Happy Mother's Day!

Nothing says 'Happy Mother's Day' like breakfast in bed! (notice 1 plate - 4 forks!)

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mom's in our lives! We had a great weekend celebrating Karri and all she does for us. Here's a quick run-down.

Saturday was beautiful (sunny and mid-80's) - and as hectic as anticipated. Matthew's lacrosse team took their lumps against a very good (and big!) Bainbridge Island team, 15-5.

Matthew (#12) waiting for the face-off

Victoria passed the time at lacrosse by making mom a crown of wildflowers!

From lacrosse it was straight to the track meet.

Victoria making the final turn in the 400

Happy to be done with that race!

Matthew on his way to 5th place in the 7th grade boys 400

After the meet, we hustled over to Arbor Height Swim & Tennis Club for the (end of the) Opening Day potluck. Matthew and Victoria swam for a bit while Karri and I caught up with some of our many great friends there over a couple of beers. We are excited to have the pool open. The kids love it.

Sunday morning the kids and I served Karri breakfast in bed (have photos - forbidden from posting). Afterward, Karri and I took Jack for a great walk through Lincoln Park.

Happy dog with 'mom' on Mother's Day!

We got home just as the predicted clouds and (light) rain arrived. So Karri decided it would be fun to go see a movie together. She and the kids agreed on '42' - the Jackie Robinson movie. So we hustled downtown for the 1pm show. It's a very good movie. I hear it hasn't gotten great reviews, but we really enjoyed it. An amazing story.

We all went to church together at 5pm, then back home. Karri and the kids went to the courts down the street to play some tennis while I got dinner ready (and called my mom to wish her a Happy Mothers Day). I have to say dinner turned out pretty well - halibut filet, asparagus and a delicious loaf of bread - all prepared on the grill. One of our favorite meals. Then fresh strawberries and angel food cake for dessert... mmm.

After dinner, we watched one of our family movies from 2001 when Thomas was 3, Matthew was 1 (turning 2), and Karri was pregnant with Victoria. We were all laughing hysterically at the antics of Thomas & Matthew and their fascination with superheroes, construction equipment, sports, etc. Good stuff. And a great way to cap off Mothers Day Weekend.

I can't end without recognizing my own mother on Mother's Day!

The whole family (from last summer)! 

Mom with all her grandchildren and great-grandchildren at her 90th birthday last July!

It's amazing to me how Mom kept our house running with 6 kids - all the meals she cooked, lunches she packed, laundry she washed, school & sports events she attended, etc. I'm certain it was exhausting and stressful, but she never let it show (at least not to me). Mom is kind-hearted and selfless. We like to kid her about some of her most endearing qualities... saying "sure - we'll make a salad" when a last-minute dinner guest showed up at the door, staying up half the night waiting for one of the kids to get home, or getting weepy sending each of us off to college (or later to new homes out-of-state).

Thanks for all you did (and do) Mom. I love you very much! Happy Mothers Day!

Cinco de Mayo (belatedly)

3 posts in 24 hours... I think I'm back.

Just a quick note (and a few pictures) about our celebration of Cinco de Mayo on Sunday. Our dear friends, Jana & Roy, who live just up the hill from us, invited us to their house for a small fiesta with a few other friends.

It was a gorgeous Spring day and Jana & Roy have an amazing view of the Puget Sound and the Fauntleroy/Vashon ferry - so I grabbed our camera as we headed out the door. I'm glad I did.

The view from the deck - ferry dock in the foreground, Olympic Mountains in the distance.

Ferry headed from Fauntleroy to Vashon Island

Cheers to my girls!

Love that view

Karri and Jana have known each other since their first mom's group when Thomas and Ellie (Jana & Roy's oldest) were 2 weeks old. The kids are 15 now - and classmates at Seattle Prep. We used to live around the corner from each other (still in West Seattle), but both moved about 13 years ago. Still neighbors... just a little further apart.

Jana and Karri

Roy loves to give Matthew a (good-spirited) hard time

Lifelong friends - Ellie & Thomas

Our friend Jim, whose wife, Amy (who was returning from a girls' weekend)
was also in the Mom's group (with daughter Shea) with Karri and Jana

Our friend Jon (his son Blake is same age as Thomas, Ellie and Shea)

Karri made fresh guacamole and salsa. Roy was pouring margaritas that went down way too easily on sunny, warm (82 degree) day. And Jana cooked up some delicious pork to go with fresh tortillas (you know how I love those!). It was a feast. What a great day!

San Diego Trip - Part II

I had hoped to post a second update from San Diego, but never got around to it. We've been home for a few days (the rainy Seattle weather makes it seem longer), but I thought I'd write a quick wrap-up anyway. Lot's of pictures...

Easter Sunday started with our traditional egg hunt for the kids.

Not a bad setting for an egg hunt

Homemade Easter cookies... mmm.

Victoria and Pop-Pop

After the egg hunt and breakfast, Karri, the kids and I headed to the Mission San Diego de Alcala, (where Karri and I were married in 1994) for Easter mass. It was packed - we had to stand in the back - but we're glad we went. Afterward, we wandered around the grounds and took some pictures. It's a beautiful spot. 

In the courtyard

The not-so-newlyweds!

