New Car!

We bought a new car today! Yup, we traded in the ol' Jeep Cherokee gas guzzler for a more fuel efficient Mazda 5. They call it a "crossover," but if you look at the photos, you will see that it is clearly a...sigh...minivan. BUT, it's actually smaller & gets better gas mileage than your traditional minivans. After almost of month of test driving, trying out how the car seat fits, checking out how much leg room tall-man David has, we took the plunge. Actually, we have been thinking of getting a new car for a couple of YEARS now, maybe less.

We started off looking at the Mazda 3, thinking we would downsize. Then, we tried out the Toyota Matrix. Then, back to Mazda to look at the 5 and the 6, and the 3, again. Then, to Volvo for the V50 (Yikes! Too expensive!), and Nissan for the Rogue. In the end, we decided that the Mazda 5 will be the most versatile for our needs, in our price range, with decent fuel efficiency. I don't have a pic of it yet, but I'll post one soon. We got the Grand Touring in white with leather seats & a moonroof...fancy. AND, it has handsfree Bluetooth in it, so we'll be getting new cell phones soon (something else that has taken us a long time to switch out in our lives).

Dinner

Read about this picture by checking out "Family Meal" on the links on the right side of this blog!

Ooh, and Vincent turned 20 months old today! Gettin' closer and closer to age 2!

Chairs & Diapers

I got handed down an Ikea table back when I was working at the W Hotel. My friend painted it red with little swirls. Several times I've almost gotten rid of it, even though it has served me well. I have now passed it down to Vincent. But, it has been without chairs for quite some time now. Until this week! I found these cute little plastic chairs at Ikea! The fit perfectly, and Vincent loves them. Yay for Mommy!I recently decided to try out some different diapers on Vincent. gDiapers. They're sort of a hybrid of cloth and disposable. There's an outer cloth cover, and inner plastic liner, and then the actual diaper, which is the disposable part. It is supposed to decompose in 50-150 days. We can throw the wet diapers in our yard waste bin, and flush the poopy diapers. The poopy part isn't much better than cloth diapers, but at least I don't have to wash them (or smell that diaper pail). So far, it's working out pretty well. It is pretty spendy, but I haven't gotten to figuring out how to make it more economical for us, yet. We're thinking we might try doubling up at night time, so we no longer need to put him in a conventional disposable diaper at night. I've actually started to carry these with me for outings as well. They aren't as bulky as the cloth diapers.

Too Cute

Vincent has this friend, Nadia. She's a couple of months younger than him. They get to see each other about once a week or so. They seem to have grown fond of each other. Well, he's quite fond of her, but sometimes she seems unsure of his aggressive affections, like when he tries to pull her in for a kiss or hold her hand. I took this picture at another family's housewarming party last weekend. They both got up on the sofa, looked at each other, said, "hi" and sat contently next to each other.

Too cute!

Okay, another one!

More Wading Pool

Saturday was H-O-T-T!!! We decided to take little man to the wading pool as a family. It was David's first time going with us. They both had a blast. I got to lounge on the side, take pictures, and chat with other parents about their stroller.

Wading Pool

It's summertime in Seattle, and that means wading pools! Okay, so we've only been to one actual wading pool, one fountain, and one beach. But, it's so nice to have some outdoor time in the sunshine, soaking up the much needed vitamin D, and getting a little wet. Vincent and I met up with friends, Jill & Evan, at Volunteer Park's wading pool this afternoon.

Here is a link to Evan's blog for a couple more photos: http://evandemsey.blogspot.com/2008/08/volunteer-park-with-vincent.html

South 47 Farm

Before all the family weekend festivities, Vincent and I went out to a farm with our friend, Billie & Nadia. We strapped both car seats into the back of the Jeep, and headed to South 47 Farm for some raspberries pickin'. The kids did pretty well. Once I showed Vincent how to pick the berries off the bushes, he was so excited and ready to pick any that he saw. He also picked berries off the ground. Of course, I would immediately go digging into his mouth to fetch that dirty little berry out, but it would be too late. Unfortunately, Vincent still gets pretty sensitive to raspberries and strawberries, and he ended up with a pretty bad little diaper rash by the end of the next day. I only go berry picking about once a year, and he rarely eats them. He was having such a great time picking and eating, and the rash was gone by morning. Enjoy these pics from our day!

The Grand Parentals

For the first time since Vincent was born, both Grandma & Grandpa Hunt were able to visit us at the same time! For whatever reason, schedules, lack of space in our house, etc., they've had to take trips to visit us separately. Not this time. We had to do it up for this special occasion. So, we took them on Ride the Duck tour of the city!

As cheesey as it is, we all had a really great time. Vincent LOVED it, and really enjoyed pointing at the boats and seaplanes while we were on Lake Union. He even waved at some of the boaters who were sailing by on their way out to Lake Washington for the SeaFair festivities.

Speaking of SeaFair...this past weekend was Blue Angels weekend! Here are the Hunts enjoying the air show down by the water. Those planes are amazing!

Other things we did this weekend include David and his dad going to test drive a Mazda3, taking a walk up to Volunteer Park, a fantastic dinner at home, a yummy brunch at Monsoon, dinner with Uncle Jim, Aunt Nancy, and Aunt Jacque, and even a little trip to Lowes. It was a fun filled weekend for sure!