Happy birthday J!

For some reason my blogger isn't always posting when I want it to. So this was supposed to be up last night, but decided it didn't want to go.

Happy Birthday J! We wish we were with you! I know that in a way you are just happy that for the first time in 3 years you are on land for your birthday....I'm sorry that land is in the sand box.

Landon and I are thinking about you and can't wait for you to be home. Have the best day ever! We love you!

Deployment Recap: Week 14!

Week 14:


Emotional: Drained. After traveling all day. I'm done. I can't think straight. I'm relieved to be home though.

Physical: Tired. But besides that I'm alright! I haven't lost as much as I wanted....but I haven't been trying as hard as I should be.

Communication: Phone calls! They left......I was ready to not talk to him for a while. Then, while I was packing for my flight on Thursday I got a surprise phone call! It was so amazing! He was so happy to talk to me.

What's something fun you did this week: I went to lunch with my cousin. Her and I have always been close. It was nice to go out and it just be the two of us. We also all went to the Zoo in Seattle. The kids loved it!

What are you looking forward to next week: Landon starts school on Wednesday! He's growing up so fast!

What made you happy this week: Coming back to CT. I've missed my friends and my home. It's nice to be back.

What made you sad/mad this week: Honestly? Facebook. Or more the people on facebook. I'm rather annoyed more then mad, but still.  Immaturity reigns supreme. People need to grow up.

What do you miss this week: Justin being here with me. Bing in our home again with all of his stuff makes me a little sad.

How's Landon this week: Ready for school! He's excited that he has a male teacher this year! I'm excited that he got into PM half days not AM! We still get to sleep in! Lol.

Pictures from this week:

Landon had a day of just him and his Papa. They went to this amazing park we have here on the Island and played.

Then my Dad took him fishing for the first time. It was such a great thing for them to do together.

Landon has been talking about the space needle for weeks. He wanted to walk under it he said. So on the way to the airport, we stopped and walked around. The weather was nuts! But it made for some really beautiful pictures. Landon loved walking around and even touched it. I want to wait till J is with us to ride to the top.

The Zoo!

Here in Seattle they have one of the most amazing zoos(I think I use the word amazing way too much. sorry). It once again was something I told everyone that I really wanted to do while I was here. We waited till the last minute, but we did it. We got there at about 11 AM and didn't leave until 630 PM! We were there all day! But we had a great time and we saw just about everything they had there for us to see.

When we first got there, the penguins were the first thing to see. This one was swimming right by the glass and the boys just loved it!

Look at that huge snake! Ick!

The kids had the best time climbing on all of the statues around the zoo. Sometimes I think they liked that more then the real animals!

Lexi is so cute! I just loved her! By the end she wanted to hold my hand run run (from monsters) everywhere.

They even have a nice little petting zoo inside. It only had goats and donkeys, but the kids loved getting to touch them all.

I loved this guy. He was noisy and wanted to be done.

In the middle of our day, we went out to have lunch. They had a nice park next to the zoo that we ate at (you can eat in the zoo, but we didn't want to have to pack all of our stuff inside).

Isn't this neat! It sat there right by Landon for what seemed like ever. I don't know if he was sad or just tired, but he was so cute.

Landon was telling everyone that he wanted a safari hat. He's so funny. We don't ever have to argue when we go into a gift shop.... he always knows exactly what he wants.

Waiting for the Lions to walk by.......

....then he did! I felt like we were way too close to this guy. It freaked me out a little bit.

We had a really great time and I'm so glad we all went. I was glad that Jennie and Lexi could come with us also. We had a great time catching up and chatting.

After the Zoo we went out to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. Seriously, the best thing I've eaten since I've been home!

Oh how I've missed Seattle food!

Bahrain.....

My hubby has been in port this past few days. So my time has been filled with amazing phone calls and skype dates. Sometimes it's hard only getting to talk to him when he's in port....but something is better then nothing.

He's done with Bahrain. He was there 3 times last deployment(once with me! yay! but he hated it when he had to go back and see places I was just at with him) and now he's been there twice this deployment. It was so hot while he was there...I think he said it was in the 130's? But we got a good chunk of time to talk and I got to see him via Skype (when it wasn't acting up).

Here is a picture of my love washing his clothes(a trick I might add that he NEVER does at home!). They lied and said that they lived there in the barracks so they could wash their clothes for free. I love the way the boy mind works. haha.

I heart him. It's one of those silly little things...but I LOVE seeing that ring on his finger.

He was in such a good mood once the skype was really working. He was making silly faces and just trying to get me to laugh. It was nice to laugh with him....

ok this next one is BAD. It's gross.....I'm warning you.

It's the Geico caveman!!!

My husband is Native American and doesn't do hair well. While underwater he doesn't have to shave...but he should! That's how his hair grows in! He doesn't grow hair on his cheeks AT ALL! How creepy is that!

At least he thinks it's nasty to and won't step off the boat with any hair on his face.

Picnic Quest: Snoqualmie Falls

I did a few picnics while I was here in Washington my favorite was at Snoqualmie Falls. We drove up to walk around and have a little picnic. This time I didn't cook the food(and it felt so off! lol) but we did pick up some tasty stuff! We had fun walking around and looking at the falls. But, I have to say they weren't as amazing as they used to be...maybe because we went to Niagara not too long ago.

The Falls. They were very pretty and you could get some really nice views. They trails to walk down to them were closed off so that was a bummer. I'll have to go back when they open the trails again.

I loved the way it looked when the falls hit the river below.

Mom, Landon & I at the Falls.

