Thursday, January 02, 2014

Thanksgiving Weekend

We hosted Thanksgiving in our new house! It was fun. I love a good excuse to cook and bake up a storm. That's what gets me through the gloom after all. 

This year my turkey turned out better than ever! I'd like to thank an old and constant friend: butter. I got a recipe from a friend that was a rosemary infused teriyaki butter but mostly it was just a lot of butter. It was awweeesssoooome. Such a juicy turkey. I was trying to get my little Noah turkey to pose with my little butter turkey. Not happening. 
When I hit my cooking wall, I got out for a jog in the fog at Green Lake. I love living one mile from Green Lake! It is heavenly.

 Adam and his brother Jason got the kids out for a scoot.

 It's been so fun to have Jason here with us in Seattle for the past couple months! He and Adam got in loads of football watching, including a game or two (or three?) on Thanksgiving day.

 Our other Thanksgiving Day guests were Tim and his wife Katie. Adam and Tim worked together in Phoenix at Amazon and now that we're all back in Seattle we hope to hang out with them more. They are really cool.
 Adam had work off the day after Thanksgiving so we went on a little family excursion to Bainbridge Island. Here's the port, awaiting the arrival of the next ferry.
 There is always so much to marvel at on the ferry. I love this picture of the kids.

 Inside, enjoying Reese's Pieces.

 I found this Thai place on Yelp. It's in a gas station strip mall. Not exactly the quaint family dining you hope to do on the cute island of Bainbridge. But it was not so scary looking inside and was actually pretty tasty.
 Then we spent the rest of the day at this huge play area at a park. I froze to death but the kids were tireless. I think they really relished spending time at a brand new park.
A stop for hot chocolate and then back on the ferry! Windy times.

Lots to be thankful for this year! My little family, beautiful scenery, Adam's job, a new home, good health, the gospel....the list goes on and on and on. Happy (late) Thanksgiving!

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Pumpkin Patch & Halloween


 We went to a pumpkin patch. And here's proof!
 There was a petting zoo.
 A corn kernel pit.
 Delicious food.

 A bouncy rubber pillow.
 A rustic slide, complete with potato sacks.
 A cow train pulled by a tractor.
 Some pumpkin love.
 And a dried up corn maze.
A couple weeks later was Halloween. Our best Halloween yet. Presenting: monster and mermaid.
 We did the ward trunk or treat. On the day of Halloween they went trick or treating at Amazon.


 Pretty cool to see inside those offices, and everyone was so nice.
 Then the park across the street from our house hosts trick or treating every year. It was pretty enchanting.


 How sweet are all these strangers to dress up and give out candy? Made me fall in love with our neighborhood even more.




Monday, October 28, 2013

Living Downtown 2

 We have been in our new house for a week so I need to go back and document the previous three weeks, which were our last living downtown. Here's the outside of our place, The Cobb, on 4th Ave between University and Union. We were on the 4th floor, that row at the top of this picture. It is an amazing, historic building and it was such a privilege to call it home for one month. It's sandwiched between a Bank of America and one of Seattle's top fancy restaurants, The Capital Grille. Yeah, we felt cool.
 Here are more pictures of the inside. It was basically a studio apartment with two bedrooms on either side, sectioned off with big, sliding, barn doors.



 The master bedroom, Ozzie and Harriett style. We slept so well in separate beds, but my feet were always cold since I wasn't sharing covers with my usual human heater.
 Those windows were sooooooo fabulous.
 The little hoodlum, Noah, getting in the snack cupboard.
The little hoodlum not napping and getting his shirt tangled up.
Here's the little hoodlum napping. Ahhhh, just like I like him.


We lived a couple blocks from the Seattle Art Museum and I took the kids there on a free Thursday.


 It had a couple kid zones, but otherwise an adult museum. It was a great way to spend an evening.


 Look, a mom and two kids! It's me! And then Noah got yelled at for touching that chair. Hee hee.
I took the kids to the Olympic Sculpture park. 
 It was freezing cold.
 Then the sun came out.
 And all was forgiven. It's like that, my relationship with Seattle. Gloom sucks, but then the sun comes out and the beauty shines forth and all is well.

Aren't these sculptures fantastic??! You weren't supposed to touch these, either.
 I was hoping to let the kids go inside the roof-on-the-hill sculpture, but it was being taken down. I stopped to talk to the workers and one of them was the artist so she let the kids go inside one last time. I do not understand art at all, but this one I appreciated because I could do something with it. And would you look at that SKY!


We lived a few blocks away from Seattle Central Public Library. It's an architectural masterpiece. 

 Story time was okay, too. During one of the story times we attended, PBS film makers were there documenting the library for some show on "cool spaces" and they wanted footage of story time. We were not on camera because we sat and the back and were not very enthusiastic. It's safe to say my kids don't care for story time. We usually leave early.


A couple times we took the light rail in South Lake Union to meet up with Adam at work for lunch. The kids loooooove riding the bus/ light rail. We are a bit of a circus getting on and off with a stroller and our gear (including baby dolls) but everyone just ignores us. Love that!



 While waiting to meet up with him, we went to a story time on a tug boat! Yes, it's called Tug Boat Story Time. My kids hated it. Go figure.

Amazon's campus is the bomb.com. It's really grown and made SLU a real hip place to be. Don't forget to stroke the "blue cloud bear," as Sienna calls it, when you go there. 

 There was a Dance Dance Revolution in the corner where we ate lunch.
I spent a lot of time at the triple decker Target. Lifesaver, I tell you!
This is the only play structure downtown. Sienna loved it. Noah was like meh. When I let them chase each other with the stroller, they were both equally happy.
Piers 62/63 provided some outdoor space for running around.
 Those were their "beds." Sienna's imagination provides so much fun for both of them lately. I love it.
 Adam's brother Jason is living here for a few months for work. It's great to see him every weekend and hang out.

 We ran into one of Adam's old college friends, Wyatt, and his wife, when we were walking on the Pier one Sunday afternoon. Funny, huh?
Here's Jason, Adam and Wyatt at Pike Place.

We loved living downtown .... for about two weeks. The remaining two weeks we were kind of over it. With kids, it's not really the place to be. But I'll never forget the experience. It was a once in a lifetime thing.