Wednesday

Holding hands with his little friend Monchhichi.

My mom and sister Kayla came into town last week and we did everything in Seattle! It was awesome to have them here. We had so much fun. These pictures are just from last Wednesday.

First stop: Pike Place Market. Look how empty it is! We made it there before it really even opened and got to watch all the vendors set up. It was awesome! We had delicious breakfast items from 3Girls Bakery and Piroshky, Piroshky. Yummy!

Calvin says hi to Rachel again.

I love the look of those Rainbow Carrots.

I really wish I had a better camera to capture the beauty of all of the fresh flowers.

Cool alleyway on the way to the Westlake Center.

Calvin on the monorail. He has mastered the surprised look.

Petting a hissing cockroach at the Pacific Science Center.

Butterfly Farm at the Pacific Science Center.

One butterfly flew into Calvin and landed on him for a moment, but we couldn't get a picture quick enough. He loved looking at the butterflies, but I was so scared that he was going to crunch their wings if he got too close.

Orca fin sculptures at the Pacific Science Center. I loved this place. It was so fun.

Great view of the Space Needle.

Uh oh. I found Daiso #2 in the Westlake Center!This one was like twice the size as the one at Alderwood Mall. It was awesome.

We spent like an hour in here.

Yummy Piroshkys for lunch!

Kayla and her Champagne Grapes.

Calvin also loved the grapes!

My $5 bouquet of flowers. So beautiful.

Seattle is one cool city. More city craziness tomorrow!

Where has Ore-gone, boys? Where has Ore-gone?

Ok, the summer is flying by. We are doing so much that it's hard to keep up. Over the next couple days, I am going to be posting tons of pictures of our adventures, but probably keeping the stories to a minimum in the interest of time. People just want to see pictures anyway, right?

So a couple of weekends ago, we took a trip down to Oregon. I love the Oregon Coast. It is so beautiful. I was so excited to show Calvin and Tyler some of my favorite spots in the world.

First, we went to my cousin Susie's house near Portland. We had such a great time. Calvin learned how to say "dog," though it sounds more like "Gok" (maybe he's just saying "yes"- you've all seen The Foreigner, right?). He chased Susie's dog, Rocket around all night. It was very cute.

Susie's house is right on a little river. We went down to the dock to find some ducks.

Calvin was very angry with us that we didn't let him jump in. I don't think he knew it was water.

Calvin and Susie. She is such a great hostess. We wished we could have spent longer with her and the boys. We plan to go back as soon as we can!

Lunchtime at Tillamook.

The Tillamook Cheese Factory- another one of my most favorite places. I really do not know if there is anything better than Tillamook Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream in a freshly baked waffle cone.

Moving on to Cannon Beach. It was very crowded since it was a Saturday morning in July. Here we are taking a little break in Sandpiper Square.

The view from Ecola State Park. You can see Haystack Rock in the distance. Isn't the Oregon Coast beautiful?

Us at Ecola

Calvin ran around alot at the Park.

Clam Chowder in a bread bowl at Ecola Seafood in Cannon Beach. One summer, I got chowder from a bunch of different spots up here and Ecola Seafood won. So good. We had it for two meals.

Here we are at the top of the Astoria Column in Astoria. I like how you can see Calvin in my glasses.

Calvin and Tyler enjoying the view. Tyler wins because he carried Calvin up and down the 164 steps. All while Calvin was flailing around wanting to walk himself.

Inside the Column.

Calvim found the plane we threw from the top! Then he broke it.

Getting a little kooky alone in the backseat for hours.

In or Out Please

This is how Calvin would like to spend the entire day:

Lose an organ, Gain a car

Well, this week has been exciting! We started it out by buying a car! Eeks! Our Kia barely made it up here and we took it to a mechanic who said the required fixes were going to be well over $1000. We had already put over $2000 of work into it in the past 6 months in order for it to make the drive up to Washington, so we decided that it would make more financial sense to be putting that money into a car that is in good shape.

Finding a car was so stressful to me. We wanted to buy used, but everything we looked at was not priced very much less than a new vehicle or when it was priced much less, and you could tell that it's going to fall apart quickly. We didn't really know what we were gonna do, and thought about doing a round of leasing to postpone the real commitment. Then, on Monday night, we went to test drive this little beauty, a used 2009 Hyundai Elantra Touring. It was already on a special that was $4,000 off the asking price because it hadn't sold yet, and they were going to take it to auction soon. Tyler and I (though pretty passive hagglers) were able to talk them a little lower and got them to waive a bunch of fees. So, we really felt like we got a great deal (or were at least not suckered into a worse one). And I think Dan, who sold it to us, was pretty happy with the arrangement as well.

And it looks beautiful. Seriously, it looks brand new, has really low miles, but had a used price! Perfect. It also came with a bunch of upgrades as opposed to the base model- better wheels, seat warmers, etc. I was quite an adventure going to dealerships with Calvin in tow, but it all worked out. I am pretty excited about it.

Next, Calvin and I went to the KidsQuest Chldren's Musuem. It was a little too old for him, but we did find a few fun things to play with.

At the children's museum, Calvin's favorite things to do was to play with the blocks and go down the slide. You can see a couple videos at the bottom of this post that show him going down the slide. It's was cute.

After the children's museum, we went to Jamba Juice for a little treat. Don't you just love the baby-size cup that they gave him? Too darn cute.

So, new car. Now for the losing of the organ. Ever since Calvin was born, I'd have this bizarre abdominal pain on occasion. I went to the ER the first time it happened, but they just sent me home and said that I wasn't dying. It continued to happen about once a month and then the frequency and duration of each attack began to increase as we got to 2010. I tried to change my diet, but that the attacks would still come and keep my up the entire night. Anyway, I went to see a couple of doctors, got some ultrasounds done, and they said that my gallbladder was infected and would need to be taken out. I believe that I held off as long as I could to have the surgery.

So, finally I had surgery yesterday. It was weird, I checked in to the hospital, they took the gallbladder out, and then I went home. It was like a weird dream, only I have 4 incision marks on my belly that remind me that it really happened. The whole thing was reminding me of LOST (most everything does). Anyway, I am doing very well recovering. Tyler is able to watch Calvin all weekend so I can rest. So, I am resting in bed with my netbook. :) I can't pick Calvin up for a while, so this next week should be interesting. I am in a bit of pain, but I was telling Tyler that it's nothing compared to getting over having a baby. And really, the pain I am feeling now is much better than a gallbladder attack, too. So, it works out.

I am glad that I decided to do it now because the doctor did say that he did find some stones and were able to take all of those out as well. If I had waited much longer, I may have developed pancreatitis. No, thank you. So, no pictures for this section, but I am sure you can google it if you're wondering was a laparoscopic cholecystectomy looks like.

So this weekend, we took it easier than normal and just drove to Alki Beach to walk around for a little bit and have some ice cream. I may be a little overhasty in my recovery, but the doctor said to walk as much as I can tolerate to assist in healing and so I don't get blood clots in my legs. We walked slowly along the beach, and I crashed in bed when we got home.

There was a classic car show going on on the beach. There were some really neat old cars.

Cool flower house we saw- reminded me of Japan.

On the way home, we stopped by the Freemont Troll who lives under Aurora bridge. Look, he has a real VW bug in his hand!

Tyler reading Calvin books at bedtime.