kelly lynn creations

the boys on Spring Break

Over the years the kid and I have gone on several road trips - Montana, the beach, Seattle, etc. This time it was Dad's turn to road trip with the kid (while I stayed home and worked!). The plan was actually to have me get caught up and enjoy a few days on my own. Unfortunately Dad came home from a business trip and managed to pass his germs to me and I've been fighting a cold ever since. 

Here are some pics from the boys road trip:

Enjoying his favorite - chips and grilled cheese!

A view of the Astoria bridge from their hotel room - they know how to travel :)

Enjoying the coast, even if they had record rainfall the day they were there...

Checking out Fort Clatsop among others. Good thing they brought the right gear.

My favorite photo from the trip - truly relaxing with his Dad!

All he has been talking about since they got home. Watch out - it's a super soaker.

Glad to hear the boys had such a great time. I love that the kiddo gets one-on-one time with both of us. Apparently the scoped out all the great spots in Astoria and Long Beach for when we all go back this summer. Works for me!

 

13 years - what a ride!

Today is our wedding anniversary and we have never been happier.  

Over the course of the last week we managed to move for a second time in less then 4 months. It all happened so quickly, and truly unexpectedly. We signed a lease on our new place on Tuesday, spent the night on Wednesday and were officially out of our old place on Friday. 

So far our new place has passed all of our tests for what we have been looking for - we have spent countless hours listing our requirements for our next move.

Community - Most definately!

Ease of entertaining - Yep

Access to recreation - Yep

The funny thing is the house is almost exactly the same size as our house that we had for 10 years and recently sold. The layout makes all the difference. Since the house was built in the 40's it has a lot of character and tons of storage. The fact that we all have our own spaces is a big bonus for us. 

Our son had a 3 hour playdate with the neighbor today. When they got bored at one of the houses, they shuttled over to the other house. I just love that his new buddy is a 5th grader  who is willing to walk him to the bus and show him around the neighborhood. 

I am so looking forward to the next 13 years!

NYC: May 2011

For my son's recent trip to visit his doctor we decided to just have him go with his Dad. I had a previous commitment in town and it just seemed like a good idea to stay home and let them have some time together. As it turns out, I think it was one of their best trips to New York. 

One of the highlights for my son was going to the Statue of Liberty. It just so happened that his class is learning about landmarks and he has been studying about the Statue of Liberty. We have been so lucky with this. Earlier in the year he was studying dinosaurs and we had an opportunity to take him to the Natural History Museum's amazing dinosaur exhibit. (There are some benefits to having a doctor who lives across the country.)

He was super excited to see the Statue of Liberty. He had done a lot of research and he was really interested in seeing it in person. He also knew how much I wanted to see it!. Here he is telling me he is at the Statue of Liberty.

They had a an amazingly clear day for this outing, meanwhile it was grey and raining back home for me. 

Another highlight of the trip for my son, was playing chess in the park. He has been playing chess a lot lately. Now that we no longer have a TV at home, he will often play chess before breakfast, after school and before bedtime. Even if his Dad isn't available to play with him, he will play himself in a game. It is really fun to watch him.

I need to mention that my husband was the state chess champion when he was in 6th grade. We both are well aware that this honor may be earned by our son at a much earlier age. Just last weekend we rented the movie In Search of Bobby Fisher. Although the movie was a little slow for our son, he was very interested in the chess games that the kid played in New York. Well, where do you think they went on their recent trip. You guessed it:

To top off their trip they managed to get an upgrade to 1st class on the flight home. For someone just shy of their 7th birthday the kid is accumulating some pretty amazing experiences. 

denmark castle in HDR

Hubby applied a HDR technique to a photo from our trip last summer to Kronborg castle in Denmark. 

Pretty amazing! Lucky for us we get to benefit from his amazing eye for quality photos. For more information on HDR photos, check out hubby's new favorite photo blog. 

when we were 6

I saw a photo of a friend on Facebook when she was her son's age. I thought it would be fun to post some pics of our family at age 6. (It's a lot more interesting than blogging about our car getting broken into on our 12th wedding anniversary this past weekend!)

Hubby at 6: 

Me at 6 with our poodle mix, Spike:
This explains my recent fascination with Labradoodles and Goldendoodles! 

The kid: