Checking in…

So far Seattle has been treating the Laschen clan well.  We are not going to lie we miss all our family and friends that we have back in Minnesota, Colorado and everywhere in between.  We still feel like we are on a permanent vacation and although we are enjoying ourselves this city has yet to feel like our home. 

We are thankful for visits and Skype which allows us to check in frequently.   We are pretty sure Thomas feels like the laptops only purpose is to call his grandparents.  If I am on it and he is awake he will often walk over and say “hi” before he can see there is no one there to talk to him. 

Other than that we are busy making our house our home and have been tackling project after project with traveling, guests and play time in between.

I am busy editing photos, making collages and trying to get this blog back up to date!  We have a busy few months in September and October so I have to catch up or I will be behind for good! Stay tuned!

Grandma and Grandpa McConachie here

My parents made one last trip out before my mom started school the day after leaving Seattle.  They flew in and after Mike picked them up headed directly to meet us at the Brandi Carslile Concert.

Thursday we were up and off on an adventure to the Aquarium and Pike Place Market.  We then came home and after Thomas napped started the big painting project.  We painted the living room and dining room “Dolphin” gray. 

Friday the guys went fishing for trout on the Yakama River.  My mom, Thomas and I stayed here and finished painting, went for a walk and had dinner in.Saturday was another early start.   The boys got to work on framing out the basement room and my mom and I held down the fort and Thomas!After putting my parents to the grind building, cleaning and running after Thomas we had one more adventure in store.  Sunday we made a trip down to the Locks to “see the fish” and then headed to our favorite local spot Ray’s to enjoy the sunshine on the patio during lunch.

We had a great time with my parents here and we can’t thank them enough for all the help!

Fun with Brandi Carslile at Zoo Tunes

Enjoy the videos of our flirty little dancing boy at Brandi Carlisle’s Zoo Tunes Concert.  He once again was delighting the crowd with his flashy grin and sweet dance moves.  He even found a few girlfriends to dance with. 

We didn’t have the best seats and it was hard to see Brandi but honestly we all had more fun just listening and hanging out.  We were also glad my parents were able to get last minute tickets and join us.

Wading Pool

A park near our house has a wading pool that they fill every day at noon with water for kiddos to splash and “swim” in.  With the afternoons being hot we decided to head over for some pool fun with Dahlia.  Thomas quickly decided that he had some new found freedom in this shallow water.  He loved walking, stomping, and swimming for almost a hour and a half.  When he got out he was starting to turn blue and his knees had bumps and scratches all over.  Can’t wait to bring him back for his next round of fun!

Rainbow Rice

I discovered Pinterest and since then my world and more specifically Thomas’ has been a little more colorful!   I have a lot of therapy games and ideas up my sleeve, and have been getting a little bored with them.  Then I saw some new ideas on Pinterest I couldn’t wait to try them. 

Rainbow rice looked like it was right up our alley and after hearing about how much Tiffany’s kiddos, Ben and Hallie, enjoyed it I was excited to make it for Thomas! 

The recipe is as follows:

~4 Cups of Rice (I bought the cheapest bulk rice at the store)

~ 3 tablespoons of Alcohol

~ LOTS of food coloring.  I probably used at least a tbsp. per color. 

~ Gallon size zip lock bags

~ Paper grocery bags for drying the rice

Directions:

1. Mix the alcohol and food coloring.

2. Measure out rice and put in bag with food coloring/alcohol mix.

3. shake, smoosh, and mix it up

4. lay it out in paper bags to dry (we did ours over night)

5. play away

Donny Visits

We had a whirl wind trip when Mike’s buddy, Donny, flew in for a quick work trip. He got to our house late on Thursday which was enough time to have a few beers and catch up and was off on Friday to visit his client.

He then came back on Saturday afternoon and our real adventure of seeing the most we could in a few hours started.

We left the house at 2 and headed downtown to see the Space Needle. We ended up deciding to go City Center and see the huge water fountain to let Thomas run. That way we also got to take a picture by the Space Needle.

After that we stopped in at Zeek’s pizza for some beer and refueling. As we were driving to the Ballard Locks Thomas fell asleep so we headed straight to Ray’s Boathouse for some seafood apps and a cocktail or two. After Thomas got up and we finished our food and we were off to see the boats and fish.

Then it was a seafood dinner at our place followed by watching the sunset while Thomas played on the beach at Golden Gardens. This was followed by some ice cream and home to put everyone to bed!

It was so much fun to see Donny and we are glad we could show him a few of the things we really enjoy here.

Barking Seal

The night before Mike was off fishing Thomas started to cough…it quickly went from a typical cough to a loud hoarse “barking seal” cough.  I called the doctor as soon as we woke up and we were off to be have Thomas diagnosed with croup. 

Daddy was off in Utah fishing and the duty of Thomas detail fell on the pets and myself.  Thank goodness for Madagascar the movie which we watched on repeat naming all the zoo animals.

I have to say it was a long weekend.  The poor guy was pretty much ok when he was awake with minimal coughing but as soon as he would go to sleep it was trouble.  The coughing would start which often led to gagging and then throwing up.  YUCK!  Thankfully after 3 nights of humid showers and sleeping next to wide open windows he was doing and feeling much better.  I hope that this is our last run in with Croup!

Missing in Action…

I will be back shortly to catch up on the blogs…there is a lot to catch up on!!!

After playing catch up from our 10 day Minnesota vacation, I came down with a cold last weekend, then Saturday Thomas started a fever and this week it rolled into croup.  Between illness and cutting his canine “I” teeth (top two are through, bottom two almost) he has needed a lot of snuggling and attention. 

Hope to be doing updates soon!

First Haircut

I attempted to control Thomas’ hair party hawk during his nap.  I got the layering part right-just went a little high-whoops!    Unlike many of his Mommy’s haircuts he didn’t cry and was ready to rock the new do!

Splash Park

Thomas and I had a bunch of errands to run this morning so for him being such a good sport and riding along without complaint I decided to spoil him with a run through the sprinklers at a nearby park.

He thought it was pretty cool and he in fact did it again the next night with his daddy too!