Riding the ferry to downtown Seattle

After our little Twilight trip we took the ferry into downtown Seattle. It was beautiful views with the downtown skyline and Mt. Rainier. If you enlarge and look closely you can Rainier behind us in this photo.

Okay Erin, I figured since you are busy with a newborn baby you probably aren't checking your email so I did not bother emailing pictures of you to have them okay'd. (That and I might have been too lazy to do so.) If there are any you hate on here let me know...except for this one. I love it so it won't be removed :)

Cooper was juggled between Uncle Robbie and Aunt Erin. I was free to take pictures. Cooper was fascinated by the water and everything there was to look at. He also was freezing cold so I had to bundle him up in any extra layers I had.

I love how this sweatshirt pops in pictures. Orange is a fun color.

My tour guides. :)

I love sail boats and there were quite a few out on the water that day.

Going a little psychedelic.

The sun setting behind us with a sailboat off in the distance.

Mount Rainier.

Seattle's skyline. (Typing that is making me crave a Skyline Chili coney dog right now.)

Uncle Robbie, Me & Cooper

As we docked there was a great view of stadiums and Mt. Rainier.

I had such a fun time on our little two day trip. After that we had another day of sightseeing in Seattle, which is such an awesome city. (More pics on that to come.) I would not be sad if we settled in the Northwest after our time in the Air Force.

First soccer game

Fisher started soccer this fall and had his first game on Saturday. Unfortunately Todd was unable to make it with me since he was off golfing and watching BYU play in Florida so Cooper and I went to support Fisher, just the two of us.

Initially Todd and I were a little nervous about enrolling him since he is a really competitive little boy who is somewhat of a poor loser. I thought he would become upset if he did not always have the ball or if someone was faster than him.

What I saw at his game was a complete and total shock to me.

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The game started off a little rough since he did not get to play from the beginning. He kept asking me when his turn would be and I told him to stay patient. It was a little odd feeling my momma bear instincts flare up thinking the exact same thing as him- "When are they going to let him play?" In the end it was completely ridiculous because they gave him plenty of playing time.

To keep himself occupied he (and a couple of the other kids) decided to weed the sideline. They were pulling up so many that the coaches eventually went to find a bench where the kids could sit and be away from the grass and weeds.

I could fib and say that the whole game looked like this with Fisher right in the thick of it all...

But reality was that he spent a lot of time biting his nails, picking his nose and wandering off in the opposite direction of where he was supposed to be.

He spent a lot of time picking grass and observing bugs.

At other times he would just randomly wander off the field to come sit with me or his coach. In other words, he was completely detached from the game. No competitive edge, no interest whatsoever in having the ball or trying to play with the other kids. This is not a bad thing, just very confusing when compared with the typical behavior we would see on a day to day basis. Mind boggling in fact.

After a personal break from the game, the coaches encouraged him to try out goalie. I was a little worried for him since I don't know that he knew what he was supposed to do. Thankfully two of the coaches were out there telling him where to stand and what to do. Well, I say thankfully but Fisher decided to tune them out as he does his parents and teachers and remained uninterested in participating, so it would not have made much difference if they left him alone to figure it out. Playing in the net was a lot of fun though. When the kids approached and tried to make a goal, he back all the way up and turned around pretending like he had no clue what was going on. I have to admit that I felt the momma bear instincts go up once again when some of the parents were making comments on the goalie.

I think I was just as relieved as Fisher when the whole ordeal was over. I named this picture "Best part of the game" for obvious reasons.

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I don't know that I am ready for my kids to grow up. It is scary and I have not had a chance to figure out the whole parenting thing in the almost five years I have been doing it. Especially parenting Fisher who is a giant mystery to us. Fisher playing soccer is an even bigger one. I am still scratching my head trying to figure out what it was about the whole experience that made him so passive...not that it is a bad thing. Just VERY unexpected.

Welcome to the world of parenting.

Here is what the Coopster did while we cheered on the big brother. He is whining in this picture, wanting out of his stroller. All he does during the practices is try to run on the field so I kept him locked in for the whole game despite his protests. On a side note he is now 15 months old as of today!

Our experience at the Kentucky State Fair

This was our 7th summer living in Louisville and we had never attended the Kentucky State Fair. Since it was our last chance (how weird to think we won't be here next summer!) we figured we should experience while we had the chance.

We knew we were in Kentucky when this is what the tailgate on the truck parked right in front of us had on it. I have never seen so many trucks in one parking lot but not all of them were as special as this one.

You also know you are in Kentucky when the transportation system consists of John Deere tractors.

It was hot and muggy outside so we thought we would start inside. I have never seen an ugly lamp contest before.

