A Charlie Brown Halloween

We went to a friends house the week before Halloween and carved pumpkins with them.  Jake carved a masterpiece of "Trogdor the Burninator", and I carved an easy, classic pumpkin face.  You can tell who is the more creative one. 

 

Close up of Trogdor

So this is where the Charlie Brown part of Halloween comes in.  We decorated a room for our ward trick-or-treat, and dressed up to go along with the theme.  It's the great pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Jake even made me a house...

On Halloween, Starlie and Nate came so Nate could visit elementary schools in this area.  It was so fun to go trick-or-treating with Tye and Emma!  Can't wait till we have kids to take.  They stayed with us that whole week; we sure had a good time!

Fun in Seattle

Just a few pictures of what we've been up to lately.  We love living here, in West Seattle, mostly because it's the least city-ish part of Seattle that you can live.  We love the Alki trail and beach (that's where I go walking every morning), and the other beautiful parks in West Seattle. 

We have not been biking as much as we would like, but seeing that the watermellon in front of me is growing, it's a little more comfortable to walk.   We do love biking along this trail though.  And we are so happy that we live so close!

You can even see my little bump.  This biking day was in September, so I'm a little bigger now.

Last Saturday we went on a date and took the water taxi from Alki/West Seattle to downtown.  It was very fun, and a beautiful night to be on the boat and walking around Seattle.

View from the water taxi on our way back to Alki

You are probably thinking that this is a really random picture to have up.  Well, I know, but it was a funny story.  So we were at REI, just for fun, and stopped to try out these cool backpacking chairs.  If you look at the picture, you'll see that there are only two legs, so you need to use your own legs to balance.  They really are easy to sit in, but my first attempt did not prove so.  I can't really squat down fast right now without losing my balance, so I took it easy trying to sit down.  Before I knew it, the chair had slipped out from under me and I was on the ground with a husband laughing his head off.  I guess I must have looked pretty stupid.  I decided that low chairs, especially ones that you have to balance in, are not made for pregnant people.

A pretty morning while I was walking.

It's a Boy!

We went to the doctor on Monday for the ultrasound.  For those who haven't had one, let me tell ya...well, I guess I can't really say anything since I haven't had one either (ps this is jake writing), but let's just say I wasn't envious of Ellisha.  But the pictures were cool.  Well, actually at first I was a little worried.  The nurse started out by looking at the baby's innards (i.e. his heart, brain etc...).  Well, she didn't really tell me this, so all I saw was this big blog thing on the screen.  My thoughts went something like, "great, that's our kid?  That doesn't look ANYTHING like any other ultrasound that I've ever seen before (because, you know, I've seen so many in my time)...our baby just looks like a giant blob."  But, the nurse calmed my fears of having a blobby kid (ellisha's words) when she showed his full profile.  That was cool.  Instead of a blob, we're going to have an alien. (Ellisha is rolling her eyes at me and critiquing my grammar/punctuation right now.)  But really, it was a cool experience.  I thought it was especially cool how he was moving around during the ultrasound.  The nurse said they can do somersaults...yeah, our kid is already practicing his backflips for when we go skiing..

ok, I'll stop there.  Here are the pictures:

Ellisha is 19 weeks today! 

Our little alien..

 

 Yep..it's a boy

(I claim full responsibility for the posting of this picture)

 Ellisha: "Cute little foot"

Yeah, most kids have to wait till they're like 14 months 

before they learn how to wave...

our kid is a bit ahead of the bell curve

San Francisco Road Trip

Well a big event this summer was going to San Francisco and then helping Lance and Melissa move to Iowa.  It was a lot of driving, to say the least.  I just found some cute pictures from San Francisco that I thought Sarah and Melissa would appreciate.

Two cute girls.

And one cute boy.

Jake had a lot of scruff.

I think the reason Addi and Jake aren't in this picture, is because they are off playing together.  Addi had a major crush on Jake from the start.  Pretty sure it's because he would always "jump" her when she asked, and she asked all the time.  He's a softy for that cute little girl.

 Bike ride one night. It was a beautiful sunset!

Jake got a picture of Melissa, Lance and I riding in the sunset.  A little blurry, but I still like it.

Jake had Eve in the Weehoo thing behind his bike.  They were going a little crazy down steep, grassy hills, but Eve was extra brave.  On the uphills she would say, "Bring it on!" in a really deep and intense voice.  

Eating yummy ice cream at Ghirardelli's.  I really liked this picture because Blake's mouth is wide open in anticipation of another bite.  I wish it wasn't so dark.

We went camping in some beautiful California mountains.  We had our bikes, so Jake was having some fun.

 Notice the twisted pacifier.  I just realized that every picture of Eric with his pacifier, it's all lopsided in his mouth.  I guess I haven't tried one is so long, I wouldn't know what the most comfortable way to suck on it is.

This hike was a bit more than we were expecting.  Thank goodness the strollers were built for crazy activities.  It ended at a cool ropes course, which we played at for a while.  Then Jake and Lance ran back up the trail and told us they would drive the cars back down (the road said 4-wheel drive only, and we did not meet those qualifications).  There was a time that Melissa and I weren't sure if we would ever get rescued, but at last we met up with the boys and the cars.  (We had started to hike up the road because we weren't sure if they would be able to find us with the cars from where we were.) 

We made a little stop as we drove through South Dakota.  

Graduation..... finally!

So I realize we haven't been very good about keeping up with our blog.  Really there is no good excuse, except that I didn't think Jake and I were that interesting to even make people want to read our blog. I got a little lecture from Mom and Hanna B., and since there is going to be someone worth taking pictures of in our family (the baby), I should get good at this whole blogging thing before February.  So here it goes..

Graduation! Hurray for Jake! And by the way, the "finally" in the title is not to say, "finally, Jake graduated!" Rather, it was to say, "finally, Ellisha is posting pictures!"  I will say "finally" when Jake graduates from Law School.  That will be a very welcomed day.  It was fun to be with the Kemptons and Keyes for Jake's graduation.  I only have a few pictures of the occasion though.

Jake getting ready in the Wilk. 

Can you see him?

Hillary came with me to the first day of graduation.  

Notice the mustache.  He was so proud of it.  I do not like mustaches.

Day 2, the real graduation day.  

Sadly I don't have any pictures with the family on this day.  We took them all with Dad's camera, I guess I better get those one of these days.

Powder Perfect Skiing

Sheila came down over President's Day weekend and we took her and Jake's sister Hillary to the Canyons for a beautiful day of skiing.  Jake has hookups and we all skied for free! (thanks to our friend who's grandpa used to own the mountain.)  24 inches in two days, sun shining, it was a wonderful day. 

Getting ready.  Sadly Sheila and Hillary didn't want to come hike with us later, so getting ready with them is the only time we got a picture of them.  i guess we forgot when we were all skiing together.

 We took a chair then hiked up to this point.  These guys start skiing then let the wind take them the rest of the way. It was really cool to watch.  I guess if you want to ski and fly at the same time, this is the way to go.

At the top.  If this was a video I think you'd be able to hear me panting from the hike up.  It wasn't even long, I'm just a little wimpy.

We skied down this ridge and hiked up more! yay for almost dying!

Way back behind me is the slope we hiked up.  Then skied down the middle there along the trees, and hiked up more in order to get to the fresh powder.  I didn't do a very good job of skiing down in the deep powder, but it sure was cool.  Jake is a much better skier than I.

Proof of my last statement.  I stood underneath the cliff and took this picture as he jumped off.  I get so nervous and probably a bit too naggy whenever he does flips and drops like this.   I can't help but think of the worst possible scenario that could occur.  Luckily he uses his head.

More biking