Edwards Family

Snowmageddon!

2012-01-18T20:59:00.000-08:00

This week we've been hit with repeated storms... and all snow! It started on Sunday with a few inches (which you can see some of the early shoveling the boys were helping with), followed up with about 6 inches on Tuesday. Then the real wallop hit. Starting Wednesday early morning it started snowing blizzard conditions and we got an additional 14 inches! Unbelievable. And it's actually still snowing now (Wednesday evening). Some parts of Olympia near the forest got 3 feet of snow in this latest dump. We have about 20 inches at our house... and that is more than enough! Considering they don't plow our road it's hard to say when we're actually going to be able to join civilization again. Maybe tomorrow the snow will let up and we can try a little sledding.

Owen the stuntman

2012-01-15T22:11:00.000-08:00

A Sunny Day at the Park!

2012-01-08T15:21:00.001-08:00

Today was a real treat - sunny and warm(er) weather here in Washington! I seized the moment and took the kids to the park, which was very crowded as you might guess! Owen is quite the daredevil and does anything Colin does (and even some things Colin won't try!). By our house we were treated to amazing views of both Rainier and the Olympics today. I love seeing the mountains and also love seeing the sunshine!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T20:48:00.000-08:00

The boys had a fun weekend bringing in the NEW YEAR! We did a little "make your own burrito" night for dinner - which they had a lot of fun making their own dinner. Mind you, they didn't actually eat much of it, but it was fun! They drank bubbly apple juice and watched the ball drop in NYC before heading to bed. That's one benefit of living on the west coast - the kids actually get to see the ball dropping!

We took the boys on a little hike through the woods today and here's a few shots for you to enjoy.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-26T14:12:00.000-08:00

We had a fun Christmas with the boys... Colin tore through the presents faster than you could imagine and even Owen seemed to get what was happening after a few presents were opened. Owen was, however, far more focused on the candy and chocolate than the toys! After his nap on Christmas he woke up asking to open presents. Hard to explain to a 2 year old that you don't get to open presents every time you wake up! (although, wouldn't that be nice?)

The boys had fun with our Christmas traditions as well, which included leaving beer for Santa, opening the Christmas crackers (they loved the hats!), and lighting the Christmas pudding on fire. Colin says his favorite presents are his remote control helicopter, his light up "Open" sign and his remote control outlet setup. I think we have an electronic wizard on our hands! Owen enjoys his scooter from Santa and is already getting pretty fast on it. By Spring he'll be whizzing up and down the street!

Christmas Weekend

2011-12-26T14:06:00.000-08:00

Here are a few shots of the boys from Christmas weekend. Colin and I went down to the beach on Christmas Eve and although the tide was in (and no beach) the views were spectacular. Colin's preschool participated in a Christmas play where the preschoolers sang a song and recited a poem. Here you can see Colin on stage with his friends.

Getting Ready for Christmas!

2011-12-12T14:52:00.001-08:00

We've been busy getting ready for Christmas around our house. We put up lights outside (which Colin loves to watch for the timer to flip them on) and we put up our Christmas tree just this past weekend. We also had a great visit from Grandma and Grandpa... and these 3 pictures are the best of many that we took trying to get everyone looking at the camera and not making silly faces.

The boys have a lot of fun playing in boxes that come via UPS. I thought this one was just too cute. The boys were using it as a "bed" - and sometimes it's a boat, sometimes it's a pit to land in from the slide, etc.

We're all excited for Santa!

A few random shots

2011-12-04T17:39:00.000-08:00

I apologize for not updating the blog in such a long time... ever since the boys had their birthdays we've been dealing with a barrage of illnesses brought on by daycare. Owen had never had an antibiotic but has had 2 in the last month. Ear infections are as common as bedtime stories around here! It's made for an exhausting 6 weeks. We are gearing up for Christmas and promise to get some holiday shots up soon.

Here are some randoms of the boys taken recently. Owen has a lot of fun playing with his food - here you can see him spreading Nutella instead of eating it and also enjoying putting raspberries on his fingers. The shot of the boys eating together is what happens on a Sunday morning when cartoons are on the TV. They are fixated on the TV and pay little attention to the food...

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T20:43:00.001-07:00

It wouldn't be Halloween without a showing of the boys in costume heading out to trick or treat! They had a lot of fun tonight, and even Owen seemed to understand the idea of going to houses to get candy. They made it about an hour and a half, which isn't too bad considering it was pretty chilly outside! We have enough candy to last an entire year!

