happy anniversary to us!! -- part 1

happy anniversary to us!! -- part 2

happy one year anniversary to us!!!!!

a year ago today we boarded a plane in kansas, leaving everything we had ever known - the comforts of home- and landing in a place of unknown---the wonderful pacific northwest! a year ago today, we were excited to say the least, but i would be lying if i said we weren't scared out of our minds! shawn was starting a job he was completely unsure of - he was leaving the comforts of being a sheetmetal mechanic, something he was completely confident in and by the way, the best at! - to start something he knew nothing about! (of course, i knew he would be great at this too!!;) me, i had just left my job of 10 years - i was ready to leave but my biggest question, was i ready to be at home full time? i had never pictured myself as the stay-at-home soccer mom, but look at me now! i could never dream of a better job! gabe had just finished his kindergarten year and was in his first month as a first grader - he had a ton of friends, doing wonderfully in school, and had just started on a new soccer team -and now he would have to leave all of that behind to a frest start! and grady, well as long as there was food and toys, he was along for the adventure! needless to say, 3 of the 4 of us had a lot of uncertainty ahead of us! looking back a year later, i say with full confidence---we made the right decision! it hasn't been a year of smooth sailing, but it has definitely been a growing experience! one of the hardest parts of leaving was being away from all of our family, missing holidays and birthdays, but on that same note, the four of us have had the time to grow as our own family. we hate the idea of not being an hour from all of our family, but i would never give up this time i've had learning more about the 3 most important men in my life! this year has flown....we have had the opportunity to see and do so many awesome things - we love this touristy lifestyle, but all good things must come to an end - this can't and won't last forever! so when the time comes, rest assured we'll be ready to come home, but until then.....let the adventure continue!!! watch out year number 2...here we come!

our youngest soccer star!

grady had soccer practice again this afternoon! they also had pictures, and i think that was more work than the actual practice! just imagine 9 three year olds...all with their own ideas---well, we ended up with only 7 kids in the team picture, the other 2 just weren't in the mood! we only had about 25 minutes of practice tonight...pictures ran over into our practice time (wonder why?!). they practiced dribbling and shooting and ran around chasing their coach! all in all it was a very productive practice!!! grady also had a little insight for the coach i will share....we all need a good laugh! the coach asked, "who remembers how to dribble?" and grady piped up with "basketball?" gotta love him!!!!

kidfest '08

kidfest 2008!

saturday was a very busy day!!! after soccer, we changed clothes, grabbed lunch, and headed to church to set up for kidfest! shawn and i were in charge of the bike parade!!! fortunately our job was at the end of the festival, so we got to enjoy some of the activities with the kids! the whole idea of the kidfest was to get the surrounding community - people who do not attend silver creek- to come see what we are all about! one reason we love our church is that they are so focused on bringing kids to know and love jesus, so, many of our activities are based on kids!!! our kids had a great time! there were 2 huge inflatables - one slide and one obstacle course - a fishing pond, a dunk tank, face painting, balloon animals, and snacky foods all for free! at the end, came the grand finale---the bike parade. unfortunately, some people didn't understand you were supposed to bring your own bikes....so not only did we have to get all the kids in one spot--not running each other over, but we also had to keep people from accidentally "stealing" other people's bikes! we had all the bikes parked in the sanctuary before the parade, and i guess because everything else had been free, some thought they could come pick out a bike to ride in the parade!!! that was sort of interesting, but the kids had great time showing off their riding skills and even winning some prizes!! we had a great day, and i even saw a couple of new faces in church this morning!! i guess we can call this activity "mission successful"!

fireballs vs. the irish!

saturday morning we headed to another exciting soccer game!! currently we are spending 4 of 7 days doing some sort of soccer activity--so safe to say we are getting very educated in the area of soccer! gabe again played goalie, only letting one elusive ball get past him!! the team played pretty well, but playing in the rain must have been the secret last week!!! this week we had abundant sunshine, which was making our team squint---our team must like the clouds!!! unfortunately the irish pulled out the win--5-3! we'll have to pray for clouds and rain for next week!!! ugh!!

a day above the clouds!!

above the clouds!!

