We had a busy January with an activity nearly every weekend. Our friends Susanne and Bill came to visit from Dallas and we had a nice dinner out and enjoyed a hike with them on their visit. We love “Sudan” and still think she’s a “pox.”

We tested our cross-country ski outfit for the first time and the kids enjoyed the stroller/skis . We weren’t sure if they would be able to be so close to each other in the sled but they quickly fell asleep and said they had fun!

Amy came down with Bronchitis and spent much of the months of January and February trying to get over it! We had another date night for Amy’s work party but Amy had mostly lost her voice so it was a pretty early night for us.

The following weekend, Amy went to Hawaii on a work trip. Her company rewards employee referrals with a trip. This year the trip was to Maui, Hawaii. Amy had a great time in Maui and Zvonimir survived the weekend as a single dad.

View our January 2013 photos.

Posted in Activities, Cross country skiing, Friends & Family, Gabriel and Zara, Seattle 102 Comments »

After celebrating Christmas at our home in Seattle, we flew to the east coast on Christmas Eve to spend Christmas Day and the following week with Amy’s parents. It started snowing just as we picked up the rental car and continued snowing the entire way to Pennsylvania. We had to laugh because we often drive to our ski resorts in Washington so a little bit of snow doesn’t stress us out but most of the people on the road clearly were not comfortable or prepared to drive in snow. The ride home was very slow going and the kids were very tired of being strapped in car seats all day so we were all very happy to arrive in PA.

The snow in PA was beautiful but unfortunately we did not have enough room in our suitcase for proper gear so we weren’t able to spend too much time outside. Gabe had a blast playing in the snow but Zara absolutely hated it. Our girl does not like to be cold!

The kids had a great time spending time with family, playing with play dough, and making Aunt Patty take them to the potty. With all of the trips up the stairs to the potty, they got a great start on potty training!!
After our week in PA we headed to Virginia to spend a few days before flying out. We were able to catch up with our friends Eric and Sujeeta, Sallie, Liz, and Aunt Jackie & Uncle Chum which was awesome. We wish we could rent out a space just to have a big party and catch up with everyone we haven’t seen in a while.

Our return flight to Seattle was in the late evening so we were trying to find a good way to play the kids out before the flight. We found an awesome bouncy house right beside our hotel and they had open play. The kids had so much fun bouncing but the one thing they talk about most is the self-propelled train.

It’s always so strange coming back to Northern VA because in many ways it still feels like home and we have a lot of fond memories of our time in NoVA.

View our Christmas 2012 photos.

Posted in Friends & Family, Gabriel and Zara, PA, Travel 2 Comments »

December was filled with a lot of fun activities. The twins club hosted a kids concert with Caspar Babypants a local artist (formerly of the Presidents of the United States of America). The kids sat on our laps for the first 30 minutes of the concert then it was as if a switch turned and they got up and started dancing and had a blast. We also attended a few holiday parties where the kids enjoyed sweets they had never before tried such as hot cocoa. They are a big fan! We also joined Amy’s company participating in the Jingle Bell run which is a 5k race with lots of people dressed as Santa and Elves and lots of jingle bells.

We decided to pick out a Christmas tree even thought we were planning to spend the holiday in PA. We picked a super cute Charlie Brown tree and the kids had a blast decorating the tree. We celebrated Christmas a few days early since we were flying out Christmas Eve. Gabe insisted upon wearing Zara’s pink striped PJ to bed the night before we opened gifts – we figured it was just more material to show his future girlfriends. They had a blast opening gifts. Zara slowly and methodically tore the paper off of the gift while Gabe ripped each gift open as quickly as he could. Since we bought them many of the same gifts we tried to keep them opening at the same time but often Gabe was ready for the next gift while Zara was easily sidetracked playing with new toys or trying on clothes. By far their favorite new gifts were the pillows / pillowcases that Santa made for them.

View our December 2012 photos.

Posted in Gabriel and Zara, Jingle Bell Run, Seattle 94 Comments »

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving dinner at the Washington Athletic club. Our friend Jessica who had just moved to Seattle from Witchita also joined us for dinner. Z and I were also lucky enough to have a great date night and see Brandi Carlile in concert over the holiday break. It is always a great show and we had awesome seats.

We also took our first trip to the mountains this winter. There was already a good bit of snow on the ground and we had a blast playing in the snow.

This year our friends Jessica and John took our photo for our holiday card. It was a chilly day and the kids were not super excited to be out in the cold but we got some great photos!

View our November 2012 photos.

Posted in Activities, Family photos, Friends & Family, Gabriel and Zara, Seattle 109 Comments »