Spring Break

As many of you know, Samuel and I just returned from a nine day trip to Florida with Nana and Papa. This was the last year that Uncle Mike would be playing baseball so we all suffered through the sun and warmth to be there. It was a great trip complete with a day at the Magic Kingdom. Samuel loved it and it was a ton of fun to watch his excitement over the smallest of things. Here is a recap of our trip through a few pictures.

Here comes the parade!

Samuel liked the characters as long as they were fake!

Riding on the carousal with Papa!

Pluto was one of Samuel's favorite. He even got to pinch his nose!

Playing in the water was a ton of fun. It was also a great way to cool off!

Samuel and Nana watching the parade together.

Building a Mr. Potato Head .

Mommy and Samuel outside the castle.

Planting flowers in memory of Grandma Donna.

Showing everyone how he is already learning to drive.

Uncle Mike hit his first home run of the season and guess who got the ball!

Playing in the sun!

Keeping cool down by the pool!

All the girls were jealous!

Lego Land would have been daddy's favorite. We look lots of pictures for him.

Nana, Papa and Samuel during our last night out!

Trains with Daddy

Samuel has been loving his trains for the last couple of months. He has us "help him" build a few tracks a day and is so excited when he puts the trains on and watches them go. Here are a few pictures of he and daddy playing!

Play Group

Each Monday morning, Samuel gets to go to a playgroup sponsored by the Children's Hospital. It is a playgroup designed for children with hearing impairments and Samuel serves as one of their typical language development peers. We are currently on a break until we get back from Florida, but I forgot to post these pictures awhile back.

This month the theme was on community helpers. They had all sorts of activities for the kids including coloring, dressing up, playing in the post office and lots of great books. Samuel was not at all excited about dressing up, but he loved playing with the doctor's tools and did so pretty well. I guess we could guide him in that direction?!

Here he is in his element...puzzles.

"That will be $5.95 please." A future at Starbucks?

Unfortunate Side Effect...

Ever since we moved to Seattle, we have slowly began to realize that there are definite side effects that come with living here. For example...

-driving down I-5 and being amazed by the beauty of Rainer,
-the city shutting down when there is a threat of snow,
-rain, rain, rain,
-waking around a store and being surprised when a dog is standing next to you,
-traffic jams at the strangest times of the day,
seeing- a man in a business suit and a man dressed to go into the wilderness for a week within one block of each other,
-warmer winters and cooler summers,
and the latest...
-Starbucks sucking in even the youngest of us!

Samuel watches Mike and I drink coffee (way to often) and is now able to recognize the Starbucks label anywhere. The other morning, Mike came home with coffee and Samuel immediately said "hot" pointed to the Starbucks label and said "Babucks!" He then wanted to have his very own holder for his cup. He walked around very proud of his new cup!

Mommies and Babies

This just proves to us that Samuel is one of the smartest boys ever. We found this puzzle a few days ago and the teacher in me couldn't resist something educational. Anyway, we got it home and sat at the table for what I figured would be Samuel's first little mini lesson...I was wrong. He looked at the pictures and started matching all the animals up! I was amazed.

He can now do the whole puzzle without any problems and is constantly asking to do it again. I guess I will keep my eyes open for some more like it. Before I know it we will be working on multiplication!

Time for the Updates

Yes, I am fully aware that it has been over a month since my last post. I do realize that it is time for an update on what life has been over the past month, so here goes...

I think I am going to do this in segments of the big events that took place and try to date them appropriately. That will also make it look like I haven't ignored the blog since February!

Here goes...

Last Weeked

We had a really good weekend. Saturday, daddy was in class all day so Samuel and I hung out here in the morning and then headed down to the Seattle Center in the afternoon. We met up with Roxy and her clan and headed into the Pacific Science Center. Mike and I went there when we first visited with Phillip, but haven't been back since. They have a lot of cool things and a great play area for kids. Samuel and Roxy loved it.

This was a room full of instruments. Samuel loved banging around. I think we will have to take Daddy back here.

Samuel and Roxy loved the water/bubble table. They played for quite awhile and Trish and I were beginning to plan a table to each of our living rooms!

Samuel with a good shot of his Ireland hat. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Samuel and Roxy both thought it was great fun to hang from the Muscle Endurance exhibit. I think they both hung longer than I could have.

This was by far Samuel's favorite. He loved catching the balls then watching them fly up into the air. I was also pretty fascinated!

