The Thayer's, Zoo, DIck's and The 'Dood!

It's been way too long since the last blog post. A few things to catch people up on: our good friends from Whitman Joe and Minna, and their two kids Ellie and Cole came up from southern Washington to visit for a few days during spring break. They were our first over-night guests. We had fun playing Pinnocle, eating Flying Squirrel pizza, and introducing them to Settlers of Catan (with the help of Teresa). It was good to see them again and we had a lot fun.

Ellie and Abe sitting on the couch looking cute, and a little surprised.
Joe using his teaching skills and reading a story for Abe and Ellie.
Ellie sure likes her 3 month old brother Cole.
I got in on the story reading as well. And I seemed to peak Banjo's interest as well.

Emily and I each bought a year-pass to the Woodland Park Zoo. A bit ago we took Abe and met Sarah, Katie and Francis at a zoo. We had a great time, and Abe seemed to enjoy looking at all of the animals.
Abe catching one last look at a giraffe while Emily moves on to the next animal.
I had to put in a hippo picture for my friends Jimmy and Mary, who now live in D.C. They really like hippos. I mean they really like hippos. At Whitman they had over 15 stuffed animal hippos on their bed. And they each had their own name and own personality. Seriously.
After the Zoo we were hungry. So of course we went to Dick's for some burgers. It was Abe's first trip. Since he was a little too short to eat off the trunk, we popped open the hatchback so Abe would have a place to eat.
Abe really did attack his cheeseburger with gusto.
I got to hold Franny so Katie could get a chance to eat. Love that Dick's sign.

What would be a blog post without some pictures of Banjo? Here is how Emily likes to unwind after a hard day of work.
They look so happy, don't they?
Nothing like an evening kiss before bed.
Slurp slurp yum.

Steer manure and dirt

Two weekends ago we finally filled our garden beds with STEERCO (steer manure and soil). Grandpa Clave helped us out with a little man-power and letting us borrow his wheel-barrow. But really, I was the one who wheeled the dirt from the driveway to our back yard. Emily planted the beds with veggie seeds (mustard greens, lettuce, rainbow chard and peas). Abe liked helping out and digging in the dirt.

Grandpa Clave brought some mustard greens from his garden to plant in ours.
Emily showing Abe how it's done.
Abe liked helping out.
Dig, dig, dig!
Abe liked playing with the shovel that I used the move the dirt.
So when I was shoveling the dirt into the wheelbarrow with the above shovel, I thought Abe was safely away from me. Then I got a scoop, turned to my left to put it into the wheelbarrow, when Abe had snuck between me and the wheelbarrow. So instead of dumping the dirt, I clipped Abe right by his eye on his head. The poor guy bounced off the wheelbarrow, and then fell in the giant dirt/manure pile. Good thing Mom was there to lift his spirits.
The bruise that resulted in the collision with the giant shovel. I was a little surprised there wasn't any blood. He's not worse for the wear.

I'm Sounders...I'm Sounders...I'm Sounders 'til I die!

The fam was going to go the San Juan's this weekend with my family, but Abe got sick. It didn't seem like the best time take Abe on a trip, so we stayed home this weekend. That meant we were able to attend the Sounders FC match against the Chicago Fire with Ruth. With the first win of the year for the Sounders, good times were had by all.

I love any excuse to wear my Electricity jersey that Emily got me for Christmas. And Emily sports her sweatshirt that she bought on sale on Saturday.

Little Franny

Sarah, Katie and little Frances came by last weekend for a little Settlers of Catan (well, Sarah and Katie came for that, Frances came to sleep and eat). When Frances had some awake time, we both got to hold her. I forgot how light 2-month old babies can be!

Frances made some big smiles for Emily.

More smiles!

19 big months!

Our little guy turned 19 months last week! Here our the mandatory Abe and Banjo pics. These were taken a little after Abe had woken up from a 3+ hour nap (2+ in crib, 1 in my arms). Poor Banjo was just chillin' on his bead chewing on his bone when Abe came over for some rides.

One thing Abe sure loves: giving Banjo hugs.
"Look at me!"

The almost-San Juans

Last Thursday Abe and I were going to go to my parents place on San Juan Island with my folks and Scott. I said 'were' because we missed the ferry, and the next one wasn't going to leave for 4 more hours. And by the time we would have made it to our house, it would have been way past Abe's bedtime. So Abe and I headed back to Seattle while my Mom, Dad, and brother waited it out. But we did stop by this nice state park to decompress from our drive up. Abe had a great time at the park exploring his surroundings.

Grandpa and Abe standing on the woodchips
One big, one small.
Uncle Scott and Abe on the beach.
Everyone pose for the family picture.
"This is pretty fun!"

Clams, part 2

Here are a few more clamming pictures from a few weeks ago.

Abe got into using the clam gun.
He tries so hard.
Not quite...
A little more...
Did I catch anything???Banjo enjoyed his time on the beach. He loves tugging on his leash.
Emily and Clave - very visible on the beach.
Everyone looking for their clams.
Here Emily and Abe getting ready for the early tide Sunday morning.
I think this was about 6:30am on Sunday. It was light by the time we were at the surf looking for clams. It was a lot easier finding clams (and catching them) on Sunday morning than Saturday night.

clamy clamy ding dong

This weekend we went clam digging at ocean shores. There was a low tide on Saturday evening, and then an early one Sunday morning. On the drive down we stopped at Cabela's for lunch and so Neil could get some boots. Cabela's is the Ikea of the outdoors, and with tons of ammo. I had an elk meat sandwich, which was pretty good.

On saturday evening we went clamming. The clams weren't really showing, but we ended up getting a few. Abe had a blast playing on the beach, as did the dood. Banjo even grabbed one of the clams that we dug up and pranced around with it in his mouth.

On Sunday morning we had a killing. We all got our limits within about half an hour. The clams were super easy to find. Now it's clam stir fry, fried clams, clam chowder, clam spaghetti (and maybe a few clam farts) for us!

Happy St. Paddy's Day!!!

Yesterday during the day time I spent St. Patrick's Day with Abe and my brother Scott. He came to our house so we could watch some NCAA action. He was pretty excited because he had a perfect bracket through the first half of the day. Then I made a nice Irish meal for dinner (corned beef, cabbage, carrots, potatoes) and Emily picked up some yummy soda bread on the way home from work. Then Emily went to swimming while I put Abe to bed.

It may not be a traditional green, but it works.
Uncle Scott watching some NCAA action.
Abe has his green thanks to his Aunt Sarah.
Abe "pumping up" some enthusiasm for the days games.
Even the 'Dood gets in on the action.