New things

Daily there are new things happening here at the Odle household. I've included pictures of just a few things that I'll briefly talk about. At the top is a picture of Ainsley's light-up princess sandals. She probably wears these the most now that it's in the 80s every day. Anyway, yesterday I said, "Ainsley, can you take off your shoes please?" (not actually thinking she would do it since she never has before) and she proceeded to sit down, unvelcro and remove both sandals! It was so cute and very impressive. Next... every night before bed Andy and I both go into Ainsley's room with her while she picks out a book for one of us to read to her. Now, she seemingly puts a lot of thought into this process, standing on her little step stool and scanning the shelves until she comes to her final decision. The last couple of weeks she has chosen "My Brother Martin" majority of the time. The reason this seems so funny to us is that it's a thin book (mixed in with big books) and it's totally not age appropriate (probably suits more like a 6 or 7 year old) but she just loves it. It's a short story about Martin Luther King Jr.'s childhood written by his sister. The next pictures are of the new overhead light in Ainsley's bedroom (I love IKEA) and the potty we bought for her. She hasn't actually started using it yet but it sits in the bathroom and she knows exactly what it's for. I'll keep you posted when there's progress in the potty training department.

The Dogwood Festival, A baby shower, Last swimming lesson, New friends and Old

My friend Tama, from high school!
Playing at the playground.

Ainsley's new friend Jasper (his mommy is an old friend from Washington that I played softball with who lives here now!)

Nothing like a hard earned sucker!

Miss Laura the swim instructor.

Becca and baby bump (she's due May 12th).

Just resting and playing with some dirt at the Dogwood Festival.

Dagmar Midcap, our 'Channel 2 Action News' weather lady.

Hair blowing in the wind.

Cool shades.

Easter Sunday

Our little Easter bunny

Seattle

Bye bye Seattle!!






Well, we had a great time in Washington. 2 weeks came and went quick, as always. It was Ainsley and I to fly solo on the 19th of March as Andy had to stay in Atlanta for work (he joined us a week later). The placement of our seats on the flight to Seattle could not have been better. We sat right across the aisle from a lady with two kids. Ainsley sat with them for take off and landing and played in the aisle right next to me with the 4 year old boy, Gavin, the entire time! When we arrived, my mom and dad picked us up and we headed north to Birch Bay where we stayed at our timeshare. Birch Bay is about 15-20 minutes outside of Bellingham so we went into town several times to hang out, including a couple of the times to see one of my best friends Heidi and meet her new baby. While in Washington we also went to a surprise 60th birthday party for my Uncle John and spent time with family, my brother and his girls came up to Birch Bay for a couple days and we went in the pool/hot tub and played at the beach (in the freezing cold wind), we saw some other really great friends Meghan and Mike and met their new baby and we visited my grandpa and grandma a couple of times. We also drank lots of coffee from all the yummy drive-thru espresso stands, ate burgers from one of my favourite places, Dick's, went to the INN (the college ministry I worked for in Bellingham the year before Andy and I got married) and saw our friend Julia and her daughters (you might remember hearing about them in posts from Scotland...they were in town at the same time as us!). Of course there was friends and family we didn't get to see which was very disappointing (sorry we missed you Aunt Berta!) but hopefully we'll visit again sooner than later. Overall it was such a relaxing time and I was so happy especially that Ainsley got to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa (or Gaga and Gapa as she affectionately calls them). The pictures, which for some reason have uploaded with a HUGE space in between them and the bottom of the page, are in order of what we did on our trip. I didn't label them all but you should be able to figure out what they are based on what I wrote in the blog. Also, at the bottom of the page, after the HUGE space are two videos taken of Ainsley. One is on the airplane going to Seattle and the other is at the timeshare. Enjoy!