Alestair special birthday train trip!

Steam Train!! WHOO!

Our Engine

We didn't do a birthday party for Alestair with friends this year. Instead I found some awesome tickets (thank you Wendy!) for a 1.5hr train ride in Chehalis. Our adventure group ended up with Aunt Wendy and Uncle Nic, Tina, Jake and Madison, Grandma Fee and Aunt Stacy, and of course Alestair, Emmett, Robert and myself. We drove down and met up with Aunt Wendy and Uncle Nic, got our tickets and hung out for a bit. It was kids day surpisingly so we let the kids play around for a while.

Emmett loves his Aunt Wendy!

Emmett was very happy to see everyone as usual. Alestair was very excited about the trains and looking for his Stacy. Grandma Fee and Aunt Stacy made it for the train just as they put on and extra two train cars and about 20min before we left. We were waiting on the train for them. We moved into the dining car and had the whole car to ourselves most of the trip. It was awesome! Alestair and Emmett and Maddy had fun looking out the windows and seeing the cows/horses. Emmett loved to wave at everyone outside the train.

Grandma Fee, Its Mama taking my pciture again!

He was a big fan of Grandma Fee. Alestair was very very happy to have her come but as usual got super shy and only talked to her after a few hours. He did nearly jump out of the window when he saw her walking up to the train.



The happy boys!

Alestair with Aunt Stacy (He actually begged me to have
Stacy "howd him" on the train the day before.)

Maddy and Alestair. Best Friends!

Leaning out for a picture but not too sure about it.

OH! so cute!

We sure had a great time with everyone! It was a really nice day so we took our picnic lunch to the park and ate there. We shared tuna fish, PB&J and potatoe salad. The muchkins played on the toys for a while before Alestair opened his present. He got a really awesome white with blue screen print of Thomas, Percy and James the train engines. There was also a shirt to match at 5T I thought they would be huge for a while but they fit him nearly perfect. Emmett had a melt down over not having enough mashed potatoes (and who wouldn't). Alestair hardly ate anything but had 3 sandwiches plus a few bowls of cereal when he got home. After we got all packed up Uncle Nic and Aunt Wendy brought out a super special surpise for Alestair. They gave him a real model trian set! Alestair has been in love ever since. He had to sleep with one of the box cars that night.

Thanks to all who helped us make Alestair feel so special!

Happy Fourth!

After the parade we had a BBQ and a few of our friends joined us. Lisa and Katelyn and Jake, Tina and Maddy. Alestair and Maddy slept through pretty much all the fun.

I found some sunglasses in the stroller. Emmett was a big fan. the one size fits all really didn't fit Robert though. I love Emmett looking at Robert in the last picture.

Alestair's very special tank fire cracker. Yes all fireworks are illgal here but we did them anyway.

Boys in the decked out wagon watching the fireworks.

Alestair with his first parachute fire cracker!

Everett Fourth of July Parade

Waiting for the parade to start and our friends to come. The boys and I traced our outlines and played tic tac toe.

My boys and I waiting. They were having fun stuffing their faces with graham crackers. Robert went down early to save our seats while the boys and I came about a half hour before it started. It was about 6 blocks away. I pack the cooler backpacks and hooked them to the back of both the wagon seats. It worked awesome! I had lots of people telling me how great an idea it was. I felt so prepared! I had snacks and drinks and diapers and wipes and chalk yeah it was awesome.

 They had a large group of red tactors that got Alestair all excited. Emmett really liked the whole thing and kept trying to join in. He got really fast with his crawling.

These are the dancers that some day will be Heather and Ryan. :) They also had some really great marching bands and bagpipers. come to find out they actually have a childrens bagpipping group. We want to put Alestair in it when he gets old enough.

The Tulip Tree

 Not a magnolia trying to look like tulips in a tree. It is a real Tulip Tree. Everett is known for them and the oldest living tree happens to be in the very front of our boundry line from our neighbor and the street. The city has it protected (not that they do an awesome job taking care of it). We love it for the most part. After it blooms though you end up with brown petel/leaves everywhere and then the leaves actually start to fall which means a lot of raking in the steep part of the front yard. We do love it though! I haven't ever seen one bloom before and it was really pretty. the petels are a lot like leaves and start green but have an orange stripe near the bottom. They are just really cool looking.

Pre 4th of July sparklers and Marshmallow roasting.

We really wanted to light some fireworks off. Obviously it was not the warmest of nights. Alestair was the only one of us that decided he was warm enough without long sleeves. We decided that friends or not we were going to let the boys stay up late and make some fire :). The boys were excited! They watched me set up while Robert got them ready and the sparklers ready. We kept the rest of our fireworks for the actual Fourth of July. Alestair was of course most excited to roast marshmallows. He has never done sparklers before so this was a big deal.

My boys. Alestair wanted to take pictures with Emmett really bad.
Neither one wanted to look at me though. I love Emmett trying to
sneak Alestair's marshmallow and Alestair laughing at him.

The boys loved to eat the marshmallows but couldn't wait for them to roast. I however used the red (or pink) white and blue star marshmallows and made a very beautiful marshmallow stack.

 Robert soon brought out the sparklers. He got Alestair started with one and stood back while I took pictures. Emmett watched from the sidewalk. Robert was never far away. Alestair did really well and listened far better than I think he had in days.

With Robert's help Emmett got to do one sparkler for his second Fourth of July. He was pretty happy with it. He said "OOOOO!" nearly the whole time. I love his O face!

We got a cute video of him with the sparklers. He only tried to reach for it once. I love nights where we get to do things like this. It is so much fun and such a memory!