To Infinity and Beyond!

Matt and I celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary last week.  We are looking forward to all the years ahead of us. The eighth anniversary gift is suppose to be brass which is a hard one to shop for. Online I found suggestions for jewelry with the infinity symbol which is essentially an 8 sideways. Lucky for Matt I didn't feel the need for any infinity jewelry but I did like the symbol of infinity. Some days it does feel like we've been married forever, Then other days I can hardly believe it wasn't yesterday that we got married. For me time really does fly by.

We are so lucky to be able to witness many great marriages among our friends and families but I think two of the strongest examples are from both of our parents. We are truly blessed to have both sets of parents still happily married after all these years.

My parents just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary and are loving being 'retired' (read having multiple part time jobs each) together over in Chelan. Here they are September 19th, 1970.


Grandpa and Grandma C on their recent anniversary trip up to Victoria, BC.


Matt's Mom and Dad celebrated their 39th Anniversary this August, they are finding lots of time to travel together and love having all their kids and grandkids close to home. August 14th, 1971


Grandma and Grandpa Z on their recent trip to London and Ireland.


Here's to many more happy years together for everyone!

Tiny Dancer!

McKenzie started ballet lessons in September and she is having so much fun! When we originally were looking at lessons it was mainly because Aunt Kacey had signed cousin Kayla up at the YMCA and it sounded fun. So we tried to sign up too but the YMCA class was full.  We went to one of the local dance studios thinking we were just going to do a month or two but we were actually signing up for a September through June dance program with a recital at the end. The class is for ages 3 and 4 so it's about 10 girls right around McKenzie's age for 45 minutes on Saturday mornings.

I am actually most looking forward to the recital already because all I remember about ballet from when I took lessons was the beautiful outfit from the recital. Grandma Z also has a recital picture from when Aunt Jennifer did ballet lessons - and it is the cutest thing. They are all in yellow and have these huge floppy hats on.  Can't wait to see what McKenzie's teacher picks out for their recital outfit.

Here's my tiny dancer flitting along. Note: I am trying to get a better picture of her but there are some parents who think their child will be staring in the nutcracker this Christmas who won't move from the good viewing spot in front of the door so I have to take whatever shots I can get that don't involve their heads.


Here are Aunt Kacey and me when we were probably 4 and  5 dressed for our big recital.

It's A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood

We have a new neighbor and we could couldn't be happier. He has been over almost every day since he moved in helping us clear the back half of our property. He just loves to help, doesn't stop for breaks, and the kids think he's amazing. What more could we ask for in a neighbor?

I admit I was a bit skeptical when Matt told me the neighbors had brought home a goat but he's been an amazing addition to the neighborhood so far. I had a bad run in with a couple of goats that my parents got when I was about three.  Goats have not been high up on my list of animals to love since then.  But anything that can eat ten square feet of blackberries and other assorted wilderness in a single day is more than welcome at our neighborhood.


We have been working hard on our yard ever since we moved in six years ago, fighting for the yard we have. Once we conquered the land on the stream side of the property we pretty much gave up and just let the other side be 'the great beyond'.  Now our dream of using a little of our land on the other side of the stream is a reality thanks to our new neighbor, Jebediah, the goat. At the rate he's eating, we'll be able to walk the whole property over there by Christmas. I'm taking some pictures from the same angles so I can track the progression.

So Long Summer

With rain and gray skies following us over the pass the kids and I headed over to warmer parts for Labor Day weekend. We headed out mid day for Chelan and I had anticipated a long slow drive over but we somehow beat the traffic which was fantastic. We made it into Chelan in time for the monthly 'First Friday' celebration downtown. Lucky for us it was dog night and the kids got to see lots of dogs. Ben in particular enjoyed hugging the dogs while Grandpa C strolled him around.

There was lots going on downtown including a little train which we of course had to ride. A bounce house setup in the park was a happy place. What more could the kids ask for? Oh yeah, ice cream - we stopped for after the train ride.



On Saturday the kids got one last swim in for the summer. Our swimming lessons have really paid off and everyone is loving the water! Here's Nathan, age 7, McKenzie age 3, and Kayla, age 5, jumping into the pool together.


Nathan doing his cannon ball in the deep end!


And last but not least Ben doing his best to jump in like the big kids with Grandpa C's help.


At Grandma and Grandpa C's house Ben can be found in one of three places - in the pantry trying to get Grandpa's cookies, up in the office trying to use Grandpa's computer or in the den sitting in Grandpa's chair using his remotes.


We had a fire in Grandma and Grandpa's fire pit. It was McKenzie's first bonfire. Yes, we do have a fire pit in our backyard and we do often have fires but McKenzie has bedtime so she hasn't seen an outside fire yet. Along with never having seen a bonfire she had never had a s'more. Uncle Eric couldn't believe she'd been missing out for so long.

Here she is one bite into her s'more and she yelled "I need a napkin!!!"  This girl for all her love of nature does not like to have her hands sticky when she's eating.


Here's another shot of Grandma and Grandpa C with all the grandkids and then last years similar shot so you can see how they all have grown.  Nathan will have to get some sun glasses for next years picture so he doesn't have to squint so much : )

Go Bananas!

I finally found some time to post the pictures from our visit to the Evergreen State Fair. Here's McKenzie and cousin Kayla thrilled beyond words about the banana crowns they got at the fair. The picture is a special dedication to my friend Sarah, who is currently obsessed with unsmiling photos in situations you're less than pleased to be in.


The highlight of the fair besides the videos from my last post was the rides. McKenzie wanted to go on all of them. Kenzie and Kayla were good ride buddies and tried out lots of new rides. Here they are on the teacups - love their hair flying as they spin!


Of course we had to go on the Merry-Go-Round, which is McKenzie's all time favorite. She picked a cat to ride on instead of a horse which will make Auntie Anne happy.


For Ben the highlight was the petting farm. Unlimited access to touch, hug and even kiss lots of strange animals. This picture is taken within seconds of entering the petting farm. This little guy is not shy when it comes to animals.


This poor little goat in the picture below was getting a good dose of love and was probably about to receive a nice big kiss from Benny but the chorus of kids screaming, "That baby is choking the baby goat" prompted me to put down the camera and remove my son from the goat.


Overall, our trip to the fair was great.  We enjoyed all the fine fair foods and watch the logger show so a good time was had by all.

All's Fair At The Fair

We took our yearly trip to the Evergreen State Fair last weekend and had a great time. Everything was pretty much the same as every other year except for getting sucked into making music videos of McKenzie and her cousin Kayla.

We were just standing around waiting for Nathan and Uncle Eric to catch up with us.  I was looking at this booth that was making videos where they just put your head on a dancing body. I was thinking to myself that I couldn't believe people were actually wasting money to make them when you could use online tools like Jib Jab or Elf Yourself to make very similar videos. Then before I knew it the man running the booth was asking if he could use the girls to make a video to attract a crowd - no purchase of the video necessary of course, but if we liked it we could buy it.

Since girls just wanna have fun, we decided to let the little ladies make one video for the poor guy. In the end they made three videos and we bought two. While I do feel I could make something similar on the Internet, the $20 we spent has been well worth it for the number of times McKenzie has watched them already.

Now you can enjoy them too.  Actual pictures from the fair will come in a separate post. For those who get email updates, visit the blog to watch the videos http://thezarembas.blogspot.com