on friday we were lucky to have shawn and gabe both off, so we decided to venture over to the olympic penisula! we started off the day with a ferry ride from edmonds to kingston. once we were off the ferry it should have only been about an hour and 15 minutes to the olympic national park, but as many of you know we can rarely stay on route! so we ventured to the little bay village of dungeness, washington! it was just a little 25 minute jaunt off hwy. 101 through the quaint little town of sequim. as the name may elude to there is a lot of opportunity in dungeness to partake in some dungeness crab! after cruising around seeing what there was to see...mainly just a lot of water-we decided our tummies were hungry, so we headed to a restaurant off the beaten path---3 crabs! it was a dandy little find right on the bay---and we had the best lunch! i had a fresh crab burger and shawn had a salad with 2 layers of crab hidden within! grady of course had the fish and chips (he always has this--no matter where we are!) and gabe had the chicken!! with our bellies full, we decided to get back on track and head to our original destination!! on the drive up to the mountains, we were feeling a little disheartened---it was very cloudy, so we were prepared to see nothing but clouds when we got to our hiking spot! strange thing happened though, we actually drove above the cloud line! (actual word?-is now!) above the clouds was the most amazing view---snow capped mountains and tons of wildlife! we decided to hike at hurricane ridge/hill. this was supposed to be an easy hike for kids to the top of a "hill" with a great view! okay so off we go! the hike started out super-kid friendly, but the further from the army we ventured, the steeper the "hill" got! i don't know about you, but anytime i climb 1000 ft. in elevation in a mile--i may tend to call that something other than a "hill"! but all whining aside, we hiked all the way to the top and of course it was worth it! once at the top, we had an energizing little snack of raisins and water and of course picture time! after we were feeling rejuvenated we decided we should start the 1.6 miles back down!!! going down is always such a pleasure!! we even skipped a little on the way down...no doubt suffering from a lack of oxygen to the brain while at the top!! ha! after arriving back at the armada, we decided we should head back home...and maybe stop off for some dinner! we found another neat little find for dinner! it was an old fashioned diner on highway 101 -- complete with malts and sundaes! score! shawn and i totally broke from our diets and had the best, greasiest burgers and onion rings you could ask for!!! yum-o!! the boys had waffles and oreo malts - now that's what i call a well-balanced meal! with our tummies full once again we headed towards home!!! i want to end the post by sharing what gabe said about our day.... as we were climbing back down the "hill" enjoying the amazing view--talking of how lucky we are to be spending this time together he said, "you know, this is going to be a day we never forget!" i second that gabe!

new and improved!!

well, as you have already noticed, i am doing some housecleaning on the ol' blog. please bear with me...i am definitely not an expert, but figuring things out as i go! i have figured out how to get a bigger slideshow and in the next couple of days or weeks (you should see our calendar!) i will be taking all of the side bar pictures (pics on the right side) off and hopefully onto a couple of separate slideshows...only with a few of my favs from the last 11 months...holy smokes has it been that long?! please keep checking back, we'll keep the ever interesting posts, awesome pics, and groovy tunes coming!!!! that is if i don't mess things up too bad!!! ha!

grady's first soccer practice!

grady a.k.a. big bad soccer boy!

tonight was grady's first soccer practice and to say the very least...he was excited! his coach called this morning letting us know that they would be having their first soccer practice this evening, and that is all grady could think about the rest of the day! he had an absolute blast practicing tonight! there are 10 kids on his team....9 boys and 1 girl! tonight they ran, skipped, and high stepped for warm up and practiced their dribbling along with some shooting! we were pretty impressed how well the 3 year olds all kept relatively focused! they will have six 45 minute practice sessions and then end their season on november 1 with an actual game!! as if the practices weren't hilarious enough--their going to throw in a game! grady being our vocal one, had all the answers for the coach! if she asked a question he knew the answer---or at least mr. grady's version of the answer!! he was able to enlighten yet another lost soul to his way of thinking!!! like i've said before, watch out world, here comes grady!!!!

fireballs vs. the jets

the fireballs may not have had the best weather to play in this morning (rainy and cold), but they had an awesome game! they had their first win of the season with a win of 9-4!!! not only did the fireballs have a great game, but gabe was on fire!!! he scored twice and had 4 stops when he played as goalie! the coach has been working really hard this week at practice to get the boys to follow their teammates down the field to score, dribbling and passing.....all the hard work really paid off this week. this was the first game we could tell the boys were implementing things they were practicing into game play! we can't wait until next week----go fireballs!!!!

our weekend--in a nutshell!!

