We hosted our first block party!

Cassie and I really wanted to get to know our neighbors better, so what better way than to throw a block party! It was a great success. Throughout the day we probably had around 50 people show up and join in the festivities. You'll be happy to know we have wonderful neighbors and WAY more kids than we previously thought, so Harlow will have plenty of friends growing up here. It was a potluck style party so there was plenty of food and drinks...


...We had water balloons and marshmallow guns for the kids, and then we set up a large screen on the front of our house in the evening and finished the night off with an outdoor movie. We showed a classic, The Goonies.
We all had an amazing time getting to know one another, and it's been really nice walking down the street lately and saying hi to all the new people we know. They always thank us for organizing the event and tell us how appreciative they are. Everyone is now looking forward to this being a tradition every year! Although, they would like us to do a couple more outdoor movie nights before the summer is over.

Let's catch up, shall we...

We flew to San Dimas California for a little family reunion/wedding anniversary/birthday celebration. First on the agenda when we arrived in San Dimas was the water park! In celebration of Jeannette's birthday she wanted to have her whole family play in the water. It was a great way to keep cool in that hot San Dimas sun we North Westerners aren't used to. Great idea Jeannette!

Then we went over to a relative's house to celebrate Cassie's grandparent's 60th Wedding Anniversary!! A lot of her relatives live nearby so everyone was there making it feel like a huge family reunion. The house we stayed at was amazing. It had plenty of room for all of us, a pool, a hot tub, an apple orchard, an observatory and a windmill you can actually climb.
Everyone sitting around the grandparents telling their favorite stories and memories of them.

After the big fiesta weekend, we went home to continue our busy week. We went to the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium with our friends from our birthing class. I think Harlow loved the aquarium part best because the fish we're right in her face.
...then we helped Mike and Jeannette settle into their new house! They had been waiting what seemed to be a long time to hear from the bank if they got the house or not. Well, it was worth the wait because now they are new homeowners! Yay! Congrats to them on their new and really cute house in the Phinney neighborhood. I wish I would've taken more pics, but we were too busy taking down walls and putting things away. I'll take more when they are more settled in and post for you guys.

I'm helping Mike put together Jeannette's sewing table in their garage. Jeannette likes to create beautiful dresses from scratch and wants to start her own clothing line. The garage will be a great place for creating as well as playing. Mike has a ping pong table in there and is waiting for me to drop off my foosball table to complete his game room.

Memorial Day Weekend

So it was a lot of driving this past weekend... almost 1500 miles in fact. We drove down to Chico to visit my family. We started our drive around 5:30 am Friday morning and arrived about 5:30 in the evening. Pretty good time if you ask me, especially with a baby on board AND a lunch visit with an old friend, Tanya, in Roseburg Oregon. Harlow did really well traveling all that way. She slept a lot and mommy kept her company in the back when she was up and wanted to play. The night we arrived we all went to the county fair to watch a free concert by Three Dog Night!

The music got a little loud for Harlow at times so Cassie and I walked her around the Fair a little bit. Harlow got to see her first sheep, pigs and goats! She looks a little worried but she was fine.

My cousin Juliann so happened to be graduating high school the following day and we decided we wanted to make a surprise appearance. The graduation was in Stockton which is another 2.5 hours south of Chico...so yes...more driving. It was so worth the drive though because not only did we get to see her graduate but we got to see cousins and aunts and uncles I haven't seen in a while.

Cousin Christa, Grandma Joann, Mom Terry, Cousin Juliann, Me,
Cousin Sara with Harlow, Sara's husband Jacob and little girl Madeline.

My dad Pat, Sara's husband Jacob, Uncle Clint, Aunt Melissa, Cousin Sara with Madeline, Cousin Lauren, Grandma Joann, Cousin Juliann, Harlow, Cassie, Mom Terry, Sara's son Justin, Cousin Christa, Aunt Melissa and me.

We had fantastic weather the whole weekend, so on the following day we decided to go to a farmer's market and Bidwell Park near my parents house. It's a beautiful park with really tall trees and trails everywhere. It has the second largest outdoor, naturally fed pool in the states, called the One Mile. It was hot out but not enough to make us jump into the cold cold water.

Harlow was keepin' it real cool.
We had a little fun at the playground there.

We had a wonderful time and not to mention wonderful meals! Thanks mom and dad for a lovely time And Happy 28th Wedding Anniversary! It was great to see everyone!!! Cassie, Harlow and I headed back Monday morning around 5:30am and arrived back home around 5:30pm (made good time again!)

Everybody loves Harlow!

Mustached Arm Wrestling!

When we get together with our friends, sometimes we get a little random and goofy. Here's a random movie we made when we all hung out one night. Enjoy!

Bye Bye Apoorva!

I totally forgot to mention! The weather, weekend before last, was so amazing we decided to make the most of it and start our outdoor movie nights a little early this year. It's always a lot of fun, we set up tons of chairs, blankets, pillows, a fire pit, food and drinks and invite all our friends. We were showing a classic, Sixteen Candles. Which unbelievably, three people had not seen before! What?!! Needless to say they loved the movie and laughed harder than everyone else. I forgot to take pics of the event so I'll be sure to post some of the next one. It'll totally make you want to start your own.

What else was going on this past week?....

...we went to Carrie's birthday party at Golden Gardens.

... we had our friend Sandi and her little guy Liam over for dinner.

...Cassie and Harlow had lunch with Emily and Carrie.

...Cassie's sister, Jeannette came down and hung out for a little bit too.

...They went on a walk and out to lunch while I worked on the
house. The pillars on our porch are getting an upgrade.

...we had our friends Marie and Jamie over for dinner.
They just got back from their trip in the Philippines.