Owen is 2!

2011-10-26T16:00:00.001-07:00

Not to be outdone by his big brother, Owen celebrates his 2nd birthday today! It seems unreal to me that Colin is 5 and almost unbelievable to me that Owen is 2. Owen has turned into a little boy almost overnight, talking, running, jumping and trying to do everything that Colin does. Owen adores his big brother and is always trying to do be just like him.

We were lucky to have a fun and amazing visitor this weekend. Amy flew in to surprise Colin on his birthday and stayed until today to celebrate with Owen. She spoiled the boys with love and gifts and the boys miss her terribly. Owen even learned how to say her name, which is very cute.

Owen got an enormous teddy bear from his grandma and grandpa Green, you can see the pictures here where it just dwarfs the boys. Owen definitely understands the idea of "his" birthday gifts - he walks around saying "mine!" to the gifts he just received.

Here's to another fun year!

Fun at the Park!

2011-10-26T15:56:00.001-07:00

Olympia just remodeled a playground near our house. Here you can see the boys enjoying some sunshine and the fun new play areas!

Colin is 5!

2011-10-23T14:18:00.001-07:00

Colin is five years old! It's hard to believe he's 5 already. Here you can see him enjoying the fun - presents were opened in seconds, candles were extinguished quickly and cake was eaten with amazing speed. Fitting with the theme of Colin growing up way too fast.

Colin got a wonderful surprise for his birthday - our dear friend Amy from Ohio arrived on his birthday. I took Colin to Seattle and picked her up... except he had no idea she was coming or where we were going. He was stunned when he saw her come out of baggage claim! He is having so much fun with her and I know it was just the best present he's ever gotten to have her here!

School and Skeletons!

2011-10-16T13:48:00.001-07:00

The boys recently started school at a daycare/preschool. Here are some shots of them arriving for their first day!

They seem pretty well-adjusted after three weeks. Owen still says "No!" as soon as you turn onto the road the school is on. But since this is his first experience with a group daycare setting I am pleased he's done this well.

The boys also have a great matching set of skeleton PJ's. They glow in the dark! Special thanks to Grandma for the gift!

Camping Trip!

2011-09-25T21:06:00.000-07:00

This weekend we ventured camping with the boys for the first time. (You can see in one picture they are getting ready for the trip by testing out the chairs while snacking!) We got a very big tent and packed the car full of gear and headed to the coast. We camped at Fort Stevens, near Astoria, OR. (http://www.astoria-usa.com/fort-stevens-state-park.shtml). We met up with our friends, the Tuwalski's, who live in Portland. They have 2 small kids too and we knew the kids (and adults) would have a lot of fun. They brought their 2 dogs, which pleased Owen tremendously. Things went pretty well - except that none of the kids slept very well and I personally thought it was much colder at the coast than at home! You can see in the following posts some of the activities we did during our trip!

The mighty Pacific Ocean

2011-09-25T21:01:00.000-07:00

We finally got to visit the Pacific Ocean during our weekend trip! It was magnificent and we were all in awe of nature's beauty. The boys, of course, had a ball playing in the sand and the freezing cold water! Colin even got caught by a wave that came in much further than the others and it took him down on his knees. A good lesson about the power of the tides!

Astoria, Oregon

2011-09-25T20:55:00.000-07:00

During our camping trip we visited nearby Astoria, Oregon. In addition to checking out the town, we went to the top of the Column (http://www.oldoregon.com/visitor-info/entry/astoria-column) and stopped by a local beer festival. They had a great play area set up for kids with toys, bubbles and paints. The boys played there for hours!

A visit from Grandma!!

2011-09-13T21:39:00.001-07:00

This weekend we had the pleasure of having a visit from Grandma. The boys were as active as ever but had so much fun playing with her. They played drums and cymbals with their Gears containers, made a toast with their raspberries, rode their bikes under grandma's arms as a bridge (and watching Owen "duck" down was incredibly cute), and had lots of fun being ornery boys with her. Unfortunately I think Grandma went home with the cold the boys had last week... Sorry Grandma! We hope that doesn't deter her from coming back again very soon!

