Sleeping With Siri

In mid July, Marty and his business partner, Michael Stusser, threw a fabulous party at the Seattle Center to showcase their documentary film "Sleeping With Siri" for their friends and family in the Seattle area. Of course, it received rave reviews. Below some friends (Jodi, Mechell and Nicole) with the signature "Siri-tini" 

 And better blurry than not at all.  Good friends, Jen and Markus.

Summer Camp (s)

This summer both kids had fun at summer camps.  Josie did 3 weeks at 3 different camps.  She started off the camp season with an acting camp at Seattle Children's Theater in Seattle Center.  Other than it being highly inconvenient to get there and back it was a fun and successful camp.  Thankfully, her friend Hank also attended and we were able to carpool but even still it was a bit of a pain.  Here she is on the final "presentation" day. 

 Getting her award....

The side benefit was that when I dropped Josie and Hank off in the morning it gave Benjamin and I a good excuse to hang out at Seattle Center and The Pacific Science Center

And on the other days we hung out at parks and playgrounds and went swimming.  One day I met up with my friend, Marjie.  She had a pair of cowboy boots and Benjamin decided to strip and put them on... who knows why but he looked pretty funny. 

The following week Josie had a blast at a local Gymnastic Academy.  She attended with her good, long-time friend, Bryn and a good, new friend, Lilly.  

Below are Josie and Lilly walking into camp. Note her gymnastics suit.  This was a hand me down from a friend of mine and she insisted on wearing it almost daily. 

 Smiling girls walking to camp.

 During this week Benjamin did his first ever summer camp.  We worked out a carpool so he rode to and from with friends.  There were a couple of rough drop offs but despite himself I think he had a pretty good time. Here are the cute boys on the ride home:  Henry, Charlie and Benjamin

 And as a treat for being such a big boy for the 3 days of camp he got a "huge" (not mini) cupcake

Here are a few videos from Josie's final day at gymnastics camp.

Of course, as it would turn out, her favorite camp ended up being her final camp which was a PE camp at her elementary school. I have no photos of it, it was the least expensive, most convenient and she had the most friends attending.  Lessons learned:  Sign Benjamin up for more than one week and make sure ALL of Josie's camps are in West Seattle.  But overall it was a very successful summer camps experience.

Little Music Man

Benjamin LOVES music.  iPod listening is his new activity...eyes closed enjoying the music, iPod in waistband, bebopping all over the house.  What a little crack up. 

Raspberries

In early July we headed toward our favorite u-pick raspberry farm and loaded our buckets with fresh, ripe, delicious raspberries.  13 pounds picked and paid for another probably 5 pounds eaten while we were picking :) 

Josie takes it all very seriously

 And Benjamin just runs through the rows and eats.

 Trying to get them both to pose for a photo is nearly impossible.

 Doing what he does best....

 Maybe he ate a few too many ;-)

 When we got home we filled up the pack of water balloons that Semi had given them.

 And the fight was on..

 Look at those long legs!!  She definitely didn't get that from me.

I ended up making several raspberry/apple crisps to freeze but the rest of the berries we just ate fresh.. and we went back a couple weeks later and pick another 15 pounds.  Obviously, we all love raspberries!!

 I had the best little sous chef.  He is an awesome kitchen helper.

Belated Birthday Ride

Last year for Marty's 50th, Liz and Ed gave Marty a gift certificate to rent one of those fun bikes down at Alki.  Every time we were down there we either had forgotten the certificate at home or there were just too many people on bikes and beach to enjoy a ride.  Nearly a year after his birthday we finally made the trek down to Alki with that one purpose in mind.  And it was worth the wait.  Everyone had a great time!!    Marty and the kids at the entrance to Schmitz Park, our little piece of wilderness right in our own backyard and our favorite route down to Alki. 

Instead of the bigger 4 person bikes, Josie picked out this low rider.  

 We had it for two hours and barely made it back in time to turn it back in.  True to Marty's character, we took it off road and in places, down and all around and up Jack Block Park and other places that I'm sure were off limits... but we had fun!! Other than Marty, we all switched up our seats and positions several times. Although I felt like a slacker the little back seat was kick!

Thanks again, Hare Family :)

Fireworks for the Fourth

For the 4th of July we stopped by the Muckleshoot Casino for the first ever Riemer firework purchase and then headed down to Oma and Opa's to set them off and celebrate the day.  When Marty talked to the lady selling the fireworks he told her he wanted "pretty rather than loud"  We got several flowers, sparklers, roman candles and some rockets.  Most were pretty but a few of the rockets were very loud.  The kids, especially Benjamin, LOVED them all.

Benjamin taking a potty break right next to the loaded and ready rocket... when nature calls.

Yay... ready for the rocket.

Fun with sparklers

Marty got a great set of hair trimmer/clippers from Oma and Opa for his birthday.  After I gave him a haircut he decided to try his hand with Benjamin's hair.

 All was going well until... Marty dumped a cup of water over Benjamin's head.

As you can see, he did not like that one bit. 

But recovered quickly for the rest of the haircut.

And Benjamin ended up with a pretty good looking new do.

Happy Birthday, Marty!

On July 3rd, we celebrated Marty's birthday.  Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the birthday boy for the blog but I do have other photos of the day and celebration.  This year he decided he wanted to take our favorite walk through Schmitz Park and down to Alki and to have dinner at Pegasus.  He has also been trying to lose a few pounds (and has been quite successful - 16 pounds in 2 months) so being as supportive and creative as possible, Josie and I made him this cake out of a real watermelon and used Greek yogurt with a touch of strawberry jam for the frosting and a bunch of fresh fruit to decorate the top.  We had fun decorating the cake together and throwing the nuts at the sides.

Here is the cake before and after cutting.  It was actually really good and a great way to celebrate with a sweet but very healthy type treat.  I will make this again for sure.

It was the perfect amount of friends, family, fun and food.  Tim and Kelley were here (en route to Hood Canal to celebrate their 5th wedding anniversary) so they joined us for cake and the walk down to Pegasus and then spent the night here.  They are such fun, low maintenance, easy going house guests.  It is always fun to have them here.  To the left are Kelley, Benjamin, Marty and Josie at the entrance to Schmitz Park on the way down to Alki. 

Marty's former on-air partner and really good family friend, Jodi and her son, Josh met us at Alki and for dinner.  Josh is 9 months younger than Benjamin but about the same height and 15 pounds more.  He is a big dude and he has a big crush on Josie.  She handles it very well and loves to play the "big sister" role for Josh.  Someday, this will be a disappointment to Josh as I think he is expecting a bit more but for now being that they are only 6 and almost 2 it works.  Here are a few photos of the kids down at Alki.  

Our other good friends, Jen and Elizabeth also met us for dinner but left their tribe of 5 kids behind.  Believe me, between Benjamin, Josie and Josh it was enough.
Happiest of birthdays to Marty, the perfect father and husband for us three.  We love you.  Here's to many more.