i can explain our weekend in a single word----unpredictable! the unpredictable weekend actually started on thursday when shawn came home telling me he would have to travel to wichita this week!! now that is really nothing unusual, but i usually have a couple of weeks notice, not 3 days!! but work is work - that's why we're here--so i got over that obstacle pretty quick! on friday, shawn was home with grady and i, due to the shortened work week (boeing strike)!!! it was a gorgeous day, so we decided to head to the park for a picnic and playtime--we had a great time. it was nice for grady to have us all to himself--i don't think that has happened since he was teeny tiny! after the park, it was time to pick up big brother at school--after gabe got home, shawn and him decided to play football--in the house! well, long story short, gabe reached down to pick up a ball he missed and poked his eye with one of the plants by our fireplace--ouch! we put a cold compress on it right away, he wasn't crying, but he said he could not open his eye. shawn finally got his eye pried open and saw a scratch on his eye. so, we decided since he couldn't open it on his own and he had seen a scratch, we should head to the doctor. shawn was in the middle of cooking a whole chicken on the grill - so he stayed behind with the chicken, because as we all know, i am quite the grillmaster! so gabe and i hopped in the armada to head off---okay here comes blow number 3-- it wouldn't start! it had worked just fine earlier in the day--who knows, no time to figure it out, so we hop in the car and away we go! we get to the immediate care and they look at the eye and tell me they don't think it looks too bad, so they should be able to take care of it down there instead of sending us up to the optometrist. they ask us 5 million questions, and have poor gabe do about 50 eye tests--with the eye he can't open! well, good news he can still see! so they take us back to the room and put these drops in his eye that make his eye glow in the dark--so they will be able to see the scratch. with further investigation under the black light, the doctor determined it was a lot worse than he had first thought - so we then get whisked up stairs to the optometrist. they get us right in, which always kind of freaks me out--there are other people waiting and they somehow miraculously get us in?! must be bad! so the doctor comes in and says, "we have to get this stopped!" good grief-- keep your comments to yourself! he spouts off some orders to his assistant about 5 drops, for five minutes of something and some other drop and some test!! no time for questions he's back out the door! dr. comment comes back in explaining that the scratch looks like the shape of a mountain across gabe's eye extending pretty far into the white, so to stop the scratch from worsening he put some numbing drops in, some drops to dilate the eye - to keep it from swelling- and place a contact on the eye to form a sort of bandaid! we were then to stop by walgreens and get an antibiotic and tylenol for pain and then be back in the morning for a recheck--yes, saturday morning! although he said the scratch was pretty bad, the eye heals extremely fast and should be back to perfect by morning! so with that we head to walgreens and home for dinner. we take it pretty easy that evening until the kids get in bed and then it is time to figure out the armada!! since shawn and i are both so extremely mechanically inclined when it comes to our vehicles, i head to google and he grabs the owner's manual! shawn decides to try to jump start the army....no go! so it must not be the battery right?! wrong! as it turns out--after much investigating by madam google--the army has a huge battery (and strange one as we will soon find out) so the car couldn't get it started. so we decide on saturday we will go get the battery tested and go from there! well saturday arrives, gabe is to have a soccer game, but with his eye, mean mom and dad think that maybe playing wouldn't be a good idea--he finally talks me into asking the doctor! we get to the appt. - his eye is perfect!! thank goodness! so i ask the doctor, "gabe has a soccer game this morning, he probably shouldn't play, should he?" dr. comment sees absolutely no reason why not--his eye is back to normal! huh?? well, that is all gabe needed so we ran out the door--we had 35 minutes to get home, change and get to the game. no problem-we are only 20 minutes from home and 10 minutes from the soccer field--you do the math! well, somehow we make it !! gabe plays a great game, and no more eye injuries! the score is a little better this week 3-6, we're still on the short end of the win, but good news, gabe stopped a couple of goals while playing goalie! go fireballs!! after the game we decided to attack the battery issue! come to find out, the battery was dead--totally dead, and the battery is some sort of backwards battery, no doubt so nissan can make a bundle! we try a couple of places--no go, so we call the nissan dealership, they have one!!! we tell them to hold it--we will be right there! well, not only is the battery weird, it also costs about twice as much as a regular one---perfect! so we go home with our golden battery, hook it up, cross our fingers--and thankfully the army starts right up!!!! things are looking up right----wrong again!! my sister, who rents our house called on saturday afternoon and told us that there was a little water in the basement!! it had been raining like crazy there for about a week, in fact, she was flooded in on friday, so of course this should happen. we tell her to use the shop vac and keep the dehumidfier going! thankfully is was a very small amount of water - only about a 2 square foot spot- we are so very fortunate to have her as a renter, who knows what would have happened to the house if she weren't there!!! we ended our crazy weekend on a good note though---we finally got all of our yard work done--we are no longer the ghetto neighbors! and we got to enjoy a barbeque with some friends from church on sunday!! i mainly bored you all with this blog post only because i usually only post the great happenings of the fox family--rest assured we are normal, we have bad days too!

