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Holidays

Grandpa’s 71st Birthday Celebration at the Space Needle

Grandpa and Grandma invited the Bush and Olbright families to the Space Needle for lunch to celebrate their 71st birthdays and wedding anniversary. Although it was a cloudy and rainy day, everyone had a great time.

The day started out with an elevator ride up to the Space Needle. Grandpa is afraid of heights so he wedged himself into a corner. The elevator operator said the elevator goes 10 miles per hour up to the height of the Space Needle. We had good views of the Pacific Science center and Seattle waterfront.

After ordering, the Grandparents opened their presents from the Olbrights and our girls. Katherine and Allison were very proud that they made and/or purchased their gifts with their own money. Katherine gave Grandpa a bird house and Grandma some bath stuff. Allison gave a bee candle holder that she picked out.

Lunch arrives and everyone digs in. The girls eat a good lunch as the dessert at the Space Needle is very special. For dessert, everyone got a Lunar Orbiter. A Lunar Orbiter is a two scope ice cream sundae on top of a bed of dry ice. The wait staff pours hot water onto the dry ice right before serving to make the dessert start smoking. It’s quite the special experience.

The Bush family had to leave at 1:30P as Steve had a Qi review at work that he couldn’t be late for. The Olbrights and the grandparents went upstairs to the observation deck to take in the rainy sights.

Amy’s 40th Birthday Party

Amy turned 40 this year. The extended family got together to celebrate Amy’s 40th at Grandma Dottie’s house. Kevin, Tyler, Katherine, and Allison all performed charades. Rosebud joined the fun, too.

Amy suggested that we leave yellow sticky notes around the house with a note for my parents. The kids had fun finding interesting places to hide the notes. Steve placed his on the ceiling. You get the idea.

For brunch, the adults had curry chicken salad, a family favorite, and the kids had pizza. We concluded with a 40th birthday game, actually 40th times two. It was good to catch up with the Bushes and Olbrights and talk about growing older together.

Allison’s 7th Birthday Party

Allison turned 7 this year. On her birthday, Allison had a birthday celebration at OWS. Katherine joined the celebration which really made Allison happy. Each member of the class told a story about what they liked about Allison and received a popsicle to celebrate. Mrs. Sorenson, Allison’s teacher, put on a birthday hat for Allison to wear for the rest of the day. Allison decided that we would bring in most of her jewelry to wear with the crown. In Allison’s mind, a Queen needs her jewelry.

In the evening, we celebrated Allison’s birthday with a cake. Katherine tried to help Allison light the candles but Allison gave her typical response: “no, I do it!”. Overall, Allison had a great birthday with several celebrations (OWS, extended family birthday party, and just the nuclear family). For presents, she opened her American Girl bedroom set.

Allison’s Family Birthday Party

We celebrated Allison’s seventh birthday a couple of days earlier with the extended family. Allison’s original request was to just have the grandparents. She woke up Sunday morning wanting the Olbrights to attend as well. Luckily the Olbrights were free in the afternoon so we could all celebrate together. It was a beautiful, sunny day. We spent most of the afternoon outside enjoying the sun and playing in the backyard. Allison learned to catch baseballs with uncle Jason and cousin Tyler. Rosebud entertained everyone by chasing us around the backyard and vice versa. It turned out to be too windy to light and blow out the candles outdoors so we piled into the house to sing happy birthday to Allison and blow out the candles. Then we moved back outside to enjoy cake and ice cream. After opening presents, Allison decided to give a violin recital. She played several pieces from her past lessons to everyone’s enjoyment.

To conclude the evening, we got out the fire pit. Our marshmallows had expired long ago so we promised to roast marshmallows another time.

Easter 2012

Easter was special this year as it was the second day home for Rosebud, our new Golden Retriever. The girls had a great time hunting for Easter eggs while Christine and Rosebud watched. Rosebud also got her first bath. Christine and I remember fondly giving Bisco, our previous Golden, his first bath. Rosebud and Bisco had pretty much the same reaction: “Please get me out of here!”. Rosebud spends a lot of time sleeping and “going potty”.