Sarah and I made it to the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) on 10/26 (again, during mandatory out-of-the-house time).  We had a nice time, even though the museum is about as exciting as it sounds.  Not very.  Here’s a plane of some sort.

Sarah briefly enjoyed this hand-activated light display screen. and it made for a neat picture.

A toe truck.  Hahaha.

We did enjoy this play area next to the cafe before heading out for Sarah’s afternoon nap.

We took a family trip to Vancouver, Canada, 10/23-25.  It was the kids’ first time out of the country!  The car ride up there was fairly horrific, but once we got there they were thrilled to see the view of the city.

Sarah was happy once she got some bacon at breakfast the following morning.

The highlight of our trip was the visit to the Vancouver aquarium.

We also enjoyed the food — we had two yummy dinners and breakfasts.

This box held some tasty macarons before it became a megaphone.

And on our way out of town on Sunday we stopped for dim sum.  This may have been Blaine’s first time having tofu.

After the border crossing back to the US we stopped to see the peace arch in Blaine, Washington.  The town of Blaine gave Daddy the idea to name our own Blaine.

Sarah and I took an unplanned trip to Snoqualmie Falls on 10/22, mostly to get her to nap in the car on the ride out there.  We needed to be out of the house for the afternoon house tours.  (Yes, our house is listed!)  We had a lovely time.

I’ve been meaning to make it to the top of the water tower in Volunteer Park, so when we had a somewhat clear day on 10/20, I tried carrying Sarah on my back for the first time and hiked up 107 steps (plus the 32 leading up) to the top of the tower.

Sarah’s first time in a sandbox was a big hit.

Blaine had a lot of fun tying various things to the balloons to see what would float.

Fall foliage

Spaghetti dinner

Thanks to Uncle Fran for the cute onesie.

Sarah loves tomatoes.  She’ll put away half a tomato all by herself.

Blaine and Mommy at Pike Place Market.

Sarah loves visiting Blaine’s school.

We had a surprisingly beautiful day on Sunday, 10/11, so I packed the kids into the car and we headed out to Remlinger Farms for some pumpkin picking.

We ate our lunch while listening to this musician, Eric Ode.  Blaine loved the song about the green grass growing all around.  After that we went to see the goats and alpacas.

Both kids fell asleep on the ride home.  They were tired and cranky in the evening, but it was worth it for my favorite Fall outing!

It’s so hard to believe our little nugget is already one year old.  This last year has flown by.  At one, Sarah is a little charmer.  She loves making eye contact and smiling at strangers, and she is always making friends across a restaurant or grocery store.  She is really starting to communicate, her vocabulary (that I recognize at least) includes on/off, up/down, shoes, teeth, Dada, Ba (for Blaine), cheese, car, out, book, fish (she loves the tank at Blaine’s daycare).  She signs more, milk, and all done.  She still does not say any form of Mommy.  She is a champion whiner to get what she wants and she can be very jealous when Blaine is getting attention.  But she also thinks her big brother Blaine is hilarious and will laugh out loud if he’s doing something funny.  She loves to climb on his bed and tries to steal his water cups.  She’s cruising with ease at this point and has started letting go if her hands are otherwise occupied.  She is just starting to walk while holding on to my hands or a push-walker but has not yet taken any first steps.  She is in love with her pink polka-dot Robeez shoes, which she picked out.  She also loves her panda and her two stuffed bunnies (one from Uncle Tim, one from Fritz and Dorothy).  She has 7 teeth with an 8th on the way, she has been drooling pretty constantly for the last month and a half.  She eats a range of solid foods, her favorite is probably those round crackers but she’ll also sometimes eat a surprising amount of meat.  At her 1 year pediatrician appointment she weighed 21 lbs 10 oz, so she’s coming down on the weight percentile.

I had a tough time getting Sarah to smile for her 12-month photo, so here are the decent ones…

The 12-month series!

Our birthday celebration continued on Saturday, 10/10, with Sarah’s first birthday.  Here she is at breakfast:

Blaine took her on a birthday car ride around the house:

Daddy was flying to India for a work trip in the afternoon, so we had a celebratory birthday lunch with biscuit sandwiches and a giant slice of cake from the Wandering Goose on 15th.

Where is my cake?

That afternoon Mommy and the kids went out to West Seattle to hang out with our PEPS group.  Blaine enjoyed this trampoline in the backyard.

Sarah enjoyed playing with the big kids.

And there was more present opening, of course!  Thanks again to all who sent gifts to the kiddos.

On Thursday, 10/8, we celebrated Blaine’s third birthday.  Here’s the birthday boy at breakfast.

Daddy picked Blaine up early at school to go for a ride on the south lake union trolley, which Blaine has been hoping to ride for a long time now.  Here he is post-trolley, enjoying his requested birthday dinner of cheeseburgers.

The main event: Cake.  Or, in this case, cupcakes from Trophy.

It’s not clear from the photo, but Blaine was blowing some air in the direction of the candle.

He was all about the presents this year!  Here are a few pics, but we did manage to save a bunch of presents to open through the weekend.  Thank you to everyone who sent Blaine gifts!

On Sunday, 10/4, we had one big birthday party for Blaine and Sarah.  Here’s the invite we sent out:

We decided to go for a firefighter theme, Blaine’s ongoing obsession.  We had fire hats, fire balloons, fire stickers, and this fire truck playhut thing.

Here’s the birthday boy at breakfast.  Blaine was very excited to help make the cake in the morning.

And he was thrilled when he saw these balloons from Gram and Grand-dad.

Sarah wore her party dress in honor of turning 1!

After all the kids had arrived we went into the backyard to give this fire truck pinata a beating.

After many rounds we had to call in the big guns.

We served delicious tacos and sliders from Marination, followed by home-made birthday cakes for Blaine and Sarah.

Both kids (and both parents, come to think of it) were exhausted by the end of the festivities, but we all had a great time.  But this was only the beginning of a week-long birthday extravaganza, since both actual birthdays were still to come…