this could take all day

August Adventures: Seattle Kid's Concert

Did y'all know that Seattle has one amazing "Kindie Rock" scene? There are so many awesome kids bands around these parts, most notably Caspar Babypants and Recess Monkey. Now, I am not one of those snobby parents when it comes to kids music and will happily belt out Baa Baa Black Sheep with the best of 'em. But the preschool music tends to grate on my husband a bit. So we're thankful for bands like these (and Mr Steve Songs and Justin Roberts too, they're just not local) that we all can enjoy.

As we were planning a trip to Marysville for a family day, I happened to receive a random email about a Kindie Rock benefit concert that very weekend. So I snagged us a couple tickets (kiddos were free, but us adults had to pay) and we planned to leave in time on Sunday to spend a few hours on a lawn at the Seattle Center.

Mr Roberts even made an appearance at the festival!

Darin was such a trooper. It was so hot that afternoon, but when the Mariner Moose made an appearance Miss Daisy was sent into a massive panic and the only way to distract her was shoulder dancing. Of course, Miss Dani wanted in too!

The festival was a little long for us Gemmers who still had a ways to go to get home, so we decided to call it a day after the 5th band and head for a cool off at the Seattle Center fountain. Being the awesome mom I am, I packed the girls towels and extra outfits so they could have fun running around and getting wet.

Guess this awesome mom needs to know her kids a little better. Neither wanted to have anything to do with the giant gushing of water coming at them. Darin took them down the hill but couldn't even get them close enough to feel the spray!

It's days like this one that make me thankful for where we live for sure.

 

August Adventures: water balloon contest

When we got back from our hike we all entered into various activities: photo taking, laundry, chores, hanging out, kid minding. The little ones were hanging out outside with Sierra for a bit, and found a batch of dollar store water balloons they were begging to play with. So some of us meandered outside and sat at the water spout filling balloons for the little ones as they happily splashed them on the driveway. 

Then someone suggested the brilliant idea of a water balloon toss.

Couples version.

Man, I love this family.

Guys tossed to girls. Step backward.

Girls toss to guys and repeat. 

Sometimes there were awesome saves.

And sometimes you got wet.

Yep, it even happens to the best of 'em.

Thanks to Linda for shooting some pictures of the action. And thanks to the kiddos for letting the grown ups play with the rest of the balloons!

August Adventures: family day hike

It was a wonderful weekend in August when Darin, his 5 siblings, the 4 in-laws, the girlfriend, and the 3 cousins gathered with Gran at her home in Lakewood. Gran is putting her home up for sale, so every time we get together there lately feels extra special.

This time, though, we ventured away from the house for a bit of a "hike". This was a hike to the ice caves that Linda had taken the kids on many times over the years, and it was so fun to join in and add the gran-kids to the tradition as well.

Although we got a later start than we wanted, the weather was warm and perfect when we arrived.

Daisy had a hold of her Aunt Dakota's hand for a bit.

Until she convinced Uncle Madison she needed a shoulder ride. (Can you see her there?) 

And Uncle Skylar got the pleasure of lugging Miss Dani around. Don't you just love it when family loves on your kiddos in ways like this? I sure do!

Trevor was pretty obsessed with collecting every kind of berry he could find.

Reaching the ice caves!

We even managed to get a family shot! (Although Aunt Tiffany didn't join us on the hike, so we'll have to photoshop her head in somewhere!)

Dani conked out on the way back down and slept all the way through our picnic lunch too.

What a fun day. I can't wait to do it again!

August Adventures: park with the Goodmans

It was a sunny Saturday in August and I had a shoot in Auburn. Darin decided to tag along and planned a meeting in Renton. Later that evening we were supposed to be at my sister's house, so we had an afternoon with nothing to do. 

Enter a chance to get together with the Goodmans near their new home in Edgewood. We met up at the park for playing and a picnic and had such a wonderful afternoon catching up. We all miss living at camp together!

I wasn't in the mood to take pictures, after a morning full of them, but Darin was. I think I might have to promote him to second-shooter one of these days!

(Funny note, we started calling Miss Maezie "MJ" when we babysat her, since the rhyming Daisy and Maezie was just too confusing for our new talker. I think my family is the only people in the world who call her MJ. So when we were playing at the park, MJ kept calling Daisy "MJ" and when we'd ask her who was MJ she'd point to our Miss Daisy. Then Daisy would laugh and try to tell her that she was MJ. It was pretty darn funny.)

(Apparently Darin was only interested in shooting other people's cute kids!)

The girls played so nicely together, with Mr Eli entertaining himself too. I joke that Daisy & MJ are the best of frenemies because they are both so exited to get to see the other, than usually fight the whole time they're playing. This time, there was no fighting. My theory: we were at the playground and there were no toys to fight over! 

 

The Goodmans even brought the girls some birthday presents! Made the day at the park even better that's for sure.

Can we get together again soon?

 

another Seattle day trip

My parents read this post about a little day trip to Seattle and decided they wanted to do it too. So we made plans during their visit to do just that.

Snack time on the ferry. 

Apparently the granola bar was not enough.

We all enjoyed a stroll along the Seattle waterfront, and Daisy sweet talked Gran into buying tickets for the carousel. Daisy LOVED it, laughing and screaming the whole time. Dani was totally panicked by the whole affair.

I love penguins

And the main purpose of our visit: eating some yummy ivars lunch.

