Thursday, July 9, 2009

Feeding the birds....

We drove to Bremerton, Washington yesterday and took the ferry back over to downtown Seattle. I grew up taking the ferries around the Puget Sound to go and visit grandparents. There was a period of time when the floating bridge was blown out and we had no other choice but to take a ferry to get to grandpa's house. I remember many, many occasions of sitting in the car line-up waiting for the ferry to arrive. Delays in ferry arrival was a common thing.

Riding the ferry is a fun treat for my kids! It is fun to see their excitement too. One of the traditions with Papa Jack is to feed the seagulls while on the trip across the Puget Sound. It was very windy yesterday but everyone was out feeding the birds anyway. Carson had a blast feeding the birds and even kept a count of how many times he was able to feed them. The last count that I heard was 68.

Precious moments...

Emily loves music. She will sit under the piano when I practice. When she is upset or throwing a fit we sing "If you're happy and you know it" and she will start to participate in the song even as she has tears streaming down her face.

Each night, either Steve or I will lay down with Emily and sing her songs until she is asleep. Steve and I have different sets of songs we sing. Some of our songs overlap, like Primary songs. We have always sang to her each nap and bedtime. She will snuggle into position and listen. Just last night as we lay all cuddled up and I began to sing, Emily sang along. At first I thought it was coincidence. But as I moved onto the next song she continued to sing along. I sang "I am a child of God" and she was singing along the best she could, usually finishing the last word in the phrase.

I am so glad we have taken these precious bedtime moments to sing to her and enjoy her sweet little spirit before she drifts off to sleep!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Summer fun in Washington....

We are in Washington visiting Steve's parents and here for a neice's wedding too. We have been enjoying the parks and waterfront inspite the grey and cloudy days. In fact we dodged the rain for a few minutes then hopped out of the car to play on the beach. Emily loves to play on the slides and swings and asks for them each morning when she wakes up!