WKWDWTGTSWHOFDLTTRAGVS

We're just starting to feel the first hints of Spring up here. Last Saturday was very nice and sunny and spring-like so we went out for a walk! We live really close to Redmond's large Marymoor Park and so we took advantage of it. Apparently so did everyone else because there were so many people outside! And maybe as many dogs as people. People around here love their dogs.This is me with my dog, I mean, my Henry. Yes, we have matching hats. They were free from Microsoft (just like many things we own). And yes, it was cold enough to need hats. But matching hats keep you warmer than non-matching ones, so we were in luck.

Here is the beautiful Lake Sammamish!

So it kind of rained a lot the past few weeks, which overwhelmed the walkway system around the marshes (or something) surrounding Lake Sammamish. We used the well-known technique called "Wimpy Kids Who Don't Want To Get Their Shoes Wet Holding On For Dear Life To The Railing And Going Very Slowly" in order to get across. There happened to be THREE stretches of walkways with similar flooding so we got pretty good at it.

After all that hard work, the loop we were on was closed at the end! But don't worry, we were very industrious and just hopped over the "do not cross" fences to finish the few hundred feet of the loop rather than go back and use "WKWDWTGTSWHOFDLTTRAGVS". We are rebels!!!

Lately

So here are some things we've been up to lately:

1. Museum of Flight. On our day off (Employee Appreciation Day aka President's Day) we went to this museum! Henry was giddy and excited like a school boy (see picture below):

He loved seeing this amazing replica of the moon something-or-other and reading about the crazy people who go to space! "SPACE! There's nothing in space! If something goes wrong then you DIE!" -quote from Henry.
I myself enjoyed pretending to be an astronaut, and pushing children out of the way to get this photo:
But actually, my favorite display in the whole museum was this section on fashion and flight attendants. It gave an interesting timeline of stewardesses through the last 70 years or so.

Did you know that the first flight attendant was a nurse who volunteered to go on a flight to make the passengers feel more at ease? Makes sense because flying is kinda crazy... but not quite as crazy as going into space. It was interesting reading about the qualifications for "stewardess school" in the 60s, which were to be gorgeous and skinny and genuinely nice and caring. No wonder they had a hard time keeping them working! That's exactly what a man wants in a wife (of course!), and most of the stewardesses got married to pilots or passengers within 2 years. Some of the ad campaigns of that time (and the entire job description of a stewardess) were so objectifying to women. Thanks goodness that we have more equality and understanding now. This exhibit did bring out the feminist in me... and it was more interesting than old planes (no offense Henry)....

2. SKATE KING (which deserves to be in all caps). Who knew that Bellevue was home to one of the greatest skate places, and tween hang-outs, of ALL TIME? Thanks to our friends, the Chins, we now know.

This is a picture of me looking cool and skating. I am going sooo fast that I am blurry. I am amazing at skating.

Highlights of skate king: entering a "no gum zone" and having to spit out my gum (first time since junior high), winning a free 12 oz. drink for being in the right corner when a giant dice was thrown, becoming BEST FRIENDS with DJ Apollo, requesting "I'm Blue, Da-ba-di-da-ba-die" and having it played (!!), coming up with a business plan to make a skating rink for adults (serve alcohol, charge ridiculous prices, have better skating games). So if you're ever in Bellevue and want to make some cool pre-teen friends.... Skate King is the place to go!

3. Hiking. This hasn't happened for us in a while because, let's face it, I'm a cold weather baby. Meaning I'm a baby when it comes to cold weather, not that I was born in cold weather. But today the sun came out!!!! What?!?! Who is this!??
But the magical spell cast by the sun wasn't strong enough to totally conquer Old Man Winter. There was snow still on the ground :(

We were a little nervous to go on this trail because of my weight problem.

Just look at our pre-hike enthusiasm (and Henry's pre-hike granola bar)! That's how to start a hike!

So here's little glimpse of our life based on the times when I've remembered to bring my camera to things. If you really like us... come visit us and then maybe you'll get a post about you!

AZ Christmas Part 1: da kidz

Well one thing we loved about our time in AZ was getting to see our nieces and nephews a lot. They are some funny kids. I took three of my nieces out for a girls lunch and we had a blast! Here they are being silly:
We also went on a bike ride with my brother's family. I really suck at mountain biking, and I fell off at the bottom of a big ravine. But a week later all my bruises are almost healed! Hooray! Here is a good picture of Jensen. I usually can't catch his attention long enough to get a picture where he's looking at the camera, but this one just worked perfectly:
I'm not sure what my hand is doing there, but it almost looks like a thumbs up so I'll pretend I meant to do that. We went on a hike in the desert by my parent's house and got this really cute shot of Elijah. He's such a chunky and cuddly baby, and is just at the stage where he is so smily:
We also went to Phoenix to see some museums with family. Here is my niece being funny outside the museum. Lucy used to be such a terror (see video at end of post), but going to preschool has really made her much more personable. She no longer just glares at you when you address her, she gives a terse reply and may even make eye contact!

Here's to 2011!

Just returned from a trip from AZ that went by so quickly! I feel like we still needed more time to see friends and family. But we had a lot of fun in the time we were there. I am going to actually make separate blog posts about our trip instead of one huge one. And that way I it will look like our lives are more interesting because more posts = more life (obviously).

I guess i'll do a quick 2010 in review just for the heck of it. We started off the year with Henry getting an unexpected, but much appreciated, job offer from Microsoft. That sure did change our plans, not to mention the rest of our lives. Henry graduated from BYU and was later picked as valedictorian (since he actually graduated in August). After spending the first half of the year in Provo, we made the big leap to the Pacific NW! Now we are big kids living in a real apartment, working real jobs, and having a real good time (clever, I know). We really do love it here and we've had a lot of fun getting to know the area a little bit and making lots of new friends. I haven't been very diligent in documenting what we've done here, but we are totally awesome, I promise! We are looking forward to 2011 and what goodness awaits.

So Happy 2011 to all!

Do you say twenty eleven or two thousand eleven? I'm still unsure which is more comfortable.