Planting a Tree

2011-09-13T21:38:00.001-07:00

The boys had great fun helping to plant a tree in our back yard. I think they had more fun giving the newly planted tree plenty of water...

One thing is for sure, this boys LOVE mud!!!

A special surprise

2011-09-03T09:29:00.001-07:00

Last weekend I ran my first 100 mile race. As I came up to the last 400 yards I saw that my boys had come out to see me finish. I was SOO excited to see them, I didn't expect them to drive up for the finish. I'm working on my blog which will have plenty more pictures from my race (ultrarunnerjen.blogspot.com) but in the meantime, here are a few shots of all of us at the finish area.

Owen Update

2011-09-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

Owen has officially transitioned to a big boy bed! After several crib incidents - getting his leg stuck in between the bars and finding him straddling the top bar with his leg stuck against the wall - it was time to get him out of the crib. He seems to like the extra space in his new bed and also the new-found freedom of being able to move around in his room during "sleep time." He will eventually calm down and sleep again, change is always difficult at first.

He also loves playing with pencils (not sharpened) and just started "hanging" by the fridge doors like he's doing a pull up.

Boys will be Boys

2011-08-21T21:24:00.000-07:00

It seems that every day brings some excitement to little boys. Everything from eating fresh baked chocolate chip cookies, sitting in their new "camp chairs," picking blackberries and riding in the stroller brings a new level of fun. Owen has really started playing with Colin, which has been fun (and a little bit leaving us not knowing what to do with the little tidbits of free time we get now!).

The most exciting thing of note is the crane that showed up at our neighbor's house to move a telephone box. The crane moved it from one side of the house to the other. It was quite a show! The boys were jumping up and down and screaming pretty much the whole time - and it was pretty cool, as you can see. Colin hasn't stopped playing with his toy crane ever since.

Owen has also really started playing with diggers. Alas, my hope that this was "just a phase" is now quashed. Both of them are going to be completely into them and there is no escaping it now. Here you can see Owen playing with the digger he took to bed first thing this morning. He likes to point out parts of the digger... the wheel, the smokestack, the digger... the fun never ends.

Diggers!

2011-08-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

It seems with little boys that diggers follow us everywhere. Or we seek them out... Our neighbor's misfortune of needing a new septic system has turned into a great source of entertainment for the boys. She needed to cut trees down, dig big holes, install new tanks, fill the dirt in... the fun is endless when you're a boy in love with the dirt! And all this is happening right next door to our house!

Colin has become quite builder when it comes to legos too... as you can see. We also continue to have amazing sunsets!

Crystal Mountain Hike

2011-08-03T21:13:00.000-07:00

This weekend I ran a race up near Crystal Mountain, right near Mount Rainier. Benjy decided to bring the boys up for a hike and to enjoy the scenery. They rode up the new gondola at Crystal Mountain, visited the restaurant at the top, and hiked around in the snow at the top of the peak. The peak is about 6,500 feet, and there was still quite a bit of snow on top! Amazing since it's the end of July! The boys had a great time and saw amazing views of Rainier and the surrounding mountains. The weather was perfect and a good time was had by all.

If you want to read about my race, I've started doing an ultrarunning blog about my adventures. You can check it out at ultrarunnerjen.blogspot.com.

Tour de France and Visit from Steve and Jane

2011-07-28T15:55:00.001-07:00

We've had a wonderful week! We all enjoyed watching the Tour de France this year (as always) and Owen is now able to wear the jersey that Colin wore years ago. We also had a wonderful visit from our dear friends, Steve and Jane. We did our best to try and impress them with what Washington has to offer, and also had some fun along the way! Benj took them on a hike up Mt. Ellinor in the southern Cascades. The weather was perfect and you can see some shots from their hike. The snow has been persistent around here with the non-summer we're having - so they weren't able to get to the top because of the snow. People making the summit had crampons and ice axes to make the trip! Even without the summit they still had amazing views.

They also were able to do some kayaking while they were here, right out our back yard. The sound was a bit choppy, but I think they enjoyed seeing things from a different perspective. Jane even said she saw a seal!

