Olympic Peninsula - La Push and Rialto Beach

 For Brent's spring break, we went to the peninsula for a couple of days.  We love it there, but it involves a ferry ride and a few hours in the car, so we rarely go. 

 We made it to Rialto Beach just in time for Sunset - just the 3 of us + Shelby.

 The next pictures are from earlier in the day at the beach in La Push - if you read/watch the Twilight series, you know La Push as the place that Jacob lives.  We aren't really big Twilight fans - but wanted to visit La Push anyway :)

Ryland was SO hungry after playing on the beach - he cobbled down clam chowder, fried fish, indian fry bread, and smoked salmon for dinner.  We couldn't believe how much food he inhaled and neither could our waitress (who warned us we ordered too much food... we ate it all!)

First barbeque of 2012

 We love to barbeque. With our friends, complete with guitars for sing-a-longs and bonfires for marshmallow roasting.

We hosted the first of what we hope is many this weekend.  We had about 10 friends join us, Ry loves the attention (and gifts) he gets from all his childless aunts and uncles around here!  

He also loves roasted corn with lots and LOTS of butter.

 The weather was beautiful on Saturday - I'm so ready for it to be like this every day!

 Our friend Julie brought her camera and took lots of great shots of Ryland - he is quite the little model.

and the sing-a-longs lasted until midnight... sorry neighbors!  Fun fact: this is Russell - and he was my next door neighbor when I was 6 years old.  I think nearly everyone at our house this weekend is an Ephrata native - we just can't get away from these guys (not that we'd ever want to.)

Blowing out the candles

Here's my favorite video from the birthday festivities - Ry loves being the center of attention!

Our "Lil Man" Turned 2

 What better birthday party theme for our 2 year old than a "Little Man" party? 

 

Ry wore his dressy blazer, a button-up shirt, and a fancy mustache.  Just like a lil' man.

 The grown-ups got mustaches too :)

I made a mustache cake and some cupcakes for the occasion

 He blew out the candle on his mustache cake like a pro!

 Yummy!

 We had so many good friends come to celebrate Ry.  The Hryniewicz family is about as cute as you can get.

  my good friend/best nanny ever Kelly and her man Graham

 Sharon and Tony love mustaches and cake.

 The Scotts are pretty cute as well.

 

 I made some party bags complete with mustaches - Ryland loved the kazoo that was inside.

 His friends all brought such fun presents - he loved opening all of them and wanted to play with everything right away.

 He had friends to help him open everything

 This card plays music and we still open it up and dance daily

 

"Thank you for the ball, Addie!" (these 2 love to kiss eachother - uh oh!)

 

 

Ry got this cool 2-wheeler from mom and dad.  It's a balance bike - he's doing pretty darn well learning to ride it!

 

 

These boys had a blast playing in the yard after the party

  

Chance tried out Ry's new bike and Ryland didn't take that cute backpack off all day.

Ry had such a great birthday - and I think everyone else had fun too!  Can't believe our little guy is 2, but so far we love this age :)

Ryland's Ephrata Birthday Party!

Ryland is so lucky to have TONS of people who love him... so many people that for the second year in a row we split his birthday party up between family and friends because we don't anywhere big enough to host a party with all of them combined.  Last week we went back to Ephrata to have a birthday party with my family and a lot of Brent's family too.

 Grandma and Grandpa Allred let us use their house for the party

 Brent grilled up some yummy burgers topped with grilled Anaheim peppers - they were a hit!

 

 Aunt Callie and almost-Uncle David came over for the celebration

 Aunt Auti and her new boyfriend Seth stopped by too (they left early to go see the Hunger Games though!)

 Somehow I didn't get a photo of the cousins.  Isaac, Ian, Izzie, and Ilyssa were all there too and Grandma Allred organized a fun Easter egg hunt for all of them.

 (Ryland closes his eyes in 50% of photos... just like his daddy)

 He got A LOT of presents.  So many that when we got home, we had to buy a new shelf for the playroom to store them all.

 Look at that face!!  He really wanted to hold the cars that were on the cake.

 Aunt Callie ripped Lightning McQueen off the cake and let him hold it.  Instantly happy.

 Thanks for the cool cake, mimi!

 It was yummy too!

It was so nice to see Kayleen - she was in all the way from Boise for the weekend

 

One of Ryland's most treasured gifts - a Woody from Mimi.  He sleeps with it every night.

Thank you to everyone who came!  We have the best family.

Hooray!

I got into the program at UW - will be starting my master's degree in September and may be done with it as soon as June 2013.  Can't wait to finish my degree and get back to working! 

That said, I'm now looking for a really awesome Montessori pre-school or 2-year old program for the little man while I'm doing my practicum.  Easier said than done, I'm sure.

Some photos from March

 I'm so jealous of this picture - our kid is not much of a cuddler and he certainly NEVER falls asleep with me.  Love my boys!

 Ryland loves posing.  The day I took this photo, he begged me to take his picture.  He led me outside and pointed to different spots saying "cheese!"  - he posed in about 20 spots around the yard making ridiculously cute model faces like this one.  I saw a casting call today for a photo shoot in Seattle for the summer line of our FAVORITE kid shoes (See Kai Run) - so I submitted some of these photos.  C'mon, he's got this modeling thing down.  How could they not pick him? ;)