Weycom to Sheattow!!!!!!

Friday night we braved the weather and the traffic making our way to the White River Amphitheater to see Cheap Trick, Heart, and Journey. We picked up friends at the Muckelshoot Casino, made the short drive(10 minutes) to the front of the parking lot(remember this for later), and were quickly inside the gates waiting for the show to start. While Avery enjoyed McNuggets with uncle Nic back home, I grabbed an $8.00 chicken basket for dinner and began to scan the crowd as they filtered in. People watching is our favorite part of any event where a lot of people gather. It was an eclectic crowd to say the least. Very entertaining.

On to the concert. Each band was good and crowd was into it from the start. Cheap Trick led off and played for about 45 minutes. Heart followed(they were actually the best) and played for another 45 minutes. Journey ended the night playing until about 11:30. When they took the stage we were greeted with a Heywo Sheattow(Hello Seattle)!!!! Journey's lead singer is from the Philippines and when he talks he has an accent. I thought we were in for a long night. And then... he flipped the Ozzy switch, lost the accent, and belted out tune after tune from 30+ years of Journey classics.

We knew getting out of the parking lot was going to be bad so we decided to leave before the encores to beat the traffic. In the car at 11:28. At 12:28 we finally exited onto the main road back to the casino. Oh wait, the main road was blocked off to allow the back part of the lot to exit. We got to cut into the front of the lot before the show because we had carpooled and we paid dearly for it after. Not only did it take an hour to get out of the lot, the detour sent us off into the country side of lovely Auburn. Before we knew it, we were the only car on a dark road and the all the GPS lady could tell us was to make a u-turn and that our signal was weak. By 12:58 we had found the main road once again and by 1:00 we were back at the casino.

We dropped off our friends at their car and headed for home. A journey that had started at 2:50pm when I left school, concluded as we pulled into the garage at 2:15am back in Lake Stevens.

Dancing Queen

I have been trying to figure out how to post movies (compress them) for the longest time. Guess what?? Neil figured it out tonight.

I love this clip of Avery dancing without a care in the world. Enjoy!

Swing Monkey

Tonight Avery practiced all of the nursery rhymes and songs she is learning in school. She did "Hey Diddle Diddle", "Jack and Jill", "Little Boy Blue", and sang the Swinging Monkey song over and over again. It would be the kindergarten version of "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" or an updated version of "10 Little Monkey's Jumping on the Bed" Enjoy!

Twin Falls Hike

After Red Robin and a Monroe football game Friday night(monroe and wsu loss), soccer and a trip to Bob's Corn on Saturday(uw loss), we rounded out our weekend with a Sunday day hike with the Yamane family to Twin Falls near North Bend(and a seahawks loss).

While dad carried the backpack Avery and Kaela led the way.

After hearing "Are we there yet?" and "I can't walk anymore." several times we made it to the falls. We stopped and had lunch before making the trek back to the car.

On the way down we stopped for a photo op at the falls look out. Other than a few minor scrapes everyone made it back to the car safely.

It sure was a better weekend to hike than to watch football. Arrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!!!!!

The Green Machine

This was a week of many first for Avery. First time seeing her classroom, first time meeting her teacher, first time on the bus, first day of school and finally her first soccer practice and game. After meeting her coaches and team, Avery received her over sized green uniform to match her blue socks (the league told us to buy blue socks), took team photos and helped select her team name. "The Green Machine" was the team name drawn, even though Avery wanted to be called "The Green Cats"

Avery's coaches did a great job getting the girls warmed up and ready for their first game.



Games are played three on three, with no goalies, and every time a ball goes out of bounds it is a throw in. As you can see the pack of girls chase the ball all together as the parents cheer them on.


At the end of the hour both teams run through the victory tunnel and then the best part for the kids...


Snack Time!!!

Avery had a such a great time that she practiced all of her new skills when we got home. She is looking forward to next week because she gets to play against her friend Kaela's team.

First Day of School

Can you believe that Avery started Kindergarten today? I cannot believe that 5 years has gone by so quickly. It seems like just yesterday she was this tiny little 5 pound bird. She has gone from this . . . . .

to this!!!!!!!!!!

Avery was so excited this morning. We arrived at Evelyn's (daycare) about 30 minutes before the bus came. I think she asked me 1 million times when the bus was coming. Finally at 9 a.m. the bus arrived.

Eagerly awaiting for the bus

After we arrived at Evelyn's, Avery's grandma and gruncle came to watch Avery get on the bus. And while we were waiting Papa called. I think the grandparents were just as excited as we were!

There are 4 kids at daycare that are all starting kindergarten today. Three of them are in the same class!

Here she is getting on the bus!

And here she is getting off the bus at school.

Evelyn's son Marcus and Avery are buddies and held hands all the way to their classroom.

When we arrived in Ms. Kitty's class, Avery found her seat and basically said "BYE MOM!". She was ready to start her day and certainly didn't need me to stay with her anymore!

We will blog more this evening when we get the "blow-by-blow" of Avery's first day of school from her perspective.

Tomorrow is the BIG day!

Tonight Mt. Pilchuck had "walk-through" to show off the newly remodeled school. Avery had the opportunity to visit the library, her classroom, meet her teacher, Ms. Janowiak (aka Ms. Kitty) and drop off school supplies. She is very excited for tomorrow!

Packwood

Did you attempt to have a Labor Day weekend garage sale? Did anyone show up? If not, I think we have the answer. Every person searching for treasure in the form of someone elses junk was in Packwood this weekend(us included!). The main street through Packwood was lined for over a mile with tent, after tent, after tent, after tent, with people selling everything from Howard Johnson soap/shampoo (10 for $1) to a restored old fashioned 3-speed pedal bike ($100). We saw knives, guns, rocks, buttons, keychains, used toys, new (old) toys, baby dogs, baby cats, hood ornaments and yard ornaments. If you could dream it, they were selling it. Along with junk vendors came food as well. Ears of corn, steak sandwiches, elephant ears, kettle corn, cotton candy, shaved ice and ice cream. It was like we were at the a fair minus the rides and animals(Oh wait, there were pony rides). I guess that's rides and animals.

Speaking of animals, before arriving in Fred Sanford's dream world, we made a quick stop at Northwest Trek. We saw bears, coyotes, eagles, mountain goats, owls, skunks, wolves, snakes, bison, deer, elk, a lynx, a cougar, a bobcat, a beehive and a park favorite the chipmunks. Avery loves the tram ride and we took several photos along the way.

Our accommodations were a huge step up from the tents and trailers that lined swap meet row. We spent a wonderful weekend with Shelly's parents at our friends (Amy and Kurt) cabin.


On Sunday we made the drive to Mt. Rainier. The temperature went from 54 degrees in Packwood to a misty 36 degrees at Paradise.(Yes, it was Aug 31). The drive was beautiful but the mountain was hidden behind the clouds. Hikers reported seeing a black bear in one of the many meadows while we felt lucky just to have a close interaction with a momma deer and her two little ones.

Summer is officially over!