Rainbows

Wow, been a while since I've posted. That's my bad:)

However, we've had all kinds of things going on the past few weeks: 1) we bought a new house, 2) we got our current house ready to sell (and we means Steph... she's been a rock star whipping our house into shape.. a true miracle worker!!), 3) I went to New York for work, and 4) we went to Vegas for March Madness.

All that said, we are due for serious blog updates. I'll start with rainbows, because everyone likes rainbows. Mackenzie has been learning about rainbows in her pre-school, and got to make her own rainbow hat at school... isn't she a pretty little rainbow?

As luck would have it, mother nature has perfect timing, and we got the gift of a real rainbow on our drive home from their grandparents house yesterday afternoon. However, it took some major effort to get Mackenzie's eyes pointed in the right direction. Clearly a big part of the challenge was that her eyes were looking for the kind of rainbow she's used to seeing on her Care Bears movie. Thankfully, she found it before it disappeared, and was thrilled!

When we got home, we got the easel out and let the kids paint their own rainbows.

Tonight's project is planting their Chia Scooby Doo and Shrek planters that they got for Valentine's Day... more updates to come!

Cinco Estrellas

Last week we were fortunate enough to attend the annual F5 employee appreciation trip known as 5 star, where 50 rewarded employees, 15 managers, and their guests convened in sunny Puerto Vallarta for 5 days of sunning, dining, relaxing, and celebrating. The event was hosted at an all inclusive resort, which fit very well with our usual 200 yard rule that we enforce on certain vacations.

The pool and beach were gorgeous, the food sumptuous, and the activities low on exertion and high on leisure. Besides our typically sedentary poolside efforts, we enjoyed a spa day, swam with dolphins, and I powered several separate teams to victory in beach volleyball.

The best parts of the trip, however, were the constant reminders of how blessed we F5'ers are to work for such an incredible company, and how much this company cares about and appreciates its employees. I will never define myself by my job, but the fact is that I spend roughly 40% of my awake hours working, so I feel so incredibly thankful to be able to enjoy the work I do and the people I work with, and to feel connected to something special!

Images from the trip...

The sprawling, beachside infinity pool

Opening night, with a mariachi parade, sombreros, and personal tequila shot necklaces

Late evening in downtown PV with fellow finance & admin teammates

beachfront, by the hotel

personal attention to quality at dinner on night 2

Pelicans, en route to our dolphin swim

Dolphin shot.... the only pic I was able to take. And it's all this blog gets, given their $100 price tag for 8 photos. At any rate, it was a super fun time. We got to play with, pet, and ride on the dolphins for 45 minutes. This followed by a show by the dolphins while we were still in the pool. It was almost paralyzing having these 12 foot, half ton mammals soaring in the air, doing a flip, and crashing back into the water 3 feet from our faces!

Closing dinner and celebration on the beach. Below is a pic of the giant sand iguana sculpture created for our dinner event.

Aztec warrior dance and fire ceremony at dinner

F5 fireworks show, launched from the ocean

Beachside marshmellow roasting

Sushi kodomotachi

If you read this blog today, you will learn two new things!

1) kodomotachi is the Japanese word for children

2) our kodomotachi like sushi

The kids have the week off for midwinter break (life is rough), so Steph took advantage of their newfound freedom to bring them to Seattle to visit me at work. Mr. picky eater requested sushi, which he had previously tried one bite of.

Always up to indulge any apparent interest in food from our kids, we decided to take them to Obasan, a newish sushi restaurant on Mercer. I highly recommend this restaurant. The food is great, the ambience is relaxed, and the experience is very authentic, including having trouble communicating with the staff, who were super friendly and polite and bowed throughout our meal. Jackson enjoyed yellowtail nigiri and fried rice with tofu. Kenzie's favorite was the miso soup. We are very proud of their cultural maturity.

new experiences!

tasty miso soup!

Valentine's Day Sweets

Lollipop ... da dum dum dum!!!

Super Weekend!

This weekend, the kids were at Steph's parents for Friday and Saturday so that we could get some much needed de-cluttering done at home. So of course, we took advantage of our freedom, going to see South Pacific at the 5th Ave theater. It was good... lots of singing and prancing about.

Dinner before the show at Wasabi Bistro

In the morning, we walked to Starbucks with Smokey, to fuel up for our exciting day of housework, taking the scenic route by the duck pond. By the way, this indian winter we've been having in Seattle has been awesome. While the rest of the country seems to be buried under 2 feet of snow every time we turn on the tv, we've been enjoying 55 degrees and "mist".

me and Smokes at the duck pond

Sunday morning we picked up the kids... and let's just say Mackenzie's cold regressed. The below face is an accurate representation of how she felt.

We don't really know just what was wrong with her... she had a mystery fever that hung around for 2 days, and seems to have disappeared. At any rate, she still had her happy moments yesterday, in spite of herself, and seems to be on the mend again.

For the Super Bowl, we picked up art supplies to make a model football field. This gave the kids something fun to do while we watched 3 hours of pre-game, and gave Jackson a working model to track where the football was during the game. The inspiration for this idea came around the 85th time that Jackson asked me if the Saints were about to score during the NFC championship game the week before.

making goalposts with Grandad

painting the end zones...

Final product!

We all rooted for the Saints, along with the rest of the country excluding Indiana... so it was a great game!

Jackson, stressed out!

Saints Win!!!

Dad day

It's been a while! We've stayed busy, doing our usual stuff. The whole team is currently in various stages of a pretty nasty cold. The kids are most of the way through the woods, Steph is at about 80% performance, and I am at about 55%. But my 55% is good for 60% of a normal person, so that's not too bad, all things considered.

Jackson's days, outside of school & skiing, are pretty equally divided between 4 major food groups: family room basketball, practicing reading & writing, star war battles, and playing his leapster.

Kenzie has juggled responsibilities as: part time socialite, hosting near-daily tea parties; family practitioner, "doctoring" the family and her stuffed animals with her medical kit; and, of course, cultural liaison, with her dancing.

Wednesdays are skiing and ballet day for the kids, so I took a "dad day" off from work this week, and braved the elements in spite of my cold, to watch the kids doing what they love to do.

Ballet is fun as always. The contrast between little girls and boys is most stark to me when I watch a room full of 3 year old girls attentively listing to their ballet instructor, diligently perfecting their arabesques, plies, curtsies, and "wiggle-your-hips". I particularly enjoyed "butterflies and bats", where the butterflies flutter about when the teacher turns the lights on, waving their scarves about while the bats "sleep". When the lights are switched off, the butterflies sleep while the bats swoop about. Kenzie was a very spunky bat.

Kenzie's latest decor addition for her room: a signed pair of ballet slippers from a dancer from the Boston Ballet company (that's her on the cover of Dance magazine). Thanks Cheryl! You are such an awesome aunt!!!

After ballet and a quick bite, it was off to the mountains with my little Olympian. This was my first time seeing him in action and I was most impressed. He is great at turning and stopping, and continues to show no fear. And the big milestone was that he got to ride on the chairlift for the first time! Luckily, mom wasn't there, and went about her afternoon in ignorant bliss to the fact that her baby was whisked along 30 feet above the ground all the way up the mountain with an instructor that we just met a month ago! Fortunately, Jackson loved it, and was wearing a big smile at the end of the session.

Coming off the "magic carpet" with his instructor

Jackson, grasping the middle bar with both hands.

Steph's little baby, up in the sky! I assured her that the snow below was deep and soft.

Skiing down the mountain

Happy camper after another day on the slopes!

Bonus pic of Mackenzie, who found it hilarious that she was able to put her pajamas on backwards