Our After-Busy-Season Retreat

It's so good to get away after busy season is over! We made a camping trip work on the last good weather weekend of the year. It was perfect. Just a couple of days and nights, but it was so fun to just get away and hang out in the mountains together. The boys are in heaven out there (my husband included). Here they are setting up the tent.
The boys enjoying the fire.
Family canoe ride on the lake.
And this is what our evenings looked like: Darren fly fishing, Joseph practicing casting with his pole, Justin throwing rocks and me reading a book.Can't wait for next year!

The Bathroom: Remodeled

BEFORE (crappy floor, ugly old window, and cracking, mildewing shower tile
DURING (really gross water damage)
AFTER! Still work to be done, you can see, but what an improvement!

"Bishop Jolley" is no longer just my Father-in-law's name

On Sunday my husband was sustained as the Bishop of our ward. Isn't that crazy!? Aren't we too young to be doing this? Although, I do feel like I've aged 3 years in the past 3 months. Too many grown up things happening: Getting a mortgage, sending a kid to school and becoming the Bishop's wife. I still think of myself as a young mother fresh out of college, but I'm really not so fresh anymore!

I am humbled, overwhelmed and excited to support my husband in this calling. I know he'll do an incredible job. We love the people in our ward; they have truly been our Seattle family. We felt their support on Sunday and it meant so much. What a beautiful church we belong to where we get to serve and help one another.

We also enjoyed a quick 24 hour visit with Grandma and Grandpa Jolley who came to share the day with us. It was so wonderful to have them here. Thank you so much for your love and support!

Joseph's First Day of Kindergarten

We had something exciting happen the week before school started. My first choice school that we didn't get into called and offered us a spot! We took it right in time for orientation and Kindergarten assessments. The bad part was that Joseph was NOT happy about the switch. We'd already visited the original school and learned his teacher's name and he was not very happy with me. Even the fact that he was in his best friend's class wasn't helping. After a couple of playground visits, a couple of visits to his new classroom and meeting his new teacher, he was finally converted and excited about the new school. Phew! Right in time for school to start.

There were lots of reasons for wanting to be at this school. It has great, tenured teachers, great student test scores and great parent involvement. But my #1 reason was that I could opt to go half day at this school. Of course, the principal and the teacher were less than excited about this decision. There isn't a half day class, I just come pick him up at lunch time. So the teacher has to mess with her schedule and the principal doesn't get my $200 a month. Yep, that's how much it costs to send your child full day. But going half day has been working great and Joseph is loving it!

I had spent quite a bit of time crying about sending him to Kindergarten the week before, so I did surprisingly great when the actual day came. Joseph did great too, he just waved good-bye to us and went on his big boy way. It's going to be a great year.

8 Years

Our anniversary was weeks ago now but I just wanted to give a little shout out to my main man. Love you, babe. You are everything I want and need and I'm so glad you're mine.

I'm always missing him this time of year. He's working his little butt off doing tax returns and passing the CPA exam, so I can't blame him. Kinda reminds me of our engagement we spent apart. Eight years ago I was more excited for the day he would finish his job in Vegas and get back to me than the day we were getting married. Now I look forward to his 9/15 deadline more than our anniversary. We'll just have to celebrate it this month instead. We did give each other a gift, though! It's a remodeled bathroom and I'll show you pictures soon.

Wedding Trip!

We made the trip to Oregon to see Darren's sister, Jenni get married and it was such a great weekend filled with fun and family! Darren's siblings live all over the country, so the wedding brought family together we hadn't seen in a couple of years.

The trip started out with picking up my way cute niece and nephew, Megan and Kevin, at the airport, who flew in from Missouri. They got to hang out with us and play with my kids on the trip, which was great for me! We spent Friday night in Portland with my cousin Melinda and her family since Jenni and Michael were getting married at 9 AM in the Portland temple the next morning. It was great to catch up with them and see their new place. Thanks for taking care of us, Melinda!Here are our cute kids together at the breakfast table early on Saturday morning.Then we made it to the temple nice and early in Darren style and had time for a family photo shoot while we were waiting for everyone to show up.Here's the beautiful bride and groom as they're coming out of the temple. Don't they look so happy? I love how Michael is looking at her like "Yeah, she's mine for eternity now and I'm really happy about it!"Here's all the nieces and nephews that were at the wedding. We were missing a few, darn it. The wedding was so beautiful. I'm mad at myself for not taking more pictures at the reception because it was gorgeous. I was just too busy having a great time chatting, eating, dancing and cutting and serving the wedding cake with my SIL, Connie. We were horrible at it, and were giggling about it the whole time!Joseph and Kellen, best cousin friends.I also got to meet my newest niece, Carly. Isn't she precious? I was loving on her every chance I got.Look at all these cute kids!Megan, Kevin and me and the kids stayed a couple of extra days after the wedding to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa. We decided to spend Monday at the Oregon coast in Florence. Unfortunately, my kids didn't last long at the water. They didn't even make it to the water. The wind was blowing so hard that the sand stung your legs. Needless to say, Joseph and Justin were not happy about that. They're so short that it kept getting in their eyes too. We tried to play in the sand for a few minutes, but the boys were just miserable and bawling. It was pretty funny, actually. I wish I had a picture of it. So we settled for some souvenir shopping and ice cream eating.On Tuesday, we drove Megan and Kevin to the airport and tears were shed when we had to say good-bye. Justin called them his "friends" all weekend and was sad to see them go. Joseph told me at the airport, "I'll miss them when they're gone." We're so glad you could come and spend time with us, guys. And congrats to the newlyweds! We love you so much and loved spending your big day with you.

The Pacific Science Center

I was just mentioning that I've lived in Seattle for 4 years now, and I confess, I haven't visited the Pacific Science Center since the first week we lived here! My oldest was just a baby. So we had much to experience here. My boys loved it. I must get a membership now because this place is so huge, you just can't get close to doing it all in one visit. There is so much to see and do and something for all ages. And the best part is, you're learning while your playing.

We hit the IMAX theater first and saw "Animalopolis" which was adorable. Both my kids thought it was funny and it completely held their interest. It's a series of funny nature clips of animals that are narrated in clever rhymes. Then on our way to the Butterfly House, Joseph couldn't resist the water cannon, what little boy can? The butterflies were my favorite part. So many different and beautiful ones just fluttering all around you! I really wanted one to land on me, but my boys wouldn't let me stand still enough for long enough, darn it. They kind of freak you out about how fragile they are and to watch your step, so my cautious little Joseph was uncomfortable in there and didn't want to stay near as long as I wanted to. Or maybe butterflies just aren't as cool to boys as they are to girls, I don't know. Anyway, enjoy my butterfly pictures and I'll stop blabbing about them.Joseph is obsessed with the solar system right now, so he was so excited to see this part of the science center. Look at the look of wonder on his face. I love it!Really cool dinosaurs!I didn't get any good pictures of the great play area they have for babies and toddlers, but my 2 year old didn't want to leave after going in there! And it was huge. He didn't even get to see all of it, he was having so much fun and they had to kick us out of there at closing time. It was a great afternoon!