"Go Red Sox"

For the last several years Dave and I have headed north to Seattle to watch the Mariners and Red Sox play. This year not only did we take Claire, we took the train. One of Claire's favorite morning cartoons on OPB is the 'Dinosaur Train'. For about a week leading up to the actual trip all Claire could talk about was riding the dinosaur train. She did really well for the three and half hour train ride, especially considering she didn't take a nap. We had a lot of fun. The Red Sox lost, a first for us. They have won every other time we seen them play. In fact on a recap of the game on Sports Center they said it is the first time in 15 years that the Mariners have won at the series at home. No worries, there is always next year. We will be there.  

Claire and Dave on the train.

 Since we didn't nap on the train, she fell asleep at dinner. 

And then she peed.... awesome! 

so then we need a bath at the hotel 

 Getting our game hat ready

Seattle has a underground transportation system that we took to and from the stadium to the hotel. This is us waiting for it to take us to the game. 

Mama and Claire at the game.

Our seats. 

Claire won't sleep on a three hour train ride but she'll sleep at a packed stadium.

Family pic.

The next day we played tourist at the wharf. We rode the carousal (several times). 

Too bad Claire's face is so dark, I really like the clouds and water behind her. 

We visited the Seattle Aquarium.

Arm painting

Pink whale.

Watching the sea otters playing. 

A tank full of lots of sharks. 

Dave got one of us to look at the camera :)

The octopus was a big hit. 

She FINALLY fell asleep on the train ride home about 5 minutes before we arrived into Portland. 

Totally randomly we ran into our friends the Villarino's from Portland at the game. Too funny! 

Tucker and the Balloon

Tucker loves balloons. He is surprisingly gentle with them. Enjoy!

Claire's 2 year pics

Once again Danielle owner of Sweet Country Photography took some fabulous pictures of Claire. Also, the white rocking chair in her pictures was mine when I was a child. Thank you to Papa Dean for fixing and repainting it.

Early Birthday Present

Claire turns TWO in a few days and we decided to get her a play structure since she loves the park and the closest one is a 15-20 minute drive. Initially I looked on Craigslist to see about getting a good deal on a used one. This had a couple problems with 1) Disassembling and then reassembling, 2) Being sure it was still structurally sound, 3) Figuring out what weekend we could get it done since every weekend for the last two and half months we have been out of town. 

Costco had some good deals after their rebates but it would still over $1000. Custom made structures were around the same price too. Don't even get me started on the price of the big name structure companies. They are quite proud of their play structures. Anyway, I digress. I found a good deal online at Wal-Mart. It had everything I wanted for Claire. Swing, slide, rock wall, monkey bars and fort. The picnic table underneath was bonus. They even shipped it to a local store for free. 

We picked it up on a Wednesday and spent the next several evenings putting it together. All in it took about 10 hours. Dave and I worked out a pretty good system where I would get all the wood, bolts, screws, washers, etc. (oh my gosh there was soooo many pieces) for the next step and Dave would assemble it. Claire was a big help too. :) One gallon of sealer/stain later during nap time and we are all ready to go. 

Just some random pics from this summer

Loving her new shades

Ruby's e-collar makes a great hat

Working on our 'cheese' face

Donuts at church

Splash pad in Wilsonville on the 4th of July

Reading with Daddy

Good Morning! 

First black eye

Buckets make good hats too

Pigtails!