Spring Summary

Here I am again trying to summarize the last three months.  Spring was beautiful and pretty busy apparently.
Will and his friend Liesel threw a party for their friends.  They made invitations, delivered them, and decorated.  Mostly they just wanted to have a party so they could use the streamers they found in our closet.  I used the opportunity to try out rainbow cupcakes.  Will was fascinated with mixing the colors, and you can tell he tasted each one to make sure they were all equally yummy.  The party was a low-key success.  It's easy to be a success when there are no expectations. 


Back when working at NASA was a possibiilty, Britton took the boys to the nearby NASA visitor's center.  It's a little boy's paradise with all the space shuttles, space suits, and buttons to press. 



We've been riding bikes to church a lot lately.  The boys are wiped out on the ride home.

Elliot attended his first Halo Fest!  Halo Fest 2012 was open to all ages in an effort to get the boys started on video games young.  Elliot also got to play with a new friend Evan while the dads zoned out in Halo land.  I owe a big thank-you to the Colvers for hosting, and especially Victoria for making sure the little boys were fed, bathed, and well looked after. :)

Will and I hung out at home while they were away.  We had a great time cleaning the house together...and then we went to Great America!  We had fun too.

One of those weekend we drove down south to visit my nephew in the central coast.  We watched him hit three triples at his baseball game!  The little boys were in awe of his awesomeness. 

Easter Egg Hunt

The Scarboroughs invited everyone over for the traditional Easter egg hunt this year.  It was so sweet to see Elliot get excited about collecting the eggs.  He was so pleased with himself.


The yard was full of plenty of steps, bushes, and lots of fun hiding places for eggs. 

We had some special visitors from Idaho!  Derek and Victoria made the trip over during a break in school so we could all meet sweet baby Justin.  Justin got his own bucket for collecting eggs, but someone... ate all his candy!

This was actually Will's second Easter egg hunt for the day so he had plenty of sugar.  We had to help take care of it.

Nana outfitted the cousins in matching clothes again!  The adults were still free to wear clothes of their own choosing, but I made Britton coordinate for a family photo. 

These cousins are so cute!  It's been great to see them play together more.  However with five boys all about a year apart, things could get pretty crazy. 

I Wanna Go Fast

Within one week Will and I both ran in races.  I did a half marathon with my running buddies at Stanford, and Will did a 200 M race in a local neighborhood.  That's a big distance for a little guy who insists on being pushed in a stroller or carried almost everywhere.  He seriously will remind me to bring the baby carrier for Elliot so that he can ride in the shopping cart or stroller instead of walking.  I wasn't sure he would finish the race, but he did so well!  He easily ran the whole way, and didn't come even close to being last.  This has made me a lot less sympathetic lately, and he has since then walked all the way home, all the way through a store, and most of the way to the library.
Will was pretty bummed that he didn't win.  He was sad while everyone told him, "Good job!"  He reluctantly gave high-fives.  He finally admitted to his best friend who ran in another race, "I didn't winned."  Later he did realize that he had fun running in the race, and it's OK if you don't win. 


I also didn't "winned" a race, but I did set a personal record!  I wasn't sure I could do it, but we started with an uncomfortable pace, and never let up for the whole race.  Despite two blasted bathroom stops, I still nearly sprinted at the end to... finish in less than two hours!  Yay!  It was a perfect day.  I had my friends to run with, family to meet at the finish, and an excellent after-race party.  In the middle of the run I was already thinking about my next race, but I have barely run since that day about two weeks ago!  I really need a plan and goal if I'm going to keep exercising.

Semi-homemade Valentines

Happy late Valentine's Day from this cutie!  We were semi-homemade this year.  Our treats were brownies from a box, yet lovingly cut into heart shapes and hand decorated.  Our dinner a frozen pizza but once it is cut into a heart shape, it is instantly romantic. 

 



The only thing not cut into a heart shape was the actual paper valentines.  I helped Will (the anti-crafter) make some cards for his friends.  I just had him choose the color of paper, and the shape for the card.  He picked pink, which he is favoring a lot lately, and a triangle.  Then he picked out some stickers to put on the valentines while I wrote some heartfelt messages on them.
He said basically the same thing for each person.  "Hi ______ .  You're great.  Play with me on the playground."  He did tell a few friends he loved them.  In a friendly way I assume although he does spend most of his time with a certain girl...  But Valentine's night he had to stay home and watch a boring movie with his parents. 

