California Mini Vacation

Last week Joey and I flew to San Jose, California with my mom and sister to attend my cousin David's wedding and my second cousin Matthew's Baptism.

We went for a long weekend, but let me tell you it was a much needed and nice break.
The weather was beautiful down there. Atleast 75 degrees. They were having a dry spell which looks like they are in for a drought this summer.

The wedding was a lot of fun. Joey enjoyed the DJ's lighting and the music. We danced a lot, mainly b/c me swaying Joey around the dance floor was the only way to hold on to him without him trying to run away.

Joey and I stayed at my Aunt Meg and Uncle Randy's house where my dad had been staying since before we got there. Holly and my Mom stayed at Godmother Els' house. My mom has known Els since her early 20's so she was excited to catch up and hang out with her. Els is Holly's Godmother.

Joey did so well down in California. He was rather rambunctious and from an outsider's perpsective they would have thought he was a crazy ball of energy, but thats what he is like everyday. Tiresome yes, but it never gets old! He slept well in a new enviroment and he got to play at several parks. Its to cold to go to parks here right now, but watching him play and climb and slide made me look forward to this summer with him.

The Baptism went well too. Joey was a little too loud during the actual baptism ceremony so Mommy had to take him outside, but he sure did eat afterwards at the reception!

In all our long weekend was quite nice. We made it out to Santa Cruz and Joey got to run barefoot in the sand. He looks so carefree when he does this and it makes me wish we lived near a nice beach. There are no nice beaches in Washington, there are some good lakes, but those don't really count.

Santa Cruz


All dressed up at the wedding


Joey and his cousin Aidan


Joey and I on our way to the Baptism


Playing in the park



On Georgie and Tom's Motorcycle

Close Call Flooding

I'm sure by now everyone is aware of the crazy weather Washington has been experiencing this Winter. December brought us tons of snow and a sort of "White Christmas" and January brought torrential rains and flooding conditions. Needless to say its been exciting.

On Wednesday, after several days of pouring rain the rivers around Washington started to rise b/c of all the snowmelt in the mountains and the 20 inches of rain that fell there. We live about a block and a half away from the Puyallup River and our neighborhood is located on Levee Road. In the morning when I drove by the river on the way to the store I noted that the water seemed fairly high but no more different then normal river height after a lot of rain. It was also moving very rapidly. Later in the afternoon, my sister had came to visit and when she left said that Levee road had been closed down due to the river rising. After her phone call things started to get hectic real quick. I got a recorded phone call from the Fife Fire Department alerting our area of the high chance of flooding in our neighborhood and that it was strongly urged that we evacuate. I called Josh asking what I should do and he suggested to get some stuff together and head out of there.

Meanwhile, my Mom had called and said she was stuck in traffic trying to get to my house. (She was on her way to babysit Joey while I went to play volleyball). So I started trying to get things together as fast as I could. I flipped the news on and the situation seemed so elevated and that flooding was more than likely imminent. There were news helicopters and police sirens and firetrucks around my neighborhood by the time my mom arrived. It was so loud and it began to get a bit scary. An emergency personel came to our house and told us that we had 30 minutes to get out before they released the Dam b/c it was about to burst on its own. At that point I kicked it up in high gear and got everything together and threw random stuff in my car. While this was all going on Josh was at work so I had to get all this done by myself. I'm glad I had my mom there b/c it was pretty panicky in our whole neighborhood. We made it out of our neighborhood and was stuck in traffic for a good 30 minutes all the while being only 1 mile away from our house. About an hour later I got over to my parents house and turned on the news. Apparently the info had been changed or mixed up b/c the news said they wouldn't release the dam until the river crested. Needless to say the news, the county and emergency personel workers were not on the same page and sort of elevated the situation more then it needed to be.

After many hours of watching the news and getting different reports I finally just relied on what Josh had to tell me. He came home from work early and stayed at the house in case anything happened. The Puyallup River was expected to crest around 3am so it was kind of a long night waiting it out. In the morning it turned out the river crested below record flood stages. No Flooding! Thank Goodness! By the time I got home in the early afternoon the river had lowered a lot. By the next day we could see the road below the levee right next to the river again. While looking back on this it seemed silly (the whole panic and chaos of it all) but at the time it seemed all too real and all too scary. I've never had to deal with an emergency evacuation before and as I put all my stuff back that I took with me it went to show that the things that are most important will always be with me (Joey and Josh), everything else can be replaced.

*The Puyallup River, below record flood stage level. You can't tell from this angle, but there is a road below the road pictured. Its covered in water. This picture was taken the day after the emergency evacuation.

Happy New Year

I hope everyone had a happy New Year and a great Holiday season all together!

I'm looking forward to starting a new year and everything that it will bring.
We're hoping for another baby this year, so please pray for us on that one! =)

Joey has gotten so big recently. Everytime I look at pictures from a couple months prior he seems so small compared to now. He is quickly growing out of his clothes, but we are so lucky to have a lot of "hand me downs" from Josh's bosses and new clothes from our family and friends.
Joey talks more and more each day. It is amazing to see what he understands. He doesn't know a lot of words but if I ask him to bring me his shoes or go get his tuckie (pacifier) he knows exactly where to get them. He's even to smart for his own good. Yesterday I caught him flipping over the laundry basket and climbing on top of it to reach the shelf below our tv. His new favorite thing is to turn on and off the lights. I can't tell you how many times I have cooked half our dinners by stove light b/c Joey likes the lights off. We also have to be careful about doors now. He knows how to open those too. Two weeks ago I went outside to turn our Christmas lights on and saw Joey quickly running to the door. I immediately shut the door only to realize I locked myself out of the house with Joey inside. I wasn't too worried at first b/c I figured he would open the door but he was all out sorts and crying that he was too hysterical to open the door. After 10 minutes of running from the front yard to the back yard in the snow I finally coaxed Joey to the back door where he could easily flip the lock up so I could open the door. After I got in the house I immediately scooped him up and held him close. I was so sad to see him so upset, but so grateful that he atleast knew to unlock the door.
Joey of course is such a silly boy. The other day I was getting ready to put Joey in the shower with me. I turned the water on and started to undress. I turned around just in time to see Joey close the shower door and get in the shower, clothes on and everything. He's a silly boy and that truely made me laugh from the bottom of my stomach. I love that everything is new to him. It's amazing to see the innocence and curiousity of a child.

Anyways, just a quick, long update.

We hope you all have a great New Year!