Chase is 3!!!!

Chase turned 3 today! It hardly seems that long ago that he came into this world. I remember it well enough though. We barely made it to the hospital! I remember screaming at Chris to drive faster and faster because I knew we didn't have much time. We made it to the hospital and Chase made his debut four minutes later!

What a character Chase is. He has an infectious smile and laugh. He is full of personality too. I love having him in our family. He and Brody are best friends and they play well together. I always tell others that it's easier to have more than one child because they entertain each other. Chase is a delight to us...most of the time.

It sure is fun to have birthdays. Today we had breakfast for dinner as Chase requested. Then we had grandma Jeanne, Papa, and grandma Sheryl over for cake and ice cream. It was fun and I think Chase felt really special. He also got phone calls from family and cousins. He was really excited to have someone calling for HIM!

Presenting the "spiderman red cake" at Chase's request. I had fun decorating it the night before. Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting! Yummy!

Here is a video of Brody and Chase entertaining Grandma Sheryl and Daddy today.

"I'm so glad we found this!"

Chris said let's go to a hotel. How could I say no to a getaway? Yipee!!! So, I packed our things for two nights and when Chris got home at 4:00 on Thursday night, away we went to Seattle. We stayed two nights in a hotel across from Lake Union and we had such a fun time! We went swimming, ate too much, and spent time with family. It was a great mini trip for us as a family before we had to say goodbye to dad for a whole week. Chris had to fly off Saturday morning to Deleware for work for 6 days!

When we first arrived at the hotel, the kids ran to this cool fountain.

We went swimming A LOT. It was Chase's first time swimming "all by myself",well...with the water wings of course. It was a step up for him. While I could possibly take all 3 kids by myself, I'm not sure I'd attempt it yet.

There is a great little trolly-train that we jumped on right in front of our hotel that took us right into downtown Seattle.

We had a gift certificate from Chris' brother and sis-in-law to Cheesecake Factory. YUMMY! We had a great time. We even got some delicious cheesecake to go! (This was our best family shot; our waiter had some serious shakes going on...hmmm?)

We met up with uncle Matt, Aunt Bri, Olivia, Uncle Zack, Aunt Carrie, and Dylan at Bucca di Beppo. A restaurant we have been hearing great things about for years. We finally made it, and boy was it Goooooooooood!!

We had such a good time that we decided we need to come again and again. It's fun to get away from the normal routine and not have to drive too far to do it!