2011 i hardly knew you

a little long between updates but am finally finding a pocket of time.

...career changes pt 1. j1 got a new gig at a residential landscape firm in june. a good fit for now, we'll see if he gets to take more ownership of the designs. boys transitioned just fine back to full time though they do miss daddy days. (who wouldn't?).

...career changes pt 2. i took a gig with the city. i loved my old firm and (all paperwork aside) actually enjoyed the work. but the hours were brutal and mentally there was no pencils down. i'm proud of the work i did to support the train station and bmgf construction but am psyched to go back to 40 hr work weeks and all the holidays.

...10 days in hawaii was too short. an awesome trip. highlights -

- mototown wedding was beautiful and gave us cause to celebrate our dearest friends big day,
- eating abc musubi with the kauai contingent whilst crashing the hilton pool every day,
- talking to crazies on the bus to hanauma bay,
- over the top platter of dessert made by auntie heather at nobu,
- a complete lack of pineapples at the pineapple plantation,
- malasadas and shave ice,
- 11 steps from the beach at haleiwa. i've never been so relaxed.

... taco is 4?! crazy. but not as mind blowing as signing him up for kindergarten. dad came to visit for j3's big birthday celebration at soundbridge. a toddler drum circle made tolerable by a kids party place that allows beer/wine. the kids had a blast.

... taco is your typical 4 yr old. inquisitive, stubborn and all around spacey. he loves all things star wars or lego or star wars lego even though he's never seen any of the series just snippets of the lego version on youtube. he had a spat where he couldn't stand being chased in soccer but with the help of his buddy sawyer, he's gone back to class and seems to be enjoying it. he and o are still taking tennis together. the rackets are about half the size of their bodies. its very cute.

... huggy is 3?! we hosted a dozen or so of his little pals at the gymnastics place. his favorite part was his strawberry baseball cake. we made it at home and the boys did all the mixing. for his bday we got him a snare drum. he broke both heads of the kiddie version in about 15 minutes so we went over to guitar center and got him a real one and new drumsticks for both boys. we've convinced them that its best to play with a pillow case over it just in case baby evan is sleeping next door.

... huggy surprised us and figured out the potty w little prompting from us at all. his teachers just told us one day that he could start coming to school in underpants. woo hoo!

...long weekends are our m.o. when the weather's good i don't think we go more than a month without feeling the need to take off for a bit. seabrooke, leavenworth, hood canal, and mutiple camp sites in the san juans. my favorite short trip was to san juan county park. on the west side of the island, our site was on the edge of a giant field with unobstructed water views all around. we saw orcas and sea lions from the campsite. the giant piece of driftwood in the middle of the field became the defacto space ship for a gaggle of kids. we could roll out of bed, unzip the tent door and just tell the boys to go play.

...asian santa got waylayed to the 5th floor. at first i insisted we only pick a date where he was at holiday lane. i'm still a little miffed at the demotion but got over it when there was NO LINE AT ALL. freakin awesome. we saw santa, rode the carousel and STILL made it to tennis class for j3.

...to pre-book mommy/daddy qt, i keep signing us up for classes. we started taking welding back in february. in usual jala fashion, it is now november and our project sits almost complete in the backyard. we just couldn't get that last 10% done before the fall. i had convinced my work that it should count as 'professional development'. ha ha. the inlaws graciously agreed to babysit every saturday morning for 8 weeks. we welded a steel frame together for a picnic table and benches. then in a stroke of good fortune, we were able to get wood scraps from a recycled building milled down to 1x's for the table and bench tops. little did i know we'd spend a good chunk of the summer staining and sealing the wood. special thanks to the sliversons for the use of their shed.