Snug as a Bug in a Rug

Chris went to check on Emily the other night before going to bed and here's what he found. I'm bias but it's this the cutest thing ever?

Don't Forget the Guinness

Chris and I had a date last night. We headed to a great Irish pub in Renton called A Terrible Beauty. It brought back memories of our trip to Ireland/England eight years ago. Of course I had to have a pint of Guinness....yummy, it's liquid dessert. I would highly recommend visiting this pub.

Interesting Books

What's one to do on a rainy Saturday? Go to the library. Emily and I headed to the library yesterday. We have not been for a long time. I forgot how much I love the library. Emily came up to me with about seven books she had chosen and said "Momma, I like to pick out interesting books". Some of her choices:

• Silkworms
• Whales
• Amazing Sharks
• Flowers Bloom
• Mighty Machines, Helicopters

We have a budding scientist / animal lover on our hands. She keeps telling us that she wants to be a vet when she grows up!

It's a Tradition

For as long as Chris can remember his family has vacationed at Lake Chelan. It started with camping at the state park, then later staying at Campbell's and now Chris' parents have a condo at Wapato Point. So every summer we head to Chelan for a fun vacation with his family. We just got back and here are some of my favorite memories from this trip:

#1 - Boating. Emily loves the boat and wants to drive. She even helped Daddy and Papa launch the boat.

#2 - Celebrating Stan's birthday. Emily and Grandma Sandy made cupcakes to celebrate Stan's birthday. It was great to spend time with Stan and Kathleen.





#3 - S'mores. We made s'mores over the hot coals of the BBQ one night. I know it's not the traditional way but we made it work and had a fun time.





#4 - The pool. Emily made huge strides this trip in swimming. Papa was her swimming coach. If given the chance Emily would have spent the entire vacation at the pool. By the time we left she was swimming half way across the pool and jumping off the side. Way to go Bugga!





#5 - The weather. We had all kinds of crazy weather this trip. Because of the fires, we had some smoke and haze. A couple of the nights we had thunder and lightening along with the rain and wind. When it was stormy the lake was a beautiful turquoise color. For the most part the days were sunny and warm.



#6 - Spending time with family. Going to the beach. Cooking and eating big family dinners. Waking up to Luke chatting in his own language. Reading Gone With the Wind. Thank you Moser family for a wonderful time.

Trucks, Trucks and More Trucks

I got to spend some quality time with my favorite nephew this past week. It's amazing how little girls and little boys are so different. Luke is ALL boy. The little dude loves trucks. Anything that goes vroom, has a horn, makes a noise or has tires. His favorite right now seems to be fire trucks. Happy playing. I love you Luke.

A Rite of Passage

It's official. Emily's definitely a 'Krause' girl. Growing up I remember my mom having a turban towel on her head after the shower. My sister and I proceeded to do the same. Now our girls are following that ritual. KP, get your towel ready!

An All American Day

The Moser family had a great day! We spent most of the day with our friends, the Deitz's. First we headed to the Tacoma Rainier's baseball game. We had wonderful seats and watched them win in the 9th inning. We ended the day with a BBQ including watermelon, corn on the cob and yummy salads. The kids then ran through the sprinkler. It was an all American day! Thanks Todd, Krista, Karsten and Chase.

Tigers and Monkeys and More

Emily, Brandi, Kaitlyn, Luke, Karena and I went to Point Defiance Zoo on Monday. It was a perfect day.
My favorite: the meerkats
Emily's favorite: feeding the goats
Luke's favorite: water sprinklers
Kaitlyn's favorite: the walrus' and feeding the goats
This zoo is great for kids. I can't wait to go back.

Brandi's Boating B-day

The one gift my sister asked for on her birthday was a boating day on Lake Washington. So on Sunday we headed to the Lake. It started out overcast and cool but by the time we had lunch at Duke's the sun was out. It was a perfect Seattle afternoon, the kind that makes you realize.... 'ahhh this is why we live in the Northwest'. It was a great day boating.

Gym Camp

Emily and Taylor spent last week at gymnastics camp. I would recommend it..Peak Gymnastics. Emily's favorite part, the ice cream freeze dance.

July 19th

July 19th is a great day. Why? For many reasons but the most significant is that it's Kaitlyn's birthday. My favorite niece turns two today. She celebrated on Saturday with a great Curious George party which included lots of fun, food and family. Happy Birthday sweet little peanut. I love you more than you know.

Diamonds...

Not the sparkly kind, the Diamond Club Mariner baseball tickets. I think one of the things on my Dad's 'bucket list' would be to go to a M's game and sit in the Diamond Club seats. Well that wish came true. Brandi, Ryan, Kaitlyn, Chris, Emily, my mom and I all pitched in for his birthday to get him a ticket. Look for Ryan and my Dad on August 3rd. They will be sitting 3 rows behind home plate. Enjoy the ride Dad...you deserve it!

Sprinklers and Fun

I mentioned in the previous post that Brandi's birthday was yesterday. On Sunday the Moser's and Pederson's headed down to my parents for a celebration. What a great day. We started off at the Olympia Farmer's Market. I would highly recommend a visit. At my parents we ate, walked to the beach, ate again, relaxed in the sun, ate again (cake this time) and the girls played in the sprinkler. Aren't sprinklers the all time symbol of summer fun?

Brandi's Special Day

Today is my sister's birthday. Happy Birthday Brandi! Have a wonderful, fun day. Enjoy.