oh, the places you'll go!

today, our little man had his first day of preschool! mr. grady was so very excited this morning, he could barely contain himself! it was everything gabe and i could do to get his picture on the front porch this morning! when grady and i arrived at the preschool, he ran right in -- no tears for my little man!!! and no tears for mom either!! now, i wouldn't say i was exactly doing cartwheels, but i kept my eyes dry! i was so proud of him walking right in while there were other little ones not faring quite so well! how could i cry, if he wasn't??!! when i went to pick him up at the end of class, he could hardly wait to tell me everything he had done! they learned how to line up without wiggling (i'm sure this took a while to master!), they made place mats for snack time, played outside, and learned about the circle shape! he had a very busy 2 hours! so to our little man we say go get 'em kid, there are mountains to move out there and for the rest of the world, watch out....here comes grady!!

the fireballs vs. the navy seals

gabe's soccer team, the fireballs (the team picked their own name!), had their first game yesterday afternoon! it was a wonderful afternoon for a soccer game, or just about anything else you may have wanted to do outside! gabe played an awesome game. they play 3 on 3 with a goalie for each team, so each player really gets to have a chance at getting time with the ball! it is a lot better than watching a swarm of little men going after one innocent little ball! gabe played defender (stays back helping the goalie defend the goal) and attacker (just as the name sounds - they attack the ball!). he had a really great time playing both positions!! he was pretty tricky getting the ball away from the other team a couple of times. unfortunately though, the fireballs came up a little short on the scoring in the end!! they do not keep score, but it was pretty clear the direction the victory would have gone! but as we all know - winning isn't everything -having fun and great snacks after the game is!

it's a salmon watching, troll spying, outside kinda day!

on saturday, we made the most of the absolutely gorgeous weather we had been given!!! we started our day off at the ballard locks. right now the chinook are in the height of their run. at the locks they have a salmon ladder where you can watch the salmon moving upstream through the glass enclosure. the salmon were very impressive in size....a nice little morsel they would make! we also spotted a seal in the locks, he was putting on quite a show for whoever was watching!! and no doubt....he was filling up on some salmon! after the locks, we decided we would attempt to find the ever elusive fremont troll! now i say elusive only because he has been elusive to our family--everyone else i have ever asked about the troll are completely perplexed on how we could have missed it!! their claim is that this huge troll is in plain sight--okay so round 3 for the fox family.....i was determined we would find him this time! after some frustration on the part of the driver (me) and the navigator (shawn)- we were not on the same page for a better part of the seek and find troll mission- the troll was spotted! and while there was satisfaction in finally finding the troll, it was less than impressive! i think i had hyped myself up too much....yes the troll is huge and he is holding a real vw bug, but it is a concrete troll...hiding under a bridge...it was not worth the agony and frustration i had put my family through to find it! after troll mission complete, we decided to head down to ballard for a late lunch. we had the pleasure of dining outside on the main street in ballard. a little insight to ballard....it is a mixing pot of all sorts, the eccentric, the rich, the old & odd, the pet lovers, the i'm in my late 20's don't know what i'm doing in life but i'm a trail blazer sorts, you name it you'll see it in ballard! we had a yummy italian lunch and thoroughly enjoyed our people watching! we had some time left on the parking meter so we window browsed along mainstreet and finished up with a stop to tully's coffee! after a coffee energizer, we ventured down to issaquah. while i was in issaquah with gma a couple of weeks ago, i saw a salmon hatchery. i came home and told shawn about it and later that evening while he was rubbing elbows with jeff turner, jeff also mentioned the issaquah hatchery, and said it was a must see! this hatchery was much larger than the one we went to with shannon and erin a couple of weeks ago. there were not as many salmon on the ladders in issaquah as there were in ballard, but the size of the salmon were just as impressive! at this hatchery they had baby salmon who were trying to jump upstream...the cruel fact was that they had no where to go, they were jumping up into little tubes and then being flushed back out!! it was really humorous to watch these poor little fish trying so hard....and getting nowhere!! we had a great saturday--just taking in some great sights!

