Story.

So, today was a Bea-U-tiful sunny Seattle day.  We spent over an hour at the park soaking up the heat.  As L & A were swinging together, Laila started singing her heart out - making up a song about princesses, Jesus, our phone number - you name it.  Well, Ax wanted in on the action & tried to out-sing her: "LOOK DOWN, LOOK DOWN, DON'T LOOK 'EM IN THE EYE; LOOK DOWN, LOOK DOWN, YOU'RE HERE UNTIL YOU DIIIIIIIIIIIIE..." over & over.  It was hilarious.  (Clearly, I'm going through a Les Mis phase & need to lay-off the soundtrack.)  But, don't you love him!

Seaside June 2012.

This time we stayed the full week.  It was so wonderful getting away for the full 7 days.  We filled our days with beach time, swimming in the pools, flying kites, touring Tillamook Cheese factory, Cannon Beach, exploring the coast, outlet mall, checking out the Lewis & Clark National Park & the men caught 135 clams!

Mother/Daughty date swinging on the beach.  

These manly guys testing out the new, giant fairy-ballerina kite.  

Family swing at sunset.  

It was the oddest thing... Our car started driving on it's own & we ended up here...

My baby loafs.  

I'm moving here.  

We (of course) couldn't help ourselves. 

Gettin our hugging on...

Fish eye...

This is now a new family special stop.  We loved Hug Point.  

Hug Point is almost as magical as this place.

Exploring Hay Stack at low tide, in some seriously stormy weather.  

Should have held up a quarter but, these muscles were at least 8 inches long!  

Lewis & Clark trail.

This gives you an idea of how deep the Seaside beach is.  This SUV was readying the sand for a big soccer tournament.   

For the first time L was completely comfortable going under & was really trying to learn to swim  (thanks in part to her little fish cousins!)  

The week ended with this sweet toe stepping into the path of me opening the front door.  Poor, boy.   I will not even begin to describe to you what his toenail looks like now...  

Until we meet again...  

Lucky me.

Feel completely blessed to get to head to this view for a swing with the kids before bed.

Seaside.

This was our family's first time to Seaside without Jeff.  It was good, hard, special, emotional & fun all at once.  A ga-jillion pictures were taken but, here are some of the goodies:

Little hand reaching up to see what all the giggles were about...

Happy 6th! 

March 2010 - 3 wks before Ax joined our fam.  Uff da! 

June 2011 - So thankful to have him OUT (& my bangs grown out...!)  ;) 

Cannon Beach

First time feeling sand.

Special place.  Special family.  Seaside.

Swedes + Vashon = fun day trip away!

We have some relatives from Sweden paying Seattle a visit so, we loaded up the car & went over to Vashon Island for a mini little family reunion.  At the last minute, I "asked" (begged) Melis if we could take the boys along... she agreed!  They were such a joy!  We pulled into the driveway announcing that the short bus had arrived!  (Thank goodness for a 7 seater!)  I don't have too many pictures to share but, trust me - it was so fun, the weather was great & we all hit our pillows hard that night!

 kids on the teeter-totter in the distance...

 From Sweden:  Christina & Sven Ake

Rikard & Magnus