Hello Seattle

Seattle greeted us with blue skies. 

Ella loves Seattle already.

Dedicated to Sandra Lee

Unlimited samples.

Have you seen this man?

Ella likes to lick anything in front of her face. Or blow spit bubbles. You choose.

Asian food court.

Dedicated to the University of Oregon.

Dedicated to Holly Lougee. This is big people ramen.

Such a fun 48 hours. 

Here's a list of Ella's firsts during the trip:

Road trip longer than 75 miles one way.

Ride on a public transit bus. 

Stroll through Pike Place Market. 

Meeting a singing bookstore owner.

Seeing chewed gum.

Examining shrunken heads and mummified humans.

Seeing the Space Needle.

Glimpse of salt water. 

Night in a hotel.

Tour of a chocolate factory. 

Excursion to Chinatown. 

And we can't even keep track of how many people commented on our "beautiful baby." She was a head turner! 

Smoothie Me

The beaming Barkers invited us over for smoothies and games Monday evening. It'd been awhile since we'd all gotten together. Our last gathering went undocumented, but will likely be a Lougee family tradition - Nacho Nacho Night. We ate nachos - epic, amazingly adorned nachos and watched Nacho Libre. I was not about to let tonight's riotous fun go left unshown. 

Burd admired how great his wife looks at 34.5 weeks pregunta. 

Ella is excited to be reunited with baby Barker. 

 I feel like "blender" is a totally insufficient word to describe it.
This blender really is a champ. It's digital!

Since the Barkers introduced Eric to Rumikub - it's become a fave of his.
This game went on for a riveting 60 minutes. And Holly finally pulled out a win for the girls. 

We laughed a lot and feel genuinely lucky to have found friends in the Barkers. 

Swing Swing

This weekend we spent some quality time with the Lougees and the Tidwells. This included Ella's first  trip on a big girl swing. 

Aunt Holly and Topper. 

We watched Eric and Elizabeth in a friendly sibling game of tennis.

Tyler Tid.

Can you believe this girl just had a baby?

We had a nice weekend. Looking forward to a quick trip to Seattle! This will be the longest trip with the babester to date. Wish us luck! 

What's on Your Fridge?

I've been thinking a lot lately (far more than any person probably should) about the common household fridge, especially ours. What does our fridge say about us? 

A take out menu for our favorite Chinese place and a nametag I snagged during my short stint at the EO.
I have no clue who Amy is. 

Honor roll. Awesome magnets. Kylee & Greg. And my neglected visiting teaching list. 

No clue what date I got that fortune, but I'm pretty sure many months have passed since.
And 'X' puts the value in my name. 

Riley Roo. 

I especially like the (root) beer mug magnet holding up the Richardson's family photo. 

A picture I colored while teaching Sunbeams. Can you tell who these people are? 

Our gratitude turkeys. This one is Eric's. Plus our vintage bird magnets. 

That string is supposed to be a magnet stress reliever that you wear on your wrist. Instead Riley usually makes letters out of it when she's here. Not sure what this letter is. Or who drew this lovely piece of art. Also, a magnet Mom made out of our wedding reception favors. 

One of our engagement announcements and a love note (pre-marriage I believe).

Important people. And me circa 1992. 

Goobers.

That's it. What do you think? What does your fridge exterior look like? 

P.S. We're growing grass. And lots of it. 

Obligatory baby picture. 

Delicious baby feet. 

Oh, and BIG news. I officially gave my resignation to the Chamber of Commerce. It was a surprisingly hard decision to make, but here I go onto my next stint as a SAHM (Stay-At-Home-Mom ... Acronyms are just one thing I'll carry with my from the Chamber).