Cinco de Mayo

  This is not going to be your average Cinco de Mayo post.  However, I did get a little piñata swag last week and so it's making me kind of festive.  lol!  This year's Cinco de Mayo is kind of a special day for Mike and I for two reasons.

  The first takes us back to our little apartment in the Udistrict.  We were newly married and this was the only picture I could find of us in our apartment.  I was still in school and in the evening I would be studying biology (I used to be smart!) and Mike would watch tv.  He got HOOKED on a show which eventually got me too.  It was 24 and a new season begins tonight!!  We have such great memories of this time!!  It became a weekly Monday night ritual of making the softest, chewiest, and yummiest molasses ginger cookies while we watched 24.  And guess what, we thought that the show was done forever, but who were we kidding, Jack Bauer does not die!!  We are super excited to watch the new season premiere tonight and in honor of the show coming back, we are pulling out an old recipe we ate all of the time in that little apartment, french dip sandwiches, as well as having those yummy cookies. The kids will be in bed at 7:50 pm sharp tonight.  :)

Boy, times have changed since then.  I didn't find many pictures of the two of us.  We more took pictures of scenery.

Otherwise, this happened. We were so cute.  I loved our strolls around campus and other Seattle adventures.

Look at this gem.  I was doing these pictures long before they became so popular.  Yeah, I'm cool.

  The second thing is that 5 years ago, on Cinco de Mayo, Mike was laid off from work in what we now dub "Cinco de Fire-o."  We will never forget those 6 months that Mike was laid off.  It was one of the hardest things we've ever been through.  However, we celebrate it today knowing that those 6 months were blessed with lots of time together at home, and getting to experience the faithfulness and perfection of God who got Mike a job exactly when our money was running out.  Hannah was our only babe back then, and as I went to look at pictures I got carried away (so bear with me).  Hannah was only 18 months old and I can hardly remember her this old.  We did so much during those 6 months and we were fortunate that this all went down during the warmer half of the year, and of course we are thankful for the wonderful jobs Mike has had since that famous Cinco de Mayo.

I was coaching at the time so that helped us have a daily routine and kept me very busy!

It was a HOT summer, and the pool was our go-to.

Around the 4th of July I found out I was pregnant with Calvin.  Not what we were wanting when Mike had no job, but I can't imagine life without Calvin!

Hannah was saying "No no no!" to us already.  It was cute.  Back then.  :)

We were in the water a lot wherever we were.  Here we are in Portland where we also went for a ride on a boat in the river. 

Then there was that time when we forgot Hannah's bag of clothes on her changing table at home when we were already in Seaside, OR.

Farmer's market treats.

Crabbing off Lummi Island.

Hiking Rattlesnake lake.

Harvest day at the farms.

Hiking on Mt. Rainier.

What a fun look back for me.  Life has changed drastically from the 5 years ago today when we had one baby and Mike was laid off.  And even more since 9 years ago when we were freshly married and got hooked on that tv show.  The good news is that even though life is so very different as 4 kids keeps our plates full, there is no laying low, and we don't always feel so fresh; we love all that our family has become, all that we've been through, and all that we've learned from it.  

Happy Cinco de Mayo!