Washington DC Trip

Updates on Clifton -
Clifton gets sent home with a behavioral chart each week.  And he has been doing pretty good, one week we had to talk about keeping our hands to ourself, but this week he rocked it.  All stars... so proud of him.

Updates on McKay -
She is a sweet sweet girl but also such a difficult girl.  I am trying so hard to understand her and all her screaming and crying.

But I sure do love her.

Updates on Stanley -
He is so fast now!  Moving everywhere and getting into everything.  It's crazy but boy oh boy do I love it.  Such a fun stage.

This week was such a special week.  Alex needed to go to Washington DC for work, just for one meeting.  So he decided to take me along as an early birthday present.  After much thought we decided to leave all the kids at home with Grandma Peterson.  Oh man I cannot even begin on how thankful I am for Grandma P.  She is amazing.  We also had many friends helping us out so this could happen.  I just feel so blessed with all the wonderful people we have in our lives.  Kathryn took McKay for a day so Grandma could get a break.  Misty took Clifton to and from school.  And David took Clifton to his soccer game for us. I love my friends!
We left early morning Monday and our adventure began.

Five and half hour plane ride.  This is how we do it.. crossword puzzles, movies, and snacks.  I sure wish I could have slept, but hey I finally got to watch Avengers 2.
We landed around 4pm DC time and went to dinner with Alex's boss.  Then out to explore a little.

Pentagon memorial.  Each structure has a name of someone who lost their life either on the plane or in the pentagon and there was water flowing under all of it.  They set it up by age.  This is the youngest person all by itself at three years old.  

 Then we went to the Marine Corp. memorial.

 My first time on the Metro.  And I swear this is the worlds longest escalator.

One of the best part of the trips (there was so many) was spending the night just Alex and I.  After exploring a little Monday night we got pizza and ate it in BED, while watching the Seahawks game.  Great night!

The next day Alex got up for a meeting but I got to sleep in.  Yep it was amazing! And this was my first night of sleep since having Stanley.  Oh it was Heavenly!  Once Alex was done with his meeting we hit the town ready to explore.
First we started with the White House.

Some crazy man was yelling and saying he was going to kill everyone so they shut down the street. But we still got to see it.  Not as big as I thought it was, but still big.

There was a carousel at the Mall so I thought it would be fun to ride one without the kids, because well I am still a big kid. 

Alex is the best husband ever and agreed to ride along with me.  Love that man!
Next we stopped at the Air and Space museum.

Then we walked to the Capitol.

Sadly it was getting a lot of work done so it wasn't nearly as impressive but it was gigantic!
Then we went to the Botanical Gardens (again not Alex's choice, he's awesome).  It was so beautiful and smelt so good.

Loved every minute in the gardens.
Then we went to the History museum.  When we got there we were surprised to hear they close at 5:30 and it was ten till five.  So we pretty much ran through as many rooms as we could.

Which I was sad we had to rush because that was by far my favorite museum.
It was dinner time and the sun was going down so I thought it would be fun to pick some food up, eat, and watch the sunset at the Washington Monument.  And was I right!

Hands down my favorite part of the trip.  It was a beautiful day and watching the sun set behind the Lincoln and World War 2 memorials was stunning.
We then walked to the World War 2, Vietnam Veteran's, and the Lincoln memorial.

The view was stunning!
The lights were shining so bright on the Lincoln memorial and I was loving the shadows.  So we played with shadows a little while.

Next we finished our night by visiting the Korean War and Martin Luther King Jr memorial.
Man oh man what a fun packed day.  We headed back to the hotel and enjoyed our last night of a full nights sleep and left early Wednesday.  This was such an amazing experience and wonderful time alone with my husband.  I am thinking we are going to need to take a yearly trip alone from here on out.

Thursday night was Clifton's last soccer game of the season.  And it was a great game.

We went to Bluberries as a team to celebrate the awesome season.  Boy how I love my Orange Dragons.  Can't wait till next year!

Friday afternoon my parents came to town for the weekend.

So we all went out Roller Skating.  It was our first time as a family going.  McKay struggled and we eventually put her in a stroller and rolled her around. Clifton was all about it even though he was falling all over the place.  A very fun night out with Grandma and Grandpa.

