Aunt Sandy's Christmas Party

Every year Sarah's Aunt Sandy hosts a big Christmas party for the "Jumper" side of the family. The truth is, alomost all of the Jumpers are female, so there are only 2 Jumpers left, Sarah's Uncle John & Sarah's brother Tom. "Unka Tom" as Jack calls him.





The family is BIG so we didn't manage to get a picture of everyone. Here are a few...









Each year we have a gift exchange for the kids. Then we do a "Bad Santa" game for the adults. The competition for gifts can get heated! But we always have FUN!

Bumpy visits Seattle

Bumpy made a visit to Seattle for a weekend. We were so happy to show her our new town. We took Bumpy and Jack too Zoolights at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium.





We also took Bumpy to Marty's office Children's Christmas Party, had a wonderful dinner in the Space Needle restaurant, and took Bumpy to our church. Bumpy also taught Jackson to put up his thumbs.

Happy 2nd Birthday Jack!

Jack turned two yesterday! We celebrated his birthday with family. The day after Thanksgiving Marty's Anut Betsie made Jack a cake & organized a small family party. He loved when we sang to him, and caught on to opening presents very quickly. Nana, Pappa and Grandma didn't want to miss his birthday, so he had a cup cake and candles at Nana's house on Thursday.

Snow in Seattle

Our first winter in Seattle was graced with some early season snow. It was beautiful but didn't last long. The next morning it rained and the snow was gone by the afternoon. This is the view out of our front window.

Mother Daughter Weekend

It all began 6 years ago with an idea to get together to do Christmas shoping in San Francisco. My mom and I, Rema and her daughter Holly, and Patti and her daughter Natalie have been going away togther for 6 years now!



We pick a fun city to meet in a tour for the weekend. We have had pregnant "daughters" and babies join us. We have gone to San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Monterey, Portland, Apple Hill and this year; San Diego.



We enjoyed the beach, shopping for Christmas presents, and good food!



No weekend is complete with out a silly hat picture!

Happy Thanksgiving

We drove to Bend for Thanksgiving. It was very crowded on I-5 on Friday so the drive took 8 1/2 hours. Jack and our dog Tuck were both well behaved and being with family made the drive worth it!



Here's a picture of Louisa Stark. She is the newest member of the family!



Jack & Ben loved it when Bumpy showed them how to play the piano. Both Ben & Jack are so gentle on the piano, no banging, only soft rather musical play.



We had fun trying on our new shirts Bumpy gave us. Now were ready for the Hoildays!




You can find the rest of our photos from the trip here:

http://www.calmarty.smugmug.com/gallery/3927868#227868488

Happy Halloween

We celebrated Halloween a few days early. Nana & Pappa were in town for the weekend. On Sunday we all went to the Pike's Place Market and then down to the Wharf for some trick-or-treating.





The highlight of the day for Jack was the fire station. He loved sitting on the fire truck. He would not move! He eventually had to be removed by force.

Happy Birthday Sarah

We celebrated Sarah’s birthday with a night out in Seattle just the two of us. We enjoyed a special bottle of wine that was a gift from our friends Mike and Courtney for our wedding. The wine was delicious and the meal savory. The waiter even brought a special cake with 3 candles! One candle for each decade.

Vegas

This year I turned 30-Yuck. What better way to deal with it, correction, CELEBRATE then going to Vegas?! Who better to go with then Liz, my oldest friend!





We actually won money & met Elvis- one of them is the REAL Elvis, not sure who though.

Sunriver Trip

We usually like to spend a week (or two or three) in Sunriver every summer but this year we only managed a weekend. It was a good chance to test out the drive from Seattle (not so good on Friday during rush hour but okay on Sunday afternoon).

We hiked along the Deschutes River on Saturday and had Bumpy and Ben over for a relaxing dinner in the evening.





Jackson enjoyed riding his "bike" out in front and playing the piano.





You can find the rest of our photos from the trip here:

http://calmarty.smugmug.com/gallery/3496363#197080524

Seattle

Every one in Seattle drinks coffee… actually little Jack snuck into mom’s mocha when her back was turned. Fortunately, more of the drink ended up on him then in his mouth.

Welcome Little Dilly

Niku (Lauren’s friend) and Sarah hosted a shower to welcome Scott and Lauren’s baby boy. Lauren suggested a chili theme. No Problem! Fajitas, margaritas (virgin for the mom to be), chips salsa, what’s not to love?





We had fun playing games & watching Scott and Lauren open presents. The highlight was when we were playing a game to guess how big Lauren’s belly was. We discovered that Scott’s belly is still bigger than Lauren’s.



We can’t wait to meet Baby Dillard! What will he think of this toy….

Fairy Tale Town

We spent the morning at Fairy Tale Town in Sacramento. Jack and I went with Sandy, my friend form high school and Haylie, her daughter who is 2 months older than Jack.





What fun!

5 Years

We can hardly believe we have been married 5 years. It has just flown by. Well except for the time… no that is another blog . Seriously though, our first 5 years of marriage has been full of adventure. We have lived in 2 different houses, one French cottage, one tiny duplex, and a city loft. We have traveled thousands of miles, seen beautiful cities, beaches, county villages, ocean waters. We hope the next 5 are just as great!







For our anniversary we were in France. We had dinner at a small French restaurant. It was neat the way they had the menu on a chalk board and brought it to the table. The waitress spoke no English. So when Marty got a curious looking dish he was sure he misunderstood. He had! He ordered cow kidneys!! The delicious dessert and smooth wine made up for the dinner though.

Belgium

Our hosts in Belgium were Johan and Marleen. They were terrific hosts. They had just returned from their honeymoon and let the Dillard family; Marty, Sarah and Jack stay with them for 2 nights. It was fun being with them. It reminded us of what it was like to be newlyweds!



Our first day in Belgium some of Johan’s friends, who Marty knew through a high school exchange program, had a BBQ. It was a fun time. We enjoyed good food and wine and lots of political discussions.



The next day we visited the beautiful town of Brugge. This is one of the most beautiful European cities. It is intersected by rivers and canals. We enjoyed lunch on the river, a boat tour, and a walk among twelfth buildings and public squares. Marty went into paparazzi mode and took more pictures of this city then any other city we visited!!!









Belgian waffle anyone?


To see more pictures of our trip click the link below
http://calmarty.smugmug.com/gallery/2987924#161841260