and we are off to 2nd grade!

today was gabe's first day of second grade!! he was very excited to be heading back to school--ah! what a joy it is to have a child who is not kicking and screaming their way back to school! last night they had open house at his school, where we had the chance to meet his teacher! his teacher this year is mr. davis--this is his second male teacher. his 3 year old preschool teacher was also male, and gabe did very well with a male teacher. so i was elated when we found out he had mr. davis this year, he happens to be the teacher everyone wants their child to have -- lucky us! it was so nice to wake up this morning and know we were back to "our good ole schedule"!

back in business!

the fox tour company was back at it again this weekend! shawn's brother shannon and his family came for a visit! they flew in about 30 minutes after shawn was returning from his work trip to kansas, so they all loaded up in the army and headed toward edmonds! that evening we kept it tame--we had dinner at home and then headed to gabe's soccer practice. after practice we drove down to mukilteo beach for some beachcombing! we had a wonderful evening looking for shells, rocks, and taking tons of pictures! (i think i may have met my match in the picture taking arena--way to go erin!) after we made it back home, we feasted on the fabulous whopper cake!! it was delish! the next morning we took a ride on the ferry to whidbey island. we decided we would just walk onto the ferry and play on the beach on the other side! our family had never just walked on the ferry, so this was a fun experience for all of us! after the ferry we headed for the mountains! we stopped off at a park in sultan for a picnic lunch, and a walk along the river! we were then headed for the mountains - but were then taken off track by a salmon hatchery! while that may not sound like something that would normally take me off my mission---this was pretty cool. it was only about a 15 minute detour, but well worth it! right now we are entering the season when the salmon are returning to their birthing places....the hatchery was packed with huge salmon, splishing and splashing all over the place! after that we continued up to stevens pass - where gabe, shawn and i all went skiing last winter! just like snoqualmie pass - it looked completely different without all of the snow. the ski resorts actually look really run down and sort of like a ghost town out of snow season - i guess hundreds of crazy skiiers and snowboarders make all the difference! we then traded vehicles - we took two vehicles everywhere we went, the kids were all in the army, so to keep everyone sane we switched on the way back home! we stopped off at our favorite coffee shop on the way back. i had warned erin that the barista was VERY strange, but guaranteed the best cup of coffee! she didn't disappoint - she is odd, but if she can make a great cup of joe - i guess i can overlook the strangeness! erin and i enjoyed a very quiet ride home -- it took a us a little longer to get home then the boys, we weren't sure if we were enjoying the ride so much that we were driving extra slow, or that the kids were so crazy that the guys just drove unusually fast! that evening we had dinner at anthony's woodfire grill at the everett marina! we finished off our evening with the kids playing until they (and the parents) collapsed! we started off the next morning with a plan! but as everyone knows, plans are made to be broken! our plan was to catch the sounder (commuter train) from everett station to downtown seattle! my nephew gid is totally into trains -even more than my boys--yes it is possible - but unfortunately - we missed the last train! bummer - we had checked the schedule on the internet, but the site was a little less than user friendly, so somehow i had messed up the train schedule, although when shawn looked at it, it appeared the same to him! so onto plan b--the monorail! you can catch the monorail at the space needle and ride it about a mile to westlake mall--okay so it was a short ride, but fortunately it sufficed the kids! so we took some pictures at the space needle, loaded the monorail and headed down to the market! the market was crazy as usual, but we had a great lunch with a view of the sound! after lunch we walked through the market purchasing some yummy fruit! shawn and i bought some blueberry grapes and baby bananas! the blueberry grapes looked just like blueberries, but tasted like grapes and the baby bananas were just like bananas except about half the size!! too cute! shan and erin bought some delish blueberries--we all snacked on our purchases while sitting in the open area by the market - watching some scientologists be harassed by masked people, homeless people with instruments, and watching and hoping our kids could dart around all the dog poo they were running through! after that excitement we headed back to westlake mall and grabbed some cookies and then boarded the monorail! we headed back home to rest up for a while - the parents rested up & the kids continued to run like crazy monkeys! we went down to mukilteo to the tin fish for dinner with our friend nate - and enjoyed a relaxing evening! on sunday morning, we had a quick breakfast and shan, erin, gid and mia headed back to kansas!!! it was a quick trip, but we really enjoyed having them here!!! i hope we didn't wear them out too bad!!