In Seattle

We spent the first two weeks of August in the Great Northwest. I was about as nervous to go as I was excited; Nervous because I was afraid I wouldn't want to go back home; and I mean really seriously NOT want to go back home. My apprehensions turned into reality upon our arrival in Seattle. It was cold and rainy. Ahhhhh, my kind of weather! We had a SuPeR GrEaT time! We hit Cow Chip Cookies, the XXX root beer joint, and of course Starbucks several times for hot chocolate. Starbucks does exist in Florida but the experience is just not the same.
I flew out with the three older kids and Reese came out with Tagg a couple days later. Reese had to get back to work so I was going to have to fly back with all four by myself. YUCK! Linda Krulish, a friend from our Sammamish ward found this out and bought a ticket for her 18 year old daughter Amanda to fly back with me. What a lifesaver Amanda turned out to be! Reese taught Amanda in seminary before we moved so it was fun for him to have her around too. We love you Amanda and hope you come back soon!

Dak throwing rocks in the river at Snoqualmie Falls

Reese and Tagg at a beach on Lake Washington

We went to see the Blue Angels fly. We had never been before. I didn't take this picture; that would have been impressive. They flew right over our heads in this formation. It was super cool!

Tagg and me at the city center

My kids loved exploring off trail on the way to the waterfalls. We were all grateful to breath in some fresh crisp air.

With Friends

(Sigh) How I wish we still lived in Seattle. I had a lovely time visiting old friends. We kept ourselves on the go as we bounced from house to house. I didn't take my camera everywhere we went so I don't have pics of lots of people we saw. I felt like I was back home. There are people there that I love like family.

Our dear friends the Paxman's had a little dessert party for us at their home, allowing us to see lots of friends at once.

Not pictured are the Salmon's. We went to their house one night. They took such good care of us while we lived there. Lori was out of town:( so we skyped her and got to see not only her, but Kath and Tim's new baby twins!

Also not pictured are the Cardon's. I got to hold Dana's beautiful new baby Daniel and go to Cam's eagle court of honor.

I went out one night with the ladies from my old dinner group, Rachel, TeriAnne, and Jen, which was a blast. I saw Chantalle and three of her kids. We also went to the Hansen's new home and spent an evening eating, talking, and boating. I had to cancel a play date with the Jessica Forsgren to take Tagg to the doctor:( He had a bad case of croup.

This is Audrey Elison and Tay. We stayed with them the first two nights. Her mom Tracy is one of my best friends and my old jogging partner. I have a TON of admiration for her. We went walking at 5:30 in the morning, just like old times, and yes it rained (grrrrrrrrr).

We went to dinner at the Ranck's one night. Michelle planned a whole fish-themed party for us. We had SO much fun! She gave the kids fish cups, and let them whack a fish pinata. There was also hat and cookie decorating with lots of rainbow goldfish to eat. (Sigh...again) I miss you Michelle. You are so wonderful!

The pinata fell off the rope so Jeff bravely held it while my kids beat it up with a bat. Becca finally busted it open.

Tanner Paxman and Payte. My kids LOVE Tanner! He graciously played with them many many times. Dak asks me several times a day if we can "go to Vicki's."

Pictured above are Vicki, Tanner, and my kids. We stayed with the Paxman's several nights.
We LOVE them! I don't usually like to talk on the phone but I can spend hours talking to Vicki. It makes my day when she calls. I'm so comfortable with her. She is down to earth, funny, and genuinely loving. I keep trying to come up with a way for someone in my family to marry someone in her family; probably won't happen. I love you Vicki.

I forgot to bring Tagg's pajamas so I put him in one of Dak's T-shirts and Vicki put these huge socks on him.

At Ryan and Angi's

We spent the week after Cody's wedding with Ryan and Angi. I LOVE those guys! Brady and Julie were there too so it was double the fun..... and triple the diapers. I MISS MISS MISS living close to them. I am always amazed at the strength of Reese's family. I could go on and on but I'll just say that they are the BEST........yep, that pretty much sums it up.

Here we are at the International Water Bowl in the Seattle city center. The kids had a blast!


Posing atop an old stump on a hike at Whidbey Island


Thys is the oldest of the grandchildren on the Reynolds side. He is a wonderful kid! I love hanging out with him.

Josie, Ryan and Angi's youngest. I have the most beautiful nieces!

Taking the ferry to Whidbey

Mia and Tagg. She's a sweetie!

Angi made homemade raspberry lemonade. I didn't even get to try any because they sold out so quickly. Payte was in charge of the candy sales. It was amusing watching her trying to convince people they needed her candy.

Tay and Mia, best cousins.

Slip-n-slidin' in the backyard

Mia, Anabelle (did I spell it right Julie?), and Tay

Cody's Wedding

Cody married Jessica Gibb two weeks ago! We are SO excited for them. We can't wait to get to know Jess better and are SuPeR excited to have her in our family. I love weddings! They are SO much fun. I would love to get married all over again........to Reese of course.

The happy couple cutting the cake.

Payte watched out for Dak and made sure his bow tie wasn't crooked.

I love this pic of Tagg though it is a little blurry.

Cody's Angels from left to right, Angi, Morgen, MaShay, Jess, Me, and Julie

Don't Mess with a Reynolds!!!!

Morgen, Isaac, and Lucy (Reese's brother's wife and kids) came down for a visit. Some of my favorite childhood memories are playing with cousins. I was THRILLED to see my kids play, play, and play some more with theirs.
An interesting thing happened with the monsters pictured below at my in-laws pioneer party the other day. I made Reese sit down and write out the story, as he is much more articulate than I. Here it is.........

