Evergreen State Fair

Today we went to the Evergreen State Fair to see the sites, eat the food and most important for the kids, pet the animals! Zane was super excited about the sweet little piggies. He made the pig noises (oinking and squealing) it was very cute. By the time we made it through the pig barn though he was pretty tired so most of the rest of his explaration was done in the stroller.


The kids also sampled the petting zoo. They had a great time although they were so busy and moving that getting pictures was almost impossible!


Finally, we also went and checked out the pictures that I had entered into the fair this year. Much to my surprise I had won the sweepstakes prize which means that my photo was selected as the best in the fair overall. Pretty amazing! I will just have to watch out though so I don't get a huge head over it!


Here I am posing next to my award winning photo, Eric's idea and insisting. (It is of Zane and you can see it on the blog, it is on one of my very first entries when I started blogging) I will get to keep the big ribbon and Eric is about ready to burst with pride. He takes my placement in the fair much, Much, MUCH more seriously than I do. I just do it because I like the feedback. Apparently, the feedback on this picture will be good. Sadly the other picture I entered only made a 3rd place ribbon. Hmmm, I wonder what I did wrong with that one?

Mount Pilchuck Camping AGAIN!

We just got back from camping on Mount Pilchuck again. This time we took along our nephews CJ and Brian as well. We had a great time and I think Eric really enjoyed the fact that he had a few more big boy helpers to carry stuff from the van to the site for him. Let's just say that loading and unloading the van took much less time than it did before. Camping was about the same although the weather was a little warmer. It was fun to watch CJ eat almost a half a bag of marshmallows! I finally cut him off because I didn't want him to get completely sick from all that sugar. It was a quick trip over all but I think that we almost have fulfilled Eric's urge to go camping for the summer. This is three weeks in a row that he has gone with the boys. They absolutely love it and I think he will have created two little monsters for himself next year!

CJ's visit

Ou nephew CJ came to visit us all the way from Idaho (along with his mom and brother of course) and he and Andrew have had a wonderful time playing and running errands with Eric. Andrew and Zane love having CJ visit because he is fun and doesn't mind slowing himself down to play with the little ones. Thank goodness for fun older cousins!

Baby Werner #3

Well, we had our ultrasound today and it appears that we will be having a GIRL! this time. Baby was not being super cooperative, hands down blocking the view and when not that the legs were squeezed together to keep us from seeing. The few good looks that we got showed all signs girl and zero signs boy. Unfortunately, they discovered that I have a super low lying placenta which is slightly covering the top of the cervix (apologies to all boy readers, I am sure that is absolutely too much information) so I have to have another ultrasound in two weeks to check on that. We are also going to have them double verify the gender as well, so nobody break the bank in pink now. I am trying to keep myself in check as well! Oh yeah, the baby also appears to enjoy her thumb a whole bunch (go figure, another thumb sucker!) It was very cute though watching this little person swim and kick and suck on its thumb inside me. Especially since I am not really feeling all that much movement yet.

Mount Pilchuck Camping

We spent Sunday night camping at the trailhead for the Mount Pilchuck hike. It was a lot of fun camping with the boys and they had a great time going on little hikes around the campsite. The only part that was not fun was the excessive amount of gnats that seemed to congregate around us everywhere. Some OFF! spray took care of those though and I think that we managed to escape without being eaten alive by the mosquitos. Eric is in seventh heaven because both his boys seem to like to hike and think that being in the great outdoors is a treat! Andrew in particular seems to be completely gung ho about hiking.

Zane and Eric having fun around the campfire.


Andrew being super cheesy for the camera!


Campfire Cook Eric working the stove for blueberry pancakes made from fresh blueberries at the campsite!

One more from Mexico

I forgot about the cool fish that Eric caught while we were in Mexico! Daren and Eric went fishing and they both ended up catching a fish (Mahi Mahi to be exact) they were very excited to both catch fish since not everyone on the boat did. Check out my hot fisherman and his catch!

Puerta Vallarta- part 3

Here is my last bunch of Puerta Vallarta pics! I had a whole bunch more that I could have put up but I just thought that I would give you a taste. Averie picked this pretty flower (also one of the ones that the iguanas loved to eat) and decided to model it for me!

Then she decided that I needed to wear it in my hair! I think that there were a few bugs crawling around in it (and then my hair) but it was awfully pretty and a super fun hair accessory!


One sweet boy waiting for the sunset!



One more sweet boy!

Puerta Vallarta- part 2

Check out the super cool animals we saw at the resort! The iguanas were super cool. I guess there are about 10 that just live there. They were very happy munching on flowers and sitting for pictures. Apparently they also can swim and periodically do in the pools. That wasn't enough to keep me out of the water but I guess they swim really, really fast. One lady at the resort took one look at the iguana sitting next to the pool and said, "that is why I do not swim in pools!" I asked one of the workers (who did not speak english, so I had to use my very sketchy spanish) if they bite people and he said no. I saw other people touch them and feed them flowers out of thier own hands but I was never brave enough to do it myself!


The resort also had peacocks which are not super uncommon here but they were kinda cool since they just wandered around the resort.


This super cool white one was a new one for me. I had never seen a white peacock before so I honestly don't even know if that is what it was. It sure looked like one though. Unfortunately, I think kids liked to pull its feathers because it only had about 3 left!

Puerta Vallarta- part 1

We just returned from an awesome week in Puerta Vallarta Mexico. I have lots of pictures so I will share them with you in a couple parts. Mostly because my computer takes quite some time to load all of them onto the blog site. This section will show you the grounds and some of the beautiful scenery we saw.

The adult pool and swim up bar (the little hut thing). We didn't spend a whole lot of time here. It was full of college age people and lots of activities like water volleyball and conga lines.


The beach had lots of great little tents that had lounge chairs in them so you could look out into the ocean/bay and watch the waves crash on the shore.


This was our hotel, the Velas Vallarta resort. It was very nice and the beds were the most comfortable I have ever slept in. I actually wanted to take the bed home and I was disappointed to come back and sleep in my own bed. That is a first for me!


A very beautiful sunset from the balcony in our room. It was hot and humid but the scenery was awesome and so nice to see!


Stay tuned for more pictures of animals and the great people who joined us on this Mexican adventure!