Emma's First Birthday!

The day before we left Seattle was Emma's 1st Birthday! Wow!! Dave & I cannot believe how fast the time has gone. Our little baby is growing up so fast!! She has been such a wonderful addition to our family and has brought more joy to us than we ever could have imagined! :) God really has blessed us!!!!

We celebrated her birthday with a party! We invited over lots of family and friends to celebrate Emma's special day with us. We really enjoyed getting to share this with them and we want to thank you all so much for making Emma's 1st birthday so memorable!

Of course the two things that Emma loved most about her party were cake and presents! :)

She didn't realize at first that she was supposed to eat it, so she just squished it around in her hands for a little while.

She soon figured it out! :)

She LOVED it!!

Then it was time for presents. Emma with all of her loot:

She had so much fun opening her presents!

Her two favorites of the day (although she really loves them all) were her Fridge Farm and her Cheerios! :)

We look forward to celebrating Emma's birthday with all our California friends next week! :)

Seattle Trip - Taco Time

So every time we go to Seattle, Dave I eat at one of our favorite fast food places - Taco Time. We usually end up eating it several times on each trip because it is sooooo good. Well this time Emma was old enough to have some Taco Time so here is a picture of her eating her first Taco Time meal. She really liked it. :)

Seattle Trip - Visit to Uncle Dick and Aunt Jan's

On the 4th & 5th we headed down to Longview to visit my Aunt & Uncle. We had a really good time visiting with them and getting to do some more fun things. It was about a 2 hour ride in the car so we had to keep Emma entertained.

Emma really loved their dog Gipper! He loved to lick her and she loved to be licked (for some weird reason).

My Uncle Dick LOVES his boat so he was more than happy to take us out both days that we were there. It was Emma's very first time on a boat - how fun for her! :)

We stopped at a beach while we were out one of the afternoons. There was nobody else there so it was like our own private beach. Emma had a lot of fun playing in the sand. It was a very nice relaxing time! :)

Seattle Trip - Visit with Mommy's Friends

On the 3rd, Emma spent some time swinging in the hammock with Daddy (one of her favorite all time things ever) before the two of us headed out to lunch with some of my very dearest old time friends from Seattle.

We met up at Red Robin with my friends Julie & Heidi. It was wonderful to see them and have some time to catch up. Julie just had a baby last month and Emma was very interested in little Elli. She kept wanting to touch her and wake her up. It was really cute. :)

Seattle Trip - The Zoo

On the 2nd, we took a trip to the zoo! We were all excited to go watch Emma see all the animals after such a successful trip to the Aquarium the day before. She had fun, but definitely seemed to prefer the aquarium.

The first animals we saw were the penguins! They have a new exhibit which is pretty fun 'cause you can see them both above and below the water.

Next we got to see the bears. It was a pretty warm day so the bears hopped in the water to try and cool off. It was really cool to see them swimming!!

Emma's favorite animal at the zoo (as you can see 'cause she is smiling) was the Anoa. To the rest of us it was very boring but it got her excited. We're not really sure why except that maybe it was because she felt closer to it. Here is a link to facts about the Anoa if you are interested and of course a picture. http://www.zoo.org/factsheets/anoa/anoa_print.html

After we saw the Anoa we had to stop and take an ice cream break since it was so hot! This was Emma's first official taste of real ice cream - of course she LOVED it!! :)

Soon after this Emma fell asleep in her stroller and took a little snooze, but the rest of us walked around for awhile and saw several more animals. It was a wonderful day at the zoo! :)

Seattle Trip - Aquarium

July 31 - Aug 9 we took another trip up to Seattle to visit my family. We did lots of fun things while we were up there and Emma did a number of things that she had never done before. One of the things we did was go to the Seattle Aquarium. Emma had a blast and it was probably one of the hi-lights of our trip. We thoroughly enjoyed watching her experience all of the fishies.

Here she is looking at a bunch of fish:

This fish came up to see her. He was very interested in her and he stayed for quite some time to stare at her. Emma enjoyed him for awhile, but when he kept staring at her she eventually got a little freaked out.

Her absolute very favorite part of the aquarium was watching the seals swim around and around. She watched them for a very long time and was so happy and focused. She clapped a lot for them! Very cute!!

Emma with Mommy and Daddy and us as a family:

On our way out we ran by the gift shop to find a souvenir for the little princess. Her favorite thing was this stuffed white seal. We tried to find other things for her that she might like, but this is what she wanted. So funny! :)

When we were all done we ran by Ivars on the waterfront for some lunch. It was a beautiful, sunny Seattle day and we all had a great time!