Hanging with Amy 2017: Part I - Staying Local

Though we'd just enjoyed the pleasure of Amy's company last July, we were delighted to see her again this past September. Her work holds a conference in a different state each year, and this year they picked Portland, Oregon, their first time on the west coast. Amy didn't need to be at her hotel until the evening on Monday the 11th, so she flew up here on Friday the 8th to grace us with her presence. Our first stop - Wings Over Washington! It's the same idea as "Soarin' Over California" at Disneyland/World, except over Washington. We loved it!

Next we stopped at Whole Foods to pick up some Amy friendly ingredients for our meals over the next few days.

When we got home, the kids enjoyed the jawbreaker suckers Amy had brought them. I was surprised Allison figured out it was edible. I thought she'd just try to play with it like a toy.

After taking Amy to my usual Saturday Aqua Zumba class, we walked down to our church building to watch the Mukilteo lighthouse festival parade.

The kids took off for their own mini parade before the main one kicked off. They're allowed to bring bikes and decorate them however they'd like, but we just put the kids in the stroller. Luckily the Webb kids shared some balloons with them.

The main parade started with the Wells Fargo carriage followed by a walking clam from Ivar's. I loved that this parade had floats. I'd been disappointed that the big 4th of July Everett parade hadn't had any.

Our church building even gets its own float with our bishop and primary children riding on it. We also had a few families in their cultural get ups - the Lawlers in their kilts, the Hutchinsons in Polynesian outfits, and the Haupts in pioneer clothes. 

I'd expected Oscar to take off with the kids after they did their parade, but they decided to stick around for the Root Beer floats our ward gives out each year. Allison was dancing to the YMCA theme song then ran right out in front of the YMCA bus when she noticed they were handing out candy.

After the parade we did some shopping at Trader Joes where we posed for this cute picture.

Tyler had been invited to a birthday party at an apartment with an indoor pool. The kids and I hopped in and Amy was able to get these cute pics of me and Allison. She's such a little water baby!

Kids having their turn with the pinata. Even Allison was hitting it. The last time we were at a party with pinatas, Allison wasn't walking yet, so I held her and hit it for her. I wasn't sure if she'd grasp the concept, but she totally did.

We stopped back home and Amy admired our local kitty precariously perched on the fence before heading out for the lighthouse festival fireworks.

We parked at the middle school where they had shuttles, ie school buses, to take us down to the lighthouse.

They were lovely fireworks, but their definition of "dusk" needs some specifics. Dusk said 8:05pm on the internet but they didn't start until 8:45pm.

The line for the shuttles to take us back was long and slow. Amy fell asleep on the way back, and she absolutely LOVED this picture I took of her. ;)

The next day we held a party for Allison's 2nd birthday and Hana's 13th birthday. My niece is a teenager! Aaaaagh!!! When did that happen?!

 As requested, Amy made mango ice cream and vanilla cupcakes with coconut frosting. We didn't have a "1" candle, but we had a 3 and a 2 (that had 5 written on the back for my last birthday). 

Here's each of them blowing out their candles (Allison with Tyler's help) and enjoying their birthday yummies. Allison's actual birthday was the next day, but we couldn't celebrate it then since Amy and I needed to head down south early the next morning. Luckily we had 2 cupcakes left so Allison and Tyler could have a mini celebration at lunch the next day.