Mariner's Fan Fest

January... snowing... a team that lost more than 100 games last year with a $100m+ payroll... hey who's ready for baseball?!!

Despite the bleak state of Seattle Mariners baseball, we were very excited for the official kickoff to the 2009 Mariners. (I won't comment on the fact that the star acquisition introduced to the fans during fanfest, Aaron Heilman, was promptly traded 3 days later for a journeyman middle infielder and another mediocre left handed pitcher, never playing a single game for the Mariners...)

Kenzie finally got her own baseball mitt (pink of course), as well as her very own Mariners jersey, to match the ones Jackson, Steph and I were all wearing.

The kids got to see the locker rooms, sit in the dugout, run the bases, and play "catch" on the field. Jackson nearly turned into a popsicle because he adamantly refused to wear his jacket because you couldn't see his Mariners jersey. We finally cut him a deal that he could run the bases with no jacket on but had to put it on promptly afterwards. What we forgot to do was tell him that in this case, running the bases really meant run from first to third.

Now we are officially ready for another season of our own lovable losers! Go M's!!

Goin' back to Cali

Stephanie takes the blogging plunge:

What a perfect trip! The kids have been missing their great grandparents, and just loved soakin' up the sun and their other adventures in California.

Day 1: A great day! Our little pro travelers enjoyed their plane ride. Jackson MUST have gum for takeoff and landing (I think this is a great excuse to try a forbidden treat). We arrived to Grandma and Grandpa's friends Mike and Trisha's house to find out they are grandparents too. Translation: a whole new world of fun and games that we have never seen before. This California place is the best!

Day 2: Wake up to homeade Orange Julius- "This could be a great business idea! These things taste good!!" Finally, we got to see Great Grandpa and Great Grandma. Much to Mommy's relief, Kenzie has gotten past her "I hate all men" phase and was SO excited to hang out with both of her G. grandparents.

Day 3: Due to inclement (err...really warm) weather, we just had to hit Broadway Plaza for some summer gear. This was a huge disappointment to Mommy and Grandma :) The highlight of this little shopping spree for the kids was throwing about 40 pennies into the fountain and soaking up the rays. The highlight for Mommy was the fabulous $7 shirt find.

Day 4: Another day visiting G. Grandpa and Great Grandma. We had a little preemptive swim in the morning to burn off some energy before hanging out again. Jackson decided that this was his one and only swim because he doesn't like shivering. Grandma and Mommy get to work on a new idea for tomorrow's little activity.

Day 5: Our last day. Grandma takes the kids for a ride on the train that we see every time we come and go from our hotel (BART). Kenzie gets caught in the gate on the way in. It takes about 40 minutes from drop off to getting on the train and the train ride lasts about 3 minutes. We have one last wonderful visit with G. Grandma and G. Grandpa. The kids really bonded with their great grandparents and still talk about them frequently. We can't wait to go back and visit again!

Moments from our flight home include Kenzie falling asleep in her stroller with perfect timing- right before we went through the security line, Jackson making friends with a couple of sports fans and showing off his sports knowledge (ie: favorite Husky basketball player: Isaiah Thomas; favorite Mariner: Ichiro; Richie Sexson used to play for the Mariners, but got traded to the Yankees; Husky football is bad, etc.), Kenzie making friends with the man next to her on the plane, telling him, "I like you.", Telling Grandma, "I like him.", telling the man, "I like your watch", pushing buttons on the watch, telling him, "I like your shoes", flashing her flirty grin, showing off by "reading" the entire "Pinkalicious" book from memory.

I think that about wraps up my first and probably very infrequent post. Now I can say I contributed.

Chocolate pudding... it's muy tasty, no?

Weekend update

No Steph, no kids... so does Coop take advantage of his newfound time?

Last words from Steph before leaving for California with the kids were "bye! I love you! oh... uh... if you get bored..." ... the dreaded honey-do list.

Well, if you are reading this Steph, you will be disappointed to hear I have yet to get bored.

Last night after a little bbq action I went up to the new Snoqualmie Casino with my buddy Matt to test out my new blackjack "system" that I invented and won big with in Palm Springs last October. 2 hours later, we both walked out with very handsome returns on our investments. I often tell my friends about how I know I am relaxed on vacation when my everyday problems transition to "vacation problems", such as those umbrellas in your drink hitting you in the nose... your beach towel getting pushed through the slats on your lounge chair, etc. Well last night I was having similar problems. They put these granite borders on all of the blackjack tables, I assume because everyone likes granite, and it's real classy like. Well they didn't factor in that it makes the felt on the table slightly angle down at the edges, thus me endlessly battling my ever growing pile of chips that wanted to slide into my drink holder. Casino problems!

