The salmon are running! The salmon are running!

We enjoyed an outing out to the Ballard Locks tonight because it's salmon season! They have a neat fish ladder that helps the salmon migrate from the ocean water up to the lake water on the other side of the locks and dam. We were not expecting salmon from the ocean to be so big!

There are 21 steps to the ladder and the fish have to jump up about a foot to reach each level. It was pretty neat to see!

On the way back over the locks we saw a great big boat going through. We stopped to watch for a little while. It was a very "Seattle" experience!

Brandon wanted to jump onto that barge and play in all that sand!


Hey cuties!


Can I just say that I love how many different varieties of blue flowers there are here?

One Week to Go!

I can't believe how quickly this summer has flown by. We're down to our final week and it's going to be a busy one. I'm so pleased that Justin's presentation went so well and that he is stress free now. We will definitely enjoy our last week here.

This last weekend we enjoyed connecting with several people from the MBA program. We hosted a BYU MBA social at a nice park with 4 current interns, 4 incoming students and 1 alumni with their families. It was really nice to get together since we're all here. And I was so busy chasing kids around that I didn't get around to taking any pictures! I'm excited for the upcoming school year to start. It will be busy, but we'll be involved in some fun things too.

For the start of our final week in Seattle, we are doing lots of laundry! But the kids happily entertained themselves with yet another way of reading books on the couch. They're so funny!

These fold away cubes were something we bought from Amazon with our new discount at the beginning of the summer to help the kids since we didn't bring many toys and we can't really go play outside. Plus, they fold right up and don't take much space. They are meant to go on the ground in train formation to crawl through (which Katelyn just loves) but they've been in many other formations this summer. Here is a small sampling:

Who says there's only one way to set these up?

Meanwhile Katelyn was doing two of her favorite things.....
playing with Lindsey's dishes,


and pulling our her hair elastic.


It is so hard to keep her hair looking decent these days. She loves to pull out whatever I put in her hair to keep it out of her eyes. Hopefully she'll grow out of this phase soon!

A “4-pager” success

Jenn told me that I had to write this post since this is supposed to be “our” blog. So here goes:

On Friday I gave my final presentation at Amazon and it went really well. Amazon has a very unique structure for their presentations as they do not use PowerPoint. Instead, Amazon values well-written, thorough write-ups to present information. My VP, director, senior manager, manager, team members, and the VP of Books were all in attendance. The presentation started off with me passing out my “4-pager” and everybody spending 15 minutes reading through it, analyzing my data, and accessing my recommendations. That was a long 15 minutes.

I have spent all summer analyzing data and trying to set the direction for the redesign of the product pages that will happen over the next couple of years. One of my biggest challenges is that much of the data that I needed to make decisions was either missing or incomplete. In addition, my managers already had their own ideas as to the direction we should take, but based on my analysis I felt we should be going another direction. So you can imagine the stress I faced leading up to this presentation. It was something to watch people read the executive summary (4-pager) marking it up and making notes in the margin. I tried to watch what they were marking so that I could prepare my response to their questions.

After the 15-minute reading, I asked if anybody had any questions. My VP started by asking a few questions and had me go a little deeper into my analysis of the first section. Luckily, I was very prepared for this and was able to demonstrate my deep understanding of this area. They could see that I had done my homework and didn’t question that section any further. Then my director said, “I would like to challenge you on one of your points. You state [x,y, and z] and that is just wrong.” Luckily I was able to elaborate further and help her understand how I came to those numbers.

Finally, the VP of Books spoke and said, “I really like your framework here. I think it is the right approach and is the direction we need to be going.” His opinion is very respected as he has been at Amazon a long time and done some great things for the company. This started a very positive discussion of the paper and the possibilities that the recommendations present.

When I got back to my area after my presentation my manager congratulated me and said that the presentation went better than his intern presentation did and better than any presentation he has seen. He and my senior manager had both been nervous about how my presentation would go since I had gone out on a limb with my recommendations. Luckily, it paid off!

So hopefully this all means that I will get a job offer. I definitely want to look at my other options, but Amazon really is an incredible company and I hope to have the option of coming back.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

On Tuesday, Amazon treated the interns to a baseball game over at Safeco Field.

It was Mariners vs. Red Sox. I was excited that we got an extra ticket for me and I was able to find a babysitter at the last minute. We had a great view from our seats.

How do they mow the grass like that? There were definitely a lot of die-hard fans there. We had a good time explaining the game of baseball to an intern named Boaz from Israel. He found the game to be very interesting.

I especially enjoyed the evening with Justin because he has been working so hard on his final presentation and spending most of his time at home on it. (It'll all be over today about 4:00!)

The weather was perfect for watching the game and we really enjoyed the evening. We even got to give one of the players a high five! :)

Thanks Amazon for another fun activity!

Katelyn's Videos

Our regular video camera has been out of commission for just about the whole summer, which has been kind of disappointing. The kids are learning so many new things that we wish we could capture. I am grateful however that our digital camera has video on it. It's not very good and there is no sound, but at least it is something! Here are a few videos of Katelyn and what she has been doing lately.

She has the cutest little dance when she hears music.


This video shows her sitting in "her chair" holding the Elmo piano, which plays music and is one of her favorite toys. Towards the end of the video she starts to say "Uh-oh" several times and then drops it on the ground, which of course is one of those classic games she has discovered.

Next up: Katelyn walking! She has really started to get the hang of it today. We have now entered a new realm of curiosity and independence!

