We went to the Evergreen State Fair today with my mom (who is in town to help out) and Dianne and her kids.  Boy, what a fun day it was!!  We had thought about changing the day because of the possible rain we were suppose to get but there was absolutely no rain today!

This is a shot from top of the Ferris Wheel!

Landon LOVED the tractor!  So did the girls!

 

We saw lots of animals!

   

There was a pregnant pig who was due yesterday and we had hoped we might see the new babies but they weren’t ready to come yet.  This other mommy pig and her piglets were born about a month ago.  So cute!!  Ella hated the farm animal smell and held her nose through most exhibits!  Landon wanted to see all of the animals and was just fascinated!

We met a magician on a magic carpet…he tried to “cut off” Alex’s finger! 

We found a few extra animals…

Then it was on to the rides!!!

     

This photo below was before the ride started for the Himalaya ride (I believe).  This ride goes round and round starting slow and then faster - then it eventually goes backwards.  Well, Ella swore she wanted to go on this ride…bad idea.  She liked it at first but then it was going SO fast she was pressed against me and screaming and crying.  I think the ride operator forgot the ride was still going because it literally went forward for 5 minutes which is eternity when you have a screaming child who desperately wants to get off.  Then only to find out…you get to go backwards for another 5 minutes!!!  Worst ride ever!!  She recovered but was really shaken up.  Poor thing!

Later on in the day, Dianne went on with the kids (minus Ella of course!).  Her ride didn’t last nearly as long!! 

 

And then they went backwards…

   

Landon chillin’ with Dianne and Grandma

 

The kids want to go back tomorrow, of course!!  We didn’t think we were going to see the sun today so we didn’t put on any sunscreen and we all got burnt.  But it was a really great day and a lot of fun!!

John left for Beijing, China on Saturday night and landed Sunday almost around midnight.  So he basically lost a day.  He was able to talk with us over the computer yesterday (got to love technology!).  It was so great to hear his voice…his “video” wasn’t working for some reason but he could see us. 

Anyway, he had one day to tour around China before his meetings began.  One of his associates in China offered to take him to the Great Wall and a few other spots.  He sent us some amazing photos that I thought I would share.  He will be blogging about his trip, I’m sure, when he returns. 

These are from the Great Wall of China…

This is his friend from China, Jijia.

This cracked us up!!!  The girls liked the delivery “bikes”.  At least we know he won’t go hungry over there!!

 

The photo below is the Bird’s Nest - the stadium from the 2008 Olympics!

He is having a great time and hopefully will get to see some more sights before his next stop in China.

Haley joined a Glee Camp this month which surprised us since Haley is very shy most of the time.  What a wonderful experience it was for her!  She went twice a week for 3 weeks and her performance was on Sunday.

They sang two songs - “Don’t Stop Believing” and “True Colors”.  She was the youngest of the five kids and held her own.  The vocal teacher gave each kid a line or two to sing themselves in each song too. 

 

Great job Haley!

(I don’t know how to post videos yet, hopefully someday!)

We finally saw the ice cream truck!  It topped off a really fun day with our friends, the Kinneys.  Dianne and I took the kids to a splash park which was perfect for our super hot day.  It was full of screaming kids having a wonderful time.  I wish I thought to take a photo of the place.  There were water cannons to shoot, buckets of water dropping on kids and all kinds of sprayers shooting out water.  And the best part, it was free!  There are several “splash parks” around the Seattle area and it is a really neat idea.  This was our first trip to one. 

I had picked up a local magazine called Seattle’s Child and it had a Top 10 list of all the fun things you should do this summer.  Well, the splash park was one of the ideas…so we checked that off the list!  Another idea was finding an ice cream truck!  We didn’t even have to go looking for that one – he found us! 

The Kinneys stayed for dinner (and Adam joined us as well), then it was outside to enjoy the weather…plus it was about 10 degrees cooler outside.  Then we heard it.  That magical sound that every kid (and adult) knows…the ice cream truck!  Although, I think Dianne and I were more excited than the kids!! 

What a perfect day!

Today I took Landon for a second opinion about his possible need for eye surgery.  I just have to say this is the “coolest” pediatric opthamologist office I have ever been in!!  This is their waiting area for kids…

After having his eyes dilated (again), she agreed with Landon’s pediatric opthamologist that he needs eye surgery.  Basically, he has poor ocular processing and his eyes need help aligning.   She also recommended patching for an hour or so each day before surgery.  She said the sooner we have these surgeries the better (i.e. not waiting a year to see if they improve on their own).  Kids develop so fast when they are young that he has the best chance of “normal” vision the earlier we get this fixed.  She didn’t think glasses would help correct the issue as well. 

