Unfortunately Wesley’s bike is just a little too big and even with the seat all the way down he couldn’t get his feet flat on the ground.  So he pushed himself around for a few minutes, but had trouble balancing because he had to lean side to side to reach the ground. We put the pedals back on and after just a few minutes he was riding around for short distances all by himself.

Here we are celebrating his first real ride on a two-wheeler:

And here we are shortly thereafter being attacked by crocodiles (They live in the rain gutter on the inner edge of the track. What you didn’t know?):

After that Wesley rode all the way around the track:

He was really, really pleased with himself.

He still has a few kinks to work out. This crash gave him a nice mark on his armpit that you can still see. He isn’t perfectly stable, but he is on his well on his way to being training wheel free!

After riding we spent some time playing baseball, running around and of course, picking flowers.

Well he sure has grown up!

We were lucky enough to have him come visit and spend the night. We hardly ever get to see him because he (and the rest of his family of course) lived in Alaska and now Georgia. Plus when he did come to visit we lived in Texas so we didn’t get to see him. Well, we are home now and he his back visiting his dad for the summer. So we got to have him spend the night! The kids have been super excited about him coming all week, counting down the sleeps until he arrives. We haven’t seen him since…gosh…Ashley and Greg’s wedding in 2008. Because we have been having such warm, dry, sunny weather we headed down to Picnic Point, had a picnic and then played on the beach. Wesley was especially excited to see his big cousin.

The kids were really excited to see him (especially Wesley who loves hanging out with his older friends and cousins).

Here are some pictures from our beach trip, click them to enlarge. We waded in the Sound, rolled over logs and rocks (but didn’t find much because it was high tide), made a sand castle and generally had some goofy fun. The kids did not want to leave. When we got home they all had to have a shower to de-sand themselves from head-to-toe.

We really had a good time and I hope we get the chance to hang out with him again this Summer before he goes back to Georgia.  It has been way too long! We have lots more pictures of Ryley on Flickr.

Until 4pm – we did nothing.  It was a nice and relaxing day.

Then we went out and did a couple of fireworks.  Wesley and Jillian both shot off a gun, we did a couple of crackling balls and the tank.

Her gun really shot out the streamers.

Watching the tank.

It did not move...

Then we had several hours before we needed to leave to watch the big firework show in Edmonds.   We did not bring our camera.  But I did a search on Flickr and found George Bentley’s great photos from the show.

We did manage to get a family picture in before we left for the show.  The kids thought it was cool that we were all wearing red shirts.

We got back from the fireworks show a little before 11pm.  It was time to shoot off the fireworks that Aunt Dri picked out for the kids.

1st one.

Wesley and Jillian were so funny watching the fireworks.  Their expressions are great!

They did a lot of running around in with excitement.

ground flower

They tried many different "views".

This is the last picture of Jillian happy.

Then she got cold and wanted to be done.

His excitement just grew with each firework!

Sparkler time.

All of the ones we shot off were very tame.  None of them whisled or made very much noise.  I guess the firework people knew what they were doing – Adrianne picked out a little backpack filled with fireworks for the kids – and they were very calm fireworks.

Then we had one last firework.  It shot out the bottom and tipped over and started shooting at us.  One hit Wesley in the leg and then a couple shot out at us.  We all ran and got out of the way.  Luckily Wesley was wearing pants.  He was not hurt and is pants have a small singe on them.  Wesley thought it was scary and cool at the same time.  He kept saying how fast he was and got out of the way.  It was pretty cute.

The one that caused all the problems.

Next year should be very fun.  I can only imagine how excited Wesley will be next year.  And maybe Jillian will try a sparkler too.  This year she would not go near them.

We headed to the U-district and picked up Pat and then to Fremont in the drizzle (it didn’t last). We found our spot for watching the parade and then waited. Being a solstice parade it starts exactly at noon. We had an hour to kill. Luckily a guy was walking around giving kids chalk. So Wesley and I partook in one of his current favorite activities: hopscotch.

