Welcome to the Family

A couple weeks ago Ryan headed to Spokane and brought back this beauty:

He's been wanting one of these forever and I'm so happy he finally pulled the trigger on it! It's sooooo comfy to ride in. I don't see myself driving it too much (too big and I LOVE my Edge) but thrilled to be a passenger!

Things That Make You Go 'Awwwww'

I had a lovely Mother's Day weekend. We kicked the weekend off by doing a staycation in Bellevue. I met my Mom and Jennifer to not only celebrate a Mom's Day weekend but also my Mom's 70th birthday. We did some shopping, eating, more shopping, more eating, got pedicures, and stayed overnight at the Westin. The next morning entailed more shopping and eating. LOL. Are you seeing a pattern?! I had a lovely time with them!

Then I headed home and was loved on by Ryan and Kaitlyn. I was treated to WildFin for dinner and I got a much needed hair dryer that I've had my eye on but was a bit too pricey to pull the trigger on. But my favorite of all time was something Kaitlyn made for me.

Why My Mom Should Be on the Cover of People Magazine
By Kaitlyn R. Pederson

There are many reasons why my Mom deserves to be on the cover of People magazine. One reason is, she does my hair every day and helps me get ready for school. My Mom also is a great birthday party planner and timegiver. A few more reasons she deserves to be on the cover are: My Mom is a great nurse, remember the time I fell into a sticker bush? You helped me with all those scratches and you helped me stay calm when I got my ears pierced. You also take me on trips with you and get me things. Finally, my Mother deserves to be on the cover of People magazine because you love me and Dad, and Kenyen, and our whole family! But of course, these are just droplets of reasons in a whole tsunami of them.

Always love ya!
KP

THIS. This makes me SO over-the-moon happy! I've spent so much time over the last year dealing with work stuff and often end up working late nights. The guilt associated with that stinks. But this makes me feel like I am doing something right! She's such an incredible little human and I LOVE spending as much time with her as possible. And that last line...droplets of reasons in a whole tsunami of them...just brings a huge smile to my face!

Kaitlyn, I'm so blessed to be your Mama. I love you to the moon and back a bazillion, trillion, gazillion times! xoxoxox

Flying High From Cookie Sales

As a special reward for all their hard work during cookie season Kaitlyn's girl scout troop spent Sunday afternoon at the Flying Circus. No surprise, everyone had a blast. This troop has really come together (thankfully, it's a smaller more consistent group of kids now) and the girls are having a great time together.

Culmination of 4th Grade Honor Choir

Last week KP's honor choir had their last performance of the year. They combined the choir with the steel drum band and we got a nice Caribbean feel for the evening.

KP's over-the-moon that there isn't anymore 8 am Mondays for choir going forward. Hard to believe the end of the school year is sneaking up on us!!

KP with her friend Kennedy

It was a longer program for sure! But these
kids put such hard work into this - super cool to see!

Bullseye x 12!

Kaitlyn is really loving archery. Her teacher felt she was ready to move up to the next class (intermediate level) but in order to do so she would have to attend a qualifier event and shoot a certain score. So this last weekend KP took part in her first archery qualifier.

Friday was her typical weekly class and she did her best shooting yet to date. She hit the bullseye 12 times in 7 rounds and on the smaller target. Her teacher was amazed as that is SUPER impressive with a recurve bow.

Saturday was the qualifier - 2 warm up rounds, 10 scored rounds, and a total score that needed to be higher than 150 since she was shooting a recurve. She got up there and started shooting away. It's hard to see/keep score so at the end we had no idea how it was looking. They were telling everyone else their scores but said they'd come back to KP. So we waited...and then we finally found out she shot a 209!! She (and we) were SO excited! She's moving up to the intermediate class which is longer in duration and thus, provides more shooting time and practice.

But wait, there's more! She finally got her own bow (she's been begging for one for the last couple months). She picked out a black compound bow, purple accents, a purple trigger release, a dozen arrows, a carrying bag and a hard-side storage box for her arrows. She is over-the-moon about it all. Many thanks to Uncle Chris for his generous contribution towards that pricey purchase/investment.

Also, a shout out and thanks to Grammy Jill, Papa Dirt, and Uncle Chris for coming out to support her. She felt pretty special and very loved with all the support and fist bumps after each round!

Friday's target with all the middle shots! The other
shots were pretty stinkin great as well!

Qualifiers on Saturday

Having fun at qualifiers -
and the last time she'll be shooting a recurve

All her goodies loaded up and ready to go

Showing off her new compound bow to the Mosers

Clubbing it Up With Kelsea Ballerini

For Christmas last year, we got tickets for Kaitlyn to go see Kelsea Ballerini - one of her favorite singers right behind Luke Bryan. I was a little nervous as, although it was advertised as an all ages show, it was at the Showbox nightclub. We weren't really sure what we were going to be exposing her to but decided to give it a shot. We could always chalk it up to a good learning experience/discussion opportunity if something did go sideways, right?! So off we headed to the show on Saturday with the Tausch family.

We had a great dinner at Pyramid Alehouse before the show. And then thankfully, for the most part, things were fairly on the up-and-up at the concert. It was super crowded (standing room only) and hot and that threw KP a bit but people were really great when they'd see the girls. And KP learned the art of layering and how to discreetly take her pants off on a very crowded floor (she was wearing a dress with leggings). Ha! There were a few 'too much to drink' situations but I don't think the girls even saw that. As soon as Kelsea came on stage they were enthralled! Luckily, we had a super nice bouncer who at one point allowed the girls to go up on a platform area (he kept everyone else off of it) which gave them amazing views of the stage, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to see much. Super glad we did it and had lots of fun as a family...while also (kinda) looking like cool parents to our 9-year old. LOL.

Just arriving at the Showbox. SODO

Group selfie less Ryan

It started getting crowded QUICK

Family selfie

The floor is starting to get crowded and hot.
KP's sweater was the first thing to come off. :)

There she is!

The girls had a blast!
Luckily the bouncer cleared these stairs and
had the girls go up to the top for a standing
area that was all for them. So cool!!!

Spring Break Studios

Last week was Kaitlyn's Spring Break and not surprising, the weather here was awful.So what does one do? Well, head south to California and Universal Studios, of course! And that's exactly what KP and I did. We had a blast!

Light up drink from Bubba Gumps to
start off our trip

They rolled out the red carpet for us :)

Who doesn't love a minion??!!

Love that she choose to wear this shirt!
Perfect for our visit to Hogsmeade.
It's from Harry Potter and says, 'I solemnly
swear that I'm up to no good' 

Kaitlyn loved the Transformer characters -
they pretty much said whatever they wanted and
made amusing comments about people! She didn't want to go
it alone so dragged me with her for the picture

Big News! KP tackled her fear and rode the
Flight of the Hippogriff roller coaster AND
sat in the very front car!

Butterbeer is SO, SO GOOD!

Hands-down, her favorite character
of all time!

First class on the flight home for
KP and Fluffy (the unicorn from
Despicable Me!)