Victoria with the Pearsons

So for Christmas last year, all of the Pearson families pitched in to get Bryan's parents a cruise to the Mexican Riviera. Hooray! Aren't we the best kids ever?? Turns out that is too crazy for them, but they still cruised - up the Pacific Coast, landing them in Vancouver, B.C.

Guess what Canadian city is a short ferry ride away from Lakewood?? You guessed it - Vancouver!!

We decided to head up to Canada with Dave and Lindsay and meet Robyn and Karen in Victoria (just a ferry ride over from Vancouver). Victoria has way more to do than Vancouver, and is a quaint little town with lots of charm and (here's the good part) Buschart Gardens!

If you've never been to Buschart Gardens you have to put it on your bucket list. It was gorgeous...it is, to me, what I think heaven looks like. Lots of beauty and peace. I wanted to build a huge wonderful house right there and be around it everyday! But I'm pretty sure they don't let people build there...too bad.

After visiting the gardens (pictures will be posted below) we went to our hotel and walked around the city. We picked an awesome restaurant called Sauce for Bryan's birthday dinner and went back to the hotel to play card games. I love how awesome Victoria is - it's cozy and fun, and I feel like I'm somewhere in Europe for just a little bit.

The next day we went to Friday Harbor to relax more, kayak, and hang out. We played card games, slept in, and ate good food! My kind of weekend!!

It was so great having Karen and Robyn here. They got to be here for the family birthday party for Bryan and Bryce, and even though their vacation was a little longer than they wanted due to the Triumph they were driving back having issues, we all loved having them here!

Enough of my talking - let the pictures show you how awesome it was!

Was I right? Garden of Eden!!

I want these in my yard!

I took a picture of this because I love the color combo. Someday I will have a planter with these in it!

How cool is this tree?

We were there in the spring - lots of tulips! Roses come later. And I guess at Christmas they have lights! How cool!!

This is a TALL Totem Pole!! I love the shadow on the ground too.

Bryan trying to look tough around all the flowers :)

Those crazy Canadians - playing a violin with a light saber? My boys would've have willingly dumped their piggy banks in this guys case!

Bryan at his birthday dinner. Funny story - so we get to Friday Harbor the morning before we head to Victoria to meet up with his parents, and Bryan says, "Uh...I forgot to pack shirts." Really? Who does that? But luckily I am super amazing and happened to have the blue shirt pictured above with me. I was going to give it to him for his birthday a few days later, but he got an early birthday present!

Bundled up for the kayaks. It's cold out on the water!

Kayaking in Friday Harbor

Purple starfish were everywhere! And they were huge!

Seriously I am the seal whisperer. Officially. They let my kayak get so close, I got great pictures!

They have the cutest faces!

Bryan and Karen having lunch outside before we head home.

Bryce is 6! (And Bryan is 32!!)

Bryan is used to sharing his birthday with Bryce. And, as we get older, our birthdays just aren't the big deal that they used to be. So of course it's no biggie for Bryan to share the spotlight. Well, Bryan doesn't really have any of the spot light. It all goes to Bryce!

This year on Bryan's birthday we were in Canada with his parents and Dave and Lindsay. That will be a separate post since Bryan and I went all papparazzi and took bazillion pictures. Like we were tourists or something. But for his birthday Bryan got to choose where we ate, and even though we had to find the darn place, we ended up eating a restaurant called Sauce, which had amazing food and the atmosphere was pretty good too!

Bryan at Sauce - of course there are onion rings on his plate!!

When we got back from Canada we had our traditional combined family party. I love this tradition! My Aunt Jodi and Uncle Ron and their kids come, my parents, Carissa and Adam and their crazies, Dave and Lindsay, and this time we were spoiled to have Karen and Robyn here too! We had the "golf course" cupcakes (Yes, I made these a couple years ago) that Bryce insisted we have. We opened presents, ate ice cream, and hung out. It was lots of fun and the birthday boys got some good presents!

For Bryce, he got a whole stinking party to himself! We only do birthday parties for our kids every other year. And this year is the year of the parties! Bryce really wanted a Star Wars party and so I did my best, and I think it turned out pretty fun. The kids had a blast and Bryce was really excited to have his friends over.

Storm Trooper cupcakes. Thanks Pinterest!

Pin the light saber on Darth Vader!

They all looked like Dark Helmet from Spaceballs :)

As you can see, Rix "won" although he sort of admitted he could see "but only a little bit!"

Jake was having a great time with the wrapping paper!

Bryce made out like a bandit :)

We let the kids design their own light sabers out of pool noodles. They were under strict instructions to only hit other light sabers - not people!

Yoda Soda :) We get a lot of requests for it now. However, we don't always have the fixings for it.

I was SO glad to find a Darth Vader pinata. I didn't realize that they don't make "bash 'em up" pinatas anymore - but it was fun just the same!

Doesn't Carissa look like she's fishing for dark lords? She even looks bored like fishermen do!

I LOVE Cole's face in this picture. It's how we all feel when pinatas break open!

Singing Happy Birthday to the Birthday Boy!

Here are some fun facts about our Birthday Boy!!

Favorite Food: Beef Tacos

Least favorite food: Chili

Favorite Color: Green

Favorite Movie: Spy Kids

Favorite thing to do at school: Reading

Favorite Toy: Star Wars Toys

When he grows up he wants to be: a worker like dad and work for Papa

Favorite TV Show: Fairly Oddparents (much to my dislike!!)