Glimpses of January

 

This one is developing quite the attitude.  I don't really mean attitude in a bad way.  He is 14 months, and I guess that's about the time kids start showing a lot more personality and determination to follow their own agenda.   He likes to do things to make us laugh like hiding in the curtains, sticking his tongue out, and shouting gibberish. 

 

I took the boys to the beach recently and they both had a great time throwing this ball, running with it, and most importantly stealing it from each other.  I love this shot of Elliot yelling.  He is so loud sometimes.

Britton had a golden birthday turning 29 on the 29th!  One of the cards said, "Knock knock.  Who's there?  30."  We are still in denial.

January was mostly warm and sunny.  I am really starting to take this for granted and forget my Seattle roots.  But we do our best to enjoy the outdoors on the playground, going for bike rides, and one weekend we had a great trip to San Francisco.  Will and I rode a classic cable car for the first time all the way to Ghirardelli Square.  Always a good destination. 

We are starting to look forward to the unknown in the fall.  Will we still be in the bay area?  We could move across the United States, or even across the ocean to a different country.  It's kind of annoying to not be able to plan ahead yet, but also exciting to start the next step in our lives soon.

A Boy and His Tiger

Will and "tiger" are starting to remind me of Calvin and Hobbes.

Holidays

From Thanksgiving to New Years there's a whole lot of activity, family time, money spent, and food eaten. 

Here's the numbers. 

4 different states 

2 murder mystery parties 

3 Thanksgiving dinners 

2 birthdays 

10 personalized calendars 

2 "special" musical numbers 

3 Christmas light displays 

1 mountain hiked 

53 relatives seen 

lots of board games 

too many calories...

Here's a large chunk of the 53 relatives we saw over the holidays.  This is the Mickelson gang celebrating Thanksgiving in one of the many cultural halls of Orem, UT.  We had a great time with the most delicious food, a good bunco tournament, and an eclectic talent show.  Will's talent was doing an impression of a plane crashing.  

We spent most of our time in Utah here in Aspen Grove.  The snow was falling as we drove up here, and it was so cute to see the excitement in the little boys voices.  

We spent Christmas with my family in Washington.  Here's the Sommercorn Murder Mystery, "Under the Big Top."  This was the year of the fake mustache.  It started at the Mickelson murder mystery and made its way to Seattle, and even onto Joseph's face in the nativity below.

Mustache wearing, footie pajama-ed, guitar player.  Sorry Hailey, I had to include this picture.  

It was sunny and warm for my birthday again!  So I got out the sprinkler for Will to play in for a bit.  He got cold and bored quickly.

I went to get a haircut for my birthday and came home with a whole new look!  Elliot wouldn't let me hold him for a bit.  I got some sushi supplies for my birthday, and a bike!  My last bike was stolen when I was pregnant with Will about 3.5 years ago, and I've been missing it since then.  I've been taking the boys on bike rides lately and it is so much fun!  Elliot is not a fan of the bike trailer, but hopefully he'll come around.

For Elliot's birthday we made this classic yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  The frosting was made with sour cream and Elliot would not eat one bite of it.  Epic fail!!  Pity.  I definitely enjoyed it and ended up eating a lot of cake that weekend.

Britton's family met us here for the birthday party and we went to the Palo Alto Children's Museum and Zoo.  Elliot got to chase balls around and climb on fake animals.  His favorite thing!

Another memorable part of the holidays was trying to take family pictures with our own camera and tripod.  We pushed our jumbo stroller up a huge hill to use this outdoors-y background.

Two photo shoots later we end up picking a slightly blurry picture as the best of the bunch.  Maybe better luck next year.

We are still developing our own Christmastime traditions.  We got to see a lot of holiday light displays this year.  One in Spanish Fork, UT, one at the Oakland temple, and Clam Lights pictured below in Renton, WA.  On the middle left you can make out the walking clam lights courtesy of Ivars seafood.

Nana got the boys some adorable matching Christmas outfits.  In fact, all the cousins had matching clothes thanks to the new Carter's Outlet in Brentwood.

It's Christmas morning!  Britton says that to Will every time he wakes up.  Will was super excited Christmas morning and was very gracious when opening his presents.  Everything was, "Just what I wanted!"  It made the adults feel very appreciated.

Finally, we have decided on a New Year's tradition.  Hike a big mountain!  Of course this is only possible when the weather is ridiculously good.  The Olson ladies started from my sister in-law's back yard, and hiked all the way to the top of Mt. Diablo.  5 1/2 hours later we had the absolute best view of the bay area.  It was a fun and healthy way to start the new year.  Happy 2012 to you all!

Merry Christmas!

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