Bathtime for Ellis!

So we have finally (sort of) moved Ellis from bathing in the sink to the bathtub. Here are some pics of her enjoying it. Don't worry, they are safe! :)

The 'Stache!

So Loni decided to harness his inner trucker-ness and sport a mustache for one day. This thing was amazing. I have always wanted him to grow a mustache just to see what it would look like - and now I am glad that he doesn't have one. I hope you all enjoy the pictures. It was very hard to take him seriously with the 'stache looking me in the face all day long.

Hidden Text

So I changed the background to my blog and it made my text disappear because my text is white and now the background is white. If you need to read any of the older posts (since my life is so interesting to you all), just highlight the box and the text will appear! Voila!

U Village

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A couple of weeks ago we had nothing to do on a Saturday night so we called up Pasha (Loni's sister) and decided to go to UVillage. For all of you non-Seattle-ites, UVillage is a really nice outdoor shopping area located in the UDistrict, hence the name UVillage. In the last couple of years they have really done a lot of remodeling to the area to make it very nice. It is a fun place to go walk around and they have an outdoor, covered area for kids to play. Anyways, it was a fun night: we started out at the kids playground where Donnie was running around and going crazy. That kid is not afraid to try anything and would run around, fall down, get back up and start running all over again. I don't know how Pasha keeps up with that boy! :)

We ended up just walking around and window shopping with our Starbucks Hot Chocolates. Donnie and Staci (Pasha's two boys) had a blast playing in this little fountain area (it was in the 40's, so don't ask me). Donnie of course ended up soaked as most 2-year old boys do, but he had fun anyway. Once it got a little late we decided to call it a night, but it was a great way to get out of the house!

New Background!

I hope you all like the new background I just uploaded. I decided I am going to be more festive during the Holidays and change the blog to reflect the holiday (if there is one). We are doing well. Loni is getting over bronchitis (again) and might have to go in for a CAT scan of his sinuses to figure out what is wrong with him...I could give them a list :) Just kidding! Ellis will be 7 months old on Sunday and is SO cute. Next Friday we are heading to Utah to visit my Dan and Kyla for a couple days and then my dad's family for another couple days. It should be a lot of fun, though Ellis has never stayed in the car for as long as she is going to so I think that will be the most interesting part of the drive.
Oh, for all of you bookies out there, I just finished reading My Sister's Keeper - a book I totally recommend. I am searching for another book to read, so if anyone has any suggestions (that aren't Science Fiction - Kyla ;)), please let me know.
Anyway, that's it for now!

Happy Birthday, Kristy!

It was my birthday on November 2 and for it, Loni surprised me with an overnight trip to Victoria, BC on the Clipper (a boat that travels between here and BC)! I was so surprised and excited because I had never been to Victoria before (only Vancouver) so it was a great gift. Plus Loni's parents had graciously agreed to watch Ellis for us, so we could go without her. So on Saturday morning we woke up at 6:00 am and drove to Loni's parents house, picked up Lanae and she dropped us off at Pier 69 for our 7:00 boarding, then drove off for her overnight with Ellis. We got our boarding passes and our seats and then settled in for the 2.5 hour boat ride. The trip over was pretty uneventful except I was trying to get Loni to take pictures with me on the boat and he accidentally switched the camera mode to camcorder mode and ended up taking a funny vidoe of the guy who was sitting next to us. He was pretty much giving us the evil eye. It makes me laugh, so I will try and post it if I can.

Anyway, once we arrived in Vancouver, we went through customs and started towards our hotel which ended up being only a block away. We stayed at the Grand Pacific (or Pacific Grand...I always get it messed up), the only 5star hotel in Victoria and I would definitely recommend it. Surprisingly, when we arrived at the hotel to check in, they actually had our room ready (it was only 10:30am) so we got to go drop our bags off at our room, which was a trendy King Suite. When Loni booked the trip, he got the romance package which included a rose petal turn down at night, with chocolates and a rose, plus breakfast in bed the next morning. It was all very exciting. So we checked in and then started our day of walking. Victoria is so small you can pretty much get anywhere by walking. We went to: the Parliment Building, The Fairmont Empress Hotel, Chinatown (though it should be called China Block), Christmas Village (not for the faint of heart..they had probably thousands and thousands of ornaments), Market Square (reminded me of a square from the midevil times), their mall there and up and down all the streets. We had lunch at this place called Earl's (reminded me of a Joey's here in Seattle). We spent about 4 hours exploring the city then headed back to the hotel (both of our feet were hurting). At the hotel we decided to go swimming to relax. The hotel we stayed at is one of the only hotels left that has a pool and hot tub in them, so we spent time doing that and Loni spent the majority of his time in the steam room and sauna hanging out with creepy old guys :). After that we decided to get ready for dinner and went to the Concierege to ask where we should go. The concierge suggested a place called Barkleys, which was where we decided to go. I should have known not to trust an old man with recommendations because when we got there it was almost completely dead...as were the people there. The patrons of that restaurant had to all be in their 60's! So the waiter sat us and as we were sitting there looking around, we decided we didn't want to eat there, so we bailed and caught a cab right outside. The cab drive was not useful at all with suggestions, so we finally had him drop us off at an Italian place someone told us about earlier called Pagliacci's. It was a very "hip" place where they make you wait in a line outside and let you in according to party size and place in line. The food wasn't that great..definitely not worth the hype, but oh well. So then we came back to the hotel (we were both EXHAUSTED) and walked into our room which had been turned down with rose petals, drinks, chocolates and music. It was very romantic! We ended the day by watching Superbad on the TV. A great first day!

