Losing Power and starting baseball

The Friday before the opening weekend of Little League baseball we had a significant wind storm that brought 60-70 MPH winds to our house in the morning.  We woke up and it was windy and then all of a sudden around 7:30 AM our lights started to flicker and then we lost power.  Then the winds kept crashing and our whole house was shaking.  We got dressed still and took the kids to school even though we knew Brandon probably wouldn't have power since we did not have it.  He ended up not having power at his school but his school continued on with their back up generator.  Sean got Olivia to school and her school did not have power so he had to take her to work with him until I was done with my pilates class.  I drove out to my 8:15 AM pilates class in my work car as I was going to go to my office afterwards and install my new laptop and the winds were crashing around my work car and making it sway but I got to pilates class and was able to do the Stair Master being leaving and heading home to get my car and check on things around our house.  I was quite worried because I found several roofing shingles on the ground although our neighbor thought they were his.  We still did not have power and it was still very windy at our house.  I got Olivia and then had booked the child watch at the YMCA so we went to McDonalds at Sherwood which had power still and got lunch and powered up all our electronics and then headed to the YMCA where Olivia got to go to Child care for an hour and I worked for an hour.  Then we headed home and right after we got home we got an e-mail from the school stating it is ok to pick up the kids early at 2:00 PM since they still do not have power.  We then headed right to the school and picked Brandon up.  Lucky I had my work MiFi and the kids watched movies saved on their iPads until Sean got home and then we went out to dinner at Pizza Schimiza because we still did not have power.  We came home and still did not have power and it was dark out.  We had several camping lanterns and several flash lights so we were ready.  The kids enjoyed a fun flash light story with Daddy and then Olivia came into Brandon's room and sept with him in his bunk beds.

Flashlight story telling

The power was still out the next morning which made me cranky because I did not have any coffee!  Olivia and I got ready and we headed to gymnastics and was super late due to the tree that caused our power outage still blocking traffic on Bull Mountain road.  We got to gymnastics and I got my caffeine finally at Starbucks which made me happier.  Brandon and Sean went to Brandon's opening day Little League ceremony and got dressed up their uniforms and had a blast.  Then Olivia and I headed to Fred Meyer and we bought Brandon's friend from the YMCA a birthday present as Brandon was last minute invited to his birthday party at Sky High.  We all ended up going and paid for Olivia and Sean and had a blast and power.  I ended up working for a while to make up my time from Friday with Olivia.  We came home and found again no power and then the kids and I decided to go to Beauty and the Beast with Brooke, Logan, and Addie at Bridgeport Village.  The movie was so good and all the kids really enjoyed it.  We came back home and found we had power again at 6:30 PM just in time for dinner and bed time.  We were so happy!

Opening day!

Opening day with his pals 

Listening to the National Anthem 

Tulip Festival 2017

This year, Brooke and I was watching the weather closely to take the kids to the Tulip Festival.  It was such a terrible winter with snow even in early March.  It rained a ton and it was cold, sometimes in March with a high of 40.  The Tulip Festival opened towards mid March and the tulips were not in bloom until almost 2-3 weeks after they opened.  We had a full April filled with baseball and soccer games.  We ended up going the second weekend in April on a Sunday and Brandon missed his soccer game.  The weather cleared up just while we were at the festival and it was beautiful.  We got some really pretty shots of the tulips and the family.  The tulips were just starting to open.  Brooke and I were happy with this.  

Tulip Festival field

We loved the red tulips 

Yellow tulips 

Addie and Olivia by the tulips 

Holding the tulip and excited by the tulip festival 

Addie and Olivia by the tulips

Logan and Brandon at the tulip festival 

The kids running at the festival

The kids frolicking at the tulip field

Running around at the tulips 

Playing in the tulip festival together 

Tulip festival fun

Playing in the tulips

Tulip festival fun

Brandon 6, Olivia 3.5 years old

My sweet girl

Family shots so cute this year-thanks Taylor!

Love this one with my sweetie

After we took some photos in the Tulip Fields we went to check out the other parts of the Tulip Festival.  They had pony rides, some fun bounce houses, and then some fun free slides and a balloon animal making station.  The girls were super excited to go on pony rides and the boys had a blast going on bounce houses.  Olivia and Addie are both so into horses so it was really cute watching them go on their pony rides.

Going down the big slide

Cautious sliding

Waiting for their balloons to be done

Fun on the swinging horse

Best pals

Big hugs

Pony riding

Having so much fun!

Best pals riding

Love love this picture

After the kids were done with the bounce house and pony rides we let them play in the sand area and then gathered up the kids and headed back to the car.  We lost our car for a bit and finally found it and then headed to lunch at Dairy Queen with the Mowery family.  It was a very fun day and the kids had a blast together.

In the cute wooden shoe.  The kids were in this together as babies.

Brandon 6.5 years old and Logan almost 7 best buds and looking so old suddenly