Jillian's Birth Announcement

Thank you Jesca for helping design and create this awesome birth announcement for Jillian!





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Welcome to the family, Ara!

Congratulations to Vince's dad and stepmom--Jerry and Alica. (Or, as we call them around here, Guampa and Guama.)

This summer they were finally able to travel to the Philippines to retrieve their new daughter, Ara. The adoption process has been long, with several bumps in the road along the way. And while it will still take a while longer for the adoption to be finalized, all news from Guam is that everything is going well so far. Ara is adapting to her new home and family quite well and Jerry and Alicia are busy and very happy to be keeping up with a three-year-old.

Ara will celebrate her 4th birthday on November 14.

And so it begins...

Miles started preschool on Thursday. He goes two mornings a week for 2.5 hours.

Vince was able to sneak away from his school on Thursday to join us for a celebratory lunch after Miles' first day. Miles picked Wendy's ("It's way better than fast food, mom.") and as we ate lunch we asked him about his first day. His classic kid response when asked what he did at school that day: "I don't know." It starts so young.

Oh, and here's a cute story from the first day....

We had to put together a “comfort kit” to keep at school in case of an emergency (extra clothes, snack, photos of the family, etc.). The kit was supposed to include a small toy, so I picked up a couple “Go Diego, Go” matchbox sized airplanes at the store on Wednesday. Unfortunately, Miles found them in the car that afternoon. He really wanted to play with them, so I let him have them for the evening but made sure he understood that they would go to school the next morning for his emergency bag.

On Thursday morning as we got ready to go to his first day I loaded his “comfort” bag into his backpack and he asked about the planes. I reminded him that they are only for an emergency. As we drove to school that morning he declared from the back seat, “Mom, I need my planes. It’s an emergency!”

One month old...

Wow...where did a month go already?

Tourists in Our Own City

On Saturday we decided to take a family field trip and play tourists in our own city.

Earlier this summer the first segment of a light rail system in the greater Seattle area opened. For now, it runs north-south and starts just a couple miles from our house. It extends up into Seattle and ends at Westlake Center. We thought Miles would enjoy the train ride, so we loaded up the gang and headed out. It was actually really fun; Miles LOVED it and Jillian slept the whole time. We rode north, got out at Westlake, had lunch, and headed home again. All said, it took us about three hours from the time we left our house until we got home again. We highly recommend this little excursion! An afternoon of entertainment for the price of train tickets ($10) and lunch. Very cool.