To compare, here is a picture of Colin wearing the yellow jersey in summer 2008:

Lakefair 2011

2011-07-18T21:22:00.001-07:00

Olympia has an annual festival called Lakefair. It's essentially a carnival with rides, carnival food and games that are set up down along the lake in town. The weather hasn't been great, but we took the kids down for some fun on Sunday. Benjy took the boys down on Saturday while I was running and they played in some bounce houses and did a bunch of free stuff that was set up as part of the parade that was going on. Sunday we tackled the rides. You can see Colin enjoying the dragon roller coaster and the flying planes. (of course he had to ride the ORANGE one!) And he really wanted to go on the ferris wheel, so we did that too. Owen is too little to go on anything so he and daddy waited on the ground while we went up high! Colin says he wasn't scared but he was gripping my leg pretty hard the whole time!

(Owen put on my oven mitts the other day and I thought he looked like a lobster - so cute!)

A Day at the Beach

2011-07-18T21:18:00.000-07:00

We've had about a week of dreary, cold, rainy weather. Today the sun FINALLY showed itself! We seized the opportunity and took the boys down to the beach to play in the mud. It was a lovely day and fun was had by all! The boys found crabs, worms and squashed plenty of empty shells. We even saw someone waterskiing!

Visit from Grandpa!

2011-07-14T21:32:00.001-07:00

This week we've had a wonderful visit from Grandpa Edwards. We all enjoyed having him visit and the boys had a lot of fun showing him all the fun stuff around here during the summer time. Here are some photos (all taken by Grandpa's camera) of the happenings during the visit. We visited the farmer's market, went to the beach, caught worms under rocks, gazed at Mt. Rainier from Olympia, hiked in the woods, went to soccer (where the thoughts going through Colin's head during this picture are up for debate) and visited a local farm where we fed the goats and played with the ducks going down a water slide. It was a great visit and we are looking forward to him coming again soon!

Trail Running Fun for Mommy

2011-07-09T21:23:00.001-07:00

Today I did an awesome trail run right at the base of Mt. Rainier. The views were INCREDIBLE! I had to share since it's just so beautiful and the run was so much fun!

I was previewing the White River 50 mile course, which I will be racing in 3 weeks. It's a lead up race for my 100 the end of August. This course is tough and extremely mountainous with rocky, debris covered trails. I even crossed a raging stream today and climbed over 10 foot high snow drifts at the top of the peak. I sure hope that snow is melted in 3 weeks!

Sunset and Pops!

2011-07-06T19:22:00.000-07:00

We continue to have great sunsets from our deck... couldn't help but share. Here are also some shots of them playing pops on the road. Owen really got into "stomping" on them!

Brother Shirts and the Park

2011-07-06T19:19:00.000-07:00

The boys had a great time, as always, playing at the park on this day. They just happened to be wearing their matching Big Bro, Lil Bro shirts so I thought I'd share the photos. The first picture of Colin up above is honestly the best picture I've seen of him in a long time! He is such a cutie!

Swimming Pool

2011-07-06T19:18:00.001-07:00

It's FINALLY been warm enough here to get out the little kiddie pool for the boys. Here are some shots of them having fun and enjoying the summer!

Space Needle, Monorail and Fountain

2011-06-24T21:03:00.001-07:00

Here are some more shots of us sightseeing in Seattle. The Space Needle was really neat, although it was cloudy and we couldn't see the mountains very well. Colin enjoyed playing games of I Spy and telling us what he could see down below. We had a great time riding the monorail to get to the Space Needle, Colin seemed to enjoy that almost as much as the fountains found all over Seattle. (and the monorail was free for him at age 4!) I guess fountains are free too... Seattle certainly has plenty of fountains and the boys loved it!

They are both very tired from the trip, even though they were only gone about 30 hours total. Owen was asleep in the car before we'd gone 3 miles from the hotel. :)

Seattle Aquarium!

2011-06-24T20:58:00.000-07:00

This week I had to attend a conference in Seattle for work. The boys came up for the last day and half and we got to see some sights around Seattle. Benjy took them to the Seattle aquarium the first day they were there and they all had a blast! They didn't get to feed the fish, which I'd heard about and so they felt disappointed they didn't get to do that. But as you can see, they still had plenty of fun!

Smoothies, Sunsets and Silly Hats

2011-06-20T19:18:00.000-07:00

Here are some fun recent shots of the boys. You can see them enjoying their nightly smoothie drinks in the kitchen, rolling on the balls, trying on the hats, and causing mayhem on the stairs. Although we aren't having warm temperatures, we are still treated to some gorgeous sunsets every now and then. I'd trade them for some warmth though!