And finally, the kids just love to make Katelyn laugh. She thought they were just hilarious tonight.

Sunday Wiggles

No, this post is not about wiggles during church, although we have definitely had our fair share of those today (mostly on Katelyn's part). After we got the kids into their PJ's we had some time to burn and the kids had lots of energy to burn. So what did they find to do? They started running around the table in circles. This first picture is kind of funny because there is a stark contrast between the energy of Brandon, and Katelyn and I on the floor ready to call it a day.

We counted how many laps Brandon did. Any guesses?

He lapped it 150 times. And that's when we told him he had to stop so we could do our family scripture study. Lindsey did probably 50 or so. I sure wish I had their energy!

A day in the life....

WARNING: I was feeling creative tonight, so watch out!

~

When you're a kid, life is so grand,

there's so much to do and so little planned.

Sometimes we do the funniest things,

like pretend to be superheroes or dragons with wings.

Sometimes we pretend to be a mommy and a daddy,

and call each other "Justin" and "Jennifer" or even "Honey."

.

Sometimes we like to eat our apples outside,

with our blankets and teddy bears, to watch cars and boats ride.

Then there's nothing better than reading some stories

with our blankets, some toys and our new shoes please.

Katelyn has discovered the joys of reading lately,

and loves to look and point at pictures as you can see.

She also loves to climb up on the chair

when the cushion is down and acts like a stair.

Then there are the days that we make paper airplanes fly

when they're 5 pages long, let's give it a try!

And when it's time for us to get some sleep,
it's so nice to curl up and start counting sheep.

But at the end of the day, it's so nice to be

having fun all day long with our family!

What a Sunflower!

This afternoon while I was taking a nap (because we had a late night, then Katelyn started waking up at 4:00 am) Justin and the kids went over to Pike's Place Market to pick up a bouquet of flowers for me. What a sweet surprise! And what a huge sunflower!

Justin said that when they saw it he said, "whoa!" and the kids said "we want that one for mommy!" So it was unanimous. It's a very happy boquet. I just love it!

Jeff Bezos

Justin had a nice day at work yesterday. He and the 50 other MBA interns got to sit in a room and listen to Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon) speak. He said that it was very interesting and he thoroughly enjoyed it. Justin got the best seat in the house, front and center. And notice Jeff's stance. This is one of his trademarks....the crossed legs.

Justin also got to experience one of Jeff's other trademarks, his VLL (very loud laughs). He's a neat guy!

Justin's right behind Jeff's head in this group picture.


Justin just told me this story about this last picture last night, and I just thought it was so funny. Jeff Bezos is this really down to earth guy, despite being a very high profile CEO. They took the group picture above as Jeff was rushing off to a meeting. But after it was taken, Jeff said that it wasn't good enough. There wasn't enough energy. So he wanted another picture taken. Then he put his arms up and started yelling "Yeaaaaah!" So everyone else tried to mimic him. It's blurry, but it was such an unexpected thing for a CEO to do. It definitely took everyone by surprise!

More Flowers!

Pike's Place is just the best for flowers! We got these for a steal. Love it!

They make great photography subjects because they hold so still!

Our Sailing Adventure

On Saturday we had a great day! We had plans to go sailing with the rest of the Amazon MBA interns and take the kids to Keith and Lisa's house to have a fun day playing. We did have a little hitch as we were trying to hurry down to the van. We discovered that the elevators were not working, so we did 15 flights of stairs with the kids and finally found our way into the parking garage. But we were able to get the kids to the cousins' and then hurry back to Seattle for our sailing excursion.

Amazon had chartered two sailboats to fit everyone. We decided to go on the slightly larger one called "Obsession." It was just huge, measuring at 70 feet in length and the mast is 92 feet tall. We fit about 40 people on it and set off for 2 hours of sailing!

It was a beautiful day to be out on the water. We are always surprised how much cooler it can be when you get out there and add some wind. But the sun was nice and warm. They had lots of food and drinks downstairs and we really enjoyed being out and talking with so many people.

This is the other slightly smaller sailboat sailing by us as we were making out way out into the bay.


Once we got the two sails up and caught the wind we really started flying! And the sailboat really tipped quite a bit. They made sure to tell us that anything left lying around (purses, cell phones, sunglasses, etc.) would probably fall right off the boat into the water. They only intended to go back and rescue anything overboard if it was alive.



I was definitely sporting the wind-blown look!

After 2 hours of sailing, we docked at Bainbridge Island and went to a great Mexican restaurant (that is actually owned by people from Arizona, so it was good food!) with everyone. It was a great afternoon socializing and looking at some of the unique shops they have there. Then Justin and I took the ferry back over to Seattle. It was such a fun day!

When we got back to the cousins' house to eat dinner and get the kids, they were just having a ball. They spent most of the day outside, which I'm so thankful for because there just isn't any grass to run around on close to us. Katelyn probably sat in this blue car for at least 10 minutes. She thought it was the neatest thing!

Of course the girls were out as soon as we left for the drive home. They had played hard all day, but they had such a good time!

BYU Baby

Brandon loves to play with Katelyn and put his hat on her. This particular time Katelyn left it on her head for quite a while. I think she likes being like her big brother.

Brandon and Lindsey are definitely ready for the BYU football season to start. Brandon frequently talks about how he is going to wear his new hat to the football game. And any time Lindsey hears us talking about BYU football she says, "Gooooo Cougars!" I'm glad they are enjoying the BYU experience so much!