Fisher thought these were so funny.

Grandma & Grandpa Church came down for the weekend but Grandpa passed on the fair since he was not feeling well. We found our first cotton candy vendor within minutes of being inside the fair. It made all Fisher's dreams come true. We had been holding cotton candy over his head for weeks.

I have a lot of picture of Fisher eating the stuff, but there is something special about a kid experiencing the joy and rush of pure sugar on a stick.

That is some good stuff.

Thought I would get a shot of Freedom Hall.

Fisher found himself a comfy spot to sit and enjoy his sugar.

And enjoy he did, to the point of a practical sugar induced coma.

Cooper tried some of the pink stuff as well but ended up spitting it out. Smart kid. You might be wondering what that thing on his nose is (or you may not have been but I am going to tell you anyway.) He decided to dive face first off the couch one day and along with a big goose egg on his forehead he skinned his nose which turned into an almost blood blister looking thing. It took forever to heal and even now you can tell where it happened.

The boys taking a break in the shade experiencing fair food.

While we waited in the shade, Grandma decided to stand in line to purchase a Donut Burger. The line remained this long for the whole 45 minutes or so that we sat in this area.

Finally made it!

Nothing like a burger with tomatoes, onions, mustard and...two Krispy Kreme Donuts.

This is about the only reason I was excited to go to the fair. I am not a crowds, hot, humid weather, stinky animals kind of person in general so fairs are not my thing.

Grandma treated Fisher to a little Spiderman friend.

The two of them had a taste of funnel cake.

While walking around looking for Todd we came across the LumberJill competition. The sign had the slogan of "Chicks with Axes."

We also saw advertising for Pork Butt on a Stick. Fisher thought that was funny since "butt" happens to be one of his favorite words at the moment. Todd and I are thrilled. (Not.)

Eventually we found where Todd was working an oral cancer screening booth with some other people from his class . It was nice to be inside and the boys were happy to see their daddy. (The cotton candy is still there! He never quite finished it.)

The boys had fun playing with this cute dog, Dexter. Cooper scared the poor thing as he would go charging at full speed with hands wide open ready to grab hand fulls of fur. He has not had much exposure to animals and loves them more than they tend to love him.

That was our Kentucky State Fair experience. Now we can cross it off our list of things to do.

Here is a picture of Grandpa with the Coopster since I don't have any of him from the fair.

La Push: The last leg of the Twilight tour

(I am inundating my blog with posts right now if you have not noticed.)

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The drive between Forks and La Push looked like this.

We made it!

They really do have a treaty line. I was not expecting this so it was a fun little treat.

The other side of the sign.

Right by the treaty line is the only store I saw. It was a one stop for everything type of place: shopping, showers and laundry. La Push is a small town.

A lot of the houses looked like this.

There were cabins and small town resort motels like this.

Showing a little love for the werewolves.

You drive through the town, go through more trees, around a bend and all of a sudden this comes into view.

You know you have arrived at the coast/water when you see a seagull soaring through the sky.

And where there is one, there are more.

SO BEAUTIFUL. I wish had more adjectives to describe all the places I saw on the trip. (Across the entire country.)

Proof I was here!

And here!

Once again, Robbie stayed in the car with Cooper (since he is such a nice guy) while Erin joined me in looking around. I think Robbie did eventually get out for a quick peak.

I warned you there would be more scenery. I had a hard time narrowing the options.

It was a very rocky coastline. There was also a lot of driftwood so it was hard to choose which one was Bella/Jacob's.

We could not have had more perfect weather. I probably would not have thought the area so beautiful had it been a grey and drizzly day. The stars aligned and we had blue skies without a cloud in the sky. It was a lot colder in La Push- we had to put on our jackets.

This looked like a good log for Jacob & Bella.

I love this picture. There are no flowers, but wind blown grass does it for me too.

This picture was taken by a nice person...man or woman, I am not sure. The voice sounded woman and then when I turned around to see who was talking to us I swore it was a man. That will be a question that forever remains unanswered in my brain.

On a different note, this is also where Erin almost backed off of a little cliff. I am glad she did not. :) That was a moment of more laughs.

Good times.

Over on the other beach.

After soaking up enough of the views, the fresh air and massive amounts of wind, we hopped in the car and drove off. This was our farewell view from the car.

It was good to know that in case there was a freak storm accompanied by a tsunami that were to appear out of no where, we were headed in the right direction.

It seemed only appropriate that La Push was home to a Jacob's Java.

Once we hit the cross roads again it was good-bye La Push, good-bye Forks and back to Port Angeles where we would drive on through to take another ferry into downtown Seattle.

Until next time...

Next up: A trip to the Kentucky State Fair