Mariners Games

Well we have lived here in Seattle(Kent) for 6 months now and have not gone to a single Mariners game. Well that changed this week. First on Monday night the Snelders, Browns, Brittany and us went to the Mariners game. We sat in the upper deck, which actually wasn't that bad. The kids sure had a fun time and Dillon was so excited to get some "fuzzy wuzzy" (translation: cotton candy). Ironically, my secretary had tickets to the baseball game the following night and could not use them so she gave them to me. They were incredible seats! I was down on the field on the 17th row right behind the Angles dugout. I was so close to the field that when the players were batting I could see their eyes. So in two nights I went to two baseball games.

A crazy coincedence was on Monday night at the game, our family was sitting in the bleachers waiting for our friends to arrive and up the stairs comes Richard Bird, my old friend from high school when we lived in Boise. Ended up that he was in town on business so I invited him to the game with me the following night.

The Mariners have struggled this season and will finish the season with the worst record in baseball. They were playing the Angles both nights who, on the other hand, have the best record in baseball. Ther first night the Mariners lost 2-1 (which made for a rather boring game), but the next night they won 9-6. I secretly was hoping the Mariners would lose that second game because it would have been the first time ever in baseball history that a team with a payroll of $100 million lost 100 games.

Woodland Park Zoo (Seattle)

On Saturday we took our first adventure to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. We ended up staying for 5 1/2 hour and amazingly the kids did wonderful...much better than their mother in fact! My highlight was probably the brown bear exhibit. We got there at the perfect time and were able to see one play in the water about 2 feet from us. Another cool exhibit was the night-time exhibit. It was a building that was dark with a little bit of light coming through. We were able to see some animals you would never be able to see during the day time. We also went to a birds of prey presentation where they had a hawk, falcon, vulture and an owl that would fly around us. The kids sure seemed to have an enjoyable time. Here are some of the pictures from our journey:

Labor Day Weekend

Well today is Labor Day and since we took a vacation last week, we decided to stay home. We have actually had a pretty fun morning. We woke up and went exploring Lake Fenwick, which is only about a mile from our house, but it feels like you are deep in the woods. It is a very pretty lake with a wonderful trail to follow. We also took the opportunity to pick ourselves some wild blackberrys that are very yummy. Here's some pictures of our journey:







After that we went to one of our favoirte places, Des Moines. We decided to walk along the beach instead of the pier and I'm sure glad we did. We found more crabs than we ever had! In fact under one rock I turned over there were probably 50 crabs ranging from the size of a M&M to the size of a tennis ball. Natalie also found s huge spiral shell that had some type of living organism in it. We had no idea what it was, so we left it on the beach. We will sure miss our crab hunting experiences when we have to leave Seattle. Here's some pictures:

Summer Trip to Boise

Well we finally took some vacation this year. We decided to go to a place we are very familiar with, good ol' Boise. Usually a trip from Seattle to Boise would constitute an 8-hour car drive, but fortunately my parents live almost half-way in the middle, so we were able to split the drive up. We left Seattle on a Tuesday afternoon and stayed at my parents house that night in Kennewick. Since our trip was during Kenzie and Dillon's birthdays, my parents took them shopping to Toys R' Us and let them pick out their own birthday presents. The kids loved that! Below is a picture of Kenzie and her birthday...cupcake!



The next morning we woke up and headed to Boise. We decided to stay at Jay and Leah's house, which was perfect. We basically had the entire downstairs to ourself. I had been nervous about the weather in Boise. I've become accustomed to the 70 degree weather here in Seattle and was dreading the 100 degree weather in Boise, however, the whole time we were there it never got above 85 degrees. It was beautiful! Natalie's mom flew in from Texas to be with us and the Murray's came up from Provo to be here to, so it was somewhat of a little family reunion.

The Olympics in Beijing were going on, so one of my favorite activities to do, was to bring one of Jay and Leah's TV outside on the patio and we'd all watch the olympics together. I think Dillon's highlight was riding the four-wheelers with his cousins Ethan and Eric on the motorcyle track they have in their yard.

I purchased Dillon a little fishing pole and we took it with us up to Black Canyon Resevoir above Emmett. He loved it! It was also a big hit with the cousins. Here's a picture of us all on the dock with our $10 Go Diego fishing pole.


On Saturday the 23rd we had a joint party for Dillon and Kenzie at the Walker's house. The Rupps, Murrays, Kyle & Jen, and our friends the Johns all came. Natalie and I purchased the food and had a BBQ. There was enough food to feed an army! I hope Leah and Jay are enjoying the plethura of Polish Sausages we left for them. The kids sure seemed to enjoy opening presents and spending time with their cousins. Here are some pictures of their party:





On the way home, again we stopped at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Kennewick and celebrated Dillon's birthday. Here are some pictures of that:

Our weekend

We had a pretty fun weekend. Friday night Natalie took me on a date. First she wanted to take me to the Dollar Store where we were to buy two items for each other and wear them the rest of the night. Needless to say, I was not too excited for this activity. Next we went and washed the car. After that I took over and decided to go to the pier near Dashpoint. It was beautiful there. It was high tide so the water basically came up to the car and the pier was full of people fishing and crabbing. Unfortunately, we did not see any of the 50 fishers catch anything. The crazy part is that it was August 1st and it was freezing! I cannot ever recall wearing a jacket on August 1st in my life. After that we drove around a little bit and overlooked the bay and Tacoma and then returned to Kent and found a good old fashioned mom and pops hamburger joint. The shakes were pretty tasty!

