Our Final Skyline...?

 

In our 6 years and 9 months of marriage we have lived in 7 cities: 

Orem, UT

El Paso, TX

Schaumburg, IL

Dallas, TX

Ann Arbor, MI

Charlotte, NC

Seattle, WA

And in one week, we will moving to Boise, ID to make city number 8 (state number 7) in less than 7 years. We're hoping this will turn out to be a permanent move, but of course, we like to keep things interesting! :) 

We're in the process of packing, getting organized, and saying our good-byes. We should be pros by now, right? 

Moving is always bitter-sweet, but I think this time there's more sweet than bitter since we'll be surrounded by family when we move. We're all looking forward to this next adventure in our lives!

Grandma Swensen's 59th Birthday

We drove down to Puyallup last weekend to hang out one more time before we move.  We decided to celebrate my mom's birthday two days early so the kids could be there when she opened her presents from them.

 

On Friday night, my dad was out of town, so the rest of us went to eat at The Olive Garden.

We celebrated on Sunday the 10th. The candle in the middle was supposed to play the Happy Birthday tune. It was an old candle though, so the tune was quite entertaining!

Blowing out the candles!

Wes picked out this card for Grandma Swensen.

Sydney's card for Grandma was a pink card with a kitty.

Sydney picked out a Barbie candy necklace for Grandma. Sydney knows how much Grandma loves Barbie!

Wes picked out the purple crown for Grandma since purple is her favorite color and she's the Queen of Everything.

Preschool Field Day

To end their sports-themed week at preschool, Wes' class had a field day where they played T-ball and Soccer. Sydney was also invited to participate. They all had a great time and, by some miracle, after sprinkling in the morning, the sun shone for the 45 minutes we were outside and then it began raining as we finished up popsicles (seriously, amazing timing). 

Sydney is sitting in the background on the stones. Wes is sporting his sweet Scamper Squirrels hat.

All of the kids were listening to Ms. Robbins explaining the game plan.

I will miss beautiful Seattle days like this! Have I mentioned green is my favorite color?

Sydney joined Wes to listen to the t-ball rules.

After Wes hit, he ran to first base. His hat was a little big and was in his face pretty much the whole time but he was one happy Squirrel!

Off Sydney goes from first to second base. Look at that running form! If she kept her arms by her sides, she'd be a Chi Running master. :)

Love this picture of Wes. The kids were patiently listening to the directions for soccer.

Off they go! It was pretty much chaos the entire time, but the kids had fun and got some great exercise!

Wes actually did really well at soccer, especially since he hasn't had much experience playing before.

Taking a walking break.

Here they all go for the ball. Again, it was pretty much a free-for-all.

Sydney played soccer for a bit and then got hurt so she came to cuddle with her mamma.

Sydney and Wes were feeling how sweaty Wes' head was after all of that running.

This was my attempt at getting a picture of the kids eating their fudge-sicles.

So Long Hair or So Long, Hair!

When I moved into my ward here in Seattle, I immediately heard about the Bluhm family. Little Claire, who is six months older than Sydney, had been diagnosed with Leukemia the July before we moved in. Last February when I met the family, Claire's hair was just starting to grow back after chemo. Since that time, I've been able to be one of Claire's preschool teachers and to get to know the Bluhm family much better. 

On Tuesday, June 5th, Claire's mom, Sally, and three friends, Tenley, Kallene, and myself all cut off our hair to donate it to Locks of Love. Together, we donated over 40 inches of hair. This was something Sally had decided to do when Claire was diagnosed. I had been wanting to donate my hair for a while and I thought this was a perfect opportunity. 

While the four of us will be living in different states when Claire officially finishes her treatments in September, this will definitely serve as a significant memory for all of us.

The "before" picture of our hair. L to R: Tenley, Kallene, Sally (Claire's mom), and Natalie.

And we do have faces in all of that hair.

My personal "before" picture.

Pretty long!

Here is my hair dresser measuring my hair to see where 10 inches would be. I'm looking at some short hair inspiration.

And it's off!

Wishy-washy...

Oh yah, that's right...my hair is curly!

The initial cuts.

Blow drying it to straighten it.

Flat-ironing the fro hair!

It's a long process, let me tell ya'.

Almost there....

And, good enough for an "after" shot.

No hair on my neck. (It's a wee bit chillier now.)

All of us after. L to R again: Tenley, Kallene, Sally, and Natalie.

Side view. Oddly mine ended up being the longest even though going into the cut, mine was the shortest.

And the back!

And here's beautiful Kathy who came along to be our personal paparazzo!