Bami and Bopi

My mom (Bami) and sister (Bopi) came to stay with us for a week. Taylor has really missed them. It was so fun for them to come and hang out with us for a while.


We took the Washington Ferry to Bainbridge Island one day. We tried to get Taylor excited about it, telling him we were going on a big boat. He wasn't too crazy about it, probably a bit disappointed. He was thinking more on the lines of a huge cool pirate ship, I think.


Yep, it was super windy


A neat view of Seattle


By the Space Needle, in the Seattle Center, we found this goldmine. The biggest fountain ever! And it even squirted in time to music (does that make sense?)





The Space Needle was surprisingly tall... always reminds me of a flying saucer:)




Taylor loves to run everywhere!


Sonny and Taylor got this wet the first minute in the fountain.





We went to this joint called Top Pot Donuts in Seattle. We ordered a dozen donuts and scarfed them down.


Taylor had so much junk food that week! Eh, what the heck, why not.


We also stopped by Pikes Place Market, a gigantic Farmers Market downtown Seattle. We sampled some really salty Salmon (gag) and bought some Yakima Cherries.




I love buying vegetables that are outside like this, I don't know why. Just feel super cool doing it.


My sister loves Bigfoot! No, just kidding. She just gets suckered into having her picture taken with weird, random statues. It's a little tradition that we have. You should see our collection. Taylor is kinda liking being in pictures now. He voluntarily stood there and waved. Cute:)


Poor little crabs:( But so yummy!


Sonny and I have started getting addicted to the show "The Deadliest Catch" so we were way excited to see these King Crab.


The beach we usually go to in Steilacoom, a cute little town by us, had a really really low tide one morning, usually low I guess. We got lucky and were able to see tons of sea creatures. They were swimming all around us! We rescued this sea star from the shores and threw it back into the water. Just doing our part to save the world baby!


This crab got pretty mad at us. We bugged him for a while, trying to get him to crawl. I guess he didn't want to play with us.


Where we are walking here is an area that is usually covered by about 15-20 feet of water. So there was seaweed everywhere! Kinda gross.


Taylor got brave and touched one of the big Sea Stars.


I thought they were pretty cool too. Dang, I should have been a Marine Biologist.




Every single rock was covered with seaweed. Taylor's boots really came in handy that day. I need to get myself a pair bad. Flip Flops just don't cut it.


It's so baffeling how the ocean tides work. I just can't understand it. We took Sonny back there that evening hoping it would still be low so that he could see all the cool creatures, but sure enough, it was back to where it usually was. So weird but so cool.



And here's a video of Taylor doing his new "evil" laugh. He also calls it his "Happy Halloween" laugh. Ignore me in the video, I'm really annoying as I try to get him to do the laugh:)

Oh Captain, my Captain

Sonny started his job at the Fulton Dental Clinic on Ft. Lewis today. He will be working there for a year before he starts his Oral and Maxillofascial Surgery residency at the Madigan Army Medical Center. He is now a Captain. Pretty cool eh? When he came home tonight, he told me that he basically did Anti-terrorism training all day on the computer. Totally cool dude. Here he is in his new Army Combat Uniform that he paid a bundle for. We were able to find him some used boots at the Goodwill too which saved us some $. What a steal! We only have one car at the moment so Sonny purchased a road bike online so that he could start biking it to work everyday. I refuse to be stuck at home all day without a car! Sonny doesn't seem to understand why I need a car but all you stay-at-home moms know what I'm talking about, right? If he's lucky, I might let him use the car once a week:) Luckily, there are a couple stores around us that Tay and I can walk to, if we had to get out. Anyways, so Sonny's back to the working world and we'll hopefully get back into the routine of things. As far as the house goes, we are still waiting to hear about our USDA loan. Hopefully it will all work out and it will go through! The weather has gotten a lot cooler, thank goodness, so no more homemade swamp cooler. It actually rained today so I think the raining had started:) If it wasn't for the extreme heat this last month, I probably wouldn't be so happy about the rain. It really isn't too bad, yet, that is. I do enjoy the smell of wet cement...

No air conditioning

This is what you do when you don't have air conditioning. Looks like fun eh? um, NO!!! It was interesting, though, waking up to a huge bowl full of water next to me. But the tactic did work surprisingly well. Yep, pretty much nobody has air conditioning in Washington. So, keep this idea in mind, all you people in hot states, or in Washington this summer...

PS: Sorry Albertson's for taking all your ice.

Last 2 weeks

Life at 8417 82nd St. SW #304:


My birthday cake that Sonny and Tay made me... there are no candles because Sonny thought I was turning 31...


Taylor is absolutely loving the pool in our apartment complex. He wants to swim constantly, even in cold weather.


Spitting water on me


A circus trick



Tay has figured out that he can take his favorite toys with him everywhere!


Great picture eh? We went to Red Mill Burgers in Seattle for my 30th b-day. It's supposedly one of the best burgers in the U.S. It was pretty dang good!


One of Sonny and Tay's favorite things to do... throwing rocks into the water... totally a guy thing


A cold day in Washington


Oh man, I wish he would have been looking at the camera!


Tay's croc boots are perfect for the rocky beaches here




And lastly, I forgot to post this earlier, this is where I slept the first night in our apartment... before we had access to anything in our pods...lovely


and this is where Sonny slept... he refused to even buy an inflatable pool mattress at Walmart ... and he said he didn't need a blanket too... what a trooper. Needness to say, he regreted it the next morning.

our washington life, at present

Well, we finally got out of the Marriott and found a pretty nice apartment 1/2 hour away in Lakewood, WA. It's about 10 minutes from Fort Lewis, where Sonny will work, and about 30 minutes from Seattle. Lakewood is lots of small lakes and tons of military people. It's going to be fun when Sonny finally gets his uniform then we'll really fit in! So, we signed a lease only until the beginning of October because we hope to have found our home by then! We are both already sick of the apartment. We live ono the 3rd floor and have discovered that we have some very crazy neighbors...And Sonny doesn't have to start working until the 27th so we're busy house hunting, getting our apartment situated, and checking out a different beach every night. There are tons by us! Rocky ones though, no sand. But still really beautiful. We unloaded about 1/3 of our stuff, just the stuff that we need for 3 months. We had some help from the missionaries, thank goodness! Anyways, Taylor is loving swimming in the pool (he gets the go in only if he wears his floaties... he's had too many close calls... he tried to jump off a huge rock into the ocean... yep). It's funny how kids don't like wearing them, too restricting I guess. taylor has adjusted pretty well. The first few nights were tough and lately, he's started to say, "go home, go home!" oh man, how sad, how do you explain to them about that? But we're doing ok. I've been spoiled living by family for so long that it is really strange and sad not having them close by. and not having an instant babysitter! But we are liking Washington so far. I'll post some facts about Washington soon, and some new pictures too!

First outing

Here's some pictures of our first official outing in Washington. We drove to this waterfall about 1/2 from where we're staying, called Snoqualmie Falls. We hiked through some really pretty woods down to the rushing river. It was perfect weather too and the water was so clear and clean. Right before we left, Sonny decided to go all the way in, fully clothed! It did look kinda fun. But I was too chicken to join him :) It sure was really nice to be out in nature for a little bit!