Friday, July 17, 2015

Seattle Summer: Park Days

We are in love with Seattle's summers. One of our favorite things to do is visit the park by our house. 


 I brought the camera along today since Jane looked adorable in the outfit my mom bought her. 



As expected she had no desire to pose for me. In this picture I said, "Show me the chapstick on your lips!" 


The best part about this park are the blackberry bushes surrounding it. You can smell the berries before you even enter the park.  It's one of those smells that reminds me of my childhood and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. :)



You can bet there will be blackberry pie, blackberry syrup, and anything else we can think of that involves blackberries and sugar.


 A trip to the park isn't complete unless it involves dirt. This is how Jane looked when we left. I was impressed. 


Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Our Big Move

A lot has happened since my last post. Things have been crazy busy adjusting to two kids, matching for residency, visiting family in Utah, packing, moving across the country, finding housing, starting residency, and somehow finding time to write and illustrate a children's book app with Jeff. 


Jeff matched at the University of Washington in psychiatry for residency. I can't even tell you how happy we were. Match day was like Christmas, the dentist, going into labor, and winning the lottery all rolled into one. They crammed all the students into one room (actually it was the lobby of a building on campus) and you have to wait until 12:00 to find out where you will spend the next few years of your life. We feel extremely blessed to have matched at UW and are so excited to be living in the northwest and closer to family. 


 We enjoyed our last spring in Cleveland before we moved. We will miss Cleveland and all our friends, but I can't say I'll miss Cleveland winters. 




Jane loved visiting the Cleveland Aquarium. We were surprised at how many fish she could name. I guess all those hours watching Octonauts paid off. 



 




We were able to fly out and visit family in Utah before we had to pack up and move. Jane loved all the cousin time.







Abby and Gyte are only a week apart. I got a taste of what it would be like to have twins. 




Jensen and Macsen couldn't get enough of Gyte. Gyte wasn't so sure about all the attention. 

 




 Jane's third birthday fell on the day we moved so we celebrated early. I don't think she minded. 




Jeff's parents were in town for graduation and to help with the move. They were a huge help and I don't know if we would have survived without them. We were all very proud of Jeff if you can't tell by Jane's face. :)




Jeff parents helped us drive both our cars to Utah, which surprisingly both made the journey. We only ran out of gas once after we pulled into the hotel parking lot for the night. The car wouldn't start when we went to go fill it up after checking in. Luckily the receptionist had a gas can we could borrow and the gas station was just across the street. We spent the weekend in Utah and left one of our cars for my parents to drive to Washington for us. We made a pit stop in Richland and spent a couple days with Jeff's aunt and uncle. Clark the dog loved following Jane around.



Once we arrived in Maple Valley we stayed with my parents for a couple weeks while we looked for housing north of Seattle. 





We love our new place and feel so blessed to have found it. The house needed quite a bit of work before we moved in and it was so nice to have my parents around to help. 




 Jane and Gyte are adjusting well to their new home. And as you can see, they are too cute for words. I love how easily Gyte laughs for Jane. 







 Since we've been here the weather has been amazing! Maybe even a little too hot. Visiting the Sound is always a great way to cool down. Jane was in her element with all the rocks around. Every time we leave the house she finds another rock for her "rock collection." She hasn't noticed I've been getting rid of them yet. 






 We've been in our new place for a few weeks now and I still haven't unpacked my clothes. But we are getting settled and loving life. We can't wait to see what Seattle has in store for us.