olympic peninsula

Thanks to my dad I went on a great fishing trip over to the olympic peninsula. We fished the Hoh river in the Olympic National Forest. We floated a long section of the river; upper hoh to lower hoh. It was really gorgeous the whole way but the best part was through the "canyon"; wow, talk about being in a different world. The river is a cool greenish gray color lined with huge boulders and moss covered trees and cliffs. I had a great time catching fish, enjoying the scenery, and being with my dad. Here are a couple pictures.

Look who's 5!!!

This big ol boy just turned 5 on March 18th.
Five is a big deal to this boy's mom! Not only is it the start of Kindergarten, but it is also the start of MANY memories (that he can ACTUALLY remember). We had 2 parties. One with family and one with 14 friends. I must say a good time was had by all, and the theme of this years presents: Weapons of mass destruction. Wes is REALLY into 1) sports and 2) weapons. He got the latter...
The family party:

The kid party:




Favorite Pics of the day (Thanks to my friend's hubby Jim):

No post is complete w/o a crazy face from Lando

Happy Birthday to my favorite little jokester who is so full of personality, insight and light! Love ya Wes!

Look who's 7!!!

My baby girl is 7. FOR REAL? Don't old people have 7 year olds? We celebrated Syd's day of birth by eating McDonand's with her at school (in which we made all the other kids jealous). Then that night we had Grandma and Grandpa Banks as well as Uncle Danner over for an EXTRAVAGANZA (aka dinner). I told Syd since we had such a HUGE b-day party for her last year (if you don't remember, 17 of her closest friends came to the raging party at our house) we were just doing a family one this year. She was okay with that. For dinner she requested shrimp linguine for a main course and cheesecake for dessert. So I did just that. We also had salad, and bruchetta (made by Aaron). The cheesecake was no ordinary cheesecake either! It was chocolate raspberry cheesecake, complete with a chocolate layer over the top! DELICIOUS, if I say so myself! It's so nice to have family around to just come over for the night/party! We LOVE IT! We also love our cute little 7 year old who brings so much joy, life, pizzaz, not to mention DRAMA to our home!! Here she is with all her fun presents and cake!
Syd around her 1st B-day! AWWW!



All the goods. LUCKY!!