Lately

And now for a hodge podge post. 

Adam's sister was one of our fabulous nannies that watched the kids while we were in Peru. We had a day to spend with her and her adorable little 10 month old Levi before we left. She'd never been to Pike Place, so we took her there, obviously.

 We got a babysitter and ate large burgers at Uneeda burger.

Fast forward, we're back from Peru and I went on a run one morning and came home to my little fan club waving at me out on the balcony. "HI MOM!" 

 We went back to Pike Place on a recent Saturday to putz around. I had my eye on Piroshky, Piroshky, a widely acclaimed Russian bun eatery. We got a couple meat and cheese buns to share. I liked them. Adam positively died over them. We need to go back for the salmon pate one apparently. The apple cinnamon roll was okay.

 More dessert was needed, so we got ice cream. Mint on mint on Noah.

 Last weekend Adam introduced our home to his family's General Conference tradition of cinnamon rolls.

 So yummy!

 After dinner one night last week, we did this. Adam was getting home late, so what else were we supposed to do?

 Fridays some friends and I do a very informal nature school. Last week's was at the UW Arboretum's Japanese Gardens. Sienna had school off this day, so she came with us. The colors were turning so it was extra beautiful. The kids did pretty well at obeying the "please be calm and quiet" rules. Until they didn't, and we left to do a hike along the outskirts of the gardens. We collected some leaves and brought them home. I showed them how to put the leaf under paper and press a crayon over the top. Sienna thought it was pretty neat but couldn't really do it on her own.

Who needs Pinterest when you've got a brain as naturally creative as mine?

 Sienna, Brielle, Noah, Leif.

We visited The Farm at Swan's Trail yesterday for the obligatory yearly pumpkin patch experience. We came to this place last year and it was all sorts of fun.

 Here's the money shot.

 Adam and his mini-me.

 Here's a disjointed family shot. It looks like Adam and I were hoping to have a couples only photo with some hay bails and our kids happened to show up right behind us with smiles on.

 This barn was a real hit. It made me miss my grandpa's farm where I'd spend hours jumping all over hay bales and throwing myself into piles of hay. These kids got 20 minutes of that. Is that enough to sustain a proper childhood?

 Adam and I really branched out for date night last night. We always talk about "getting in on the Seattle music scene" but never know where to start. Adam went for it and bought very cheap tickets to some bands we'd never even heard of. We got there right on time, we are punctual people after all. The show didn't start until an hour later, rockers are not punctual people after all. The bands we saw were as follows: If Penguins Could Fly, Ghost Parade (pictured below), Kiven, and the band everyone was most excited about, Rags and Ribbons. Memorable band names found on advertisements on the grimy wall beside me that I read while I was waiting for take down of set up of each band were as follows:  Guttermouth (playing today, darn it, we're going to miss them), Witchburn, Skinlab, and Pup.

Other things I did while waiting for each band to set up and take down were as follows: read my lesson I was to teach today in my Valiant 9 class and at 10 pm eat a BBQ pulled pork sandwich with potato salad. Adam caught up on his scripture reading.

Obviously this was not our venue of true belonging, but it was a start! I think we'll find our niche soon enough in the Seattle music scene. Right after my ears stop ringing.