As she put it, like many medical conditions, you don’t really know how a person will react after treatment…some people only take one fix or dose and it is corrected – others may need a few.  She was very optimistic that he may only need this corrective surgery and not need any further ones.  But like anything medical, you never know…

It looks like Landon will have another eye surgery.  We had hoped it was just us and that it wasn’t really turning in again but…unfortunately, we were right.  I had to give him eye drops to dilate his eyes before his appointment so his doctor could accurately diagnosis the prescription of his eyes.  The good news is his vision has NOT gotten worse, just the alignment has slipped.

I took this photo with my camera phone on Wednesday and it clearly shows his left eye turning in again. 

  

His pediatric opthamologist said we could try glasses to help align his eyes but he thought surgery would be the better option for him – considering his age.  I can’t imagine Landon keeping glasses on but he surprised me the past few days with wearing his sunglasses outside because his eyes were so sensitive.

So we scheduled the surgery for the end of September but we are planning on getting a second opinion as well.  Landon’s doctor even recommended we do so just for piece of mind. 

We knew his surgery might not be a permanent fix but we had hoped it wouldn’t be so soon.  So we will let you know how we progress…

We look a little orange and John looks like he has a funny little hat on…but we had a fun night!!  It is so nice to escape for a night out.  We went to an Italian restaurant near our house and it was wonderful!   Yum!  I know we will be going again soon (but only when we have eaten light all day).  Happy Anniversary honey!!

Today was going to be cold in the 60s and rainy in Seattle and the forecast for just east of us (over the Cascade mountains) was for sun and 80 degrees!  So I convinced John to take a road trip.  Since we had no idea what to do or where to go, we just kind of winged it.  We decided to drive as far as a town called Wenatchee.

 

We took the back roads for most of the way over (top line A to B) and boy, was it beautiful!  I wish we could have stopped and gotten more photos but most of the ones I took were from the car as we were chugging along. 

 

We saw some funny shops too!

At our highest point we got to 4800 feet!  The mountains are 8000+ up to 14,000 feet.

We followed a few different rivers as we winded through the mountains and there were a few people rafting and kayaking.

There were some huge rocks too!

John got out and took a few right by the Skokomish River

I think one of my favorite spots we drove through was Leavenworth (www.leavenworth.org).  The whole town is set to a Bavarian theme and when I say the “whole” town I mean the entire thing!  Just look at some of these photos!

 

Then we were over the mountains and all the green disappeared from the mountains!  And the fruit trees and wineries appeared!

 

We went to a state park in Wenatchee and it was SO windy!  This guy was flying his kite but I seriously thought he was going for a ride…

There was a beach too that was part of the Columbia River but the water was FREEZING!!  No sandy warm FL beach!

Back in the car towards Quincy, WA. 

This is Rock River Dam

We stopped at an overlook spot to see the Columbia River and it was so windy we had trouble breathing!  The girls didn’t like the sign “Watch For Rattlesnakes”!!!

    

We literally had to turn our heads and take a breath before this photo below!  John was getting pushed “up” the cliff towards us!!!

Where’s Haley??  The bridge in the distance was I-90 so you can see how high up we were.

On our way back, we saw these…

And we could understand perfectly why they picked this location for “wind” power!!

This was the view after we were heading through the Snoqualmie Pass…back to the rain and fog!

 

Thanks for looking!  We had a really fun day!

Today we went to Snoqualmie Falls about an hour away from us.  We took the longer way through the back roads and looked at the beautiful mountains and countryside.  We had lunch first at a park nearby (where we were thinking of moving to originally) and the kids played on the playground. 

Then off to the Falls!

The girls were being awfully quiet upstairs tonight so I decided to move bedtime along.  I heard Madelyn and Ella in the bathroom and I assumed they were getting ready for bed like I asked.  Wrong!

I opened the door to find this…

Every bathroom Dixie cup being put to use!  I couldn’t yell at her but simply laugh at her amazing accomplishment!!  Perfect rows and all…:)

And she was just as happy to take them down (ever so carefully) with Ella and stack them under the sink again.