...and

...On a sad note, our good friend Apoorva is chasing his dream of being a successful entrepreneur and heading down to California. We will miss his optimistic presence and bright white smile! He had a going away party this past weekend and we had a surprise for him. We and several of our friends got together a few days before, sneaky like, and made a video for him. Sorry for lying to you buddy, but it was for a good cause.

Here's what we came up with.

It's been a few weeks!

Sorry for the delay in posting. it's been a very busy past few weeks. A lot of visiting, traveling, cleaning and having fun. I'm not sure where to even begin because it's been one after the other and I probably won't even remember everything. I'll try to keep it short and simple either way.

We've had family visiting. Cassie's sister Mandy and her husband Ernesto and son Lorenzo we're on their way to Spokane when they had an unplanned layover in Seattle. They had standby tickets and unfortunately for them all the planes were filling up to max capacity, and fortunately for us they came and stayed with us for that evening!

We had a wonderful evening catching up and letting the babies talk to each other.
The next day they easily made it onto a flight.

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Then Cassie and I and little Harlow drove to Spokane! Yup, the whole family was meeting up in Spokane for a couple of great events;
1) an engagement party for Jeanette and her fiance Mike
2) for the annual Bloomsday Fun Run! The largest fun run in the world:-)

It was a great party, and Jeannette and Mike felt the love as everyone there made a toast. Lots of laughs, drinks and even a little crying. We're all so happy for both of them.

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The next day we got our game faces on and got ready for the Bloomsday Run! As you can see, we're very serious..... well maybe Steve and I are. I already started running in this picture.

Bloomsday is a 12k run/walk event. Here's a picture of Doomsday Hill, a fantastic hill with a steep grade. It looks like a lot of people are walking up to it in this picture. Maybe they're saving their energy to run up it:-) Steve, Mike, Jeannette, Cassie and I met up at the bottom of this hill and ran up! It's a long hill, but really fun to weave through the crowd while running up. We met up with the rest of the family and friends who decided to forgo the 12k torture and instead make a wonderful picinic!




Needless to say, it was a beeline to the hot tub when we got back to the house. We turned down the heat so the babies could join in on the fun too! They both really seemed to love the water.







The next day, we flew the coop and left the parents and drove back west to Seattle. We drove through some of the windiest weather and amazing white out sand storms I've ever seen. It was scary at times but it kept the drive interesting for all of us.

Mandy, Ernesto and Lorenzo stayed with Jeannette and Mike in Seattle for a few days. Cassie, Harlow and I drove up everyday and had a wonderful time catching up and making amazing dinners together.

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Later in the week Cassie, Harlow & I drove to Portland to visit some family. My aunt and uncle live out on this beautiful farm. We got there early, watched my cousin Kara's fast pitch softball game, did some four wheeling on the property and went out for Mexican in the evening.

My grandma was visiting them so we figured we'd
visit at the same time so they could meet Harlow.

We drove back home to Tacoma early the next day, and I went to work. It was a long day but if there's time to fit in some fun and family, it's all well worth the effort. You only live once you know.

Anyways, that evening we were expecting our next set of guests, Cassie's cousin Melinda, her baby Mackenzie and her mom Linda! Here are the new mommies and babies!


The following day we had Cassie's parents come over as well. They were over to look at some property as well as visit with all the girls. They stayed the night at our house too. It was a full house but we love having guests at our house, it makes for great memories. We had beautiful weather during there visit...

...so we went on a picnic at Point Defiance Park.

We played some frisbee and some botchiball.

...walked through the rose garden...

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...took a little nap...

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...then we went back to our place to relax and have a little wine. But first, I couldn't help but do a little pruning of some dead branches in our tree out front. It was becoming a hazard.

There's no telling how many lives I've saved.

In the garden culture of Tacoma, I'm what is referred to as a "bad ass". I take no guff and I take gigantic branches down with no helmet.... or forethought. Oh, and a special thanks to Cindy who helped break up tons of these branches into mini fire pit sizes!

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It was an empty house once again after everyone left Sunday afternoon. With no one to entertain and a beautiful sun shining outside, I decided to organize my shed.

Can you believe all this was in that little shed? If you look carefully, you'll see Jimmy Hoffa in the back of the shed. Do I have to tell you this was an all day event? I would've taken an after shot but I'm not sure it was worthy of a before after thing. It was only worth it to me because now I can actually step inside of the shed.

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Cassie and I did a little project this past weekend to perk up our porch a little. Click here to read more about that, if you can stand anymore.

Now you're pretty much all caught up.
Phew!

T-Town escape

As last week was coming to an end we realized we had no plans for Friday. No plans for Friday!!! What?!! We rushed to our rolodex (cell phone) and called our favorite goto friends (bums). Friday evening ended up being a vietnamese feast and a discovery of our new favorite cafe, The Mandolin Cafe! Cassie whipped up an amazing spread of

yummy healthy goodness!

When our bellies couldn't take anymore, we decided to go out to a cafe Cassie had been hearing wonderful things about. They served tea, wine, there was live music and the atmosphere was welcoming and artsy.

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An acoustic set by Camille Bloom was the featured musician we caught. There were two other performers earlier in the evening. I'm glad we caught this set, they were fantastic.

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We had a great time, and I must say the tea was prettea good! Cassie and I ordered an herbal blueberry blend and Angie ordered a vanilla, both of which were tastea! After the show, Camille came to our table and actually commented on how fancy and cool lookin' our group was. She said she noticed us walk in and really made the room welcoming and happy, and how beautiful Harlow was. She was very nice indeed! She's our new friend:-) Afterwards, the gang made their way back to the Hilton Cottage for some I scream, you scream we all ate ice cream!