Babysitting weekend

We spent our weekend with these two cuties:

These are the girls I moved up here to nanny for three years ago. We went up and babysat them Wednesday through Monday and we had a lot of fun! We went and saw How To Train Your Dragon, went to a barbecue, went to Snoqualmie Falls. We had a great time! They are two of the cutest girls, and so hilarious! We had a blast!

New job!

So we got some really good news yesterday! Erich got the job at corporate Costco that he applied for. One phone interview and three face to face interviews later! This is so huge for us because this has been his goal for a long time, to eventually be working for corporate. It's what he's been going to school for (he'll be working in the networking department) and he is so excited! This is such a great opportunity for him. Costco is such an awesome company to work for and he has enjoyed the four years he's worked in the warehouse, but this gives him the opportunity to go as high as he wants to. The sky is the limit for him at corporate. This also means that we can have babies now if we want to! Not saying that we couldn't or wouldn't if this didn't happen but it definitely makes it easier! He'll be making more than what we both make together now so we can take that next step in our lives and not have to worry about losing my income to stay home with the little rugrats! It's all just really exciting and I am so proud of Erich and all of his hard work!

MOM

I've been thinking a lot lately about the role of a mother and how I am going to be taking on that role soon. (no I'm not pregnant) But I can't wait to be. I can't wait to me a mom. From as far back as I can remember everything I've done has been for my future children. Keeping things that I think they may want to look at one day, buying my wedding dress instead of borrowing or renting so that they could wear it one day if they wanted to, having this blog so they can look back on our lives and see how much we love each other, and how much we love them. In a way I feel like I'm the person I am today because of always keeping them in the back of my mind. I feel like it's kept me on the right path. The path to prepare me to be the best mom I can be.

I'm so thankful for my mom. She taught me to work hard and to be strong. I don't think there is a woman out there that is as strong as her. She was a single mom who raised me and my three siblings all by herself. If there was something that needed to be done around the house, she'd do it. If there was something that needed fixing, she'd figure out how to fix it. Looking back I don't know how she got through it all by herself. Working a full time job only to come home to another full time job. I'm so grateful for her and her example. She gave me the opportunity to be raised in the church. I always knew without a doubt that she believed it was true and I saw her try hard to live the standards. I don't even want to think about what my life would be like if she had not made it a priority to raise us up in the gospel. I have a blessed life and it is all because of a mom who chose the right and listened to the spirit. Thank you mom, for everything.

I'm so excited for the opportunity I'll have to be a mom one day. I'm thankful that I have a great husband that I'll be able to share the responsibility with. Our kids are going to be so lucky to have Erich as their dad. I'm kind of jealous of them actually. :) He's so wonderful and so fun and I just can't wait to see him holding our baby for the first time. To see the look on his face. To watch him play catch with our sons. And dress up with our daughters (he'll do it too!) I just plain can't wait. Well, maybe I can for a little bit. I'm enjoying the time I have Erich all to myself for now but we're definitely looking forward to that next stage in our lives. It's going to be a great and fun adventure! So kids, if you're reading this, know that there is no doubt we wanted you even before you were born!

She's so beautiful! Love you mom! Happy Mothers Day!!

Vancouver Weekend

We had so much fun in Vancouver! It was really nice to get away for the weekend for Erich's birthday. On Saturday we headed up to North Vancouver to check out the Lynn Valley suspension bridge. Our GPS wouldn't recognize the address so we had to stop for directions which worked out nice because we stopped at a Denny's and got Erich's free birthday breakfast. Score! Our waitress was really nice and drew us a map to get to the bridge. We finally found it and it was pretty cool. There were two water falls and a river beneath us, it was really beautiful! From there we headed over to Stanley Park. It's a big park on the West side of Vancouver. You can drive through the whole thing and stop at a bunch of different lookout areas along the way. It was kind of raining so we didn't get out of the car much and decided we'd come back the next day and explore a little more. We went back to the condo and hung out for a bit then headed out for dinner. There were like 200 places to eat within 3 blocks of our place I swear! We walked around for about an hour looking at our options and finally decided on a Thai restaurant that was right by where we were staying. Oh my gosh it was so good!! I got the red curry and Erich got sweet and sour chicken. Mmm mmm. We've got to go back to that place! Oh and get this, we were walking out and I had our leftovers in my hand. It was windy and cold out and we walked by this bum sitting on the ground. I looked at Erich and asked if we should give him our leftovers. If you know Erich, he loves leftovers more than anyone else in this whole world so this was a hard decision for him. But he said yes so I walked back to the guy, knelt down by him and asked if he wanted them. He looked at them and then to me and said, "well what is it?" "It's curry." I tell him. "Oh, then no." Whaa...um...okay. I guess I missed the memo that beggers could be choosers?? I was kind of angry about it I'm not going to lie. I was just trying to be nice and give this guy some warm (rather expensive I might add) food. And he said no because he didn't like curry?? Really?? Apparently you don't have it that bad sir. I'm over it can you tell?? :)

Sunday we woke up and lounged around till it was time to check out. Then we headed over to Stanley park. It was a much nicer day, a beautiful day actually. We stopped off first at a lake. We saw some swans and fed some ducks. We drove over to the next parking area and walked along the ocean. You could see the wide open ocean on one side and Vanouver on the other. It was really pretty. We took some pictures, fed a racoon an apple core. You know, the usual. Then it was time to head home. :(  Back to the good ol' US of A. We had so much fun. I love taking little get away weekends like that and am definitely looking forward to many more!

 This was at the Lynn Valley suspension bridge. Rainy and fun.

This was our first stop in Stanley park on Saturday, before it started raining.

We went back to Stanley park on Sunday and stopped off at this lake. It was really beautiful!

Some friends we made.

The bigger friend we made that scared our little friends away. Note to self, don't feed geese. They'll try and get all up in your business.

Vancouver.

 The bridge to get over to North Vancouver.

Another little friend we made. We fed him an apple core and he loved it. Don't tell the Mounties! :)

 Japadog. We had to go here because apparently it was on the news as being totally awesome. And it was. So good for them for being right.
 

These were by far the most awesome statues I have ever seen. And most random. Canadians are cool.

Vancouver Temple

It was such an awesome opportunity to be able to go up for the Vancouver temple open house. So gorgeous!! It was absolutely breathtaking inside and out. It was so fun to be able to walk through with people that weren't members and who were curious to know what these temples were and what we did there. It was awesome to hear their questions and our tour guide was so awesome and did such a good job. We felt the spirit very strong and I know those other people did too. Our friends Dave and Lisa went up that same weekend so we went through with them and then went out to dinner at a grill down the street from the places we were staying at (theirs happened to be right across the street from ours so that was convenient). We ate and then went and sat in the hot tub. Perfect night!

Tulips

We stopped in Mt. Vernon and went to the Tulip festival on our way up to Vancouver. The drive up there is absolutely gorgeous and the tulips were so beautiful! We spent about and hour and a half there walking around the garden and taking pictures. I never knew how many different types of tulips there were!

 Aren't these ones absolutely gorgeous?

I loved all the colors and all the different kinds. Very cool.

These were one of my favorites!

Who wouldn't like a man in a bed of tulips?

These ones were so cool! They were a really dark dark purple, almost black!

I love the pink ones.

I loved these ones too!

These were called Fabio. Erich's favorite.

Moneymaker.

These ones were so cool! They looked likes feathers.

This was in the garden area. Beautiful. Just beautiful.

We drove past these giant kites that people were out flying. They were huge. Mt. Vernon is such a cute little town. We had a lot of fun during our stop there. We will definitely be back next year for the festival again and probably for many years after that!