Benziger babes

We just got back from a weekend in Vancouver with Grandma and Grandpa Benziger. More about the delicious sushi, oysters, dim sum and the beautiful tulips and Chuckanut Drive later this week but for now you can check out the almost-crawling baby boy! (Video is only 43 seconds)

Admiring the fields of tulips outside Mount Vernon, WA   Skagit Valley Tulip Festival "Tulips in the garden; tulips in the park; but the tulips I love best are the two lips in the dark." A clever poem I overheard by Grandpa Pastorius. Mommy and Daddy took me on another road trip. This time we went to smell the roses... I mean tulips...around Mount Vernon and Anacortes. It was only an hour north of Seattle but then we drove around for another hour to admire the various daffodil and tulip fields in the area, which were in bloom during the annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. We brought along Mommy's friend, Alfred, who is and OB/GYN doctor and was a Fogarty Scholar from Kenya in 2009-10 and is in Seattle getting his Masters in Public Health at the UW. After we had enough of walking in around the fields through the mud (Daddy carried me but next year he said I get to puddle jump), we headed to Deception Pass State Park for a few hours. I really liked watching the wav...

Here's a quick peak at Theo at Easter "walking", "talking" and just having a good time. Enjoy! (Video is about 5 minutes.)

Springtime in Seattle and Theo's perfectly happy just sitting in the beautiful cherry tree. Springtime in Seattle Remember the proverb, "April showers bring May flowers." In Seattle, it's more like, "Winter showers bring spring flowers." Since it drizzles all winter, the plants are waiting to burst out of their dormant states as soon as the days are longer and we get a few hours of sunlight and believe-it-or-not fewer rain showers. Well folks, April is that time of year! The pink and white cherry blossom trees bloom on every other block and it fills the air with a soft floral scent. The large magnolia trees turn the sky into a giant bouquet of flowers while the rhododendron bushes pop open and brighten the neighborhood with their many bright colors: from red to yellow and orange to purple.  The yellow daffodils greet me on our front stoop as well as tall red and yellow tulips. The smell of the purple hyacinths and apple blossom trees are a nightmare ...