Little getting ready for our picnic.

They had quite a few nice tables to choose from. I just wish they would have had some grass space also.

Picnic goods!

YUMMMMMM!

Mount St. Helens! 3/4!

I'd never been to Mt. St. Helens. Living so close, you sometimes never go see the things that most people think are amazing. I knew I wanted to. It was one of the "Quad" that I wanted to see. So while we were staying down with my Uncle, we took a day and went. We hiked for hours, saw all the sites, listened to a few talks, watched a movie, read everything in the discover center and even had a picnic! We had a great day and I'm so glad we got the chance to go.

For those that don't know. Mt. St. Helens is an active volcano here in Washington. It's one of the only really active ones around. Here is a little article from the website that I found.

At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted.



Shaken by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale, the north face of this tall symmetrical mountain collapsed in a massive rock debris avalanche. Nearly 230 square miles of forest was blown down or buried beneath volcanic deposits. At the same time a mushroom-shaped column of ash rose thousands of feet skyward and drifted downwind, turning day into night as dark, gray ash fell over eastern Washington and beyond. The eruption lasted 9 hours, but Mount St. Helens and the surrounding landscape were dramatically changed within moments.


In 1982, the President and Congress created the 110,000-acre National Volcanic Monument for research, recreation, and education. Inside the Monument, the environment is left to respond naturally to the disturbance.

The May 18, 1980 eruption was but one more event in the volcano's 50,000 year long eruptive history. During the 4,000 years preceding 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted enough lava, pumice and ash to build the entire mountain we see today. When you know what to look for you can find evidence of these eruptions all around the volcano. Look along exposed riverbanks for ancient mudflow deposits or along steep roadsides for the layers of ashy and pumice that drifted northeast of the volcano.

Here are just a few of the pictures from the day.

This was at one of the centers we stopped at along the way to look at the view.

Funny story- Landon was sitting on this and fell of the side. At some point he reached up and grabbed the antler and held on, feet danging off the ground. Then he picked up his binoculars and had a little look into the bushes....while still hanging there! My dad and cousin were laughing so hard. only my kid would hang on just for the view.

Landon thought it was so neat that we were looking at a real live Volcano!

The view. Isn't it amazing!! It blew that whole side right off! See the ground in front? It used to be a massive Forest. The trees were covered in over 300 feet of ash! Then pumice rock was packed on top when the blast happened. It's crazy how things are so different.

Sean, Me and my Uncle Jim hiking on the trails. I got sooo much sun that day....my face is now peeling because of it!

Us in front of the Mountain(Volcano).

After we hiked around the trails, we drove down to one of the many lakes that was made by the blast. It was so beautiful down there. It's amazing how thins can change and form the land around you and it will never be the same.

My favorite picture from the day. Taken at the lake. The sun was setting and it just looked so beautiful. You can also see Mt. St. Helens on the left side.

I'm so glad we went. It was so neat to see everything and learn what happened. I recommend it to anyone who was thinking about making the drive up. It really is worth it.

Seaside. 2/4.

Technically Seaside is in Oregon not in Washington......so I will post Washington ocean pictures later just to prove all 4 are in fact in Washington but this is just to show that I did all 4 on my trip.

We went down to stay with my uncle and cousin for a few days. While we were there we went to Mt. St. Helens and Seaside Oregon. I haven't been to Seaside in years and was so excited to get to go again and even more so, to get to bring Landon down there.

They have a really great beach that stretches for miles with this powdery white sand. We walked around and I let Landon play in the water (I brought him a few changes of clothes because I figured he would get soaked...and he did). Landon and Sean ran in the water and jumped over waves for almost an hour before we decided to go walk around the strip. Landon had a blast and I'm so glad we took him down there. It's so different then the beaches we have in CT.

Landon before he got to the water.

Landon & Sean heading into the waves. Landon ended up getting hit by a pretty big one and getting soaked!

Me & Landon. After he got wet.

Once we got Landon changed Sean, Lan and I went to the little aquarium. It was a little hole in the wall, but you got to feed the seals!  They were so funny! They would do tricks to get you to feed them. One would slap it's side, one would rock back and forth on its belly on a rock in the tank, our favorite would jump up and clap its fins together...then there was a bully seal, he would splash you if you didn't feed him quick enough! He got us pretty good a few times! They also had a decent sized octopus that was in an open tank. I swear the thing could have come flying out at any moment if it wanted to.

Throwing fish!

Smiling real quick before getting splashed!

Our favorite...the clapper!

Watching the bully splash other people.

Octopus! Open tank! CRAZY!

Hoh Rainforest! 1/4.

While I want home I wanted to do the quad. I wanted to put my feet in the ocean, hike a mountain, walk in the desert and the rainforest. So I did. Washington state is the only one that has all four. It has the only Rainforest in the United states!

While we were in Forks I knew I wanted head over to the rainforest since it was only about 45 min away. So before we headed to LaPush we went over. It was so beautiful. The trees were amazing. Some were the biggest I have ever seen! We hiked a few trails and went through the trail of mosses. I'm so glad that we got that chance to go there.

Here are some of my favorite pictures.

The entrance into the Rainforest.

Massive tree we stopped at. It was amazing how big it was.

Sign for the tree above^^

they had a neat little shop with fact and random things to buy. My mom and I couldn't help but laugh when we saw this book.

Everything was covered in moss. It was really neat.

The clearest water I've ever seen. It was a stream that we walked over and it was just amazing how clear it was.

Hall of mosses.

We had such a great time. the weather was perfect and everything was so beautiful!