Chuck E. Cheese

My boys got to meet him for the first time in California. They had a blast.
Austin took Max around most of the night and was such a sweetheart catering to a three year-old's every whim.

From October 2010

Oooh buttons

From October 2010

Drew and Darin were dinosaur destroyers

From October 2010

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He's a regular baller

From October 2010

Check me out, daddy!

From October 2010

Me and Ashley

From October 2010

And what I call the Ashley face. She does it much better (haha)

From October 2010

I so want to read this! Do you think Kris has been to Chuck E. Cheese a few times? haha I think the novelty has worn off ; )

From October 2010

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The whole family! We missed you Tony!

From October 2010

Welcome Home Mom and Dad

My parents came home from a mission for our church. They had the opportunity to preserve records and help make them available for family history research-read here. They drove back home from Washington D.C and stopped by and saw family and church history sites along the way. They are quite the travelers.

The boys and I flew to Sacramento to spend time with them and my my brother Darin and his family. It was fun to spend time with everyone! Here are some pictures from the first day and a half.
Grandma had some fun "toys"

From October 2010

Our favorite cousin Drew

From October 2010

I have many memories at this park.

From October 2010

Drew got the chaise lounge swing

From October 2010

Cool Uncle Darin gave Max a ride

From October 2010

Isn't Ryan lucky?

From October 2010

I love this pictures. The boys were having fun on their own

From October 2010

Playing with our old legos (vintage legos, let me tell you)

From October 2010

This was some more fun for Max

Our Secret Garden

So I didn't get the best before and after pics, but we've been working on our yard which was very overgrown. Here's the spot that has been my main focus.

From September 2010

It was kind of fun to pull back tons of moss and weeds and discover that there were stepping stones. I did kind of feel a bit like Mary in The Secret Garden

From September 2010

And the afters (which will include Hyacinths in the spring and at least one other bulb I have yet to decide on)

From October 2010

All cleaned up and ready to grow beautiful flowers

From October 2010

The boys and Grandma

From October 2010

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We love visits from Grandma!

We got to have Grandma Kate come visit this weekend.
Eating at Ivar's on the Lake Washington waterfront.

From October 2010

Fun at Coulon Park

From October 2010

Daddy chasing Max down the slide

From October 2010

Swing, Swing

From October 2010

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It's such a beautiful park, and...Ryan said "duck (dut)"

From October 2010

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Playing one of many games with Grandma

From October 2010

The How

(of how we became property managers)--for Sarah (and posterity ; )

When we found out we needed to move, we started looking at areas closer to the airport to cut out Tony's commute. With him going to school and work, it's hard to see him as it is. Tony's father knew of someone that was moving out of a property management situation and so we looked into it, applied and got accepted. We have been pleased to find that the duties are fairly straight forward (collecting rent and managing accounts is pretty straight forward). We don't do any maintenance or lawn care (except to the home we live in). The community has high standards for the appearance of the community and has regular walk-throughs to make sure everyone complies, however, that is not our responsibility. It falls on the shoulders of members of the "board". We do attend a once a month meeting to meet with the "board" to represent the people who are leasing their land from our company. I did have to deliver two "5-Day" notices to people who were behind on rent and got an angry knock on our door Sunday morning when one tenant found their notice, but that situation was easily diffused and the fault of the tenant. We're really enjoying the benefits of this situation. Good times!

Daddy's Surprise

Tony has seen his boys a total of about 30 minutes awake in the past 5 days. Last night he installed a little "surprise for them" to wake up to this morning. Tony used to have this toy plane when he was little so he thought the boys would like it. For a look at this fun toy, check this video (skip to about 4:27 so you can skip the boring review part and you can just see it flying).

Max woke up all awe and wonderment. I told them that daddy had given them this surprise and I went to turn it on. Here is what happened when my airplane loving boys saw mom turn on the airplane:
**The propeller came at me fast and clipped my finger.
**Then I tried again and it went all wonky.
**Ryan started screaming hysterically.
**Max asked me to take it down.
Ooops. I told Tony later that it debuted as well as the Ridge Runner did.
Luckily, I know my boys and it only took a few (maybe 5) to stop Ryan from screaming hysterically and look at it and smile. Max loves it and thanked daddy on the phone. So, after it's initial "crashing and burning", it was a success!