The Spirit of the Holidays '09

From our house to yours, we hope you had as much fun as we did. Our family and friends were gathered together, the children played nonstop without a nap or rest time, the food was yummy delicious, the present exchanges were awesome, and everyone's laughter filled the room.

Enjoy as you watch a little of our Christmas '09.

Queen Bubbles

Over the hills and through the rain/snow to Ellensburg we went. The Kwocks knew the way to Bubbles's new home to grind on dakine food she likes. (Can you name that tune? ha,ha,ha!) Then we were ready to "rrrummmble" that evening at the volleyball game. It was a GREAT win for CWU who defeated WWU in five sets. Enjoy some of the slides taken of the day's events.

(turn down the blog music so that you can hear the music I attached to the slideshow.)

Honoring Our Country's Flag

Little Miss Addi honored the National Anthem as she stood at attention before CWU's volleyball game.

Happy Veteran's Day!

2009

Happy 60th Birthday!

He's our Hawaiian Supaman!

Crowned KING forever!

I can help you, Pa!

Out to lunch on his special day!

More September Birthday Celebrations!

Luke celebrated his 4th birthday at 3, 2, 1 Bounce. It was fun, fun, fun! Happy birthday big boy!

Best friends and . . .

best buddies!

Another September Birthday!

Olivia's 7 and has new pretty pink boots.

Happy cake day, Ms. O!

Happy Cake Day, Matt!

Last Sunday, we had an early birthday celebration for Matt's happy cake day. The family took him to the Spaghetti Factory where it was so busy that Matt helped to serve us our own milk, lemonades, and ice teas. Thanks for the service, Matt! We hope you are enjoying your special day, even though you are at the firehouse. Happy Birthday!

Hot Summer Days of 09

Yikes! Washington recently experienced the HOTTEST recorded temperatures in history. We were suffering in sweltering heat of 108 degrees which made life miserable and many people "grumpy." Yes, I was one of the gumpy ones complaining it was HOT. There was a shortage of portable and room size air conditioners where people stood in line at Costco at 2 AM to receive a ticket in order to buy their cooling system. Needless to say, there were many sad faces who left empty handed. Even trying to buy sun screen protection was limited as many stores are moving into the "school" mode and ending the summer purchases.

Lucky for us, our ohana had either portable air conditioners or an air conditioned house so that we were comfortable sleeping at night. Kim's condo has a pool where we floated around to cool off. Addi and her friends enjoyed the giant slide and pool in the Egger's backyard. Below are pictures of our pool play and Addi on her giant slide. Enjoy!

Lil' Addi's Swim Lessons

Here's Lil' Miss Addi's pictures of her first swim lesson for the summer. For her first lesson, she started off with a full flotation on her back but each lesson there after, she will loose a layer until she's on her own. She does a very good job waiting her turn, blowing bubbles, kicking, and moving her arms. Addi loves her time in the water and looks forward to her next lesson.

july 4th '09 celebration

Our Independence Day celebration started at the Yarrow Point community parade. Bellevue Fire Station 5 and Matt were the family's highlight of the parade. Addi was excited to wave throughout the parade, seeing her "dada" riding in the fire truck, and collecting the candy that was thrown in her direction. We, then, relocated ourselves to the Bellevue Park where we hunkered down for the evening to wait for the 10 PM firework display. During the wait, Addi met her preschool friend, Lauren, and had so much fun on the bouncy bounces, having her face painted and sketched, making colorful sugar candy sticks (aka batons), and making us laugh with her impromptu bows and silliness. Enjoy the slideshow of our eventful day.

Mariner's Train Night 6.05.09

At our annual Seattle Mariners free train give away night, the girls were able to take a picture with the Mariner's Moose before the game. Addi loved playing at the children's playground, shopping at the gift shop, eating pop-pop, and chocolate covered fruit sticks. Unfortunately, the Mariners lost the game to the Minnesota Twins in extra innings.