The next day I forgot I signed up to help clean the church and my mom being the amazing lady she is came and helped Clifton, McKay and I clean.

Thanks mom!
The weather was horrible so our plans changed and we just ended up playing games together.

And make Halloween crafts.
When the rain took a break we decided to go splash in puddles.

 Then they spotted slugs.

McKay is my animal lover, silly girl kissing a slug.  A wonderful weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Stanley.

Stanley's 9 Months

Updates on Clifton -
He still enjoys school but this week he said he got in trouble with the teacher because he wasn't listening.  He said she put him in time out which I was surprised to hear and honestly not sure how I feel about time outs in school, but I hope he can learn from this and make good choices.  I am so so so glad that he is talking to Alex and I about it things that are happening at school good and bad behaviors he sees and things that he does.

Updates on McKay -
I am really enjoying learning more about McKay now that Clifton is in school.  We talk a lot more and she decides what activities to do. It is going to be a fun year with her and Stanley.

Updates on Stanley -
He is crawling every where and standing up on everything.  Which also means a lot of bonks :(

 He was most proud of himself when he stood up in the bath!

About half the time he crawls like a bear.  It is pretty silly and he usually ends up falling over.

Getting into trouble :)

He turned nine months old Friday.  Time is going too fast, slow down I want to enjoy my babies.

Monday McKay choose to go on a walk on the docks.  And get ice cream too of course :)

It was a beautiful day out and there was a seal swimming around the docks.  I love where we live, seeing seals never gets old.

Preschool is going great.  These girls are so much fun.

It has been really good for McKay. 

Thursday we got to go to the zoo with friends.

It was another beautiful day and it was so nice to go with friends.  A great time!

That night Clifton's school district had a track event.  Each grade was doing a race and each kid got a ribbon at the end.  For kindergarten they separated the boys from the girls.  So Clifton ran with about 40 other boys his age.  

Get ready, set...

 GO!

He finished 6th which I thought was so good.  They accidentally gave him the 7th place ribbon and he wasn't too happy about that.  But it was a super fun and cute night.

Friday night a young man that we did trek with a few years ago (our trek son) invited us to his football game in Vashon Island.  He was hoping to break a record.    

It was a beautiful fall night.  And so much fun to go with our family and friends to cheer Bryce on.  He was doing so great (two touch down and some great runs) and then they had to bench him because they were crushing the other team.  

Saturday and Sunday was General Conference.  One of our favorite weekends of the year.

Stamley's naps matched up almost exactly with the sessions so we tried our best to get Clifton and McKay to love conference.  This year we got candy and each time they said a word (spirit, prophet, temple, and scripture) they got to get one piece of candy.  They were very into it.

Sunday we got to watch Conference at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Daddy getting their wiggles out in-between sessions. A wonderful weekend!

Updates on Clifton -
Week two of school and still going great!  He is making friends and still enjoying being there.  I am feeling very blessed that this transition has gone so smooth.

Updates on McKay -
She is loving being home with me and loving preschool.  Her favorite thing to do with me these days is bake.  Which might be bad for me but we are trying to make it healthier.

Snickerdoodles just cause she begged all day to bake.  

 Making chicken pot pie (with whole wheat flour and coconut oil for the crust) and banana muffins (with whole wheat flour.  On our new tradition Sunday bake day.

Updates on Stanley -
Well he is officially a crawler and pulling himself up (all in one week).

He is quite happy about it except when he falls over and bonks his head.  Which seems to happen a lot.

Its been a fun week with just two kiddos at home.  Trying to find a new groove of things.

 Hide and seek.  Can you guess where McKay is hiding? :)

 Park fun.

 Preschool.

Hiking at Manchester Park.  We have never adventured on the trails at the park and decide to venture out.  It was fun and had beautiful views.

Saturday we had a day full of birthday parties.

Stanley's first invites to a party.  And he partied like an animal:)

Fun pictures this week...

 Batman and Catwoman's child.

 After bath time she insisted she did her towel like Moms.

Don't worry its not a real frog!