Upstairs Bath Progress

I am not sure if I mentioned but Abe had a blast on Halloween...so much so that everytime we go to a neighbor's house he yells "trick or treat!" and the halloween costumes (he had two thanks to his Aussie aunt) have been using their super powers to help around the house. Here is Batman helping Daddy with the bathroom wall texture.

the real superhero hard at work

progress on the tile

Abe's favorite place to nap these days is his tent aka "the bat cave"

Upstairs Bath Before & Demo

We have been hard at work over the last month on the upstairs bath.  Jeff has had a LOT of help from Abe with this one. Things started going much smoother once we established that all tools, regardless of size, weight or location belong solely to Abe and that while he is willing to share with his Daddy, permission must first be asked, preferably with the word "please" and if possible, only after Abe attempts to use the tool first. Jeff's patience has been amazing and it has been really funny to listen to those two "negotiate" over tools.

Merry Christmas!

Our trip to the Westlake carousel on Christmas eve morning was so fun. We can't believe how much Abe has grown from last year! 



 

Tractors

Abe's all time favorite thing right now is "driving tractor!" on G & G Christianson's farm. He likes to tell everyone we meet that he "driving tractor" pretty waitresses, trick-o-treaters, parents at school. We took some pics to document the action.

Goodbye

As a certified believer in "the big one" few things in Seattle make me more nervous than the viaduct so I was bummed to miss the goodbye party, but these two got to live it up car free for a while and Abe got to see some of the demolition (his fascination with Builder Bob has not been the same since).

Superman!

Superman had a blast - costume parade at school, halloween party, trick-o-treating and the annual candy bar tug of war with Gus. It is possible he might now want to be Superman everyday...

the palouse

James Island

Abe, Ethan & Mary exploring the island

picnic table surfing

Front Porch

We have been working away, oh, for about a year now on the front entry. It has finally come together with the addition of a new front porch.

Before

Superman's weapon of choice...

Patio Update

We are now officially ready for summer to arrive.We finally poured the patio on Friday, here are a few pictures of the progress.

Abe was entertained by all of the action, note

his handy reference book "I Love Trucks"

Fun in the Sun

In between projects around the house, we went out to Golden Gardens yesterday to cool off at the beach.

Abe's first popsicle.

Apparently a few other Seattleites had the same idea.

 

We didn't bring any tools/toys for Abe so he was constantly 'borrowing' from the other beachgoers.

Abe was sure to point out every boat he saw....It was a long walk back to the car.

Don't Feed the Animals

This weekend, we worked around the house completing old projects and starting a new one.

 Abe enjoyed helping to collect building materials.

New fence at the west side of the house. Gus was blessed with a window to the outside world.

 Preparing for a new concrete porch in the back.

Start of Weekend.

                             End of Weekend.                                  



Happy Easter

Abe enjoyed some old school egg coloring last week, though he was more interested in the plastic eggs that Papa and Nana filled with M&M's and hid around their house on Easter morning.

Sweden, Finland & Estonia

I owed Jeff a cold weather vacation so after a lot of talking (or not talking, hence the need for some quality 1:1 time) we decided it was time for a child free adventure. It was tough to leave Abe but he was in good hands (thanks everyone!) and we spent some quality time obsessing over him and entrenched in toddler self-help books.

We started by spending a few days in Sweden (or as Jeff refers to it “the motherland”) Stockholm is a beautiful city (definitely on our top 5 “We could live here” cities). We then hopped an overnight cruise to Estonia via Finland; we indulged in the smorgasbord, partied with some Brazilians and got very little sleep. We loved our first two days in Estonia so much we stayed another night – you love birds take note: Estonia is very romantic. We then headed to Helsinki where I discovered my love for the Finish – sweets, treats and candy are ingrained in their culture and I ate it up (seriously, there were a lot of fikka breaks!) We then hopped over to Amsterdam where we had the most amazing last “date” and now we are now headed home to see the little man.

It was a great trip and we had a fabulous time - below are a few pictures (a bit random, but for some reason those are the ones that make me smile).

Stockholm

The Vasa is hard to describe and capture on camera but it was amazing!

The view from on our boat to Estonia - yes, those are icebergs.

The smorgasbord....was a bit crazy - but so good.

Does this one really need a caption?

The typical Estonian mullet.

Jeff's birthday dinner was at the nicest restaurant, but I

could not get over the sign - nope, no eggs on the menu!

The night sky in Tallinn is truly that blue, at midnight.

Tallinn.

Totally random but a great memory - oh late night

desserts and coffee...please come back to my life soon.

A little subliminal messaging in Helsinki.

View from our late night stroll in Amsterdam.