Baby Fun Times

I thought I'd share with you what James likes to do in his free time.

He likes to go to the nearby children's museum. They don't have exhibits or artifacts like other museums, but they do have different play areas with some explanations about how things work. James was so excited to be there that he stomped and yelled which is how he expresses his joy. He also likes to "fly" by running with his arms held backward. He kept climbing up on this one area that Michael removed him from several times.

James enjoys eating foods that are not on the approved list of foods to fatten up babies. He loves eating fruit, but is supposed to eat fruit only with whipped cream or heavy cream. Since he got his fifth tooth in this week, I let him chew on an apple. He's gotten pretty good at eating apples except for the skin--he digs the skin out of his mouth and hands it to me. Thank you, baby. It's pretty cute to watch him walking around holding the apple in his little hands.

We went to the mall yesterday to buy Michael some new pants and shorts. He is losing weight, so he needed some new clothes. By the way, this mall has a food court with any kind of delicious ethnic food you could want. They have sushi, boba juice, Korean, BBQ, burgers, Mediterranean, Chinese, Indian, seafood, Thai, Vietnamese, pizza, Russian, Japanese, soup, tacos, and Italian. Amazing! Back to the point... in the mall, there were these cars and I had some quarters. We thought we'd see if James liked riding in them. Did he ever! He did some low riding, happy yelling, and adorable smiling. He must love cars just like his dad does. (You can see his new tooth if you click on the smiling photo.)

Last but not least, James loves seeing other kids and babies. We love our playdates with our friends and we've had a few other visits with people from church and their little ones. James is starting to interact a little bit more with the other babies instead of just pulling hair and taking toys. This is a good thing.

Seattle Date Night

I planned our date last week and I chose for us to go downtown. I wanted to try out The Crab Pot restaurant and ride Seattle's Great Wheel which is like a Ferris wheel with enclosed compartments.

The wait at The Crab Pot was too long, so we went to a restaurant we had been to before: Fishermans. But, this time we got to sit outside right by the water. And we saw some new friends who are our neighbors and go to church with us. They were nice enough to come chat with us a little bit.

We enjoyed our ride on the wheel even though it was a bit cramped with two couples besides us in there. The view was great and we got to go around a lot of times.

Some views from my side of the table

The happy date-night couple

Michael showing off his photog skills

Me after we rode on the Great Wheel

Oregon Coast

We have some very generous and dear friends who offered us a weekend at their beach condo on the Oregon Coast. We stayed at their home near Portland for one night and then enjoyed two days out at the coast. It was a wonderful and quick getaway. It was crazy because we honeymooned there and now, three years later, we brought our baby with us.

The condo is at the Inn at Otter Crest which is between Lincoln and Newport. James had a blast playing with toys at the condo. Michael and I enjoyed being away from our home for a few days and revisiting some meaningful places.

We went down to Newport and looked around a little bit with our curious boy. Then we went to dinner at Local Ocean Seafoods where we had eaten on our honeymoon.

We love the crab cakes at this restaurant and we always have to try out the crab cakes at every restaurant since we got them on our honeymoon. The weather was so nice that day that the restaurant opened up these big window-doors so you could enjoy the lovely breeze. And James, of course, loved his french fries.

The professional photographer, Michael, took some amazing shots of the sunset from the balcony at the condo.

The next day was a little bit cloudier which was more like our honeymoon. We took James down to the water to see what he'd think. He was either too tired to be interested or a little scared.

We enjoyed the gorgeous scenery and the trip away from normal life. A big thank you to our friends who gifted us with this same great trip at the start of our marriage and again now!

Grandma Hubbard

I started writing this post earlier this year when my Grandma Hubbard passed away. She would have been 80 years old last month. I love her and I miss her a lot. I wanted to finally post this as a small tribute to her even though my writing is not as good as I'd like it to be.

I did not think that she would go so soon. But she had been dealing with Alzheimer's, arthritis, scoliosis, and a stress fracture in her back. From what I was told, she died from a heart attack and from her organs shutting down. I'm glad that I got to visit her about a week before she died.

Her funeral was difficult because her death really surprised me. The world and I lost a really great lady. Her grandkids sang her favorite hymn "Love at Home" at the service which was hard to get through. I had the privilege of helping to dress her body for her burial. The military honored her with a salute before they laid her body to rest and it was very touching to hear.

I was very close to my grandma--I think I was closer to her than any other relative that I have. I probably felt so close to her because I've always looked up to her. I like to think that I get some traits from her besides my large Hughes ankles. She loved having people over and hosting parties. She often seemed to be puttering around the house organizing and doing little things for people.

She was happy, strong, smart, loving, hard-working, tough, funny, kind, and faithful. She was in the first nursing class at the University of Utah and she was an army nurse in the Korean war. She later held other prestigious and influential nursing positions while creating and raising a beautiful family.

My grandpa said that you knew Bonnie loved you by the way that she treated you. She would always sit by me and hold my hand. She saved magazines, newspapers, and books for me because she knew that I liked to read. Everytime we left her house, she would grab food or some decoration to give me as a gift.

She was a wonderful wife, mom, and grandma. The photos below are from her 50th wedding anniversary and from my wedding. She came from Salt Lake to Chicago to attend my wedding reception and family dinner even though flying gave her problems with her legs.

My grandma was very faithful in our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.) She was a Latter-day Saint (or Mormon) her whole life even though my grandpa was not Mormon when they got married. She always attended church and raised my mom and aunt in the church. My grandpa decided to get baptized 2 years ago when he was 76, after he and my grandma had been married for 52 years. The next year they were sealed in the Manti, Utah Temple which means that we believe their marriage does not end at death.

I'm lucky to have been born into her family. I remember that we had a lot of fun with her as kids and I was blessed to get to know her better as an adult as well. I'll cherish the time we spent together and all the funny and interesting stories she told me about her life.

I love you, Bonnie Jean. I'm sure your physical pain is gone and that you have all your memories back now. I hope you watch over us and we'll see you in heaven someday.

WinSE Family Picnic

Michael's big team at work had a family picnic and it was so much fun.

I can't tell you how much James loved the bounce house. He didn't even care when a mom called him "her," when a kid fell on his head, or when we let him fall out the entrance. Oops! He just ran around and clapped and smiled.

Michael and I had fun walking around in these hamster ball things. But they were pretty toasty inside.

We also had a great time on the zip line, although my landing wasn't the most graceful thing. We stood in line next to a guy from church- small world.

James was a bit too tired to enjoy the awesome slides.

Our family, after eating and playing. I'm just rocking my Olympics hat, no big deal.

I am so grateful that we are at Microsoft. Even though we are far from our dear families, the Northwest is a gorgeous and friendly place. Michael's bosses are kind to him, they recognize his hard work, the company treats our family well, we have benefits, Michael enjoys his projects, and Microsoft is doing really exciting things in the technology world.