It’s hard to believe that 3 years ago we welcomed Gabe & Zara into the world. We have so much fun exploring the world with them. Gabe & Zara notice and are excited about little things that we completely don’t pay attention to. There is not a day when I don’t drive past a construction site and see “diggers” or see a motorcycle (momo) or a helicopter and think of how excited the kids are when they see these things.

We celebrated the day of their birthday with a construction themed party (diggers are pretty much the coolest thing ever for them!). We had a second party on the weekend where our friends joined us for a party at a bouncy house.

The kids loved getting all of the birthday cards. When they got money in the cards they would say “OH LOOK, it’s mondey for the doughnut place.” They LOVE going for doughnuts and for some reason they think all mondey (their word for money) is meant to be spent on doughnuts)

March was full of fun activities. One weekend we took the South Lake Union Trolley downtown to watch the St. Patty’s Day parade. The trolley also drove past a construction site with diggers – G&Z were SO excited! The kids enjoy playing in the snow so we made a few trips to the mountains to go cross country skiing and sledding. We bundle the kids up and Z pulls them behind him. We also took the kids to their first Easter Egg hunt hosted by the twins club. It was their first time hunting eggs and they really weren’t sure what to do. It only took Zara a few minutes to start hording eggs. We finally had to cut her off to ensure other kids had a chance to pick up some eggs. I don’t know if Gabe & Zara liked picking up eggs more or eating the doughnuts afterwards (I’ll guess it was the doughnuts!). We finished off the month coloring eggs for the Easter holiday.

March was also a milestone for us. Ciara decided to pursue other career opportunities so we enrolled the kids into pre-school. It was a short time between when Ciara gave us notice and putting them in school so it was a bit stressful and we were really worried how they might react to the change. In the end it seems like it will be a good school for them.

View our March 2013 photos.

Posted in Cross country skiing, Friends & Family, Gabriel and Zara 709 Comments »

We had an awesome weekend visit from our friends Chuck, Jessica, Malina, and Logan from SF. The kids played so well together and Malina and Zara were fast friends holding hands everywhere we went. We also had a lot of fun showing them our local favorites including our favorite walk in Discovery Park. It was so much fun to see him and we wish they lived closer!

View our February 2013 photos.

Posted in Activities, Friends & Family, Gabriel and Zara, Outdoor activities 96 Comments »

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 »