Wow... busy weekend!

This weekend we packed in Atty's party {seizure free for one year on his magic diet!} on Saturday, the Seattle Aquarium on Sunday, and a really great walk in a local bird sanctuary on Monday. A fun filled, beautiful, memory building weekend, just my kind of thing. :) I took over three hundred pictures in one long weekend, so in comparison these pictures here are just the tip of the iceberg so to speak. Didn't think you all would want to wade through that many pictures, ha ha! Atty's Seizure Free party was amazing. Wonderful friends, great Atty friendly food, lots of laughs, a few tears {mostly me...} it was food for my soul.

Atty's face was lit up with happiness the whole time. Being able to share his food, and have other people enjoying it meant the world to him.

I got trophies for all the kids and had them engrave a special message on each one, they loved them. I had to have my dearest friend stand with me and talk for me at first as I was so choked up with emotion that it just overwhelmed me, but by the time Atty's turn came around I was able to talk and give him his trophy. It was a really special moment. I also took a moment to thank all the people there who have been there for me and supported me and I made a super ugly cry face as I tried to get out the words I needed to express myself. I didn't quite say what I wanted to say, but they understood, tears were shed all around and we all hugged. It was beautiful.

Then my mom surprised Ryder and I with trophies of our own. So sweet and totally unexpected. Go Team Rivers.

We finished with almond flour cupcakes, they ended up being super yummy and not a single one was wasted. Yay!

This little red head {he would say orange head if you asked him} is my Champion! He has now been seizure free for one whole year, and as of Saturday is off his medicine. All of it! Wowsers.

The next day we were off to the Seattle Aquarium. Everyone was super excited!

The under water dome ended up being one of the favorite for everyone. The boys visited it twice, and spend quite a lot of time looking around at all the amazing fish. On our second trip in {yes we went around the whole aquarium twice!} we saw a scuba diver cleaning the windows and the boys thought that was really cool.

One of my favorite pictures of the day. :)

Looking in the tide pools, a touch and feel area. Another favorite.

A lady asked me how I kept track of my kids as she was having a hard time keeping track of her two {her words, not mine} I told her bright shirts. That's the ticket. Well that and teaching your kids to mind you and stick by you in crowds, but I didn't go there with her. I do always dress my kids in really bright clothes when we go to crowded places and find that it really, really helps. In fact I was just thinking while we were there that I want to have a tie dye party this summer and make some more brightly colored shirts, they are the best for spotting in a crowd. :)

Are they truly all mine!?! I am a lucky girl. :)

On Monday we went to a bird sanctuary for an amazing walk. I was looking through our Atlas and happened to see that there was a bird sanctuary on a close by island that we never knew of before. It took us all of about 15 minutes to get there. That's my kind of outing.

It was truly beautiful and the calls of all the birds was music to the ears. We saw so many, and the kids were all really excited. The walk was a super easy maybe two miles round trip. A big bonus was an eagle nest with two clearly visible bald eagles. We were told that there were babies in the nest and the kids thought that was really neat. We all spied on them with our binoculars.

There were also lots of cranes. The kids got a good giggle over one that wouldn't stop squawking. They are really loud!

We tried to get a family photo, but it didn't work out so well. :)

My hubby and I took turns for a group shot instead. This was the end of the trail. It emptied out into reedy marsh lands right next to the river and close to the bay. Beautiful.

We were all super proud to make it to the end of the trail. And everyone was a trooper on the way back. I love that my kids like to hike, because I am a big explorer! I can't wait to go on more explorations with this team. Slowly we will go farther and farther, pretty soon maybe I can talk the hubby into a hiking/camping trip... he's not as into the exploring as I am. But he lets himself be dragged along {and I think he secretly likes it}.