The bikes, and their naked riders, are only sort of semi-official it seems. They lead off the parade before the real parade begins. So shortly before noon Wes and I gave up our game (I was leading 5 to 3) and took to watching some naked people ride bikes. Seeing the men, you realize just how much everything gets squished. Here are a few examples of probably a hundred or more different riders.

Probably Wesley’s favorite part:

Jillian couldn’t take her eyes off this bathtub and its ducks.

After the bicyclists, the parade gets going in earnest.  You never really know what you are going to get. The floats, puppets and entertainment are all hand made by volunteers. You don’t know what you are going to get, but you’re probably going to like it.  I’m not sure if this guy was the master of ceremonies, but he was throwing beads (we caught some gold ones) and was on stilts that made him about 10 feet tall.

The banner and mostly naked women always lead off…

Wesley got to spend most of the time on my shoulders. It gave him a better view and me, well, I’m a little shorter now.

Belly Dancers.

Huge, human powered puppets.

This guy (and a bunch of others) were giving out hugs. He tried to hug Wesley on my shoulders. I leaned forward and Wesley leaned as far back as he possibly could to avoid the hug. Cracked up the crowd. I got a nice hug though.

While he didn’t want to have a hug. And didn’t want to play kickball in the street, he jumped at the chance to get run over by a giant beach ball. He was awesome. He had a great time and a huge, huge smile on his face. Click for bigger pictures of him.

Because the parade is human powered and because there are so many interactive things going on, the flow can be a bit messed up. It moves in fits and starts. Sometimes people just breeze on by and other times they get stalled in front of you and you get a really good chance to see what they are up to. One of the times the stopped in front of us we got to listen to some good Mardi Gras style music. Another time we got hula hoopers.

The military presence is a little different in Fremont.

There were lots of dancers, but this group had the most coordinated effort. We were lucky that they stopped in front of us for a bit and we got to see most of the routine.

No Solstice Parade would be complete without the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. This picture doesn’t do them justice. They are always a big hit and do some good charity work, too.

Jillian fell asleep on the walk from the car. When she woke up, she was interested, but grumpy. On the way back she was upset because she wanted “to hug someone in a costume”. We found several people in costume and they agreed to a hug, but I guess they weren’t the right people because Jillian refused and then repeated that she wanted to hug someone in a costume. She was pretty upset.

After the parade we headed to the U-district to have lunch at Fondi. Really good pizza and yummy gelato at a reasonable price. I’d recommend the salted caramel if they have it. Wesley and Jillian (who did perk up at lunch) really liked their birthday cake flavored gelato. And it really did taste like birthday cake. Wesley insists my blackberry tasted more like raspberry. I won’t argue with him, but it was good either way.

Here is a gallery of 47 pictures (including the ones above) that we’ve uploaded to our server. We also have 551 photos in our 2010 Fremont Summer Solstice Parade set on Flickr. Already (only about 3 hours now since they all went up, we’ve had about 16,000 hits on those images. Update: After 1 day Flickr is reporting 42,000 views). A little nudity sells(even body painted public nudity). If you check it out, remember you’ll see breasts, butts and penises. Just so you know.

Wesley was running to catch up when he took a fall. So we made it six whole minutes before we had tears and blood.  Just a small scrape on the hand, but it sure must have hurt.

Because of the recent rains the river (South Fork of the Snoqualmie) was really flowing. There were a half dozen or so kayakers taking advantage of the extra volume.  The kids were really intrigued.

Once the trail started heading up hill Jillian ran out of steam. She ground to a halt. Apparently she doesn’t have a low gear. From this point on there are no pictures of her on the trail because she is riding on my back.  Despite the fall, Wesley was a trooper and wanted to keep going on. Even when he said he was tired, when given the choice, he wanted to keep going over returning to the car.  Here he is next to a big moss covered rock. He spent a lot of time on top as well.

Jillian woke up when we got to the overlook for the lower falls. She didn’t actually want to get out and walk, but she did make me turn sideways so she could see.  Here is Wesley getting a little wet from the spray of the falls. At this point the kids got fruit leathers. Food is a good motivator.

