A Spring day at the Park

We had a day to make up for Toddler Group because of snow this past winter. We were lucky to have beautiful weather, and we went to a great park - Farrell McWhirter park in Redmond. I fondly remember spending time in this park growing up. I remember climbing this same spiral staircase up into the silo and being as loud as possible. It's very echo-y inside! We had a great circle time with our toddler group friends banging on the floors and sides, marching in a circle and being all sorts of different animals.
Then we took a little hike. It was lots of fun with several bridges to cross and streams to play in. We actually took a wrong turn and ended up walking a lot farther than anyone expected. One of the moms in our group is very pregnant, so the extra walking was a little exciting for her! It was a beautiful hike, and all the kids (mostly boys!!) really enjoyed finding hiking sticks and racing down the path.

After the hike, we had a picnic lunch, and let the kids play. The only play structure was this one with two tire swings. There was a school group there as well, so once our group got a hold of one of the tire swings, the boys didn't get off! I think they took turns pushing eachother a swinging for a good half an hour.

It was a fun morning. The park actually is a working farm, and they have several animals. We were really lucky - another class from toddler group went the week prior, and there weren't any baby animals. We saw lots and lots of babies. I'll put those pictures in another post.

Baby Animals!

The baby animals were all less than a week old when we saw them at Farrel McWhirter park. They were all so cute. The little piglets were by far the most popular. I think they said the mom had 14 babies. Here they are all napping by momma.
I took this picture earlier when there were tons of kids trying to get a look. I think it's cute to see them up walking around.

The baby goats were so cute as well. I think Adam enjoyed watching them the most. They were running around and butting eachother in the head. Adam just laughed and laughed at them. It was fun to watch.

There were also baby rabbits, but I couldn't get a good picture of them. They were so tiny!! We saw some calves as well.

I know this last picture isn't a baby, but I couldn't resist taking a picture of this huge turkey. Adam thought he was pretty funny as well!

Woodbadge and the beach

In the fall of 2007, Scott spent several days participating in the Woodbadge training program for the Boy Scouts. A few months after finishing the program, he was released from scouts at church, but he made sure to have the ward leave him on the scout committee so he could finish his "ticket" and earn his beads. He was finally presented with those beads at our wards most recent court of honor. Lucky for us, the court of honor was held at Richmond Beach in Shoreline -and, it was a beautiful day!
My dad happened to be the Scout Master for the program that Scott participated in, so Scott asked him to present his beads to him. He did a great job filling everyone in on the history of Woodbadge, and presenting all of the different pieces to Scott. I got to stand up there with him and put all the new stuff on him. (Luckily, nothing with pins in it, so I didn't stick him once!!)

After all the awards were presented, there was supposed to be a hot dog roast. Unfortunately, there were some issues with the grill, but that gave us a good opportunity to head down to the beach and check out the water. I had never been to Richmond Beach, even though it's only about 15 minutes from our house. It's a pretty nice beach - pretty sandy, until you get right down to the water. Adam had a fabulous time throwing rocks in the water (really, what else is there to do??)

I like this picture of the wind-up!

It turned out to be a fun afternoon. I think we'll head back to the beach again for some more play time this summer - I'll be sure to bring water shoes since the water line is very rocky.

I'm proud of Scott for finishing up the program and becoming a fully trained scout leader. I'm sure he'll have plenty of oppportunities to use what he's learned as our two boys get to scouting age. He probably won't even have to wait that long!!

Breakfast in Bed

I woke up Sunday morning (Mother's Day) to hear Adam saying in his not-so-quiet voice "Shhhhh! We have to make mommy breakfast", as he and Scott headed down the stairs. Adam had been looking forward to Sunday for quite a few days (I found out the real reason a little later in the day), and he was pretty excited to make mom breakfast. A little while later, the boys were back up in our room and Adam - with a huge grin on his face - yelled "Surprise!" Scott and Adam made me a lovely breakfast of eggs, hashbrowns, toast and strawberries with Scott's famous sour cream and brown sugar sauce! It was very yummy! Adam was pretty fascinated about this whole breakfast in bed idea, so he decided he should get breakfast in bed as well.
It was a great morning! I feel so blessed to have this little guy in my life, and am excited and awed with the new little life growing inside me! Scott and I often say that Adam has left big shoes to be filled by his little brother! Adam is such a loving and caring boy, and he is so much fun to be around! He makes me laugh every day!! I miss him so much when we are apart! I am the luckiest mom in the world!!

CHOCOLATE - what better way to celebrate!

This is the true reason for all of Adam's excitement on Mother's Day! Scott took him shopping to find a present for me, and after walking up and down every aisle at Target and filling an entire shopping cart with little odds and ends, the best present was found at the back corner. Scott said as soon as Adam saw it, his face lit up and he yelled "CHOCOLATE!!" (I think he may have inherited an unhealthly love of all things chocolate from me). And so, we are now the proud owners of a chocolate fountain, and boy did we all have fun smothering strawberries, angel food cake and bannanas in chocolate after dinner. Just look at this face! Do you think he enjoyed it?
Adam certainly enjoyed all the chocolate, and he was by far the messiest of the group when we finished up! Luckily - everything came clean in the wash - including the little boy!

We had fun celebrating mother's day with Grandma and Grandpa Conrad. As you can see Grandma and I also enjoyed the chocolate! (I had help splashing all the chocolate on my shirt - I'm not THAT messy!!)

And it sure was fun helping Adam get even messier! Chocolate kisses are the best!!

The final shot of the chocolate boy before heading up to the bathtub!

I really had a great Mother's Day! What a fun way to spend the day - with my great husband and son, as well as my own mom (and dad). I am so thankful to my parents for all they have taught me, and especially on this day to my mom! What a great example she has been to me and I feel priviledged to call her my friend as well as my mom!

Curfew police!

I have to come up with some way to remember what Adam did last night! I'm still laughing about it this morning!
So, I'm in the Primary Presidency in our ward, and we were having a presidency meeting at our home last night. Scott was working late, and it was getting past Adam's bedtime. We wrapped up the meeting and the other counselor and secretary left and the president and I were talking. I suddenly realized that the front door was still open, so I asked Adam to close the door. He stood at the door and pointed at our Primary President and said "It's time for her to go home". We got a good laugh about that one and she finished packing up her stuff and we kept chatting and slowly walking down the hall to the door. Adam suddenly came up, took her hand and said "time to go!" and escorted her out the door. I guess he was done for the night!!