flower & suds

While Smokey relaxed on Jackson's couch with a friend, the rest of us enjoyed some family time in the back yard last weekend!!

We had a great time with the kids, just hanging around the house, enjoying the weather. I got the kids to help plant flowers and plants in all of our planters in the back yard, the latest win in my battle with the yard. We are getting closer and closer to having a yard that's nice to hang out in! Both kids liked getting their hands dirty and helping to plant everything. Jackson was the expert, explaining how to plant things to Mackenzie. Kenzie, meanwhile, insisted on washing her hands every 5 minutes!

Their favorite part of the activity was watering the plants afterwards.

Jackson, sensibly making sure each planter got sufficient water.

Kenzie makes sure every single individual flower gets several ounces of water, while Jackson frets about over-watering.

Afterwards, the kids were rewarded for their hard work with some well earned root beer floats.

Apparently Dad made the root beer floats "too spicy" for this little girl!

And, finally, I have some footage of Jackson batting during his second tee-ball game. He plays for the "Rock Monsters," which is the kind of team name you get when you let the kids decide. He predictably is loving tee-ball, and he especially likes the games, because they get to play "other teams with different uniforms".

quick, no frills, front-yard-baseball note

Just a quick note on some amusing events from my baseball session in the front yard with Jackson on Saturday:

1) Jackson reluctantly was ok with wearing jeans instead of his baseball pants (which were dirty)... "I guess jeans are ok, because they are blue". translation: jeans will work as part of a Mariners uniform this time.

2) He wanted to work on his bunting. The Mariners lead the league in sacrifice bunts this year, by the way.

3) Jackson refused to be Johjima for one of his batters, because Johjima is injured in real life.

4) He now "digs in" before each at bat. Not good for the long term prospects of the lawn.

We'll try to get some pics and videos posted soon from today's upcoming tee ball game.

Opening Day

Just a quick post on our fun on Tuesday at Opening Day for the Mariners. I took the day off and brough Jackson to the game while Mackenzie and Steph had a shopping day and visited friends in Seattle.


This was a very special day, for many reasons. First, any day where a parent gets to spend the whole day one on one with one of their kids is priceless. There was just something so intimate about getting to spend the day with Jackson, each of us getting each other's undivided attention for the whole day.


Secondly, for both of us baseball is a favorite interest, especially the Mariners. For me personally, I am incredibly excited that Ken Griffey Jr is back with the Mariners, as it is a great shared connection between us, as my favorite baseball memories are of the glory years in the 90's watching Griffey's sweet swing with the M's. Now Jackson gets to experience it first hand, instead of just hearing his dad talking about it. So Tuesday was especially cool, getting to see Griffey back in a Mariners uniform for the first time together.

Lastly, Jackson's passion for baseball has become nearly fanatical. He has always had a strong love for the game, to the extent that we have never left a game early, and we've been going to games since he was 2 months old. But this year he has really gained an understanding of the game that I think is pretty amazing for a 4 year old. He recognizes every regular Mariners player, even the new ones. He intently watches EVERY pitch, not only saying whether it is a ball or strike, but if it's a ball he'll say "outside" or "low", etc. Yesterday he recognized and was ecstatic over a well executed bunt that moved the players from 1st and 2nd base to 2nd and 3rd. He got no help from dad. Anyway, it is very fun to watch, and a constant source of entertainment for us.

The game itself was a blast... the roof was open, Ichiro got his gold glove from last season, Griffey made his debut, and the Mariners won in extra innings. Just a perfect day for father and son!

Some more images of our day...

Jackson getting a quick study in Mariners history

All bundled up in his Mariners blanket

Enjoying the game from our seats

Happy Easter!!!

Happy Easter everybody!!!



We had our most successful Easter yet! The weekend started on Saturday morning, as the kids got to experience their first legitimate Easter egg hunt, thanks to our neighbors, who invited us to join them on a big Easter egg hunt they were organizing at their friends' house a couple of miles away. It was the perfect setup... plenty of acreage and a couple of thousand eggs, with a pancake breakfast beforehand, and pleny of treats afterwards!




On Easter morning, the kids awoke to the discovery that the Easter bunny brought them baskets full of sugar and other assorted loot. The haul included plenty of chocolate eggs, some fun small toys, a set of Wedgits for Jackson and a play-dough ice cream maker for Mackenzie!








Kazoo's in the Easter basket? The Easter bunny has a dry sense of humor. If you think the below video clip is cute and fun, try replaying it for 2 straight hours with full volume to get the full effect that we were blessed to experience Sunday night!




After the initial burst of excitement, we had our own fun, getting the kids dressed up in their fine Easter outfits that Steph procured weeks earlier, and headed out to church to celebrate Easter wih our neighbors. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and hanging together as a family.


We hope everyone had a great Easter!

All dressed up and excited about Easter!

It's always really about the shoes!

Less work, more play

With the return to longer days and a couple rare appearances by the sun, we have been doing all kinds of fun activities with the kids. We are spending more time at the elementary school up the street from our house, letting the kids play on the playground equipment, riding their bikes, and just letting them explore outside.




Jackson started tee-ball practice last week, and we are very excited for him to get his first taste of competition in his favorite sport. He certainly has gotten plenty of practice time in with Dad in the back yard over the past 3 years. I think he is ready to show his stuff! He had a blast at his first practice last Wednesday, despite a steady downpour of rain. He got to bat 5 times, practiced running the bases in the mud, and worked on his footwork in the field.

This weekend, I took him back out to the school for some catch (he caught the ball in his mitt 4 times yesterday, producing 4 giant, ear to ear smiles), some grounders, and his favorite, batting practice. Also note the sweet batting gloves I bought for him. Doesn't he look great?

The kids were also quite excited to see their cousin Gracie again. She is all smiles now and is a super cute little girl. The kids just love her to pieces and can't wait to teach her all their little tricks to get mom and dad to do what they want :)
One final picture from a typical Saturday morning... Jackson working on his reading skills by taking in the sports page after dad is done with it. That's my boy! Now that baseball season is starting again, I'll have to teach him how to read box scores.

A one day road trip, and a day of rest

Well, last weekend we had high hopes of watching the Huskies earn a ticket to the sweet 16. In the Seattle papers and local sports radio, we were hearing phrases like "buyers market" and "desperate scalpers" and "giving away tickets".... ROAD TRIP!!!

When we got to Portland, what we found was an endless sea of purple and countless "I need 2 tickets" signs. A couple of hours of scouring the grounds outside the Rose Garden revealed that there were few tickets, the pro's had them, and the consistent "get in" (aka worst seat in the house) was $200/ticket.

Fortunately for us, we have Huskies friends that live 5 minutes from the arena, and they also didn't have tickets, which meant we had good company and a prime spot for watching the game on tv. So we had a nice, long one day road trip to visit friends and watch some hoops. It was still a great day, and well worth the effort even though we didn't make it into the game.

Sadly, the dawgs lost a nail-biter, but it was still a special season, and it's great to see UW perched atop the PAC-10, with a bright future ahead.

Full of optimism a couple of hours prior to game time

B-Roy, greatest Husky of all time, now an NBA all-star for the Blazers

Sunday the kids were in some kind of strange sports themed mood, and we got some good pic's of Kenzie in baseball duds, and Jackson in his Seahawks gear. They are definitely ready for summer weather!!

Smokey feels left out... never makes the blog... so I finally took a couple of pics of the best dog I know.

Happy Birthday Grandad!!!