The Master and Head Chef's Visit

Hi all . . . Master Tony and Chef Lynn visited us in May. After attending a work conference, oh my, what fun we had! They cooked up a seafood extravaganza, shopped at Trader Joe's and the outlet malls, and visited the Pacific Ocean in Seaside,Oregon. We strolled the beach and wondered in and out of shops. While visiting Lynn's "cousins" in Sherwood, Or. we ate a delicious salmon and steak lunch at their beautiful home with a breath taking view. We then ventured to Howard's Et Fille Winery for our behind the scene tour of what started as a wine hobby and tasted wine right out of the barrels. Thank you, Mona, for being a wonderful hostess, too. BUT the highlight of Master Tony's visit was still to come, the IL Divo, concert in Portland, Oregon. Wow! He added music culture into the Kwock's lives. Finally, we hunted for the Food Channel's Voodoo Doughnut shop before our drive back to Washington. Sadly enough, the fun was over and it was time to get those suitcases packed and head back home.

Enjoy our highlights of the Master and Chef's visit.

Uncle "Weenie's" Visit

Enjoy the slides of Uncle Weenie's visit. It was birthday parties for Addi and Bubbles, shopping for odds and ends, casino playing, CWU luau, and of course, the seafood extravaganza with Uncle Tony and Aunty Lynn. We had quite a busy week with so much to do and places to go.

(Quite the playlist to hear the slideshow music.)

                                              

Happy Cake Day, Addi!

Look who's Three! 

Addi celebrates with a party at her school.

Happy Cake Day, Addi!

Here's Addi's 3rd backyard birthday party. All of Addi's friends and their parents had a blast jumping and sliding in the "jump jump" and thanks to PP's friend who donated the sugar and cotton candy machine. It was a big hit for the kids and adults who were sugared up for the day. Daddy Matt and Papa built and painted the Manny tool boxes while PP and Nahnah painted the Handy Manny poster. A big thank you to Uncle Tony, Aunty Lynn, TT, Bubbles, and Uncle "Weenie" for all their help in preparation as well as being on the clean up crew. Thanks to Addi's mama for her hard work, too. 

(turn down the playlist music before playing the video)

   

Happy Birthday, Addi-0!

Happy Mom's Day '09

Sunday, May 10th, we celebrated Mom's day at the Eggers' house. BBQ chef, Matt, cooked our steaks while pastry chef, Jesper, baked a delicious lemon pie and watermelon seed digger, Papa, contributed to the fruit salad. Everyone enjoyed each others company and ate a delicious meal.

Three generations

Nah-nah * Addi * Cyndi

Giggles from Addi (Dah, too) & Cyn

Love & hugs from Bubbles

The ohana - Cyndi * Addi * Nah-nah * "PP"

The Damgaards - Emily * Chris * Olivia

Smiles to you from Addi, Dah, & "PP"

CWU surprise

Once again, here was another fun event that took place in late February. Krys and Krista, Krys's teammate at OIT, drove many hours to surprise Bran in a fund raising volleyball tournament. The video tells about the surprise moment (sorry, tip your head for best viewing, video photography by Krys) then the captions will finish the days event.

                                             

Bran waits patiently to have her turn to play with the team from La Conner, Washington.

This is the bounce the ball as high as you can routine as Bran and Krys warm-up before playing.

Krys and Krista await serve from another team in their ready positions.

Yikes! This ball is coming faster than I thought.

In the back of Brans's car, we checked for the emergency items needed for a long drive through the mountain passes during the winter; water, food, and a blanket. Hmmm, toilet paper?

Do HUGE donuts count as emergency food?

The girls had a great time playing and being together since during the season it is very unlikely that they get to do this.

Finally, they both said their goodbyes with a great big HUG!

Our Las Vegas Trip

Hi all, here is the long awaited photo gallery of our trip to Las Vegas in mid-February. Enjoy the fun and laughs we had together while at the volleyball games, eating, shopping, and just hanging around with each other.

Field Trip to Costco

Khung-khung has been visiting us from Hawaii for the last two weeks. 

He bravely weathered the cold to shop at Costco. Here we go  . . .

First, he needed to put on his own socks and shoes,

walk out the door,

and climbed into the car.

He hopped onto his scooter . . .

and motored around the warehouse.

Khungs fueled his body with, of course, a hot dog 

before the trek home.

He cruised out to the parking lot,

then hobbled to the car, and

and made it HOME!