On Saturday we woke up and went to the Kent farmer's market. There were not a lot of vendors there, but it was still fun. All summer we've been wanting to buy corn on the cob, but with the production of ethanol now the price of corn has been very high this year, so we've been waiting for a good deal. We finally found some corn that was 7 for $2.00. I remember being a kid and it was always 10/$1.00. We also found some fresh green beans for $2.00/lb. Dillon and Kenzie were happy going to the ice cream vendor and getting Popsicles.

After the farmer's market we headed to one of our favorite cities here, Des Moines. We found a Terriyaki place near the water and got it to go. While we were there we saw an advertisement on the window for the annual Des Moines Doggy Fair, so we decided to go. There were so many people, so we had to park about 1/2 mile away, but we found a place overlooking the boat yard and ate our lunch. We then proceeded to the doggy fair. The kids were in heaven. The picture above is Dillon at the fair. The highlight of the doggy fair was the Great Dane that was larger than Natalie and the little dogs that were so scared of the big dogs they just shivered the whole time. The kids loved it!

Walking back to the car we decided to walk out on the pier. There were about 10 crab fishermen throwing their nets off the dock, so we watched them for a while. We saw one guy catch a starfish and another guy pulled in his net and had three crabs. Dillon sure loved seeing those crabs! Who knows, maybe one day we will pick up crabbing!

That night we were making hamburgers and decided to invite our friends the Brown's over on the spur of the moment. We had a really fun time just talking, eating and playing Wii. Overall, it was just a good fun weekend.

4th Of July...And The Day After

So this year for the 4th of July we decided to stay in Seattle instead of venturing over the mountains to Kennewick. I don't know, but the 100 degree weather they were having over there didn't sound enticing enough as I'm very happy with temperatures around 70 degrees on this side of the mountains. We were invited to a party at the Palmer's house and gladly accepted. The party was only the Palmers, Renos and us, but honestly I had the most fun w/ fireworks since I was a kid. The two other couples spent a total of $160 on some pretty sweet fireworks that they bought at the Indian reservation in Auburn. It was insane how many fireworks you can get for $160 on the reservation!!! We seriously lit off fireworks for an hour and a half straight, and they weren't the little dinky ones (well...the ones we bought were), but they were the mortar shells that shoot up into the air. It was awesome!!! They live in an area of Kent that in unincorporated, meaning that city firework bans are not in place, so their neighborhood was the place to be. I felt that it beat going to any firework show. Dillon really seemed to enjoy it this year for the first time. He especially liked the firetruck firework and the truck one we got him.


One adventure we had was the day of the 4th we decided to drive down to the Indian reservation and see what we could find. Holy cow, that was insane. Traffice was backed up for about 3 miles, so a 15-minute drive turned into a 2-hour drive. Once we finally got there there was nowhere to park so we turned around and came home (also the kids were miserable and the wife was hungry), but what we saw was crazy. It was like going to a fair with hundreds of booths setup, but the booths were firework stands. Next to the booths they had a field where there were bonfires going and you could tell thousands of fireworks had been lit off there as their remains still lingered. If we're ever in Seattle again for the 4th of July we'll be going to the reservation, but next time not on the 4th.


Here are some pictures from July 5th. We decided to go to Saltwater State Park again and catch some crabs and we also went exploring to a new park, Seahurst in Burien.

My favorite TV Shows of All-time

Here is a list of my favorite TV Shows of all time in order.

1. Seinfeld

2. Lost

3. Arrested Development

4. The Office

5. The Office (UK)

6. How I Met Your Mother

7. My Family (UK)

8. Rules of Engagement

9. The Drew Carey Show

10. Judge Mathis

Zion's Camp

So this weekend we had an absolute blast! A group of about 12 couples from our ward got together and went camping to a church-owned campsite called Zion's Camp near Belfair, Washington. It was so much fun and I generally don't enjoy camping. The whole property consisted of about 50 campsites. It also had cabins that one could stay in. The best part was that it had a grass meadow that had a soccer field, baseball field and, for the kids, a playground. Here's a picture of the meadow.


In the playground it had a bus that Dillon absolutely loved!!! It also had a pretty cool 3-story tree house.
Around the meadow it had a ropes course and some of the things were pretty fun for both the kids and the adults. It had a rope swing thing where you climbed a 7-foot tower and then jumped off.

The best part though were the rope swings. There were about 5 of them and the ropes were generally tied about 20-feet in the air, so you could really get moving. Dillon loved the barrell-swing, or as he called it the "garbage" swing. Here are some pictures and one video of the swings:






Also the campground had a 17-acre lake where you could check out canoes, rowboats or paddle boats. The kids weren't too impressed going out on a rowboat, but really enjoyed throwing rocks into the water. A few of the guys we were with went fishing. One of them caught 15 trout and a salamander. Best part was that it is only $10/night to camp and you can check out the boats for free!!! You can also check out bows and arrows and sports equipment for free as well.


I would have to say that this was the funnest camping trip we have ever been on an we will definitely be going back soon. Here's a link to the website if anyone is interested:

Zion's Camp

Here are some more pictures from our trip: