Happy Halloween | 2016

Happy Halloween!

Life with Ryder just gets more and more fun the older he gets. He actually semi-understood the concept of costumes and trick-or-treating this year, and it was so fun to watch his delight!

He dressed up as a firefighter, just like Daddy... shocking, I know. 

The day before Halloween, we went down to the fire station to visit Stew so that Ryder could hang out with some real firefighters, as well as carve pumpkins and eat cupcakes with the other kids. 

He loves "driving" the truck.

And checking out all the equipment.

But mostly he just loves his Daddy, and we are so proud of him!

Stew actually had Halloween proper off work this year, so we were able to go trick-or-treating for the first time as a family. 

Ryder was a little apprehensive at first, but he got the hang of it pretty quickly. 

Especially when he realized that his reward for being brave and knocking on the door was CANDY.

He took home a ridiculous haul, and even with Stew's help I have no idea how we're ever going to consume it all. 

Unfortunately, I made a mistake and did not choose to just leave a big bowl of candy on our porch for the trick-or-treaters who came by while we were gone. And we ended up being out a little later than planned (even though we left pretty early with all the other "little kids" in the neighborhood). So by the time we got home, it had started to rain, and we didn't get near the amount of trick-or-treaters that we had planned for, leaving us with even MORE extra candy. 

Let's be realistic though... Stew and Ryder don't really mind. 

Overall I'd say it was a super fun and successful holiday for our family. 

Here's hoping your Halloween was extra spooky! 

 

Father's Day

One of the more amazing things about becoming a parent is that you fall in love with your husband all over again. 

May 5, 2014

When I see Stewart and Ryder together, my heart just melts, and I remember all the reasons that I fell in love in the first place.

Our relationship changed a lot during that first year after Ryder was born. It was good... and bad. Bad because we were sleep deprived, stressed, and grumpy. The responsibility of running a household, having full time jobs, and a child who sucks up almost every once of our energy on a daily basis has definitely taken a toll on the romance in our marriage.

But there were good parts, too. And to this day, whenever I sit back and look for a minute, watching my husband and our son with fascination and adoration, I fall in love with him a little bit more... again and again and again.

Ryder has brought happiness into our lives that we never even realized was missing. He makes us laugh, smile and worry like we never had before, and sharing that experience has brought us even closer together.

I will never really be able to express how thankful I am that Ryder has such a good daddy.

It seems like more often than not, Stew ends up having to work on holidays, and Father's Day this year was no exception. However, determined to spend some time with him, Ryder and I went down to the fire station for a visit.

Trying on all the gear and hanging out on the ladder truck are definitely some of the perks of having a firefighter for a daddy!

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there (especially mine). Thank you for everything you've done, and for all that you continue to do.

I hope you had a wonderful day!

Weekend Distractions

This weekend was a struggle for me mentally and emotionally, but I got through it with the help of my many extremely supportive friends, plus a few distractions. I've found that as long as I can stay fairly busy, I've been able to keep my overwhelming floods of memories and feelings of grief from entirely overwhelming me. Thank you to everyone for all your kind words and thoughts.

 

On Friday Stew and I attended the graduation ceremony for the Seattle Fire Academy, to support Stew's good friend Tony. My goodness, do I love a man in uniform...

Saturday I got some much needed "me" time at my prenatal yoga class in the form of exercise and meditation. My instructor is also helping me to hopefully determine the cause of the constant pain in my hands and feet. We are exploring Reynaud's Syndrome, Carpal/Tarsal Tunnel, Compartment Syndrome, and possible kidney function problems. Massage, acupuncture and/or physical therapy are the some of the things I might try next to get some relief.

 

And I rounded out the weekend by helping to host a bridal shower for my dear friend Alissa. Assuming that Baby Boy cooperates, I will be a bridesmaid in her wedding this May and I could not be more excited for this wonderful couple.

How was your weekend? 

 

A Nice Little Saturday

This weekend we had a nice little Saturday planned...

 

We started off with something I have been dying to try for a very long time... brunch at Salty's on Alki! It's been voted best brunch in Seattle year after year, featuring a world-famous array of the best Northwest local seafoods and iconic brunch favorites. Seafood, hot dishes, breads, fruit, pasta made-to-order, bakery specialties, veggies, Wonka-style chocolate fountains, and of course my favorite, a build-your-own Bloody Mary bar! Eat all you want for under $50, kids! I think Stewart thought he had died and gone to heaven.

 

Buffets are usually such a waste on me, because I fill a towering plate with all sorts of yumminess, take a few bites of each thing, and then push it around mumbling, "I'm full..." but at Salty's Stewart was definitely able to eat our money's worth. And I did a decent job on my own fair share of crab legs. YUM.

 

We were celebrating my bestie Tara's birthday, and it was such a fun way to get the weekend started.

 

Happy Birthday Tara, we love you!

 

 

 

 

Next on the agenda was to head downtown and catch The Wizard of Oz at the Paramount. We are really big musical theater nerds, but honestly we love going to shows! Especially ones meant for children.

 

That being said, the main problem with loving shows that target kindergartners is that the audience is filled with evil brats tiny humans.

 

I swear sometimes I don't know what is wrong with people. Maybe I'll be singing a different tune someday when I have children, but honestly I do not understand someone who brings their child to a fancy theater, pays $70 for seats, and then lets the child scream throughout the entire production.

 

The fun-loving dad next to us sat his daughter on his lap (she actually placed one leg over on Stewart's lap) and then proceeded to talk and sing to her AT FULL VOLUME for the duration of the show, as if they were the only two people there!

 

"Do you see the witch, isn't she scary? Oh my goodness, here come the Munchkins! Do you remember what happens next?"

 

Are you effing kidding me??!?

 

Stewart and I both rudely and obviously covered our ears with both hands, but that didn't seem to deter Dad at all. It also didn't block out the ringing of a cell phone that went on for the duration of most of one famous song. I know I've said it before, but honestly what the hell is wrong with people!?

 

That being said, I loved the show and had a great time, albeit the spoiled brats and obnoxious parents in attendance. But maybe next time I should opt for a show that targets grown ups.

 

After the show we headed down to Puyallup to the Ram for a firefighter retirement party. I don't go to Puyallup very often, and we eat at the Ram even less, but it was actually a really fun evening with good food and great people. Plus there was a Hawaiian theme (the guest of honor is relocating to Hawaii), and y'all know how I feel about theme parties! Best.thing.ever.

 

 

Phew. We were feeling pretty tuckered out by this point (god I miss that 20-something energy), but we still had one more party to crash that evening... a housewarming party for Stew's friend Justin at his new place on Lake Washington. Holy moly his place was fantastic! Filled with yummy food, drinks, and peeps, the house looks out over the lake toward Bellevue... gorgeous!

 

Since we're old and lame mature and responsible we didn't stay too terribly late, but we did have fun catching up with some good friends before we headed home to pour ourselves into bed. After all, we had a big day of tailgating coming up on Sunday!

 


I'm a pretty good planner, and I can usually manage to get quite a bit accomplished in a single day, but even I can admit that Saturday was a little excessive... I think I'll try to keep my calendar a little more open in the future. But it was still awesome to see so many rad people in the course of 24 hours.

 

I hope that you had a fantastic, fun-filled Saturday as well!

A Very Merry Christmas

We had a few scheduling conflicts for Christmas this year... one being that the Seahawks game fell smack in the middle of the four-day holiday break, which meant driving back and forth from Seattle to Olympia a couple times, and the other being that Stewart had to work on Saturday and Tuesday (Christmas Day). I know this is something I'll have to get used to as a firefighter's wife, but I was still a little sad that I didn't get to spend Christmas morning with my hubby.

Luckily my parents were super understanding and flexible about the situation, and we made a plan to open all the immediate family gifts on Christmas Eve after church and dinner (we decided to order in Chinese in honor of A Christmas Story).

As usual, everyone was incredibly generous and thoughtful with their gifts this year. And it was actually really fun to open presents at night in the glow of all the Christmas lights and decorations. We got lots of great stuff that we'll be able to use at the new house, and it seemed like everyone liked our gifts, too.

Playing games while we anxiously awaited it to be time to open presents!

Gorgeous Christmas tree and Mom super excited to open her first gift.

Lovely Christmas decorations all throughout the house.

I woke up around 5 a.m. with Stewart to send him off to work in the pouring rain before heading immediately back to bed. You'll never guess what I woke up to a few hours later...

A White Christmas!!

A few hours later our relatives from my Dad's side of the family arrived for our annual Christmas morning brunch. After eating way too much delicious food we gathered together around the tree to open gifts. We had two rounds this year; the first was an extended family name drawing and the second was a White Elephant gift exchange.

Dad always plays Santa.

With my favorite ladies on the couch waiting for the fun to start.

Shane, Tara and AJ.

Greg & Diane.

Tara with her White Elephant win - temporary arm tattoo sleeves.

Score for me and Stew - he was very excited about his 2013 Chuck Norris
calendar and I loved my Christmas decorations.

Me and Kate with the book she stole from her mom.

After the gift giving was complete we proceeded on to another family tradition... the annual photo shoot!


Couples shot of Tara & Jody.



Family portrait of the cousins.

The Getchman Family.

Grandpa & Grandma with all the Grandkids.

A little while later my sister Nichole sent me these
adorable shots of our nieces Sophia and Aubrey
opening the gifts we mailed down to them.
We missed seeing them for Christmas so much!

And later that afternoon I went over to my Grandma Sally's house to see my Mom's
side of the family, but I neglected to take any photos except this one of these
absolutely adorable penguins.

While I was doing all that family stuff poor Stew was at work... but he had some visitors!
Russ, Patty and Patrick stopped by the station to wish him a Merry Christmas and drop off
some gifts... and also let Patrick try on some of the fire gear. Lookin' good!

And I stopped by the station on my way home to have Christmas
dinner with the crew and drop of Stew's gift from the family gift
exchange... which I am really jealous of!

What I tried to keep in mind this year (while I was incredibly sick and really missing my husband) is that while nothing is ever perfect, I am so fortunate to have such a wonderful family that I get to spend time with for the holidays. Stew and I hope that you had an absolutely amazing Christmas with your family and friends this year.

Merry Christmas!

Paintballers

Stew and some of the guys from his department have starting going paintballing occasionally when they're not on shift. He's been coming home exhausted with lots of funny stories and seems to be having an awesome time. They've been playing at KC Crusaders which is way down south in the middle of nowhere but seems to have some pretty cool courses. I think playing paintball must fulfill some primal need that males have to hunt and kill. I'm not sure if I would be into it but it does seem kind of fun, especially with a big group of people.  

I'm thinking the girls and I might have to go down and try it one of these days...

The paintball crew.

Have you played paintball before?

Firefighter Stair Climb

On Sunday, March 11 Stewart joined over 1,550 firefighters representing 291 departments from 24 U.S. states, Canada and Germany to compete in the Firefighter Stair Climb, a timed race to the top of the Columbia Center in full combat gear and self contained breathing apparati (SCBA). This event is the largest individual firefighter competition in the world, so of course my sister and I went to support him.

At 788 feet of vertical elevation, the Columbia Center in downtown Seattle is the second tallest building west of the Mississippi. It takes 69 flights of stairs and 1,311 steps to reach the observation deck overlooking the city. 


Stewart did amazing and placed #147 out of 1,550 with a time of 16:07!! He trained for months leading up to the event and I'm so proud of him for accomplishing his goal. 


The Scott Firefighter Stairclimb supports the mission of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, raising money through sponsorships, individual and department fundraising, and entry fees.