Vacation in Seattle

The McKinstry family all came together in Seattle from July 17th through July 22nd. What a fun time! We rented a house in Fremont and fit as much as we could into our time together. Including:

• visiting Seattle Center (including Ella riding a couple rides and running in the fountain)
• celebrating Seth's birthday (7/17)
• celebrating Margaret's birthday (7/20)
• celebrating the birth of Jameson Lee Storment (see a couple posts back for more info)
• taking the ferry to Bainbridge Island
• visiting the zoo (where we met up with Lynn, Isaac & Addison)
• going to a Mariner's game - we won!
• hitting Pike Place Market
• touring the Sunday Market in Fremont
• Eating......often and a lot

It was the first time Seth's side of the family has been able to meet Luke.

Ella had a blast hanging out with her Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents. We're all already planning for our next trip!

Uncle Oli giving Ella a ride through the crowd in Seattle Center

fun in the fountain

Birthday Boy, Seth!

Mum and her kids on the ferry

Beautiful girls (Ella and her friend, Auntie Maia)

checking out the elephants at the zoo

Isaac & Ella

Luke and Addison

finally back for a game at Safeco

Smiles, coos & manipulation

Luke is flashing smiles at us these days - started at 7 weeks..... just as Grandma Margaret and Papa Tim arrived for a visit. Perfect timing! He's also working on making some adorable baby noises and is beginning to kick up a storm. The newborn phase seems to have disappeared for the most part.

As for Ella, she amazes us everyday with the things she says. We often can't believe she's only 2 and a half. This morning she worked Seth and I against each other. She took a movie she wanted to watch into Seth as he was getting ready for work and asked if she could watch it. I didn't overhear the conversation, but had a feeling I knew what he'd tell her. In she comes into the kitchen and asks if she can watch the movie. I told her maybe after naptime (per usual), and she then told me that Daddy had told her she could. I asked if he had said that or if he'd really told her to ask me. Yeah, she said to the latter. Really, how is is possible she's this young and trying to work us over already? She's our first so maybe I shouldn't be surprised. Anyone else? Anyway, the conversation ended with her telling me she really wanted to watch the movie right now and giving me the sad eyes as she walked off into the living room....

Love this one

One of my favorite pictures of all time...... first pic of the cousins - Luke, Ella and Jameson.

Introducing Jameson Lee Storment

My brother Gabe and his wife had their baby! It's a boy - named Jameson Lee. I wanted to post the news right away, but we were on a big McKinstry family trip to Seattle when he arrived, so haven't been able to post until now. The timing was perfect though, as we were in Seattle when Jameson was born, which let us get to visit the new little family a couple times before heading back to Spokane. His official birthday is July 20th, and he weighed in at 8.9 pounds! I'm so excited to be an Aunt!!!

Baby Jameson

Happy Auntie

Happy Family - Gabe, Nancy & Jameson

Proud New Dad

Luke Pics - Month 2

I'm thinking the more kids you have, the quicker time goes by? Hard to believe that Luke is already 2 months old....but at the same time it already seems like he's always been here. Here's some pics taken throughout month 2. You can see he still sleeps quite a bit, but his blue eyes are open more and more now.

snoozing with Dad

wrapped up after a bath

sound sleeper

poor guy can't yet get himself away from his adoring sister

with Uncle Zac

snoozing at the M's game (details about the Seattle trip to come)

breaking out of the swaddle (sleeping next to Ella's Lovey....Ella placed it next to him while he slept. So sweet.)

finally able to break out some of the summer clothes

Green Bluff - Strawberries

We've established on the blog that our family loves going up to Greenbluff. We make many trips in the fall to the pumpkin patch, etc. Seth and I really wanted to head up a few times this summer to check out all the fruit that's grown up there - and the opportunity to pick some for ourselves. We headed up on Monday, since Seth had the day off because of the holiday. Well we lucked out and found that because of the cold, wet spring and summer so far, they've had to delay the u-pick strawberry season. We managed to hit the Siemers field on the first day they were open and we all had fun picking some yummy berries. Ella needed a little help figuring out that only the red ones should be picked.... but overall it was a successful and fun day. We made it home with about 4 pounds I think. Ella and I made strawberry bread last night trying to use some of them up! Yum!

making new friends at the Harvest House

4th of July Weekend

Zac & Kristen held their 2nd annual 4th of July Bash at their house this year - thanks guys! They have such a beautiful house and property - perfect for enjoying the 4th. Abby's birthday also falls on the 4th of July so we were all able to celebrate that too. We all had a great time, especially Ella who spent the day tagging around with Abby (the saint), playing with water "guns" (watch out for Auntie Kristen), getting in the middle of all the games going on in the yard, and crawling around after a turtle (Abby's birthday gift).

Ella's pretty dress about to get very wet

Abby & Kristen soaking each other

Ella imitating Lenny the turtle

Ella and Abby coloring

Grammy hung out with Luke most of the day...and Fischer for this pic

The birthday girl with Luke