I'm a big girl!:)

Brayden made me a special order sandwich and Peyton handled the cash register

Putting together a totem pole

Waiting for the train, they are so excited!!!!

At the beginning of June on a Thursday I had a free day, nothing planned, no where to go, nothing to do and the kids were already driving me crazy. I decided I needed to do something spontaneous and fun! I checked out my summer calendar (made by my awesome friend Shari) and choose taking the train to downtown Tacoma, going to the Children's Museum, and then check out the Farmer's Market. I was a little nervous because I had never done any of this before, I didn't really know where I was going, or how the kids would act all day. But, with the help of my friend Shari who does this outing often, I made it on the train, got off on the right exit and even made it to the Children's museum without a hitch!:) I got there right when it opened and the kids had such a fun time exploring. Their favorite thing was the sandwich shop and the "farmer's market" they had set up for them. After we were there for awhile we walked around the real farmer's market and tried samples, we then sat down at the park and ate our picnic lunches. It was a really fun day. I think their favorite part was riding the train. The best part of the day is that it was all free!!!! Will definitely be doing that again soon:)

Randomness from the Metcalfe's

Brayden and me at my special Mother's Day celebration

Brayden in the "ready" position

Hitting the ball

Practicing at home with daddy's homemade T

Ok, the kid LOVES wearing his helmet and insists on wearing all around the house. Here he is watching a movie:) He takes it very seriously!

Yeah yeah, I know it's been awhile since I've done a blog, but that's life. Travis has school 3 nights a week this quarter and that's been really hard on all of us. I hurt my hip a few weeks ago and have been trying to "rest" it while taking care of two kids, and living our busy life. I'm hoping to be back at the gym soon! In the meantime, Brayden started t-ball this spring season and just loves it. Practices have been rough on everyone except Brayden since they are Monday nights (which daddy has class that night), so Peyton and I get to sit out in the cold (remember that freezing cold, windy night last week...) and endure an hour of his practice. He has games every Saturday for awhile and he LOVES it. We're really glad he likes it so much and that makes sitting in the rain a little bit easier:) School is winding down for Brayden :(, but I had a great time at my Mother's Day celebration the kids put on for us last Friday. They sang us songs, made us beautiful presents, and even made and served us cake and punch. It was so cute to see them on their best behavior for mommy.
Peyton has been exploring every limit mommy and daddy have ever given her. It's been a fun last couple of weeks. Mommy is tired but knows soon this too shall pass:) She has been super cute lately carrying around her baby everywhere and especially needing to sleep with it. So cute! When mommy's tired and ready for daddy's school to be on a loooooooooong break, days like yesterday are what keep me going. We had a great mother's day and I felt relaxed loved and appreciated! The kids got up with daddy and make me blueberry pancakes with bacon. Yummy! They all made me cards, and I got a cool immersion blender for the kitchen, and a new book, "Bringing up Girls" (go figure:). Travis helped me teach my baby class at church, and then we had lunch at my mom's house. The guys served us all and Travis made the BEST DESSERT!! White chocolate bread pudding from Nordstroms! It was delicious. It took the poor guy a few hours to make it altogether, but it was worth it. We relaxed in the sun and just enjoyed being with our family. Happy Mother's Day to me!

Peyton sleeping with her baby, cute!

The big 30

This is Travis "helping" an actor. This picture will forever make me laugh:)

I know it's scanned, but seriously the best night ever!:)

On March 31st I turned the big 30! It was a day I feel like I've been dreading since I turned 20:) Once you are out of your 20's I thought I would feel old. The crazy part is I feel better as 29 and 30 then I have my whole 20's! I attribute that to more exercise, eating better, and not being pregnant:) In one of my previous posts I mentioned our Olympic trip to celebrate both of us turning 30 this year, and I figured that was plenty of celebrating, but Travis had other ideas.
On the Thursday before my birthday Travis came home from work a whole 1 1/2 early. When he walked in the door I said "you didn't get fired did you?" Hahaha, he told me I had a half an hour to get a dress on for a night out. He completely surprised me! I was expecting to have a quiet night at home with a trip to the YMCA. We dropped the kids off at my mom's who was obviously in on the plot and then we drove to our friends house to meet friends from our Bible study. The whole time I'm in the dark about everything, but got really excited when we picked up our friends, thinking this was going to be a fun night whatever we do! We drove up to Seattle and went into Theatro Zinzanni, which is a play/musical/comedy improv/gourmet dinner/a great show. You sit at tables in this tent thing and the actors are right there around you. There are people singing, some people doing Circ De Soliel stuff, some actors doing comedy, and on top of that you get served a 5 course gourmet meal. I had so much fun!!!!! The best part was when Travis was called up to "help" one of the actors and it was hilarious! I had the time of my life and wouldn't have picked a better way to celebrate my 30th birthday. I was surrounded by great lifetime friends, watched a great show, ate some amazing food, and the best part is I was completely surprised! So Fun! Props to Travis for planning this amazing night, and props to my friends who came, found babysitting, and paid a lot of money to come:) Happy Birthday to me!

We also celebrated my birthday with my family at one of my favorite past times- Azteca. It was a fun night with yummy chocolate cake (compliments of Tiffany), and dulce de leche Cheesecake (compliments of Travis). I definitely felt so loved and celebrated this year for my birthday. I'm excited to see what comes next!

