Hawaii trip October 2010

We spent a week in Hawaii with Shannon. While the 3 hour time difference didn't play in our favor, Shannon had lots of fun & for the first time in her life swam in a pool and in ocean! She loved it...somehow we knew she'd be a natural in the water! Here's her first dip in the pool:



A few photos of the landscape around the resort:







Christie swam with the dolphin's at the hotel's "Dolphin Quest" which was pretty fun!




And of course a vast majority of our pictures were of Shannon enjoying her visit to the 50th state (her 5th state!):

Wedding Website!

TheKnot

Darren & Katie's wedding website is up! We're really looking forward to traveling to small town Wisconsin to help them celebrate in the church where Katie's parents & grandparents were married! It's always nice to have an excuse to get our family together...which happens once in a blue moon!

The Pumpkin Patch Visit

There's just no way to have a 5 month old baby & not have the joy of dressing them up in costume for the sole purpose of taking a bunch of photographs. So, we did just this. We joined a few of Shannon's best friends (Maya & David) to head to the pumpkin patch in Redmond.

It was an ideal, beautiful, perfect fall day in Western Washington. The sun was out in all its glory, the temperature was comfortable. Shannon donned her bumble bee costume, and Maya her lady bug costume. David came sporting his teddy bear costume. The three of them were just so darling.

Here are the Mom's with the kiddos (from left to right is Carissa (with David), Natalie (with Maya), and me).

Shannon smiling for Daddy:

The bug friends:

Bugs in the pumpkin patch:

At this point I think Shannon was done posing for the camera:

After the pumpkin patch, we headed to The Purple Cafe in Woodinville to grab a bite to eat. It was a great fall day!! Next up: Trick-or-Treating in downtown Kirkland!

Solid Food

Today we tried solid food for the very first time with Shannon. We didn't expect it to go over like we were feeding a filet mignon steak to a tiger, and we weren't disappointed. Shannon wasn't so sure about our little experiment...

Here's the video:

This is the face of a baby that thinks Gerber's rice cereal is subpar to Mom's milk:

Tom & I have been enjoying a group on Saturday mornings called "PEPS". Its an educational group of new parents led by a facilitator. We joined it more to meet parents with kids Shannon's age that live nearby. We've been fortunate enough to find a few couples to be a lot of fun to hang out with. Here's a picture of the kids in the PEPS class with Shannon.


From left to right: Shannon, Maya, Adalyn, Zachary, Abigail, & David.

Shannon is a kitty

Shannon with her kitty hat on. Darn is she cute or what?

Shannon at months 1,3,5

Our little baby is growing quickly...here's a glimpse of here at 1 month, 3 months, & now 5 months old!

 

Shannon can sit!

With a little help to prevent toppling over...Shannon can sit on her own!!

House Updates

Ahh...finally a post about something other than Shannon! We had a favorite wood guy do some shutters for the outside of the house. Here's a before & after: