Whale Watching!

Benny and Daddy reviewing the map.

Mommy and Timmy on the windy boat.

An Orca named Rhapsody who loved to breach.

Fist bumping with Dad!

Rhapsody breaching yet again.  She did this about 52 times!

Here we are at the end of our 4 hour trip.

For our 13th Wedding Anniversary we decided to go see the Orca whales that live in Puget Sound.  Brad found out that a friend from the Philly area was working for a company called Island Adventures and they provide whale watching tours.  So, we booked our trip and Brad's friend Mike was actually there when we arrived for our tour.  He was the wildlife expert and explained a lot about the Orcas, harbor seals and eagles that we saw on our tour.

Easter Egg Hunt

The church that we regularly attend hosts an Easter Egg Hunt. This is the fourth year that they have done it. It takes place at the park in our development. Benny was really excited and we had perfect weather. Once the whistle sounded, he was off and running.


This was Timmy's first Easter Egg Hunt and he didn't know what to make of it. He does not like sitting in the grass.

Here is Benny showing Timmy all the eggs he found.

Benny, Mommy and Timmy with all the eggs Benny found.

Once his basket was full, he came up to me telling me he was done. His basket was getting to heavy and he didn't want anymore eggs. He still got a lot of chocolate from those eggs.

Pumpkin Carving

Our Life Group from church had a pumpkin carving party. Benny had fun playing with his friends. He was very excited about eating his first caramel apple.

Benny and his pumpkin.

Benny and his finished pumpkin. I helped him draw the face on the pumpkin before I carved it for him.

Our finished pumpkins! (Benny's is the 2nd from the left and mine is to the right of his.)

St. Louis Zoo 2010

Before going to visit Grandma and Grandpa's house in IL, we stopped by the St. Louis Zoo. We had a wonderful time. The weather was great and we all had fun. This is the sign you can see from the highway.

Benny liked the fact that this Zoo had a train to ride. Here he is riding the train.

Timmy and I are riding the train.

Daddy and Benny riding the carousel or as Benny calls it the "up/down horses".

Timmy's first carousel ride!

Daddy and Benny petting the goats.

Benny sitting on a frog.

Benny sitting on a giant beetle outside the insecterium.

Benny and the snake (no, it is not real).

Across the highway is a park called turtle park. It has a lot of giant turtle statues. I thought Aunt Jill would like this. (I have no idea who the people are in this picture.)

More Camping Pictures

This little boy sure liked his chocolate. We brought the Hershey's chocolate and marshmallows but forgot the graham crackers. Benny found out that eating chocolate near a campfire is a very messy thing.



Timmy had a great time camping. As long as he was fed and took his naps, he was a happy camper (pun intended)!
There was a little beach that we could go swimming and Benny surprised me by wanting to go. He even got down in the water on his tummy and tried to "swim". He would have stayed in the water all day if we let him.

Here is our handsome three year old!

We went for a hike through the woods. Benny was okay with it as long as we paid attention to him.

Benny had to bring some friends along. Too bad Thomas, Percy and Kelly spent most of the time covered in dirt and pine needles.

Stopping to rest. Benny liked climbing the rocks.

Once again, Timmy was probably the most comfortable one during our hike.

Timmy really liked the backpack. He even fell asleep in it.

Here is Brad and Benny telling Timmy to be quiet. It was early in the morning and we didn't want to wake up our fellow campers. Timmy wasn't crying, just babbling and laughing. Notice what was for breakfast, Doughnuts!

Heilenman Camping Trip 2010

We took the boys on their first camping trip and despite the fact that we forgot to bring our sleeping bags (we ended up purchasing some) and that the air mattress had a hole in it, we did okay. We went to Millersylvania State Park (just south of Olympia, WA). We had great weather.
Here is our campsite. Could you believe that we fit all four of us in this tent? Timmy slept in his pack n play and the rest of us slept on the ground. I think Timmy is the only one who really got any sleep at night.

Here is the rest of the campsite.

Timmy liked sitting in his special seat. He is doing a good job of sitting up.

Here is Benny with one of his many rocks he collected.

We stayed two nights at the campground. That was enough to start with for us.

The Falls

On our way back from Newport, we decided to take the long way home. We went home via I-84 which goes along the Columbia River Gorge. Although this highway runs by a lot of waterfalls, we stopped at this one because it was very easy to get to.

Here is a view from the bridge.

Benny admiring the falls.

Here is the falls. See the bridge? We hiked/walked up there. Only 2 tenths of a mile to the bridge but a full mile to the top.
Mommy and Timmy getting ready for our walk to the falls.

Baby Update

Well, I have made it through 25 weeks. Only 15 weeks to go. The baby sure likes to kick. My next ultrasound is scheduled for November 17th and my next ob/gyn appointment is November 20th. I get to do my glucose testing. Oh what fun! (NOT!). Hopefully I will have more information then. So far, everything seems to be going okay. I am taking iron supplements and seem to have more energy.