Crazy, Lazy Days of Summer

My sister and I were talking the other day about summer vacation. And missing the fact that we don't have a summer vacation from our jobs. I would say this is Emily's first real summer vacation from school. This is the first summer she doesn't have to go to daycare. We are incredibly fortunate to have a wonderful family and friends that are helping us throughout the summer to care for Emily while I'm at work. This past week was the first real week of summer as far as weather goes. Emily was a busy little lady and I'm envious of all the fun she had. Here are some highlights:

• Playing with Auntie Karena and Luke
• Splashing in the pool with Taylor and Logan
• A fun birthday party at the Superjump Party Zone
• A trip to Northwest Trek with Grandma Sandy, Auntie Karena and Luke
• A pool party with Micah and friends
• Riding her bike, riding her bike and riding her bike

Next week she is going to gymnastics camp with Taylor. I looked at Emily today and she is getting tan and has color on her cheeks. Ahhhh those wonderful carefree summer days.

Bible Camp

Last week Emily attended a vacation bible camp with her friend Taylor. She said the dancing and singing were AWESOME. She had a great time. I want to thank Mandy, our friend who helped get Emily to and from camp while I was at work. She also took this cute pictures of the girls. Thank you!

Red, White and Blue

We celebrated the 4th of July at Greg and Sarah's. They have a wonderful house close to the Tacoma waterfront and they are gracious hosts to all our family and friends. Thank you for another year of festivities. Fun, food, family and friends, isn't that what the 4th of July is about?

Maiden Voyage 2010

We headed to Lake Tapps on Sunday for our maiden voyage with the Deitz boys. The weather wasn't great but the lake was calm. We saw three eagles up close. A good time was had by all.

The Buckley Log Show

Yes, you read that correctly, the Log Show in Buckley. It's quite the event and I must say great people watching! We headed to Main Street in downtown Buckley on Saturday morning to catch the parade. It's was pretty cool and if you are semi-truck lover, you would dig it. Lots of big trucks, loud horns and chrome. As a former employee of Kenworth, it was great to see that Kenworth trucks dominated the pack. After that we headed to the little street fair. Scones and pony rides were on the top of the list. We ran into Emily's great-great aunt and uncle, Kath and Stan and spent most of the day with them. It was a great time. Emily and I rode a couple rides and ended the day with cotton candy and an elephant ear.

Three Amigos

Three amigos....Emily, Taylor and Chase. This is how summer days should be spent. Riding bikes with friends, playing bubbles and taking an 'otter pop' break.

The Dude

Our Family Vacation; Part III

The final part of our vacation took us to visit the Boling family. They are about an hour northeast of San Diego. Chris has known Jeff and Sheri since high school. We arrived on Friday afternoon and Emily was immediately in the pool. The Boling's were great hosts and have a wonderful pool and outdoor living area. Our first night we dined at BJ's Brewery and I must say they have excellent beer and dessert! Our second night with the Boling's took us to Old Town Temecula. We dined at a Mexican restaurant called the Bank. Old Town was really cool and it's one thing I would love to go back and spend more time walking and exploring the shops. The big hit of the night....the old time candy/sweet shoppe.

Our Family Vacation; Part II

The second part of our vacation took us down to San Diego to visit the Byard family. Jen and I have been friends since the seventh grade. She has a wonderful family. Thank you so much for hosting us. They live in the Golden Hill neighborhood and on our first evening we walked to dinner to a great pizza place called Pizzeria Luigi. This place was featured on Diner's Dives and Drive-In's on the Food Network.




The second day with the Byard's was spent at Coronado beach. It was a perfect day for building sand castles, playing in the water and watching all the cool planes land at the naval base.




Thank you Byard family. Hope you are having a great time at camp. For those of you who don't know, Jen is a very talented and creative lady. She has a business called, My Three Sons Designs. Check out her blog: http://mythreesonsdesigns.blogspot.com/

Our Family Vacation; Part I

Our family vacation took us to southern California. For the first part, we visited Disneyland. My great friend Robin and her two kids, Molli and Luke joined us. We had a blast. Outside of the small detour to the ER (everyone is o.k.) it was a great vacation. It was so fun to see Emily experience the magical kingdom....Disneyland is truly the happiest place! Emily's favorite was the roller coaster in Toon Town. She also loved Finding Nemo, Star Tours, meeting alot of Disney characters and the hotel pool. The Pixar parade was also very cool. I took over 200 pictures so obviously I can't share them all on the blog. I'll pick a couple favorites.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Chris! This father's day was alittle hectic. We returned from our California vacation today. I hope that you had a great day.

The Last Day of School

Tomorrow is Emily's last day of Kindergarten. Where did the school year go? This week has been a whirlwind for Emily. Monday I volunteered at field day. Tuesday she gave her book report to the class on Sharks. Today was mismatch shoe day to show school spirit. For lunch her class had a picnic complete with soda, chips and hot dogs....thanks Mrs. Flaherty. To top if off she got her school yearbook. She told me she can't wait for first grade.

A Great Saturday

We had a great Saturday. The talk of the town was the sun making an appearance. Everyone in the Seattle area needed some sun therapy after the couple weeks of blah gray rainy weather.

In the morning Emily and I rode bikes with Taylor, jumped on the trampoline and blew giant bubbles. The afternoon consisted of a trip to see cousin Kaitlyn, Auntie B and Uncle Ryan. And what a great surprise that Grammy Jill and Papa joined us. Those two girls never cease to amaze me. Kaitlyn gets so excited to see Emily and Emily is so caring and protective of Kaitlyn. We played at the park, had pizza from our favorite joint Shakey's Pizza and played hide and seek. A great Saturday.

This was one of my favorite moments of the day. The two girls cuddling in the chair, eating fish crackers and watching Curious George. What a life!

Our Little Monkey

A Game of Cat and Fish

We have had Barnacles, our fish, for four months now. All of a sudden Peaches, our cat, has taken a keen interest in Barnacles. One morning I walked into Emily's room to find the fish tank almost off the edge of the shelf. I'm sure Barnacles had a mini-fish heart attack. We will be finding a new spot for Barnacles.