Ellena's Choice Day

Blue Moon before the 5:30 AM gym workout.

Today was Ellena's Choice Day. We got a few errands done in the morning and then went to feed the ducks at the duck pond.

After, the kids played at the playground.

After lunch and a quick nap (for me!), we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming at the pool! Pretty fun Choice Day, Ellena!

The Blueberry Brigade

On August 9th, we went to the Mercer Slough blueberry farm. We love berry picking and wanted to be sure to get in one blueberry picking this summer! We picked up our buckets and were told Lots 1-4 would have the best picking. We walked out and found most of the bushes picked through, so we ended up trying Lot 5. Not a ton like we've found at Remlinger in the past, but still pretty good. Here are the pics I took of the kids as we started picking.

"Evan, you're slouching! Stand up straight!"

So I get this.

And I guess if you're going to stand up straight, you might as well salute. Look at Ellena watching her big brother. We're getting a lot of Monkey See-Monkey Do this summer.

 Ta-da! 2 saluting monkeys ready for berry picking duty!

Evan's Choice Day

Summer vacation is quickly winding down! We had nothing planned for today and tomorrow, so we decided to make today Evan's Choice Day - we do what Evan wants to do. He chose a visit to the Pacific Science Center. We've been here often with our annual membership, yet today we were pleasantly surprised with a day of firsts! To start off our day, we went to see the IMAX movie, Flight of the Butterflies in 3D. It was our first time in the big Boeing IMAX theater (we are usually in the smaller Paccar theater.)

We spent most of our day in the Imaginate exhibit because it will be closing soon. We then went to the bug area. There was a docent out with a hissing cockroach that you could hold. Another first! It was the first time Evan held a roach! Ellena and I pet him, but didn't want to hold him ourselves.

The docent suggested pretending to eat the roach - makes for great pictures!

We then went to the butterfly house. Today was the first time a butterfly landed on Evan and on me! Very exciting!

The butterfly on my leg.

Evan liked this butterfly.

It was a fun day of firsts! Tomorrow is Ellena's Choice Day!

Old Friends and New Friends

Today we got to spend time with old friends and new friends. What a special day. My friend, former co-worker and maid of honor, Jen, relocated to Chicago years ago. We try to get together when she comes home for a visit, but it has been a couple years. Pops saw her most recently on a business trip to Chicago last year. Today her close friend hosted a bbq so that we could spend time with Jen and her fiance, Chris. So we got to meet Chris today and get to know about their wedding plans and hear the engagement story! So much fun and always so nice to be together again! Congratulations, Jen & Chris!

Game Day & Food

Thursday was the Ravens' first preseason game. Ellena insisted on wearing her jersey that day to her 5-year check up. What a super fan!

Burger King has 50 cent ice cream cones, so we went and got some on a busy, hot day. One thing about Evan... he loves food. I don't know of a kid who has such a distinguished palette and gets so much enjoyment out of food. When he finds something he likes, he eats with gusto. At Great Wolf Lodge, we were being seated for the breakfast buffet. He asked the hostess if they had an omelette station. At Burger King, he was demolishing his ice cream cone and got to the paper on the cone. He was peeling the paper off (and I was just about to ask if he needed help) when the paper came off, but the cone dropped to the ground. The poor guy. He was so upset about throwing it away. The next day we were brainstorming ideas for his daily journal entry. I listed all the highlights from the day before including getting ice cream. He said, "No, I don't want to write about such a sad time."