A Washington Get-Away

The week before Annaliese turned two, we took a trip to Washington to 1) have a baby shower for Kelsey, 2) celebrate Annaliese's 2nd birthday, 3) see my parents new house, and 4) celebrate Thanksgiving. It was a busy 4 days, but we successfully accomplished everything we set out to do.

We flew into Seattle on Wednesday evening; Annaliese was fascinated by the 'pellers' on the plane (propellers) and is still talking about how much she likes planes and flying up in the sky! She was fighting a bit of a cold, so she didn't have nearly her normal amount of energy which made for a great flight! Auntie Kelsey picked us up at the airport and we spent the night at her and Ben's place on the north side of Seattle. On Thursday morning, my mom drove down from Bellingham to pick us up, and we all headed back to my parents house.

A few belly shots...Kelsey is 29 weeks; I am 27 weeks

 

 Playing games

 Auntie Kelsey playing with her niece and nephew:)

Grandma has an entire closet full of play things!

Friday morning we all headed downtown to the Bellingham Children's Museum. They had a great area designed for toddlers, including an interactive art area where they could draw with chalk, paint, dig in the sandbox for fossils etc. Annaliese loved it!

Friday night we celebrated Thanksgiving, complete with a turkey and all the fixings! 

There was also lots of time spend cuddling, relaxing, and just enjoying each others company. 

And then there were several attempts at family pictures...

Next we packed up the cars and headed to Ben and Kelsey's place in Seattle to prepare for Kelsey's baby shower. There were several girls from her work that came, as well as a few cousins/other family. We played a few games, ate some good food, and tried to be crafty and make Kelsey a mobile for the baby's room and a few headbands. 

 Everyone is sculpting a pregnant lady out of play-doh...Kelsey had to pick the best one!

At the end, while we were cleaning up, Grandma taught Annaliese and Elias how to play Ring-Around-the-Rosie!

I think that about sums up our trip to Washington!! We had a great time and are already looking forward to our next trip (which will be much different since by that time both Kelsey and I will have had our babies!!)

Look who's TWO!

Crazy as it seems, we now have a 2 year old in our house! Annaliese's birthday was much more casual than last year, in part because of the craziness of our life at this time and in part because I am just tired and didn't want to plan anything big. That does not mean, however, that we didn't spread out her birthday over at least a week! 

The birthday fun started with a visit from Grandma Kelley last weekend. She came to help us pack (more on that in a later post) and, of course, to see little miss Annaliese again. Annaliese quickly caught on to the whole concept of opening presents!

 Showing off her new shoes!

Thank you hug for Grandma!

 Grandma also brought along a gift from Auntie Sarah, Uncle Jon, Reed, and Kieran

Annaliese is a HUGE fan of the tunnel!! 

The birthday festivities continued with a trip to Washington to see Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks...we had to check out their new house, celebrate Thanksgiving, and have a baby shower for Auntie Kelsey and we thought now was a good to time for it all! (Again, a future post will be coming with more pictures from that trip!)

Thankfully Grandma H. was on top of things, so I was able to make Annaliese a birthday cake and we had a special birthday dinner. 

 Apparently we didn't really get any other pictures:(

On Monday, which was actually Annaliese's birthday, she was pretty worn out from the travels home the day before; and I, unfortunately, had to work for most of the day. But I was home in time for dinner; while we were prepping the food, Annaliese picked up the beaters for the mixer and said "I want to bake." Since there wasn't much in the house, our baking options were very limited, but I did find a package of instant pudding that she could stir (that was her second request!), but it was pistachio flavored and she was not impressed by the green color! In fact, she wouldn't even try it!

 Opening her package...it's an adorable little purse! As soon as she saw the tissue paper wrapping, she kept saying "It's cute. It's cute!" And today she's been walking around with it over her arm! Thanks Mark and Penny!

 And Grandma Kelley and Grandpa Jay sent a box as well...with this fabulous puzzle! It's also been a big hit!

A big thank you to everyone for helping to celebrate Annaliese and the precious little girl that she is! We are constantly amazed at how she is growing and learning new things, how her personality is developing, and how she is so quick to laugh and smile! We are truly blessed to be her parents!!

Trick-or-Treat!!

This is the first year that we decided to take Annaliese out trick-or-treating. And...it's actually the first time that I remember ever going trick-or-treating! We started out by meeting Auntie Jenn, Holden, and Jenn's mom in the village of Arroyo Grande. They had it set up where you could walk from store to store and trick-or-treat at each store. It was pretty busy and rather unimpressive, but we were glad we checked it out!

 Getting ready to go

 Minnie Mouse

 Our first stop was at church...she got her first piece of candy and sat down and ate it while we waited for Auntie Jenn and Holden to arrive! She was fascinated by all of the different costumes!

 Holden "Biker-dude"

 Annaliese has been into trucks lately so she was pretty excited to get close to the fire truck. She was a little nervous about the fireman lifting her inside, but thought was all smiles when she grabbed the steering wheel!

We headed home to meet up with Kyle who was going to join us for the evening activities. There is a neighborhood near by called The Berries which is rather well known for trick-or-treating. There were tons of people there! The people who were handing out candy were camped out in chairs outside their houses and it was just a constant stream of people. At the first few houses, Annaliese was a little hesitant about going up to the people, and needed to be holding my hand, but it didn't take long for her to get used to the idea. Pretty soon she was running up to them! 

 Fed-Ex employee Chuck Noland and his friend Wilson...with Minnie Mouse:)

(from the movie Castaway)