Pacific Science Museum

This morning I took the kiddos to the Pacific Science Museum. I bought an annual pass several weeks ago, so it is fun to be able to go there more often. The kids love it, and it gives them good exposure to things like our solar system, reptiles, dinosaurs, etc. Hailey is still sheepish about the big dinosaurs that move automatically. But the kids' favorite thing is the Butterfly house, where you can walk through and see lots of butterflies.

We also went to a Science Show where we learned about dry ice and really cold nitrogen, and watched many things freeze really quickly. Oh, fun. Greta's favorite thing was watching this cute little orange snake pop his head out of the log. She watched that forever. Drew's favorite thing, of course, was driving the toy car in the toddler play area!





Gretty listens to instructions about the butterfly house...


Riding a caterpillar sculpture...


Andrew's question about the bugs, and specifically about the beetle: "Mom, is the beetle made out of Volkswagen Beetles?" HA! That boy NEVER stops thinking about cars!

First Time Bowling....

We took the kids bowling today for their very first time. They loved it! It was a perfect activity after being stuck inside following three days of snow and cold here in Seattle.

Daddy showed off by getting several strikes, and Hailey showed lots of potential as a League bowler in the future. Drew ate the bag of goldfish crackers, while Greta chowed down on the not-so-high-end nachos. We had a great time! See the videos below for a glimpse of the action.

Lookout, PBA, here we come!

Playing in the sun

This weekend turned out to be wonderfully sunny (although cold!), but we ventured to our favorite park anyway. This is a "water park" in the summertime, where all of these animals spew water. But it was turned off for the winter.... But the kids still had fun!

Here is a cute video of the kids playing in our church's playground area...

Here is a cute video of Greta... her new favorite word is "heart".... and she says it in such a funny way, where she really clearly says the "t" at the end. She looks for hearts everywhere, and just keeps pointing them out when she finds them. She has heart pajamas, and just carries them around, wanting to wear them all day! So cute. We love her sweet precious heart!

Lots of snow

We spent last week up at Whistler again. This was one of our best trips up there! We had an average of ten inches of new snow each day, for seven straight days. That is 70 inches of snow in a week! and that makes for GREAT skiing!! Greg and I each skied two days and we loved it!

The kids love it here... as we do lots of playful activities. Here are a few pics from Greg's new iPhone!

Jackie's big 4-0!

Well.... I am now FORTY years old! yikes! I hit the big milestone on Feb 13... and let me tell ya... I had one fabulous birthday party!!!

My wonderful husband has been planning a great shindig for over six months. He sent out great invites, planned a lovely menu of appetizers, got delicious cupcakes, and had several people say nice words at my champagne toast. He is one amazing husband! The highlight of the night was that we had this evening soiree at the Women's University Club in downtown Seattle, which is where our wedding reception was! It brought back fabulous memories! We reserved their library/sitting room, which is a big beautiful room with a warm fire; it created the perfect atmosphere for the party.

The most amazing part of the birthday weekend was that Greg managed to get several of my out-of-town friends to come to the event! It was an awesome surprise! My Wake Forest roommate Kathleen, and her husband Mike, tapped me on the shoulder at the beginning of the party. I started screaming and then crying! It was so great that they made a long drive to be part of this!

The other wonderful blessing is that my Kellogg roommate and dear friend Sarah flew all of the way in from North Carolina! (Leaving her hubby and kids behind!) WOW! Since she was going to stay with us for five days, Greg did tell me about it about two weeks before the event. But she was amazing because not only did she fly in for my party, but she also drove up to Whistler with us the next day and spent three days with us at our home up there. We had a sweet five days of catching up, including two days of great skiing! Sarah, you are the best!

Comments on the pics shown below...

The forty-year old and her wonderful hubby!!


Fun girlfriends!


My dear friends Jessica and Rachel, who both worked with me at RealNetworks.


With my wonderful friend Sally and her husband John...

World's best in-laws! Robbie (Greg's bro) and his wife Jenene.

My fabulous sister, Kimmie, and her boyfriend Scott...

With Mike and Kathleen, who drove in from Portland...

My sweet sweet friend Gwynne!

RealNetworks friends and spouses...

Champagne toast to Mama Jackie... with very nice words from several folks...

With Jenene..

With my Kellogg roomie, Sarah, who flew in from North Carolina!

Jenene, Sarah, and I test out the wonderful cupcakes from Pinkabella Cupcakes! Yum!

Here is a pic of the room we had... it was so warm and cozy! We had almost fifty people in here, and it was just perfect..

Huge love and thank you to my husband for this amazing party and gift to me!!

Scottsdale Sunshine!!!

Last week, Greg and I had the fabulous privilege of going on vacation in Scottsdale, AZ! (Um, for those of you who do not have three toddlers at home... don't take going on vacation for granted!!)

Greg had a work mtg in Scottsdale, and his team of eight people decided that they wanted to invite all of the spouses to be part of this offsite mtg. Wow - was I grateful! So, I got to be part of several fun meals out on the town, plus a day of riding ATVs in the desert!

We absolutely loved riding the ATVs... we laughed the whole time. We even got to ride through rivers and such, and past a million giant cacti. It was great! Also, while Greg did have to work all day on Thursday, I enjoyed an entire day to myself (whoa - someone pinch me!) and I went for a fabulous hike to the top of Camelback Mountain in Phoenix. You can see pics of my hike below.

After the 2-day work event was over, Greg and I stayed Fri and Sat nights on our own. We played 18 holes of golf at the Fairmont TPC course, which was lovely. We loved the 75 degree sunshine we had all week while we were there, and spent a few afternoons sitting by the pool at the Fairmont. It was so good for our souls!!!

A huge thank you to Jenene and Robbie for watching our kids for a long weekend, and also to our nanny, Allison, who stayed over two nights. It was so fabulous! And thank you to Microsoft!

Here we are with Greg's boss, Jens and his wife Robin.

My hike up Camelback Mtn.... this was the trail... it was rugged!

We even flew over the Grand Canyon on the way down. So pretty!