that I've never seen (and I've been to every practice and all but 2 games.) Lydia, however, is still having fun, has scored quite a few goals, and does wonder why nobody else wanted to play!

These two were the only ones who showed up for the last game!

Looking cute and ready to play (except none of her teammates showed up this day so she and Kyle just came back home)

Annaliese is playing with LYS and has had a great season. Her coach has been great and Annaliese has learned a lot about the importance of practicing in order to get better. She plays two 36-min games each Saturday and has scored several goals each game! There were only three teams in her age group, and the season wrapped up last weekend with a tournament. They ended up finishing second.

It was a smoky day for soccer!

We were very grateful that we had beautiful weather all season. I think we only had one practice where it rained!