Nothing puts you into the holiday spirit quicker than a light snow on the first day of December. I made two trips to the storage unit to pick up all of the holiday decorations, but went outside first to snap a few shots of the kids enjoying the snow.

Enjoy the season!

The kids

Our backyard

Cole

Happy Holidays from Seattle! We’re enjoying our extended weekend, with Kate visiting from San Diego. After our big turkey feast on Thursday, we stayed busy, taking the kids to visit Santa on Friday night followed by our tradition of dining out. Then on Saturday, we had pizza at Grandma’s and later took in the lights at Bellevue Botanical Gardens followed by the drumming at Snowflake Alley in Bellevue.

This afternoon we are going to tour the Theo Chocolate company in Seattle….mmmmm!

I’ve uploaded many more photos to Flickr. Click here to check them out.

Cole all bundled up for the holiday lights

All three boys together for a rare pose

The lights at Bellevue Botanical Gardens

Cole enjoying a candy cane at “Snowflake Alley” Bellevue Square mall.

Nathan

Aunt Kate and Ian enjoying the show

Cole checking out the “snow” that accompanied the show.

Ian and his trademark smile

The three boys posing by the nutcracker

They must be getting older! We actually captured three shots of them together and all smiling at the same time!

I can’t believe another Halloween has come and gone and that the holidays are already upon us. Mom and Amanda came over this year to accompany the kids and me trick-or-treating. Cole was so much fun to watch. He ran circles around Nathan and Ian, running house to house in his little pirate outfit.

I posted all of the pictures below and some additional ones to Pictage. Click here to take a look at them.

Well it’s a month and a half late, but here are a few shots of the kids that Erin took back on September 6th as the kids went back to school.

Wow, it’s been practically two months since my last post. Life has been complicated lately, so pardon the fact that I haven’t gotten around to posting pics of the kids for such a long time. I’ll try and follow this post up with some additional piucs soon. I need to find or take some recent pictures of Cole! Not sure where he was hiding last weekend but here are a few shots of Nathan and a couple of Ian that we took last weekend at Nathan’s Soccer game.

I know, it doesn’t make much sense, but I think the title pretty much reflects life right now (sans work). Last weekend, Erin, the kids and me were invited to a friend’s house for BBQ and he made fajita’s that were off the chart. He was using a BBQ/smoker called the Big Green Egg and when it came time to cook the meat, he threw it right on the hot coals! Long story short, I had to ‘learn more’, so the next day I went down to Thompson’s Hearth and Home in Issaquah to find out more. It really wasn’t my fault that I ended up putting one in the car to take home. We entertained that evening in fact and used the egg to cook some killer steaks. If you check them out (the eggs, not the steak), you’ll find that all eggs need nests, so I purchased a cart, which is of course unassembled and unfinished (needed stain + polyurethane), so I spent the better part of this weekend working on that. Here’s the final pick of the Egg in its nest ready for tonight’s dish of cedar planked King salmon!

So that brings me to the squirrel. Since we’ve moved in to the house 2 1/2 years ago, we’ve had some aggressive squirrels; remember this one at Easter last year?

Well lucky us; they had offspring. Erin often will look out the window to see the new baby squirrels wrestling in the yard. Yesterday, she happened to have her camera when one of them decided to have a face off from the safety of a tree.

I’m traveling quite a bit with my new job, but that didn’t stop us from scheduling to have our hard wood floors refinished starting tomorrow, so in addition to all of the craziness, I need to pull up the toilet in the powder room and move the fridge before tomorrow morning. What happened to the part about summertime being relaxing?

Anyhow, sorry I STILL haven’t posted pics of the kids. I figured you’d enjoy the squirrel and BBQ pictures more anyway, so you’ll have to practice patience…..

I haven’t had time to edit all of the photo’s yet, but here are a few good ones that I grabbed last weekend during Nathan’s final game of the season. 

Our flight back to Seattle on Thursday didn’t leave until 6:00 PM, so we took the opportunity to spend the morning at the beach before packing up for our journey home. 

We had an amazing time and want to thank everyone for contributing to the great memories we now have.  And to think it’s not even Summer time yet

Click HERE or on any of the photos below for a slide show!

Erin was excited to get some shots of me spinning Cole, but he would only allow mommy to do it :-(   Love the results though!

I think Nathan might end up being a runner.  He’s sure built like one!

Here’s a shot of Erin taking advantage of the larger than usual surf.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Erin and I were treated to a night at the condo without kids which was a huge treat. 

We ate, drank and shopped all day and into the evening when we met up with Matt and Sarah for appetizers and live music at Poppy’s. 

Erin and I broke away for a romantic dinner at Bistro Bijoux and then met back up with Matt and Sarah to take some pictures before calling it a night.

Here’s a picture of the Zimmermann condo.  Click HERE or on any of the pictures to launch a slideshow.

Here’s a shot of Erin and I in front of the ‘fountain of youth’. 

And another of Matt and Sarah.

Saturday was a busy day.  After we went to the beach in the morning we spent the afternoon at the Zimmermann’s celebrating Steve’s graduation.  They had a great party with tons of things to do.  The kids and adults enjoyed their batting cage where I was reminded why I didn’t play baseball in high school :-) 

After church on Sunday, Steve had a cookout for the family (numbering more than 20 people) at their condo at the Baytowne Wharf in San Destin.  We cooked out and soaked in the sun at the pool and I gave the camera a rest for the day.  Okay, I actually forgot it but you’d never know it unless I pointed it out…..  But don’t despair; the cousins and grandparents watched our kids later in the week so that Erin and I could have a night alone in the condo and we got lot’s of great pics. 

On Monday morning, we were back at the beach and I’ve posted a bunch of pics from the day.  As always, click HERE or on any of the pictures to launch a slide show and enjoy!

Here’s a shot of Cole going for a swim. 

Cole dominated the pictures today.  Here’s another of him playing in the water with Samantha.

Cole was in such a good mood that he showed his dad some love too.

And finally (unless you check out the slideshow for more) here’s one of Cole playing in the sand with Ian and Logan.