Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Olson Family Christmas

Last Saturday on the 18th we got together for the Olson Family Christmas and we did some cousin pictures. Here are the best shots we got. We had a great time. Avery loved playing with the cousins as did Daryl. Thanks to Debbie and everyone else who made the night so much fun. The food was great!




Thursday, December 16, 2010

Santa Train

Last Saturday we rode the Santa Train in Chehalis with Aimee, Karl, Tyler, and Namma Diane. It was a cute little half hour ride on a real steam engine. Tyler and Avery had a good time, and enjoyed the mini candy canes that Santa gave them. We somehow managed not to get washed away in the torrential rains too. It was a great time and we loved the opportunity to be with family.









Thursday, December 2, 2010

Birthday Round Up

Avery and I had birthdays this last month. We were both sick on our respective birthdays. Avery's was the 12th of November and she was throwing up all that birthday weekend. We did give her presents the Sunday after her birthday when she was feeling a little better. She had to have some help from her Uncle Adam opening her gifts. For all of November I was coughing and it is now finally letting up, and I think I am getting better at last. My birthday was on Thanksgiving so we went out to eat at Maggiano's, a very nice Italian place in Bellevue. That's pretty much all there is to Avery's second birthday and my twenty-ninth birthday.

How can you not love that face?


Avery with her birthday presents.


The toy Mom and Dad got her for her birthday.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Bulking Up

Yesterday I came from the doctor to find that Avery had insisted on wearing every piece of clothing she could find in the family room. We just happened to have quite a bit of clothing in the family room because she had opened some birthday presents the night before, and I in my extreme laziness left them on the couch. She has on a dress, a pair of pajamas, another pajama shirt that she had around waist like a skirt, a long sleeved shirt, and then her new Yo Gabba Gabba t-shirt to top it all off. Needless to say she was very warm the whole day.






Saturday, November 6, 2010

Avery at Lunch

This is Avery having lunch the other day. She wouldn't let me take the monkey away, but insisted he lunch with her. The only reason you don't see him in the last picture is because he is stuffed down low right by her. Avery also insisted on having lunch like a big girl at the table instead of her seat. Enjoy!



Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Cutest Pumpkin in the Patch

As you can see we took Avery to Maris Farms in Buckley like last year. I can't resist the pumpkin patch.
Avery with pumpkins her size.

A vain attempt to take a family picture. Look I'm pregnant!

I think Avery is pointing at the chickens. It might be pheasants though. She enjoyed all the animals there. She even fed the goats.



The corn room. Who wouldn't want to play in a giant room full of dried corn? Avery enjoyed every second.

Yet more proof that Avery has gotten over her fear of slides. She could have gone on that thing all day.

Avery on a toy tractor. Notice the intense concentration.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Halloween Fun!

Avery was a ladybug for Halloween and loved her costume. We went to our ward's Trunk or Treat on Saturday only to discover that the camera's memory card was at home in the computer. A classic Rachel move. Fortunately we went to our friends' Halloween "Dinner" last night. This is Avery and Harmon Trick or Treating. Thank goodness Harmon could say Trick or Treat. Avery was really happy to merely knock on the doors. She would have happily knocked on doors and gone her merry way. Harmon tried to infuse her with his Halloween enthusiasm, but it was mostly lost on her. She was really excited when a nice Ukrainian lady who had never experienced Halloween before apologetically handed out cookies to Avery and Harmon since she ran out of candy. They were way more excited about cookies than candy.
Avery just barely fit into her car seat with her costume on after some adjustments. She looked so cute and puffy.
We left a bowl of candy in front of our door before we left for our dinner last night.

We got back home around eight-thirty last night and the bowl was predictably empty. Usually we don't get very many Trick-or-Treaters, so hopefully one greedy child didn't take everything and ruin it for the rest of the kids. We only had two additional Trick-or-Treaters after we got home. We had a pretty good Halloween though. There will be a separate post about the pumpkin patch.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Monkey See Monkey Do

Thought I'd take another monkey picture so you can see the progress Avery has made towards growing up.


Thursday, October 28, 2010

A Little Late as Always . . . College Road Trip!

Who says you can't go on a college road trip with your pregnant wife and toddler. At any rate Daryl tried to get into his program at UW, but that didn't happen. Time for Plan B: finding a new college. We visited a couple around here and applied to Pacific Lutheran in Tacoma which means we would just stay here. We also decided to apply Washington State, University of Utah, and Arizona State, so Daryl wanted to go visit the campus and do the whole college thing. Off we went to visit University of Utah, BYU, and Arizona State, and see some family too. We visited all my sisters, my brother in St. George, and Daryl's cousin Jennie and her family. Avery got to see all of her cousins on my side and Sophie her second cousin (I think we decided they were second cousins. We had to look it up on the Internet). She had a great time playing with everyone.
Daryl decided that the long shot of BYU wasn't worth applying to, and the other schools were fine. He kind of likes University of Utah slightly better. We have yet to go visit Washington State. Hopefully we'll get over there sometime soon. We did this trip during the first two weeks of October, and I'll be honest all the pictures I took were mostly of Avery, so enjoy the pictures of her and of her sweet cousin Addison. (Oh yeah we'll let you know when acceptance letters role in. So we might live in Utah, Arizona, or the other side of the state for a couple of years, or stay here. Who knows? We don't.)





Thursday, September 23, 2010

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

The Other Washington

Daryl wanted to go to the Glenn Beck thing last month at the Lincoln Memorial, so about six months ago we started planning on visiting Washington D.C. at the end of the August. We were there about a week, and really enjoyed it despite the fact that we were melting from the heat and humidity. Unfortunately a week is not enough time to see even half of all there is to see. We didn't see the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence, and we walked right by the Hope Diamond. We did get to have tours of the Library of Congress, the White House (where we saw the first dog Bo!), the Captial, and the Pentagon. Of all the official tours we took we really enjoyed the Pentagon tour the best. Daryl had mixed feelings about the Spy Museum. It was the one place Daryl wanted to go that he didn't get to go to last time he went to Washington D.C. Well here's a few pictures of the very many we took on our visit.
This is the balcony at Ford's Theatre where President Lincoln was assassinated. No one really goes in the actual box except for the custodians.
A rare picture of us together. We usually forget to take a picture of both of us together while we are on vacation. In this picture we were at the top of the Washington memorial. I had to show up an hour and a half before tickets were handed out to get them, so this is something that most people that visit don't get to do because they only hand out a couple hundred tickets a day.
This is a very patriotic cat who came to visit the Lincoln Memorial early in the morning before the Glenn Beck rally on Saturday.
This was the view from our hotel room in the Donovan House. We never did find out who the statute was of, but the building across the way is a church. We enjoyed our ultra modern hotel. It had dark purple carpeting and matching walls. Our shower was made of of plastic and we felt like we were going to be beamed up by Scotty when we were in there.
All in all we really enjoyed our trip and we both hope we can go and visit D.C. again in the future.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010