Today was even better. Matt, Dre and I drove to Crystal Mountain to go skiing, which was in the midst of an "inversion layer", as Matt so artfully explained to us. His very thorough story boiled down to this: even though it's freezing and foggy in Seattle, this freak weather event is making it sunny and warm on the mountain, and the higher you go on the mountain the warmer it gets. He was right, it was 50+ degrees at the peak, and I saw the sun for the first time since mid December. That last part is not an exaggeration... I swear, SWEAR!, I have not seen the sun in over a month. I missed my one chance on Monday when I forgot to go out after the fog lifted, worked through lunch, and by the time I remembered at 4:30 it was already dark again. Anyway, it was even more beautiful than I remembered it!

Coop/Torr/Dre... excuse the grainy blackberry pictures!

Mount Rainier

Uh.. Iceberg Gulch, Sunnyside, or Lucky Shot (the 3 runs we did over and over, I never knew which was which)

Steph returns Monday night, with a treasure trove of video clips and pics of the kids in "Calinfornia" as Jackson calls it. So stay tuned!

Coop

Indoor fun...

So we're back to the great sog pattern that is Seattle weather. This week brought record flooding, with half the state seemingly covered in mud or water. Fortunately our area is pretty high up and far away from flood prone areas. To us it is just another week of slog that feels the same whether it's November, February, or June-uary. The nice part is that all the indoor playtime has enabled me to become an expert at "baby doll house"!

Steph had a nice overnight getaway yesterday with friends from her drunco, er.. bunco group, and I've been hanging with the kids at home. Kenzie continues to work on her ballet, and Jackson took some pictures of her with his fisher price camera. The highest quality pic he took is shown here.

Soccer is quickly becoming Jackson's favorite winter time activity, and here he displays some nice moves during the "strobe light" portion of red light / green light. Jackson conveniently wore a red jersey to make it easy to follow his every move.

Yesterday afternoon I took Jackson to the huskies basketball game again, a very painful afternoon from a fan's point of view. We lost in triple OT, and should have won 3 different times. Jackson constantly wants to know the score and how much the Huskies are winning by. Near the end of the second overtime he said "I'm so tired of it always being tied up!!" ahh well... still a great afternoon with the kid, even if the wrong team won.

This week Steph takes the kids down to California to visit the great grandparents, Jack and Doreen Nankin. We may be reading her first blog entry soon!

Slip Sliding Away!

Super weekend!

Yesterday (Saturday) bore witness to Kenzie's soccer debut. Let me preface by saying that the Sammamish 2 year old girl version of soccer is barely recognizable as soccer. In other words, it is entertaining to watch! About the only thing in common between the "Lil Kickers - Cottontails" brand of soccer and real soccer is that no-one ever scores.

In her first class, Kenzie learned Red Light, Green Light, how to kick cones over, how to stand cones up with her feet, how to hop back and forth over a soccer ball, how to kick a ball in a "hippo's mouth" and how to hold her hands on her head to get stamps.

Jackson also is participating in Lil Kickers, his third "season" and he actually gets to kick soccer balls into goals.

After soccer we took both kids to a friend's birthday party at Kidz Bounce, where they spent 2 hours stuffing themselves with sugar and literally bouncing off the walls and slipping and sliding away. Both kids are total daredevils, and we are completely amazed at Kenzie's ability to scale walls!

Finally, we were excited to welcome back my mom (Amy) from Korea for a one week visit. She came bearing gifts for the kids that put huge smiles on their faces. Jackson has been crawling around growling like a bear, and Mackenzie has been "growling" like a Hello Kitty Cat.

Happy New Year!!

Out with 2008, in with 2009! 2 days in and it's already a better year! The stock market is up 3% in one trading day, Seattle hasn't seen any rain, and the kids have been happy all day, both days, playing with their Christmas presents!

New Year's day was predictably low key but relaxing. We opened presents from the Yoos gang, which finally arrived from UPS after the week of snow. Jackson loves his legos and Kenzie is having a blast with her new ballerina dress and new ballet outfit for her Bitty Baby. They also got fun ornaments for the tree... a train ornament for Jackson and princess dress ornament for Mackenzie.

The day ended with homemade chocolate milkshakes that were "so so good" according to Jackson.

Today is a big day for us! We are picking up Grandma Amy, who is visiting from Korea for a week. Yay! The kids also start soccer today... Sammamish style (indoor, on a basketball court). This will be Mackenzie's first foray into organized sports.

We wish everyone a happy new year!

Coop & team