Even after climbing up the many and rather steep steps from the lookout Wesley agreed to keep going to the bridge over the river between the falls. We agreed granola bars would be had there.  We also agreed that on the way back I would carry him on all the uphill stretches as I’d done on a few of the harder sections on the way to the bridge. On the way we came across this log. Wesley was really taken with the stumps and fallen logs. Especially the nurse logs. He pointed out all of them.  You can see he is holding his hand a bit gingerly.

At the bridge Redmond was a little freaked out. He wouldn’t sit near the edge of the bridge and he wouldn’t put his back to the edge of the bridge. I’m not sure he thought it was all that safe. Here he is exactly in the middle, the only place he would sit for a picture.

After the granola bars we headed back to the car. Despite being mostly downhill, there were plenty of uphills for my taste. I was huffing and puffing and we were garnering a fair bit of attention. Especially from people who saw me carrying Wesley and then couldn’t help but say “Oh, two of them” when they passed and could finally see J on my back.  Wesley saved a native snail from sure destruction by moving him off the path to a safer location.

To keep Wesley motivated on the way back to the car (I was at this point out of snacks) I told him I had a surprise for him. I gave him clue after clue. We got all the way to “It has ice cream, is some type of drink, it is fizzy, brown, and called some kind of ‘float’”. I think he must of been exhausted because he could not for the life of him come up with the answer. I finally gave in a few hundred yards from the end and told him. He and J who was awake again by this point were very excited.

We stopped in Issaquah and went to the XXX Rootbeer Drive-in.  An awesome place on every level. Highly recommended. The people were so friendly. First the kids climbed up into a coin operated wagon train and the waitress came over and dropped fifty cents in from her apron to fire it up. Then, when we ordered, she gave the kids two bouncy balls by tossing them against the window and letting the kids chase them down in the restaurant.

The kids loved the stools at the walk-up window. Because of the weather the place was much less busy than usual. We could have had a booth, but the kids loved those stools. So we got our drinks to go. Drinks by the way, which came with a plastic camel on top of the ice cream for Wesley, and a giraffe for Jillian.

Jillian’s float is the small one. Wesley is drinking his. Mine, only 40 cents more than theirs, was immense. Redmond got to help me finish it in the car. Such a friendly place and very family oriented (We were shown to the bathroom by a very polite 9 or 10 year old girl in waitress uniform and related to somebody working there). I think we will have to make at least one more trip out there this summer.  And yes, by the way, the whole restaurant is that packed with stuff.

In case you are wondering, and because I can never remember …Wes & J are second cousins with Gracie, Emmett and Jessie.  They are first cousins once removed with Amy and they are John and Bert’s grand nephew and niece.

John and Bert were gracious enough to host us. John got a good fire going and everyone gathered around in the drizzle to cook their hotdogs and marshmallows. Oh, we had cake, too. So a pretty good dinner I might say.  Wesley really decided he likes hotdogs cooked and can now eat more than I can in a sitting.

After we got the hotdogs cooked in the rain we headed inside for dinner. The kids sat at a picnic table I remember from when I was a kid.

After dinner we wasted no time with the marshmallows. If you think the hotdogs were a big hit, the marshmallows were huge!

Not everyone had the best time cooking them…

But they sure did love eating them!

After dinner the kids went on what Wesley dubbed a “Slug Safari”. They tracked down and then relocated a lot of slugs. Probably 50 or 60 of them in all. Emmett would find them, but wouldn’t touch them. Gracie would touch them, but wouldn’t carry them. And Wesley, well, Wesley would probably let them sleep in his bed if we’d let him.

See all the photos from our visit on Flickr.

So when I was looking for pictures I found both of these pictures in her ducky glasses she got from Becca and Mat for her birthday.  She love them!  Inside the house she tends to wear them upside down – but in the car, the regular way.  And I even love that she is wearing the same shirt in both pictures.

Jillian: 2 years, 1 months, 12 days 9/25/2009

Jillian: 2 years, 8 months, 14 days 4/27/2010

Wesley sings “You Are The Best To My Heart”

This is Wesley’s favorite song. He made it up himself about his favorite stuffed animal Baby Penguin and he sings it all the time. (Mom, before you say it, “tippy, tippy, tap dance”).

