Veteran's Day

Rob decided to take most of Tuesday to spend some time with Jasper and I since he'd been gone the past week. We decided to go check out the Museum of Flight. It was really the perfect place to spend Veteran's Day because they have a whole exhibit devoted to WWI and WWII. We left feeling very patriotic and having learned some new facts about our country and world. Jasper loved the airplanes, especially the ones he could climb inside. By the end of the trip, he had perfected his own, little airplane noise.

Fun with Jasper

Rob has been out of town since Tuesday and will be gone till next week. I've been trying to stay busy so that I'll miss him less. It works pretty well during the day because Jasper is the best little buddy a mother could ask for, but getting into bed alone sucks. Anyway, here are some pictures of our week thus far:

Election night:




We went to the Seattle Aquarium with Jasper's friends Max and Colm








Loyal Heights Community Center open play was AWESOME today:

Too excited to sleep

Congratulations President Obama! It feels really good to say the words "president" and "Obama" joined together like that. What an amazing night! I feel too excited for sleep. Just got home from an election party at our friends the Durhams. It was a fabulous gathering. Good company, good food, good conversation, and best of all- good results! Anyway, I better try and hit the sack.

Happy birthday sis!

So, it was my big sister's birthday yesterday.

I just wanted to write a post about how much I love and admire her. She and I are two years apart and practically all my childhood memories are of she and I playing together. We grew up on a street called Chipmunk and spent our life riding our bikes around the caldasac, setting up trading posts with the other kids in the neighborhood, dressing up like fairies and running through the woods behind our house, playing with our barbies in the creek, and setting up and sliding down the slip 'n slide everyday of the summer.

One of our favorite things to do was to re-arrange our room. We would work our little bums off pushing our furniture around the room just to see how we liked it in a different configuration. We both LOVED the feeling of waking up in our "new" room.

At Christmas time, we always wanted to have our own tree in our room. One year we decided to go out in the yard and cut one down. We cut down the perfectly sized tree for us, a baby fir tree about 4 feet tall. What we didn't know was that my dad had actually planted that tree on our hillside a few years earlier to help stabilize the soil from erosion. Ooops! We got in a bit of trouble- but I have to say it really was a beautiful all lit up with multi-colored Christmas lights.

With adulthood, I have gained such a respect and love for my sister Anna which runs much deeper than barbies and dress up. My sister has been such a wonderful example to me of service and strength. Just thinking about what she has been through brings tears to my eyes. Both of her sons have been born with cleft lip and palates. She has taken this hardship and used it to bless the lives of so many others.

Here is a post from her blog about her experience volunteering at Operation Smile while living in China. Anna also started a blog devoted to helping people understand cleft deformities better. I think my sister is amazing. I could write 100 more reasons, but I hear Jasper waking up and calling out "mommy!" I love you Anna banana. Happy birthday.