valentine's weekend

In the same manner as it seems we encounter all of our weekends, we began Valentine's morning with a complete reversal of our best laid plans.  Noah had been getting rather sick, so instead of a quick trip to downtown Edmonds, we thought it might be best to allow him to get an earlier morning car nap by taking a road trip somewhere further away.  After a quick computer search, Phil thought that it would be fun to go to the city of Monroe and on to Wallace Falls State Park for some hiking and outdoor fun.  Well, after a pleasant drive in which the little one didn't sleep a wink, we found ourselves surrounded by the beauty of the mountains.



We pulled out the jogging stroller and enjoyed the meandering path.





About a half hour into our journey, Noah finally did fall asleep.  Isn't he cute?



He woke up near the end of our trip and did a little hiking himself.



He got a little tired of the hiking again, so he decided to lay down on the ground. (Really! He didn't fall down!)



Afterward, we had a fun lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Monroe, Phil allowed me to take a nap while he played with Noah in our backyard, then Noah decided that he had had a much to busy day and decided to go to sleep an hour and a half early. What an amazing day!

With the babe sleeping peacefully away in his crib, Phil and I got to enjoy a rare opportunity to have dinner alone. I had bought some whole cooked crabs from Costco, so we got to have a candlelight dinner for two in the comfort of our own home.  Here is the spread:



Say "hello" to Mr. Crab!



It was good, but next time I'd really like to try my hand at cooking live crabs. It sounds like that is the best way to go. It sure was yummy though, and I know that I had my share of chocolate-covered strawberries for dessert!  What a wonderful way to end a wonderful day.  =)

thirteen

13 is the big number this week.  Noah is 13 months and baby #2 is 13 weeks.  Yep, this is my official blog announcement of our pregnancy.  I had alluded to it in an earlier post, but it looks like it was lost on most.  =)  I like to be tricky.

The pregnancy is going really well.  I've been blessed with no morning sickness, and we got to hear the heartbeat last Wednesday at the doctor's office.  He/She seems to be doing fine!  I'm already starting to call the baby a "she", but Phil's convinced that the baby is another boy.  We'll be excited either way, and Noah is going to be a great big brother.



The due date is somewhere around August 18th, which will make our kids 20 months apart.  We really like this age gap as we know that they will be close friends.  Noah probably won't ever even remember having been an only child.  Lots of fun. Babies are so cool. I'm just praying that this one will sleep better than our first.

indoor playground

Living in Washington state can be a bit challenging when you have a very active toddler who wants to go outside and play, and yet it is raining, snowing, or just down-right cold!  Thankfully, Noah and I have just discovered the Shoreline Indoor Playground.  It's great since it is open every weekday morning for a couple of hours and has endless amounts of toys for young walkers to play with.  It has also done wonders for us as we have transitioned from Noah to taking two naps to one.

Here's a few pictures of Noah enjoying himself:

Surveying the area...


"Hey, get outta my way!"


"Gee! I like this tunnel and ball."


Let us know if you'd ever like to join us sometime!