Favorite Sport: T-ball

The Best Superhero: Spiderman

Favorite Treat: Blow Pops

If he could go on a special date with mom and dad, he would go: Bowling



The Latest Happenings! (and some random pics!)

Rix and I went to a "Mommy/Son" dance. It was so fun! We went with my friend Becky and her son Ethan (who happens to be Rix's BFF) and made a date out of it! Dinner at Red Robin and dancing the night away! Aren't we a cute couple?

LOVE this picture. When we first got to the dance Rix and Ethan were so terrified to dance! Like Rix was close to tears and we were ready to go home. And then Becky and I got up and started dancing, combined with Taio Cruz's "Dynamite" the boys had a change of heart. Like a complete 180! Rix was a maniac on the dance floor!

He was doing the robot and some crazy breakdancing moves. It was a fun night and I will for sure be going next year with Rix AND Bryce!

Rix learned to tie his own tie! Bryan showed him once or twice, and he just got it!

This picture is Cole in a nutshell. Crazy and cute!

Rix has this crazy habit of carrying Jake. Sometimes he even pulls him out of bed in the morning! He's never dropped him, but it still makes me nervous!

Bryce lost his first tooth (minus all the theatrics of when Rix lost his first tooth!)

Jake is a quick learner. If he sees a camera he immediately smiles!

He also loves to play in the fridge (not the most energy efficient toy!) - and do you see him standing all by himself? He took his first steps a week ago and will walk about 4 or 5 steps before falling.

Jake is a rock star at my kids' school. Ms Turner takes him all the time. When he was just a few months old she got him to fall asleep on her lunch break, and then took him with her to her class and she said her class was SO quiet and well behaved because they didn't want to wake the baby!

Easter 2012 = Sick Mom and Delayed Egg Hunt!

My kids were so excited for Easter this year. It's been fun as my kids get older and they each understand a little bit more about what Easter is about. We try to talk to them about how Christmas is celebrating Christ's birth and how Easter is celebrating his resurrection, and we discuss this a little differently for each child, depending on their level of understanding. (Cole still calls it "directing" instead of "resurrecting" and he often asks when he will be "directed").

This Easter I thought I was soooo prepared. I bought Easter candy as I saw it on sale. I hid the candy in my room, and bought the boys small little gifts and hid those too. In the past we have bought our boys presents, but we decided that Easter is not the new Christmas, and while small Easter baskets with a small amount of candy and a couple color books is appropriate, our large gifts (like Bionicles or Legos and such) that we bought in the past were not. So I was all prepared with my stuff, and on Saturday night, after a late night movie, Bryan and I hunkered down to fill a few eggs and put the baskets together.

One slight teeny weeny problem.

We couldn't find the plastic eggs. Like we had a bag full of empty Easter eggs. Missing. And worse, we couldn't (and still to this day haven't found) the baskets. The Tonka Truck basket, the Spiderman basket, and the Elmo Basket are gone. Disappeared. Our house isn't that big! Where could they be? It was midnight, on Easter, and we had no eggs and no baskets.

But I'm amazing, and did not panic.

I got out some wicker baskets I have around the house. We put their chocolate bunnies and such in their baskets, put them on the table, with the big old bags of M&Ms and jellybeans laying next to them. So when the boys woke up the next morning they were so excited to see the big bags and their chocolates and stuff. I was so glad they weren't disappointed! They were all ready, though, for the egg hunt, and I had to break the news: our 2012 egg hunt would have to wait until Monday. Thankfully they were a little understanding, and were excited to have a spread out Easter!

Anyway, Easter morning I woke up feeling really sick. By church time I was down for the count, so Bryan took the boys to church by himself (knowing Lindsay was there to help of course!) and let me rest. I felt bad because I didn't even get pictures of them in their Easter clothes because I was sleeping! I find comfort though knowing that their Easter clothes weren't anything special - just clothes from the closet, but I still would've liked pics! Oh well, I'll take extra next year! We spent the day at my parent's eating Easter dinner (with ham and funeral potatoes!!) and ate way too much of course.

Monday after lunch Carissa and I headed out to Walmart to get Easter eggs (hooray for clearance!) and found some Cadbury eggs on clearance too. I never say no to a good Cadbury egg! When the boys were done with school they helped me put the bagged jelly beans and M&Ms that they got in their baskets into the eggs (Jake was napping - which made this all easier!). Then while the kids waited in their room I went outside and hid them all. I even got them each a Golden Egg that I put a Cadbury Egg in (that is love, since I don't usually share those!). They had a blast finding their alloted amount of eggs and then finding the Golden Egg. I was SO glad that they were such good sports about not doing the egg hunt on Sunday and waiting until Monday. I felt so guilty about it, but they had so much fun and in the end it didn't really matter. I am so blessed to have such great kids who understand that their mom isn't perfect but love me anyway!!

Anyway, for dinner we went to my dad's house and had yummy ham and funeral potatoes and all the fixings. My mom was in Wisconsin with my brother, but we still took over the Hjelm household. This may be my inner fat girl talking, but I LOVE holidays where we get together for big feasts! Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and Easter. Yum!!

Rix was not waiting for breakfast to eat his candy!

This is Cole's "smile"

Bryce checking out his goods!

The boys were so concerned that Jake didn't get candy. He got a soft book from Nana, but really, I don't think Jake needs candy right now! Isn't he the CUTEST??

Cole found an egg in the jogging stroller! I am so sneaky!

Rix and Bryce with their eggs.

Cole found his Golden Egg!

Bryce found his Golden Egg!