My sister Wendy, Kevin, Logan, my Mom, Aaron and the kids at the parade.
(Click on any of the pictures to zoom in.)
We started out the 4th of July by going to the Annual 4th of July Parade in Oak Harbor. Then we came back relaxed and geared up for a BBQ with our friends at the Hickok's house. After we left that we were able to squeeze in watching the Haggen 4th of July fireworks over the bay at Zuanich. Both kids fell asleep in the car on the way home and slept in until 9:30 the next morning. The weather was perfect. We thought it might rain all day at first but the sun came out and stuck around for the rest of the day.
We just decided to upgrade from a single trail-a-bike with a trailer to a tandem trail-a-bike. Now that the kids are both riding bikes they were both wanting to ride the trail-a-bike. So, Aaron found out that Adams makes a tandem trail-a-bike and we were able to order one through Fairhaven Bike and Ski. It only took them two days to get it for us. Thank you Fairhaven Bike and Ski. We are planning a few trips this summer and will definitely be taking this with us. Unfortunately, my bike and myself are to small to have the tandem trail-a-bike attached to it. At first I thought this was a good thing but now that this new trail-a-bike has seven gears Aaron says he actually feels them helping behind him. I could use some of their help! :)
My Grandparents and my Aunt and Cousin all came out for a visit at the beginning of June. We all waited until Alex was done with school and went over to Friday Harbor for the day. The weather was great and the sun came out while we were there. It was one of the nicest days while our family was here. Thank you for coming out to visit us! We had a great time visiting with all of you and can't wait to see you again. Love, Leah
Our Family went down to Seattle for the JDRF Beat the Bridge Run and Walk. My friend Winnie and I ran it and her husband and our friend Stef walked it with their kids. Aaron hung out at Husky Stadium taking the kids to the bouncy house etc while he waited for me to come across the finish. The weather was perfect. Go Team Ben!
Alex had his first season of soccer. His team name was Star Wars. He had a great time playing, figured out some of the rules and how to score goals. Most of all he just had fun!
Emily would have liked to be playing soccer too, but she had fun practicing her skills on the side line and hamming it up for the camera.
Aaron and Grandpa Rick took Alex and Emily to the annual fishing derby at Whatcom Falls Park. Last year Emily won a Tent and Alex won a fishing pole. This year they both won sleeping bags.
For spring break this year I decided it would be fun to take the kids to Disneyland. After a lot of research I booked our trip. This would be our first trip without car seats or strollers. We started out on Wednesday April 9th with my mom dropping us off at the Bellingham Airport. We had three suitcases and three backpacks. Alex and Emily each had their backpacks full of activities, food and extra clothes for the plane and then we had our backpack with the laptop food and some magazines. Both flights the one down to Seattle and the one from Seattle to Orange County, CA went better than I had hoped and I was actually bored, but not complaining. I had packed my book in my suitcase thinking I would need to be "tending" to the kids the whole flight. Come to find out they were very entertained with their puzzle books and coloring.
We arrived at the Orange County airport, which is about 30 min away from Disneyland, at around dinner time and a shuttle took us to our hotel, The Anabella, which was very nice. Our room had a king bed, a queen bed in a little niche around the corner from the main room and a sofa bed. We also had a flat screen T.V. on the wall and a refrigerator.
On Thursday we walked from our hotel to Disneyland and arrived about 40 min. before the park opened. So, we waited in line with our plan of attack called "Dumbo or Die in a day" from The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland and we also plugged the rides into RideMax which gave us an itinerary of when to do what. For those of you who haven't heard of it RideMax it's a subscription service that you can get which guarantees it will save you time waiting in lines. You put the rides you would like to go on while at Disneyland and it tells you what time and in which order to go on them. It also tells you when to go and get fastpasses for rides. It worked extremely well for us and we were able to get most of our rides for our whole trip done on Thursday. We were also at the park that day from 9-5. On the other days we would leave and come back and at different times throughout the day.
On Friday morning we went to Disneyland for a few hours. The kids decided that they didn't want to do Splash Mountain which was on our schedule for the morning or the Haunted Mansion. So, we went in Tarzan's tree house and over to Tom Sawyer's Island. Then we ate some lunch and watch the Jedi Training Camp show for the second time. This time though Alex got picked to be a youngling or trainee. He had a lot of fun and got to practice his new moves on Darth Vader. The Jedi Training Camp Show was the highlight of the kids trip. Emily was sad not to be picked so went went for a third time on Sunday and Alex and her new Mickey light saber made the Jedi Master sensed that the force was strong with her so she got picked.
Friday afternoon we went to visit Kevin at his place in Marina Del Ray he is staying there while attending USC. It was beautiful and the kids got to go to the beach and put their feet in the Pacific Ocean. It would have been nice to spend more time there. It was a beautiful day and we got to meet Kevin's classmates at a barbecue that they had that night. Alex and Emily played in the pool almost the whole time. Just coming out to eat a few bites and then getting back in. I must mention that the weather was very hot the whole time we were in California. On Thursday it was just right about 75 or so. But then Friday it shot up into the 90's only to peak at 102 on Sunday and then come back down to mid 70 on Tuesday when we left.
We didn't get home until late Friday night and Emily had fallen asleep on the way home so we just decided to go to bed. We slept in the next morning and went to the park for a few hours in the morning but Alex was not in a very good mood, so we went back to the hotel and relaxed, went to the pool , took the ART ( Aneheim Resort Transit) to Target and Red Robin. Then that night we went to the Fantasia Light Show and the fireworks. One the way back on the ART both kids fell asleep and we carried them into the hotel room and went to sleep.
It wasn't until the next morning, Sunday, that we realized that we had forgotten our backpack on the ART. The most important stuff that it had in it was our digital camera and my wallet. I ended up having to file a police report so I could fly back to Washington without my drivers license. We never did find the backpack but did feel lucky that our Disney tickets and ART tickets weren't in it.
We went to Disneyland again on Sunday and purchased some souvenirs. Then watched some show and went on some more rides. That night we went to the light parade at California Adventure and on Monday we spent the day doing things at California adventure. We went and saw Crush the talking Turtle. Saw the Playhouse Disney Show and went to the Bugs Life Area. The kids played in the water park at the bugs life area and went on some of the rides. Their favorite was Heimlich's ride.
Tuesday we got up and got ready to head back to Washington. On Wednesday we were back to normal with both Alex and Emily going to school and Aaron going to work.
Our Family!
The kids with cousin Logan!
My sister Wendy, Kevin, Logan, my Mom, Aaron and the kids at the parade.
(Click on any of the pictures to zoom in.) 
