Raspberry Picking

We have had such a wonderful summer exploring Bainbridge and all it has to offer. Every day seems like another adventure awaits us. I am no stranger to looking online to see what is happening in town and around the island, and/or finding something new for us to do and see. On one recent outing, we decided to go berry picking at a nearby farm. I had a wild hair to make some jam and it sounded like fun. We drove all of a mile to pick our berries, and within an hour had enough to make a complete mess of my kitchen and 7 jars of freezer jam!

Alden proved to be a very good eater of berries, but a terrible picker, so he had to be taken on a walk with Dee to allow Magnus and I to do the picking.YUM!

Climber Boy

Our time on Bainbridge has been a busy one--exploring the shoreline and trying to discover each and every one of the many parks. On a recent outing, I had the boys and we decided to go to a new park, Strawberry Hill Park. It had a small playground, swings, and this gigantic rope/climbing thing...

Magnus instantly took a liking to monkeying around on this.

I literally turned my back for a second to help Alden from walking off the playground structure, and I saw Magnus at the top! A quick wave to the camera and he was safely down.

Day 6

One of our conditions to moving to Bainbridge was that we would "try it on" and see if island life was for us. We were thrilled to find a great house where the landlord was willing to rent it month to month, and having already quit my job with Seattle School District we felt like we had nothing to lose. We knew that in order to make an informed decision, we had to be here everyday, Dee had to commute via the ferry during "tourist" season, and we had to feel like we weren't isolated with friends, family, or amenities. One amenity that we quickly learned was a wee bit scarce on the island, particularly after 8 pm, is Urgent Care. It took Alden six days to fall on a windowsill, splitting open the bridge of his nose, and requiring some Dermabond. Murphy's Law, right? Live within 5 minutes of a premier children's hospital for years, never needing it, and move to an island where no one gets hurt after 8, and need it within a week--almost comical! Well, at least we are now well versed on where to go as I am not so sure we won't be back!

Five hours later, Alden's nose was glued back together.

Bunk Beds!

Moving to Bainbridge had many bonuses, one of which was bunk beds for Magnus! While he has no fears being on the top bunk, mom and dad immediately came up with some "ground rules" for top bunk usage, which means he will only be having dreams about sleeping up top for quite some time. That, however, didn't stop Alden from climbing the ladder one afternoon while mom was distracted with something for all of one minute. I was quite surprised, to say the least, to find him sitting on the top bunk when I turned around! These boys are relentless when it comes to keeping us on our toes!

Bainbridge Bound

As our Seattle home was seemingly growing smaller by the second, Dee and I were beside ourselves trying to settle on a place we wanted to move. We were torn with living in a dynamic city, with everything at your doorstep, aside from a comfortably sized home behind the doorstep. We have great friends here, family nearby, and we enjoyed having coffee within walking distance from our home, aside from other amenities. But with the exponential growth of our boys reminding us how our school days are seemingly around the corner, we also had mixed feelings with staying in the Seattle School District, which has taken outrageous budget cuts in the last few years and it is only the beginning. I was ready to move on from my current school, and so the time felt right to look at areas outside of Seattle. We spent countless days driving neighborhoods and getting lost in various locations around the region, always dismayed by the end of it all...until we took a ferry to Bainbridge Island. We were instantly drawn by a smaller community that reminded us of our days in Sweden. It seemed as though everywhere we went, people were as smitten by our children as we were, and that's no small feat on an island of 20,000 people, of whom 7,000 of them are kids! There are parks EVERYWHERE, wooded trails that make one feel like they are in the middle of the mountains, and of course, the shoreline. Time and time again we heard rave reviews about the schools, and the houses at our price point were twice as big as what we could get in the city. When we decided to just go for it and our Seattle house was rented within five days, we knew it was a path we were destined to follow.

Not a bad commute for Dee.

Magnus waves goodbye to Seattle.

One more photo shoot

One of our favorite pastimes, particularly on dreary Seattle days, is to visit Dee at the fire station. Magnus could spend the entire day there, getting in and out of the truck and engine, climbing into the various seats, "driving" for a while, then checking the equipment, etc. Since it won't be quite as convenient to visit him in the future, I knew we had to have one more photo shoot.

Fast Forward

Guilt. That is what I am feeling for having abandoned this blog for the past 7 months. Having let one month turn into two, and then two turned into three, and then suddenly four months had passed and so on. I found myself overwhelmed at where to begin and how to catch up during my small windows of time (life has gotten significantly busier with two boys!) At the advice of my friend, Heidi, I was encouraged to forget about catching up, and just begin. So here goes, but not without a few pictures capturing some of the moments over the last few months :)

Snow boy. Alden loved being in the backpack this winter.

I loved not being pregnant this winter--carrying the boys in the backpack was nothing compared to snowshoeing last year pregnant!

Magnus and I sledding down the hill at Fury Ly.

I discovered this picture on our camera--apparently Alden and Dee practice acrobatics while I am at work! Both frightening and impressive!

Happy birthday! Alden turned one on March 10th and showed that he enjoyed playing in cupcakes more than eating them.

One of our favorite outings is to Arena Sports and the giant inflatable slides. Not sure who has more fun, the boys or Dee.

Dee and I celebrated our fifth anniversary at Suncadia--awesome resort, wonderful get away for Dee and I!

Potty training turned out to be a piece of cake with stickers!