Month: May 2012

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Avery

On Monday afternoon Toby went to Avery’s birthday party. Avery loves Toby very much. Toby is not quite so sure. Avery talks about Toby all the time. Toby doesn’t talk about Avery. However just before the party Avery phoned her Aunty and told her that she had “found somebody else”. Who was this new person in Avery’s life you may well wonder? Who could possibly replace her love for Toby? Well despite the fact that she had never met him, Avery’s new man was Harry! A sign of stresses to come? Who knows. As they left the party Avery did tell her cousin that she still loves Toby. Phew!

What a beautiful couple they make on their inflatable throne:

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He’s Sexy…

…and he knows it. Teeth cleaned, ready for bed but Toby had one last treat for us ball before he went to bed.  I’m not sure where he’s learnt all his moves from but they are pretty impressive – particularly in those pj’s!

httpv://youtu.be/fcqTk0TZ9aI

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Kirkland Acrobatics

Following on from the gym skills Toby has been learning, everyone was feeling acrobatic after dinner in Kirkland – clearly Japanese food has a positive effect on people! Straight after leaving the restaurant we went to the park that Toby and Harry like so much – even though we have only taken them there once (when we lived in the Villaggio!). After they had been playing on the climbing frames and going down the slide a few times Tracy obviously started to feel a little left out:

httpv://youtu.be/Wk6F4D0LuSI

This short burst of activity obviously got Tracy in the mood because before we knew it, Tracy, Harry and Toby were doing hand stands, cartwheels, forward rolls and all sorts!

httpv://youtu.be/1fSY5ffq7qk

I’m a bit old for all that business so I stayed behind the safety of the camera!

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Mount Rainier

I’ve always liked taking photo’s of the mountains and in particular Mount Rainier but this time I got it from a slight different angle. On Monday morning it was another beautiful day and I was heading off to Toronto. The flight left at 8am and we took off flying north from the runway, up the I-5 and then we turned right and flew along the I-90. We went over the floating bridge and then over home.

Even though we were not meant to turn any electrical items on the view was so good I had to sneakily turn my phone on. Fortunately the plane didn’t crash and I managed to get a couple of photo’s of Mount Rainier. Next time I may just take a small camera on!

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Gunners

After winning the league before Christmas with a 100% winning record, the second season, in Division 1 was always going to be that bit harder. By the end of the season, the Gunners had finished 4th in the league but that doesn’t quite tell the whole story! Firstly, although they finished 4th it was actually joint 2nd! It was only goal difference that kept them from being officially 2nd – so well done Gunners.

It could also have been even better. But for two last kick of the game goals in the first two games of the season which stopped the Gunners from winning and turned the result to a draw they would have been clear in 2nd place – just 3 points off the top of the table.

Obviously this is a completely impartial view but Harry was undoubtedly the player of the season and he finished the top scorer in the team with 9 goals, following on from 14 or so in the previous season.

This is the last season this team play together as some stay in the under 9’s next year and others have joined different teams. So congratulations to the Gunners, here is the squad list so we don’t forget them all:

Acero-Blyshak, Marcos
Bonnofsky, Ben
Burns, Benjamin
Buxton, Daniel
Guo, Brian
Isensee, Niclas
Lan, George
Linehan, Finley
Salgado, Daniel
Stickells, Harry
Walker, David

And this is the final league table – click to enlarge:

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Hand Stands

Toby is still going to Little Gym and learning all sorts of new skills. I’m sure none of us can forget the technically perfect forward rolls which he recently demonstrated and now he has moved on to the hand stand. This time the results are not quite as technically perfect but it is showing signs of potential:

httpv://youtu.be/LqhhaQax4xM

Not to be out done by his little brother Harry also took to the floor to demonstrate his skills:

httpv://youtu.be/u_-BgAmkmoM

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Gym Club

Toby has started doing Gym Club on a Wednesday instead of his Thursday afternoon soccer club. When I first heard about this I had a mental picture of Toby lifting weights and that seemed a little odd. As it turns out, Gym Club is gymnastics rather than weight training. This made more sense. This week he has learnt how to do forward rolls and very good he is too! Don’t believe me? Check this out:

httpv://youtu.be/tBPTs2ZlqCI

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Happy Anniversary

Wow! That was quick! We are now officially into our second year in America. In some ways it seems like a lifetime ago that we got in a cab from the Dovecote but in others it feels like only yesterday.

To celebrate our one year anniversary we had a BBQ. This wasn’t just any old BBQ though – this was a BBQ on our new BBQ. We didn’t quite go for the super-sized monster BBQs that you can get in Lowes and the Home Depot – we went for the more modest option. Sunday morning was spent putting the thing together ready for the beautiful weather on Monday and our anniversary.

Whilst munching away on British bangers, beef and blue cheese burgers and lamb kebabs we discussed a few things about the previous year and the lists went a little like this…

 

Question #1 – what have been your favorite things?

Harry – the day on the boat at Lake Chelan, Cannon Beach, Hawaii, skiing and the eagles on Grouse Mountain

Toby – playing outside, the view from Kerry Park, the view from our garden, Harry getting his butt soaked in the sea in Oregon, Mount Rainier and throwing a football which made him burp

Tracy – on the boat in Lake Chelan, Langley and Bellevue mall

Neil – San Juan Islands, the views of mountains and lakes and Mount Rainier

 

Question #2 – where do you want to go back to?

Harry – Hawaii and the seats we had for our last Sounders game

Toby – baseball

Tracy – Villaggio, for 6 weeks

Neil – the tulip fields and the Oregon coast

 

Question #3 – where do you want to go that you haven’t been to yet?

Harry – San Francisco

Toby – San Diego

Tracy – Alaskan cruise

Neil – whale watching

 

And so there we go! Year one – done. Year two – here we come! And we’ve started it off by booking an Alaskan cruise in July. Whoo hoo!

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Das Auto

We’re clearly becoming American. The reasonably large car that we got to start with is no longer big enough. We’ve been here a year and we want bigger! Getting a new car in America is different than the UK. The main thing is that they want you to take the new car immediately. If you so much as mention that you’re happy to leave the car with them a few days while they complete the minor enhancement we want, they give you a strange look, insist you take the new car away and bring it back when the work can be completed. Not taking the car is not an option.

In some respects this is good. You don’t have to spend a few days waiting for the Post Office to open so you can get tax discs, etc. but in other ways it’s not good. The main negative is that Tracy didn’t really have time to get her head round saying goodbye to the Tiguan. The emotion and sadness had to be condensed into about 30 minutes. It was very sad and I’m not sure she has fully recovered yet!

The good thing is we now have a bigger car and can start planning camping trips and the like. Year two in American is going to be larger and even more exciting that year 1 – and just because we got a new car!

Goodbye VW…

Now let’s just hope we get the rear view camera installed before there are any “whoopsies”!