MP3 for your listening pleasure: You are the best to my heart by Wesley 4.23.10

Jillian sings “Me Love You”

Currently Jillian is in the habit of telling me that she does not love me at night. She loves Amber at night because she likes it when Amber does bedtime stories. Here she is singing about it.

MP3 Download: I love you by Jillian 4.23.10

Aerial view of the park

The hike is on a wide gravel trail that leads down from the rather busy parking lot to a small playfield/picnic area and usually beach access. You drop about 400 feet over 1.25 miles as you descend into the gulch. Most of the trail is pretty moderate with a few steep sections, some of which have stairs. The kids managed to walk the whole way down, but rode pretty much the whole way up. Luckily they were fully rested when we got to the top (more than I can say for Amber and I) so they found the energy to swing and climb on the play structure.

Running down the hill. Lots of energy at the start.

Wesley and Jillian in front of a Douglas Fir on the trail.

Stairs on the steepest portion of the trail.

Amber looking beautiful as usual.

Wesley climbing what he named the "Monkey tree".

The trail is shaded most of the way and follows, more or less, the path of the creek. This time of year there are lots of different plants growing along the trail. We had to have a talk about stinging nettles. I’m sure it won’t be our last.

Bleeding Heart. These were everywhere.

A new fern.

Horse Tails. The trail was mostly dry but surrounding areas were damp.

Holding hands to keep them moving.

Almost at the bottom, Jillian decides she will go no more.

The face of passive resistance.

At the bottom, just past the ranger’s residence, we took a little break at one of several picnic tables and ate some granola bars and cooled off with some water. Jillian picked flowers and Wesley and I played Frisbee.

Even though the beach access is currently closed it didn’t stop a lot of people from climbing under, over or around the fence and heading down there anyway. We decided not to since it was closed to protect the salmon in the stream. What amazed me most is the number of people who got to the bottom and seemed surprised that it was closed. This despite the fact that it has been closed for months and the dozen or so signs at the trail head. It should open in June as they are able to dredge some of the creek without hurting the salmon. Upstream development has caused it to silt up to the point that they had to remove the trail under the train tracks that leads to the beach.

On the way back up the trail Jillian rode in the Ergo on Amber’s back. I carried the backpack and Wesley on my shoulders. We still passed a bunch of people, but boy was I sweaty. The kids were well rested and enjoyed swinging and climbing on this cool toy.

Hanging out in the "spider's web".

Hi Dad!!!!!

It started off on Sunday 3/28.  We went to my mom’s house where Aunt Ashley and Grams put on quiet the spread.  The their Easter buckets were overflowing with books, candy and toys.

Then on Wednesday Grams and Auntie Ashely came to play and decorated cookies with us.

All of our yummy cookies.

The day before Easter we did our Easter egg coloring.  It was nice to have an extra adult to help the kids.  Ashley worked with Wesley and I got to work with Jillian.  Joshua did a great job documenting the process.

All set up.

Hands…nothing gets eggs out of dye better.

We wanted to share the experience with Redmond too, so Joshua gave him a peeled egg.

But he is not sure what to do with it.

The kids broke open the egg and tried to force feed Redmond.

Easter morning the kids woke up around 8.  That never happens during the week…

Easter baskets were waiting for them at the table.

Then we put boots on and started our search for the 3 dozen eggs.

We got more pictures of Jillian because she searched pretty slowly.

Look how full his basket is!

Then after all the eggs were accounted for, we got ready to drive up to Sedro-Woolley to spend the day with family.

Our first stop was at Grandpa Geoff’s house.  No actual “Easter” celebrating went on – but we had a great time exploring the property.

Joshua found a baby snake.

Then we found this big one. We thought is was just cold, but after we left Geoff told us that is had died. Poor thing.

Then we went to Yaya and Papa’s house.  The bunny left quiet the spread for these little bunnies.

Let the egg hunt begin!

Wesley gets his paper mache dinosaur egg open by using the fire hydrant to smash it.

Jillian saw what success Wesley had, so she tried to do it herself.

Got it!

Playing with the toys from inside the dino egg.

We had such a wonderful day.  This is our first holiday back home in Washington.  It sure felt good to see the kids with all of the family!!!