And feeding those Seagulls.

Just like last time, those seagulls are eyeing my baby.

My dad was really brave. And I took about 432 pictures of him trying to get the moment the gull snatched it out of his hand.

Oh, I think that guy got him!

And of course, no adventure is complete without a special treat. Ice cream cones all around!

Thanks for the fun adventure Mom & Dad. Come back soon and we'll do it again!

picnic date with the parents

I'd been wanting to get out and explore Salisbury Point County Park for a while, so a visit from the parents and two little girls who love picnics and adventures seemed like a perfect excuse. It was  a busy morning, so we ended up arriving right around lunch time and finding a picnic table (right by the water where we could watch the cars and trucks drive over the Hood Canal Bridge) to eat at right away.

But after lunch it was time to play! First, the beach.

Dani found some sand to play in!

We had so much fun playing pirate.

And my dad, well, he was my dad. (Also, the king of the underdog.)

And then we wandered down to the doc and spotted fish and jellyfish in the water. But I was holding on to Dani's hand tightly as I had terrifying visions of her jumping/falling off that doc so no pictures of this "fun".

We all loved this park and Daisy has been asking when we can go back again.

Kitsap Kids Day

A free event for kids, just minutes from our house, and a beautiful sunny day on top? Sounds like a perfect Saturday to me!

We arrived just about snack time, so after visiting with the fire truck mechanics, we found a shady lawn spot for a bite to eat. Turned out it was the perfect way to pass the time until the fire demonstration started. So after we cleaned up, we headed over to the bleachers.

It was pretty bright out there.

And that fire was really darn hot.

At one point Daisy looked back at me and said that she didn't want to be a firefighter when she grew up. "Cuz Mama I don't want to walk towards the fire, I want to run away from it." I totally get it kid, and am thankful there are men and women out there who do want to run toward it!

Check out this sweet moment I caught.

We then headed inside the pavilion where lots of groups had set up booths with games and prizes for the kids. We were glad we had brought the umbrella stroller along, if just to carry all the stuff the girls collected!

Dani loved dumping the rice into this bottle. (And somehow wearing her Papa's hat outside pulled out a pigtail.)

Art time.

Yes! Free cotton candy. Darin was sold.

The girls loved the fishing booth.

Daisy was very serious about it.

Both girls loved the ballerina at the dance company booth.

There was lots more fun inside the big building including a marionette show, helmet fittings (and $5 helmets for sale!), and more booths with prizes!

But the girls were getting a bit worn down, and Dani was getting really good at wandering away so we decided to check out the rigs outside.

There were quite a few rigs including a big truck, a city bus, some firetrucks, the bomb squad, a jump house, and more. 

The girls were pretty happy to have their free sunglasses this time!

Driving the fire truck.

And driving the sheriff boat.

And then we loaded all our new toys into the car and headed on home for lunch and naps, happy for all the *free* family fun!

(note: all pictures are SOOC)

Wordless Wednesday: Chuck-E-Cheese birthday party

(these are SOOC)

classic preschool moment

Lining up her animals for a music lesson. In the kitchen.

Yep, these are blurry and without edit, but too cute not to share.

sugar cookies

(Here's another set SOOC.)

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is the baking of sugar cookies. Not because I'm really all that into the cookie baking or decorating, but mostly because I love the eating. I could eat decorated sugar cookies ALL DAY. 

Unlike for my friend Mandi, my daughter was immensly helpful in the cookie making this year and it made for a delightful day together.

She took the job of patting and rolling very seriously.

She loved picking out the cutters, but needed a little help NOT sticking them right in the middle of the rolled out dough.

I let Darin take over when it came to the decorating.

After a while he set her up on her own. No intricate decorating this year: instead she carefully spread one color all around the cookie, and then went to town on the sprinkles. This girl loves her sprinkles.

And her mama sure loves eating her handiwork!

 

caroling hay ride

(Note: Darin suggested a way to achieve my blogging goal was to stop feeling the pressure to edit all my images before blogging them. I've been experimenting in shooting RAW, but those images must be edited before you can use them. So on some posts when I want to share, but just don't feel up to the editing, I'm gonna show you my SOOC-straight out of camera- shots without shame. I'll just make note of it so you know.)

Yup, that means these are SOOC.

When I was visiting Jen she informed me we'd be accompanying her father-in-law, brother-in-law, and church family on a caroling hay ride. I was picturing wagon, but in reality we were hanging out in the back of feed trucks. It was pretty cool, but pretty cold. I'm glad she warned me so I had my cold-weather clothes handy!

Jen & Sam in our low-light, before-leaving, blurry shot.

Our song sheets.

Turned on the flash so our hay-ride neighbors could take our picture.

Jen trying to improvise the jacket with a sling-covered arm, Sam wasn't a fan of wearing it backwards.

I thought we were just going to drive around and sing, turns out we were driving in the "hay wagon" to some Lewiston nursing homes to sing to the residents. It was fun, and nice to get to warm up in between stops!

Jen and I were both looking forward to the free church dinner after the caroling event, but were slightly dissapointed when served huge slices of semi-cold pizza. We reminded each other to be thankful that it was free and we didn't have to do any cooking or cleanup!

It was a really fun evening, but I couldn't help thinking the whole time how much Daisy would be enjoying it too. I guess thats the trade-off in traveling without your kids!