she explained it all on "wake up seattle."

weekend before last, the Johnson clan met up in Seattle, WA and Bellingham, WA to celebrate baby Natalie's addition to our family. Eric and Michelle welcomed Natalie Lauren into their home on 2/5/2011. My parents had already been up to meet the little girl, but for the rest of us this was our first time meeting her. She is a sweet little girl and was very tired the whole time, so i didn't get many pictures of her.

after we arrived in Seattle, we all met up at the Woodland Park Zoo. the kids LOVED it!

Emily and Matthew checking out the penguins.

Eric and Matthew (love their matching outfits.)

the scenery was beautiful. who's that handsome guy??

i couldn't quite get them to pose (they were irritated that i got in their way and demanded a picture.) but it was sweet how they were all walking together and holding hands together.


saturday was a bit chillier, but we enjoyed a lovely trail walk on one of Bellingham's many trails.

i liked this cool bridge over the trail. (gabe's keeping his hands in his sweatshirt because he's so cold!)

matthew kept finding walking sticks along the trail.

saturday afternoon we went swimming at the hotel. the kids were hilarious in the pool. (sorry, no pictures...) saturday night we had dinner and made crafts. again - no pics!

Sunday, we went to church. Gabe, Elizabeth and I explored the downtown area. then we all met up for some food/games.

all the Johnson grandchildren....

after we got back to the hotel, emily visited our room and we played make-up... (oh, how she loves to play make-up!)

look at that beautiful niece!

we had a great trip and we can't wait to see Eric & Michelle's family again!

Wild Animal Park (san diego - part 3)

the last day of our San Diego adventure was spent at the Wild Animal Park and the beach. It was a perfectly beautiful day. Clear blue sky, puffy white clouds, and sunshine galore.

Lion napping in the sunshine

SD Zoo (san diego - part 2)

(this post took a long time to complete... stupid time warner cable makes uploading pictures ridiculously difficult.)

the second day of our San Diego adventure, we enjoyed a wonderful day at the zoo. My parents were in san diego too, so they joined in on the fun.

the weather was beautiful, then raining, then beautiful, then raining again.

here's a Rafiki monkey!

the polar bears here were much more social than the ones at sea world.

lions! gggrrrrrrrrrrrr!

SLOTH!! (the girls at work have a think with sloths...)

this guy was all cute and shy.

it was "kualapalooza" while we were there. it didn't seem like much of a "palooza"... all the kualas were asleep!

awwwwwww!! meow meow!

this big guy came right up to the glass!! two inches from my face, too bad i couldn't get the camera out fast enough!!

thank goodness for umbrellas!

After the zoo, we rested and dried out at the hotel. then we went to dinner... "Mexican food from Sombrero's, just because..."

sea world (san diego - part 1)

Gabe and I had a great vacation to San Diego over President's Day Weekend. We went down on Thursday night and stayed until Monday morning. For Christmas, Gabe got us each a 3-for-1 pass that got us into Sea World, San Diego Zoo, and the Wild Animal Park.

We went to Sea World first. It was a beautiful morning full of sunshine. We didn't bring any umbrellas to the park because it was so nice outside.

During Shamu, it started clouding up...

After Shamu, we visited the dolphin pool. The dolphins were swimming and playing. I tried trying and trying to get the dolphins to come over by us so i could pet one, but I was unsuccessful. Gabe did get to pick one... he pet the dolphin's fin! (sorry, no pictures of this fun experience)...

It started sprinkling during our dolphin visit. We didn't mind very much. We went from the dolphins to the sea lions. We fed the sea lions! That was pretty cool - there was one guy that was jumping up and catching the fish in his mouth.

After petting a bat ray (totally strange feeling), we visited the shark encounter.

look at those teeth!!

Gabe set off the alarm by trying to touch the teeth!

Then we watched the sea lion show...

After the sea lion show, we headed to the tide pools and aquariums. En route, it started POURING. We were so drenched - and poor Gabe didn't even bring a jacket. Luckily, the aquariums offered a nice warm, dry place.

Cow-a-bunga!

After the aquariums and the tide pools, we visited the penguins, polar bears, and beluga whales. When we got out of the exhibit, the down pour started again. As we walked to the car, we got so soaked. It was like we had jumped into a pool with our clothes on.

Despite the rain, we had a wonderful visit to sea world.

Stay tuned for further reports on our adventures in San Diego!

yo ho, yo ho.

last saturday, gabe and i took lil' miss Emily to disneyland. we both have passes and it's free to get emily in until she's 3 years old, so we decided to take her for the afternoon/evening.

we all had so much fun! we rode the monorail, small world, the carousel, the train, pirates of the caribbean, and dumbo.

hope we can take her again really soon!

ah, yes. i remember the silver bells of my youth.

Merry Christmas!!

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas this year! We had a fantastic Christmas!

We spent Christmas Eve with the Johnsons. We baked and delivered cookies, saw True Grit, read the Christmas story from the book of Luke, and opened presents.

Gabe had been sick a few days before Christmas and then I got sick on Christmas day. I felt so awful that I didn't even want to open presents when I woke up. I took tons of medicine to try to feel better. We went to Momma Linda's for some Christmas Brunch with the Medina's. We opened presents. I was still feeling pretty sick in the afternoon, but felt well enough to have Christmas Dinner at Mike and Janica's. Janica did a great job on her first roast!

Because I wasn't 100% on Christmas day, I only have pictures from Christmas Eve. Here they are:

the bounty of presents!

awww. mike and janica!

Emily was sooooooooooooo excited!!

Allyson was just happy to be around. Happy to rock back and forth in the chair and pet the dog. :)

Emily loved reading her new books.

and Mr. J is so proud of his new ski helmet!!

a day at the park

these pictures are about a month old, but i wanted to share them anyway. Emily and I had a saturday afternoon date. I told her we could do whatever she wanted and suggested a trip to the park, a trip to target, or a trip to my house. she chose the park and my house.

We went to a park near my house that I drive by all the time and think is super cute. George Washington Park is right off Lincoln and Anaheim. It has a gazebo, rose garden, and arbor walkway.

Emily and I had a great time playing. She's so brave and adventurous on the playground equipment.

I told her she was a cutie pie. she said, "no! i'm not a cutie pie. that's allyson!"