I witnessed for the first time, the Reynolds Mafia mentality expressing itself amongst the young generation . . . and frankly didn't know how to react.

We were visiting Mom and Pops' ward in Sun City, FL for their Pioneer Day activity. Morgen, Isaac, and Lucy were in town from D.C. so it was particularly enjoyable for Payte, as she and Isaac get along like "peas and carrots" as Forrest Gump would say. They were inseparable for a week and unbelievably capable at working out their differences - I honestly have not seen anything like it before.
Anyway, there they were, running in circles in the church gym as Dak ferociously chased them, making his most intimidating monster growls. It was quickly clear to the by standing children where the fun was at, and they attempted to join in. However, Dak wasn't interested in chasing any of these unfamiliar folks, so he continued only to pursue Isaac and Payte. Well, it turned out that one little boy didn't like being neglected by Dak the Destroyer and chose to deal with it by giving a stout, unexpected shove to Isaac that put him directly on his bootie. Isaac was surprised, and so shocked that he frankly didn't know how to respond. Within literally less than two seconds Payte came charging in at the aggressor, the full weight of her most vicious scowl bearing down on the little boy like a ton of lead. She had seen what happened, and it was not going to go unpunished. Dak, bolstered by Payte's convictions and also having seen the shove, redirected his monster growl upon this perpetrator . . . who was quickly regretting his choice of victims. Isaac quickly came around and was suddenly on his feet, shoulder to shoulder with Payte, the three of them now crushing the little boy with stares that one should not see on the faces of kids so young. Then Payte slowly began to move closer, step by step towards the boy, Isaac and Dak inches behind . . . I honestly did not know what was about to happen, and I actually had a moral struggle as to what I would do - I was so stunned by this behavior that my curiosity was just overflowing to see what was actually going to happen. However, I quickly stepped in and "diffused" the situation - after all, it was in the church.
So, after I had called off the dogs and they had justified to their satisfaction their hostile actions, the scared and humbled boy sulked away. I saw real threat in those eyes of Payte, and in Dak I saw a face that said "go for it Payte, I'm in". I waffled between pride in their defensiveness of their cousin and their self-confidence, and the fact that I had just seen them rally the Reynolds gang to intimidate a boy nearly to tears just with their heavy stares.
I'm glad I stopped it. As for right now, I think we're going to reconsider the Karate class Payte wants to join.

Morgen and Lucy

Lucy at the piano. Isn't she beautiful!?!

Say CHEESE! This is Tagg's camera smile. Nice buddy!

Cousins sleeping in a fort.
"like peas and carrots"

Happy 33rd Honey!

I threw a big surprise party for Reese this year. He was SO surprised (probably because I did it three weeks before his birthday). I was thrilled! It's VERY hard to pull one over on him. He can always tell when I'm keeping something from him, and always finds (without meaning to) the presents I've thought I hid in a good spot. I think his mom was even more ecstatic that we surprised him than I was.
Reese was out of town and working a lot of late nights on the weeks preceding the party. The night before he told me he felt bad about being gone so much and that he would be coming home at lunch time the next day. I enthusiastically said, "Oh, great! The kids will be so glad!" I was, of course, not so glad on the inside. I called his boss and he agreed to keep Reese at the office for the entire day. Reese was NOT too happy with him, though, and his boss agreed to give him Monday off for not letting him go home early that day. Thank you Kimball and Abilio for helping me pull this off!

This is us on Reese's real birthday. He wanted flan. What the?? I DON'T like flan. It's too eggy. I hate eggs. But, he WAS the birthday boy.

Friends Forever!

Tagg and I briefly visited Utah during the 4th so we could go to the Miller Family Reunion. I don't have pics from that yet so I'll post them later.

I was able to go out with the ole neighborhood gang. I love these girls! Teresa (far left) and I were inseparable during our Senior year. I loved picking rice out of the pot at her house; lots of good times.

I remember once getting splinters all over my toes as I climbed my fence into Andrea's backyard. Do you still have that Karl Malone towel you had hanging in your room? It was a towel wasn't it; priceless.
It was SO fun to catch up with these ladies. So much has happened to us over the years and we've only recently reconnected through blogging. But, it felt like we had never been apart. Friends forever!

This is my AMAZING sister Ashley and my BEST friend from junior high Haley.

Haley and I lived directly across the street from one another. We had the GREATEST times together. I remember dragging a cooler up the hill to sell snow cones to the younger neighborhood kids. We gave them a dinky LiTtLe cup with shaved ice, put some kool-aid on it and charged them 75 cents. We made twelve bucks that day and promptly took our proceeds to Baskin Robbins where we bought a turtle pie. Yum yum!

I don't know if Haley and I were immature for our age, or if we were just trying to hang on to our childhood as long as we could. We spent countless hours playing, or should I say romping. Yes, I think romping adequately describes our activities. We just had a lot of good active fun. Love you Haley!

One of the best parts of my trip was spending time with Ashley. She Is Superwoman (and I'm not just saying that because she has done two iron mans). She spent the night in the hospital just before my family descended upon her. She found out that she is diabetic. But, she is also eight weeks pregnant, and those first few weeks of untreated diabetes increases the chances of birth defects. She prepared a HUGE meal for the family reunion all from scratch, gracefully let us take over her home, took care of her three kids and Great Dane puppy, allowed visitors to pop in and out, and made another homemade meal, pie included, all while she dealt with the joys :) of early pregnancy and tried to get a handle on her diabetes. She did this all effortlessly. She is also a wonderful mom! Her kids are so sweet and mild mannered (at least compared to mine). She does lots of fun projects with her kids and religiously keeps a scrapbook/journal for them. I don't know how she does it all. You're the best Ash!