A beautiful day in Seattle

It was a beautiful weekend in Seattle, which was much needed. We have had a lot of grey skies and plenty of rain droplets. I know, for those of you outside of Seattle you aren't surprised at all. However, in reality, it is shocking how grey and miserable our "summer" has been so far. So, when Stephanie and I realized that it was going to be a nice day, we decided to take Jace out for a walk. We agreed to go to Golden Gardens and get Jace's feet sandy for the first time....



On our walk we saw many friendly critters basking in the glorious sun.





(that's right, the elusive black dove!)

And then there was this guy who made plenty of friends quickly...



(Look in his hands, you can see the tail feathers of a hungry bird, eating seed)

Taking Jace down to the water was awesome, he just loved it!



And here he is getting his feet sandy for the first time!



Of course we had to clean them off. What better way than to take a splash in the ocean!



On the way back to the stroller, Jace asked to play with the beach wildlife.



After our excursion to the water, we decided to walk the other way a long the beach and to just people watch. Well, we ran into our friends Jason and Cindy Goldner!



Little did we know that Cindy's dad was such a pusher of food. They were bbqing and we could not leave until we ate (and even after we ate, her dad still tried to make us eat more, how do Cindy and Jason stay so skinny?)



(Jace wanted the bbq chicken, he tried real hard to grab it)

And we all know that Stephanie loves her meat products!



Cindy's dad loves kids and he was super excited to hold Jace and share with him the art of bbqin.



What a day! It was great to spend it with the family and run into friends and walk the beach and and and..... So many great things about the day. In the end, we were very pleased to accomplish one of our goals for the day.

We have siding!

We have siding on our house and a front door! The siders are almost complete and should be done tomorrow, Friday. Here are a couple of pictures to show you our progress.

Next week should bring insulation and drywall. More pics soon!

Congratulations Chelsea!

A big congratulations to Chelsea. She graduated high school and Jace and Jesse were able to join in her celebration. It was great to see her so happy and just as great to see the big bad Fletch so happy. It was a great time all around.




(This picture had something to do with Chelsea calling Fletch a grandpa or something to that nature. Quite funny, especially if you were there!)

For those of you eagerly awaiting pictures of the house..... wait no longer! We have updates!

The front stairs are being constructed. They just started working on them today and you can already see how the design is going to work!



Our house is big enough to warrant two electrical panels.... WOW! The electrical is almost done and we should be able to get the city inspector out next week to sign off on it. This means that they will be able to start adding insulation and then drywall very soon.



We added an overhang over our back patio area. This will be great for our rainy day bbq's! The roofers came out and put the roof on today.



And last but not least, here is an almost up to date picture of the west side of our house, with siding! As I type this blog update, I am looking over at the workers and they have completed the siding on the west side. Now it really is starting to look like a real house. We can't wait for it to be completed and to move in.

More Atlanta Pics!

We just received the pics from Jace's Grandma Jan's camera and there are some great ones that we had to share. So, here is an extension to the last post!

We had a great time in the Atlanta Aquarium, as you know, but our camera died, so we relied on Grandma's camera. Here are some of the definite Jace highlights!


(yes, that is a beluga whale that we are looking!)

Here are a couple of the monstrous sized fish that we saw swimming above us while in the "tunnel":



So you say that you love the pictures but you would really like a factoid to take home? Well, try this on for size!



Here is Jace with Grandma at the aquarium. Who is having more fun, try to figure it out!


(For those of you interested, look at the gentleman in the white hat with the Obama t-shirt... Yes, that is THE Bob Jackson, the one and only! We chatted with Bob and his wife often over this trip, it was like we were going to the same places as Bob.)

This is one of my favorite pictures. As some of you may know, Stephanie has a huge soft spot for otters, she just loves them. We went by the otters the first time and they were friskily playing, but out of the water. Stephanie was disappointed and kept trying to coerce them to get into the water, to no avail. We made a special trip at the end to go back to the otters, hoping to see them playing in the water, but they were really tired from their play earlier, so they were just laying there. However, as we were standing there, the otters heard something that they recognized and they all shot up and to the door which an aquarium staffer opened. The otters then marched through a different door in the background, most likely off to get food. They were gone and all we have are memories and this picture (which doesn't really show the otters, but you can see them if you strain your eyes).



This picture is from Centennial park. Stephanie and I enjoyed this piece of art and we got our picture taken in front of it. We later found out that there was shrapnel in this piece of art from the bomb before the 1996 Olympics.



And here is a great picture of my buddy Jody and Jace. I am wondering if Jace will grow up wanting dreadlocks...



How can we finish up this posting after all of the adorable Jace pictures??? Well, lets add another adorable kid to the mix. Here are a few of Rocco and Jace. Both were sporting their Moxie Galagos onesies (the team that their mom's played for) and both were enjoying each others attention!