On Sunday, we decided to spend a family day at home. Mike was able to finish painting Samuel's room. I will send a picture when I get a chance. We also planted flowers in our flower box than Jon last July in memory of Hannah.
Here are daddy and Samuel planting the flowers!

Samuel helped by giving daddy the next one!

Samuel thought the best part was watering. I don't think we will have to worry about them getting to dry since he talks about it at least ten times a day!

Job well done!

Michigan Trip

On March 6th, Samuel and I left for a week in Michigan. This was not a trip we really wanted to take, but enjoyed being able to spend lots of time with family. We arrived in Chicago Tuesday afternoon and made our way to Michigan later that evening.

Samuel got to play for a bit with cousins Evan and Tristan!

Samuel loved playing with Maddy. He spent most of the time asking "Where's Maddy?" or "Where's Angie?" I didn't mind letting someone else take over for awhile and enjoying a short break from his craziness!

While in Michigan we were able to spend some time with family. We had a memorial from Grandma on Thursday and spent time Friday together. We also were able to Grandma and Grandpa Kaz and eat a really good meal at Bill's. Saturday evening, Samuel and I headed for Lansing to spend some time with Mike's family.

Here are Samuel and Addison catching some Elmo before heading out. It is amazing how close in size they are. I guess that's what you get when Addison is little and Samuel is big! You would never guess they are two years apart!

Grandma and Grandpa (Mike's dad) found a safer piano for Samuel to play with. A bit more his size. No stitches this time!

Another advantage of being in Michigan is that Samuel was able to meet his newest cousin, Evan Scott. Evan was born on the 10th to Erin and Scott (Mike's step-sister). He is a healthy baby boy and doing very well. I forgot how little they are!

Here is Aunt Kate, Cousin Addison and the newest member, Cousin Evan!

What would a Michigan post be without a little bit of snow. Here is Samuel shoveling snow at Gram's (Mike's mom) house. He saw the shovel and started screaming "BOB...BOB...BOB" He loved shoveling, well until he decided to touch the snow and realized how cold it was!

Grandma Donna

The real reason I haven't been posting is because we had some pretty crappy stuff happen around here. While my parents were her visiting in February, we got a call that my Grandma Donna (mom's mom) was going to have to have heart surgery. We knew it was coming and thought it would occur while we were all down there on Spring Break. After some preliminary tests they determined that it couldn't wait and that they would need to do it on Wednesday.

My parents left Monday morning, a very sad event for Samuel. My mom flew to Florida Tuesday to be with my grandma, grandpa and aunt during the surgery. She arrived Tuesday evening around dinner and was able to spend time with everyone before Wednesday's surgery. Grandma was in good spirits then and was doing very well.

Wednesday morning they preformed a valve replacement and triple bypass on my grandmothers heart. Things went extremely well and she came out of surgery great. By Thursday morning she was sitting up and doing better than could be expected. We all breathed a sign of relief. Then Thursday afternoon, she look a bad turn. They rushed her back into surgery where they found that she had a small tear and had been bleeding internally. They corrected the problem, but then it became waiting time to see if she would recover from this second surgery.

By Friday afternoon there was no change. She was not waking up from surgery and not responding to anything. After several tests the neurologist determined that there was no brain activity and he could say with one hundred percent certainty that she would never wake back up. After many, many long hours of prayer the family decided to turn off her life support. My grandfather, two uncles, aunt and mother each had a time to say goodbye before she peacefully left us Friday afternoon.

Samuel and I spent the next several days planning our return to Michigan for the memorial service. For many days I sat in shock. When I was born I had all my grandparents and three of my great-grandparents. Our family has always been close and it seems that we have avoided loss pretty well. Something like this really puts life into to prospective and makes you rethink the way you live and they way you are in relationship with others. It sucks!

Saturday Fun

Let the fun continue while Nana and Papa are here. This morning we got up early (thanks to Samuel) and headed out to St. Edwards Park for a family hike. We went about 2.5 miles, Samuel made it about half way and decided to ride the remainder.

After a good long nap, we headed downtown to Mike's school for a family game night. Once a month we get together with other couples and families at MHGS to have fun.

Daddy and Papa played Euchre.

Samuel, Koen and Jocie played Connect Four.

Here are all the kids playing Ring Around the Rosie. I will try and load the video later.