day out with Thomas the train

We had a wonderful time at the Day Out with Thomas event at the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie yesterday. They have this event for two weekends every summer and I had been contemplating taking the boys this year, but the ticket price was expensive and Nick wanted to skip it. Much to Oliver's delight, I happened to win a family four-pack of tickets just three days ago so we just had to go :) The boys were the perfect age for it and Elliott was equally as excited to be there.

boys in engineer hats

Oliver's tongue is always out when he is concentrating

this is what he was looking at

there were plenty of train tables to play with!

hard at work

aboard one of Thomas' coaches, Clarabel

taking it all in

he was smiling all day

too many things to look at besides the camera

my little engineer

the cutest engineers ever, posing with Thomas

4th of July, 2013

Here are some pictures from our 4th! Keeping with tradition Oliver spent much of it in the sky riding the scissor lift up and down. His friend Tessa and her dad Matt joined us for the fun and Oliver was able to convince Matt to sit in the scissor lift with him much of the night. He's not allowed to drive it by himself so as soon as one adult gets off he quickly tries to find someone else willing to go up with him. We enjoyed beautiful weather and excellent food. Oliver was so excited when he got home that he could hardly stop talking about the fireworks. I missed the show as I left early to put Elliott down and to hang out with Penny in the basement so I could feed her treats every time the fireworks went off. The 4th of July is definitely not her favorite holiday.

Someone is soo excited. Look at the huge smile on his face!

 Hammock time with Daddy. This is where Nick spent much of the evening :)

 Elliott loved the swings! It was low enough to the ground that he could practically touch it while sitting on it by himself.

 A quick family photo! We haven't had one for a while.

 Trying to get a picture of the brothers together, not an easy task! I had to practically bribe Oliver out of the scissor lift so I could get a few pictures.

heat wave

This is how we have been spending our mini heat wave: swimming in the front yard! Our neighbor gave us his old kiddie pool, which is much cooler and bigger than the cheap one we had. Oliver has spent as much time as we will allow him to in it, including over three hours yesterday. Elliott is currently in the "I hate being wet/dirty" stage so he hasn't ventured in much

ready to swim!

fixing the hose

so that it sprays water onto the slide

he's so excited as he watches it fill up

taking a trip down the slide

that looks like fun!

but I'll watch from up here