My nephew Roman cheesing it at my birthday

Best friends!

My mom and older sister Selina

Peyton and I cheesing it:)

Gotta love the Azteca hat, I've worn it for every birthday I can remember:)

Makes me smile

The last few days we have been potty training Peyton. We thought she was ready and are really sick of buying diapers:) So far, it has been really frustrating, but I think we are moving in the right direction. She is slowly getting it and that gives me hope. We've been frustrated a lot these past few days, but we also have been laughing a lot. Today Peyton says "Dear Jesus, please help Peyton go potty, Amen!" :) Another funny comment, I asked "Is Peyton a big girl?" she answered, "No mommy, I'm not a big girl, I'm a Peyton:)" Although we're happy to slowly leave this diaper stage, it makes us sad too. The kids just grow up so fast!
Speaking of kids growing up, I've been dreaming of this day for years! The picture will explain it all...

Olympic Adventures

Many streets were completely closed to cars. There were street performers everywhere. It was crowded!

Travis carrying the world on his shoulders:)

Travis and I had the privilege of going to the Olympics in Vancouver Canada last weekend! We decided to go last minute and be spontaneous. We left on Friday afternoon and dropped the kids off at grandma's work. Then Travis surprised me with a dinner at Bizarro's in Seattle (if you know anything about the food network, Guy went there on triple D!). We then drove up to our hotel close to Bellingham. It was only 7:30 so we decided to drive over the border and check out the Olympic torch at night. We made it over the border no problems and hopped on the the sky-train. It was a little sketchy at night. A lot of people who had been drinking, but also a lot of Canada spirit. People were singing "O Canada" over and over again:) It was a fun atmosphere. At one point I look around the sky-train and realize that Travis and I are the only people not wearing red and white and not singing "O Canada", I encouraged Travis to lip-sinc so we wouldn't get attacked for being Americans:) That was one thing I was surprised about was how much people talked about hating the Americans (in not such nice language). We definitely felt like foreigners at times.

Seeing the torch at night was just beautiful! No other words to describe it. To know what it represents was just so cool! We drove back to our hotel and got to sleep by 1am. On Saturday we got up and went back over the border (after we waited for 40 minutes), and got downtown around 11:30. We just wanted to walk through the streets and see all the different things. It was crowded and we had to wait in a line to do anything. We shopped at the official Olympics store and we saw people ziplining above the crowd. There was a skating rink set up in the middle of town and just lots of cool things to see. We had lunch and found a cute cupcake shop. It was such a neat experience to see it all. We were slightly disappointed that we didn't go to an actual event. But seriously, $500 for a ticket just seemed a bit high, even for the Olympics. So, maybe next time. This time we were proud of ourselves for going, it's a once in a lifetime experience and really it's 3 1/2 hours away from home. We will always remember this fun little getaway! Yeah for the Olympics!:)

The official Olympic clock

This was the best cupcake ever!! Moist chocolate cupcake with cream caramel buttercream frosting!!! So good!!!

Weekend Couple's Retreat

Out a midnight bowling. Shari has her arm around John who didn't join us:)

Can't help but laugh at Peter in the background:)

Travis and I were able to go away on a couple's retreat in January to Bellevue with some great friends. We are learning to take advantage of the time we get away from the monsters and we enjoyed every minute of it! On Saturday we dropped of the kids at my parents and met our friends at Maggiano's for lunch. We love that place a lot. We did the family style all you can eat food, which was so delicious. Travis and I definitely didn't need to eat the rest of the day, but weren't overly stuffed. Some of our friends though said they couldn't eat there again because they ate too much:) Then we checked into our hotel and hung out. We took advantage of the free happy hour at the hotel along with some snacks and play games with our friends. Some of us went to the hot-tub and enjoyed watching the horde of kids play in the swimming pool (the hotel was so full of kids it was insane:). At about 11 we decided to go bowling at a nearby bowling ally. Good times:) On Sunday we all met for breakfast and relaxed some more. We then went with friends to Bellevue Square and did some shopping and ended our weekend at P.F. Chang's for lunch. We had a great time away, loved reconnecting with friends, and enjoyed all the yummy food:) Gotta love a couple's retreat. The only thing that we wished was that we had just one more night away:)

Brayden's Special Day

Brayden and his teacher Mrs. Russell

Playing a game with his class.

Wearing his "Special Day" sign

Making cookies

As you all know Brayden is in 4-year old preschool this year and we are so happy with our choice to put him at Puget Sound Christian School. He has grown up and learned so much this year, it's amazing to watch him grow. He loves his teacher and she only ever has good things to say about him. In his class each child gets assigned a "Special Day." On that day the child can bring in their families, a pet, a favorite food, ect. So I asked Brayden what he wanted to do..... Daddy, mommy and Peyton came to class. They had a snack of Krispy Kreme donuts and popcorn. We then decorated cookies that were in the shape of a B. Then we looked at some baby pictures and Brayden's scrap book from his Disneyland trip last year, and his favorite part was when Emma got to come in the classroom to meet all his friends. She was a good doggie and the kids thought it was so funny how much she wagged her tail at them. Brayden got to wear a special award and be the special helper in his class that day. I hope he felt special, because he is!
Also, the cutest part of the day was Peyton. She just made herself at home in the classroom and just loved playing with the other kids. She is already so ready for pre-school. One more year Peyton!