For the second day, we relaxed for a while in the hotel room and slowly got moving. We finally made it out, checked out of our hotel and decided to go to the museum. The Royal BC Museum was filled with exhibits ranging from animals, to early BC inhabitors to Old mining towns. It was very interesting and cool to see, but nothing different from any other museum. I did take a pic of a Wooly Mammoth they had on display, so that was cool-that thing was HUGE! After the museum, we decided to walk around and find some lunch. Well, lunch got put on the back burner when we found a spa that had an open avialbilty for Loni to get a massage. So while he got a massage, I walked around, bought some chocolates and then headed back to wait for him. After his massage, we went to find lunch for real and then stopped by 7-11 to pick up some items for the boat ride back. All in all it was a GREAT birthday...probably the best one I have ever had. This trip to Victoria was great and plus my mom and dad gave me some cool gifts, so next year's will be hard to beat this one. The pictures are from the Victoria trip and the Video is is of the weird guy on the boat ride to Victoria. Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

So I know Halloween was almost a week ago, but I have been busy, so here is the update:

This year, I basically had to beg Loni to get Ellis a costume because he feels it is a big waste of money, but one day we were in Childrens Place and they had their costumes on sale for 75% off, so he finally gave it (I know, he is a saint). So we bought Ellis a turtle costume. I think it was originally meant for a boy, but she looked so cute in it, that we bought it. It is green, complete with a shell, booties and a hat, plus there is actually a tail on the shell! She hates being in and everytime I would put her in it, she would fuss and be unhappy. The funniest part is when she tries to roll over in it, but the shell stops her from completing the roll - she gets SO frustrated! Anyway, on Halloween, we stopped by my dad's house to go trick or treating and take some pics of her with him (he was her first trick or treat EVER), which was fun. They are remodeling their house, so that is what the insulation is you see in the background. After that, we went over to the Weaver's house to meet all the Renton cousins to go out with all of them. Since it was so cold out, we ended up not putting Ellis in her turtle outfit (so it did end up being a waste, score one for Loni), but instead put her in this purple monstrosity of a full body suit that we have for the winter. It is still a little big, so she just swims in it, and we ended up calling her the Purple People Eater, so that is what she was on Halloween night.

For trick or treating, we went to the Mt. Baker area of Seattle and walked around for about two hours. At the beginning, Loni or I would take her up to the doors to get candy for "her", but all of the houses knew who it was really for and made a point of saying it! After about an hour of this, Ellis reached her breaking point, so we put her in the stroller and gave her a bottle. I really think that was her most favorite part of the night - her bottle. After the bottle, she stayed in the stroller, but do you think that detered Loni from going up to the doors? No way, Jose! He would take the stroller up the flights of stairs and go straight to the door. That man will go to great lengths for his candy! :)

After a while of doing this, we all packed up and went home. With her first Halloween under her belt, Ellis is officially growing up! We took a picture of her with all of her loot..not very impressive for being out there for 2 hours, but she was in heaven. She would put one piece of candy to her mouth (wrapped, of course) and then throw that one down and pick up the next one closest to her. She was pretty much in heaven until we took them all away from her!

All in all, it was a fun night. It is always fun to see things through the eyes of a child and Ellis gets excited about almost anything, so she makes life fun! The slideshow is just of that night...Enjoy!

Sightseeing in Port Townsend!

One day Loni and I decided to get up early and go over to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State because we had never (to our knowledge) been there before. So we got up and planned on going across the Kingston Ferry and heading to Port Townsend from there. Well, Loni got his directions mixed up and we ended up driving in to Mukilteo (I believe) and caught the ferry from there to Whidbey Island. From that dock, we had to drive another 40 minutes to catch the ferry at Keystone, that would take us to Port Townsend, which we did. The ferry ride was cool...I remember as a kid that taking a ferry was one of the coolest things. Both of the ferries weren't very big, but we had fun. We took Ellis outside and to the front of the boat. Every time she would get hit with the wind, she would suck in her breath and then smile from ear to ear. She really enjoyed it.

At Port Townsend, we just walked around the town. I was actually kind of disappointed with the town...all the shops there were either overpriced bookstores, hippie-hang outs or shops with a bunch of junk in them. We had lunch and stayed there for about two hours and then decided to drive to Kingston to catch the ferry back to the Seattle area- but the only catch was the ferry left in about an hour and we had about 45 miles to drive. So, as life goes when you are in a hurry, we ended up behind the slowest people possible but did manage to make the boat. All in all it was a fun day...it is cool to see the beautiful scenery that our state has! The slide show is pictures from that day! Enjoy!