Tulip Time

My sister Miranda visited us from Utah last weekend. Despite being a Washington native she had never been to the tulip festival. What better excuse to pack up the girls and hit the fields? Here's Miranda with Violet.
This year we went to Tulip Town. I'd say I like Roosengaarde a bit more; they have fewer varieties but bigger fields of each, which makes for better pics. Nonetheless, Ginny was still soaking in the floral ambiance. As if Miranda isn't cool enough, having her was an added bonus because we had a dedicated family photographer. He we are with some of Vi-vi's flowers (everything purple belongs to Violet, at least according to her).

It was a beautiful day and a great time was had by all. We even stopped for some much-deserved ice cream on the way back to Kirkland. Tulip power!

Happy Easter

So Easter this year was really fun for many reasons. Our top reasons are; Grandma made us Easter baskets (in the above photo Ben, Bri, Ginny, Vi, Ver), Grammy sent us Easter cards and candy, we got to hunt for eggs in our very own back yard, and it was General Conference. We also spent Sunday at Ben's sisters it was great. Enjoy the pictures below!

Ben races Ginny for eggs

Vi finds eggs

Ben is ready to hunt for the eggs the girls missedVera watches the action

Ginny hunts for eggs

This is the video of the begining of the hunt.

The girls sustain the prophets during conference


And I just threw this one in cuz its adorable. Look at those strong neck muscles!

We all hope you had a Happy Easter with your families and that you feel the love of our redeemer Jesus Christ.

Virginia turns 4

Yesterday was Ginny's birthday. No you're not having Deja Vu Violets birthday is one week exactly before Ginny's. So here is Virginia's exciting day:

Breakfast of pancakes shaped like penguins.

Her very first haircut at a fun haircut place, thanks Grammy!Playing on the boats at Bellevue square mall.Going to the park, riding her bike there with Pop to guide her.A new outfit from mom.Dinner at Red Robin! And a present from Pop inside 12 boxes. WOW! Yummy ice cream.

Blowing out candles on a cookie, because we forgot at Red Robin.

And a new book for both girls read by mom. Pop also brought three robot dinosaurs for the girls to play with. Thanks so much.
Happy Birthday Ginny!

Violet Turns 2

Yesterday was Violet's 2nd birthday! This blog is full of Violet pictures for your enjoyment. Here we have Violet enjoying a birthday breakfast of a chocolate-sprinkled doughnut. She loves doughnuts a lot. Here is Violet using her fingers to tell you that she is two. When asked she usually says she is three, but I think she will get it soon. :) I asked her if she was mommy's big girl and she said "I mommy's angel." I thought that was sweet.
We went to the park and had a picnic lunch. She had tons of fun playing in sand, driving with the wheel...And yes, swinging, her favorite.

Back at home since it was so warm (70 degrees!) we went into the pool in our back yard, which was a lot of fun.

After, she opened a gift from me and Grammy, a new outfit from the Hannah Andersson outlet.

We picked up dad from work and went to McDonald's for dinner and played on the play place.

Violet is a good dipper.

Later we went home and opened gifts with daddy. Here she is sporting some of the jewelry from the dress up box.

The other gift was combine for Ginny as well, a lawn table and chairs with umbrella. Very exciting. Time to blow out the candles with a cupcake from our favorite bakery place in downtown Kirkland, Sweetcakes. The lady even gave her a free mini cupcake because it was her birthday.

Chow down Vi! Happy birthday my little angel.

Cherry Blossoms Spring is here!

We are happy to say we have made it to the Quad for family pictures again. It was crazy crowded today and everyone was trying to take pictures with or of our girls. Good thing we didnt stay to long. Here are some photos of all our girls under the same tree around the same time after they were born. In order of birth Virginia, Violet, Vera (who happends to be two and a half months older than the other two).

And here are all the girls together this year.




I added this one because its very adorable. :)

Happy Spring!

Olympic Dreams

The family headed two hours north to Vancouver for some Olympics action! It was Ben, Bri, Vera, Brandon, and Ashley. It didn't take us long to find some mounties. Oh yeah, and we brought signs!

We stayed at a bed and breakfast in Abbotsford. We had plenty of opportunities to try out Vancouver's mass transit. Here's Bri trash talking some Canadians.One of our goals for going to Olympics was to get on TV. Well it happened at our second of four events. It was a men's curling match (our first event was a women's curling match). Ashley made a sign encouraging the skip of the USA team, who had lost some tough games. The camera liked it and we were shown on TV four times during the match. The "GO USA" sign was mine. We received a visit from John Shuster's fiance who gave us some team USA curling pins for our effort. To cap it off team USA won on an overtime rock that hit thick and curled into the four foot circle. Here's at a look at the US men sweeping a stone. Shuster is on the left.

We had lots of time to kill so we went to see the torch. It was fenced off and very crowded. If I look like a vampire in the picture it's because we were all sleep deprived.

At the Belarus-Germany Hockey game that evening we caught up with Quatchi and Miga, the Olympic mascots. They rock.

On the way home from the hockey game Vera was serenaded by some very friendly, very drunk Canada fans. Their repertoire was a delightful mix of old country songs and Christmas hymns with modified words. Early the next morning we got on a bus for Whistler where we saw biathlon. For those of you who don't know, biathlon kicks butt. It's a mix of two very cool things; cross-country skiing and shooting. We saw the men and women's mass starts. It was riveting action.

Ashley made an intelligent sign that made it on TV a few times, though only in the background. (The five black circles are what the athletes shoot at, each the size of a half dollar from 50 yards) We had a great time at the events, absorbing Olympic atmosphere, and we even raided the official Olympics store; it was a 25 minute wait just to get in the front door. Bri and Ashley racked up pins; bought, given, and traded. Here they are at the bed and breakfast in Abbotsford.

Luckily we were close to the Vancouver temple being built in Surrey. We stopped by to take a look. The outside is complete, they're just working on the interior. All you can see is lights in the windows of the steeple.

Conclusion: The Olympics are awesome. We especially love the winter Olympics. Vancouver rocks. It's like Seattle, only friendlier (and Seattle is pretty friendly by US standards) and has better public transport. Vera was an angel. She slept through the night four straight times.