These were Nicholas’s first words when he awoke Saturday morning. Michelle had arrived late the night before and the boys were excited to meet and play with her. After waiting to 8:30am, Nicholas shouted “Hello Friends!” and the real noised started. Michelle came down shortly afterward. She had brought the boys two Danish police cars, a Danish Firetruck and Ambulance, along with Danish soccer shirt and shorts. Now we can have a soccer match between Sweden and Denmark. Joel and I got chocolate and caramels and the cutest little Danish bobble-head that you’ve ever seen. Thank you Michelle!

Seeing that it was turning out to be such a nice day, we headed for the zoo. We have never headed out that late before – it was 10am before we left the house and the zoo opens at 9:30am. By the time we got there and circled 4 parking lots to no avail, Joel kicked us out of the car so that he could look for parking. No parking = grumpy Joel. The boys played happily at a park outside the zoo though. It took herculian effort to get them in the zoo so that we could meet up with Joel, who found parking at last, 30 minutes after getting to the zoo. Oops. It seems that a bunch of companies were having family picnics at the zoo that day. Wow – it was crowded. It felt like Disneyland. Poor Michelle – not the first impression we would have liked to make.

At this point in time, we were not aware that Dexter had Scarlet Fever. He was on day 3 of antibiotics and thus we felt he was not contagious anymore. But, walking around the zoo wore the little guy out and I ended up carrying him a lot of the time. Poor me. He’s getting heavy. Each time we go to the zoo, I feel like I see something new and this time we saw a dancing elephant. Joel thinks the elephant was doing a poop dance which delighted the boys.

Back to the car where they promptly fell asleep. We drove straight to the walk in clinic to get Dexter checked out for a rash that had developed after taking his antibiotic. What we thought was an allergic reaction to medicine was in fact, Scarlet Fever. As Joel and Dexter met doctors, Michelle, Nicky and I went to Fred Meyer to buy food and birthday cards for Joel’s birthday (which was on Sunday). We actually all got done at the same time and headed back home for play time.

On Sunday, we showed Michelle the Everett Farmer’s Market and celebrated Joel’s birthday. It was a very low key weekend and so far, no one else has caught Dexter’s germs.

Michelle, we are very happy you are now here. Welcome to the Yates Family.

Welcome Michelle