Front entrance to the church

From the Mission, we headed to Old Town San Diego - a restored, historic section of town with several original buildings, museums, period actors, dancers & performers, restaurants and more. We go to San Diego a lot, but rarely do touristy things. This was a fun way to spend a couple hours and grab a light lunch of delicious tacos. Afterward, we headed back to the ranch.

The rest of our week was spent at the ranch - never left until we headed to the airport on Wednesday. There's really no reason to, with so many fun things to do...

Taking in the views

Enjoying the sun poolside. That's Matthew doing an underwater hand-stand!

Climbing the rocks

Riding the go-cart

Hunting varmints

The kids all enjoy riding horses - and Pop-Pop loves sharing his passion for riding with them. 

Brushing Bo before a ride

Matthew on Chuck

Karri was able to get out for a nice long trail ride with her Dad on Monday. Donna & Bill went for a ride on Tuesday. And I even got in on the action... Bill and I went for a beautiful ride on Wednesday before we headed to the airport.

City slicker

We stopped for a couple 'blessings' along the way - in honor of Grandpa Johnny - Donna's dad who got Bill into riding

Heading home: You can just barely make out Donna & Bill's place in the distance - on the hill in the center of the picture

All-in-all it was a great visit - as always! We are so fortunate to be able to enjoy Donna & Bill's beautiful home and amazing hospitality.

Regain my blogging MoJo

In a previous post I mentioned how travel always screws up my routine. Apparently holidays do too. I'm off to a bad start with blogging in 2013. But I'm committed to getting back in the groove.

Here's a quick wrap-up of Christmas 2012 - in pictures with brief captions...

I lied in my previous post... did get some pictures of our stop at the Great Seattle Wheel downtown. Fun day - from Karri's phone.

Christmas Eve silliness with Mimi!

Christmas Eve

A rare photo of the whole family!

Kids with Mimi & PopPop

Home stretch on the puzzle

Royalty at Christmas Eve dinner! Crowns courtesy of our toy 'poppers' a Christmas tradition

The girls!

Moments before the start of Christmas morning chaos

A photo puzzle - from our summer visit with cousins on Paw Paw Lake (MI)

Hmmm.... another clue/puzzle to find a present...

Found it! A new ping-pong table!

All-in-all, we had a great Christmas. It was really fun being home, spending quality time with the kids, and having Mimi & PopPop here with us.

Christmas Week 2012 in Pictures - Part 1

I'm back.

I made a conscious effort to steer clear of my laptop for the week and am proud to say I did a pretty good job of it. Aside from the fact that I needed a break from work, email, and all my many online diversions, I really wanted to focus on spending quality time with the family. Mission accomplished.

I'm glad to be back to blogging. Too much has happened since my last post to recount it all, so I picked out a handful of pictures and will use them to tell (some of) the story of the week. It's probably going to take me a couple of posts to get caught up.

Karri's parents, Donna (aka 'Mimi') & Bill (aka 'Pop-Pop'), arrived Tuesday from San Diego. They jumped right into family activities - Karri took them straight to Thomas' basketball game at O'Dea - Prep's biggest rival. Exciting game and Prep came out on top. Wednesday was a blur for me as I had a huge proposal to finish up and send off on Thursday morning. Once that was done, I was finally ready to settle into holiday mode...

Thursday night Thomas had another game which we all went to, then went out to dinner at an upscale pizza restaurant in trendy Capital Hill - Via Tribunali. Things were a little shaky at the start - they squeezed 7 of us into a booth for 4, maybe 6, and the music was a little too loud for easy conversation - but we ended up having a fantastic time. Our waitress was amazing - attentive, friendly, and fun.  And the food was delicious.  Here's Karri with her parents:

Dinner at Via Tribunali

We headed home for dessert and a nightcap and everyone was off to bed early.

Mimi & Thomas saying goodnight

Karri's parents kept the kids occupied on Friday so Karri and I could get out and do some shopping & run some errands. We rarely get time together like this and really had fun. It helped that we had a good idea of what we were after so shopping was quick, efficient and not stressful - just the way I like it.

Friday night we headed to our friends' Jana & Roy's house for our annual 'white elephant' gift exchange and dinner, which is always a great time. After a delicious prime rib dinner, we all gathered for the gift exchange. We had 24 people (I think) and so 24 gifts to be opened, 'stolen' and/or bartered with. There were some very funny gifts (including the 'Yodeling Pickle' that I came home with) and everyone - adults and kids - really enjoyed themselves.

The white elephant gift exchange

Saturday morning, Karri and I got out for a walk with Jack - something we hadn't done (together) in a couple of weeks. It was overcast (what else is new) but great to get some fresh air and enjoy the water and views.

Waterfront trail at Lincoln Park

Saturday afternoon was spent decorating cookies - a fun tradition that we all participated in at various times throughout the day.

Some of the many beautiful cookies

We also started a Christmas puzzle that was a fun diversion for the rest of the week.

Edges done!

Sunday, we all headed downtown to ride the Seattle Great Wheel ferris wheel on the waterfront (no camera = no pictures) which was very fun. Donna & Bill stayed downtown for some shopping and dinner together, while Karri, the kids and I headed to a holiday open house at our friends' (Mark & Denise) beautiful waterfront home in West Seattle.

I think that's enough for one post. Plus all of our Christmas day pictures are on our 'good' camera and I haven't uploaded those yet, so I think I'll call it a night and pick-up here next time.