Seattle, weeks 2 and 3

We're still enjoying our adventure in the Pacific Northwest. The weather has been a combination of sunny warm days and cool rainy days, both of which are fun, though it's easier to find things to do when it's dry out.

Last Monday, my aunt and uncle brought two of their grand children over to play. Lacey got along beautifully with her second cousin. They built towers and played with little animals and had a grand time.

Tuesday we had an adventure in Seattle. My aunt came and picked us up and we met up with my cousin and his boys over at the children's museum in the city center. We had lots of fun, though it's hard keeping track of two kids at a time in places like that. Next time we'll have to take Daddy along with. Lacey's favorite part was the little play grocery store, with little grocery carts and boxes and cans of food and plastic produce. Amy's favorite part was also pushing around the grocery cart.

It turned out that it was a good thing we had an adventure earlier in the week, because on Thursday Amy came down with a stomach flu (all over the rental car), and on Saturday it was Lacey's turn (all over the rental bedroom). And Monday was Daddy's turn (I didn't have to clean that one up). I was lucky and didn't catch it. So, yeah, probably more than enough said about that.

Don't you love how kids think that the kitchen floor is the best place to play with blocks. Drives me crazy, but they're cute.

We had a rainy day (it IS Seattle, after all) without a car, and so we had to get a little creative.

It was nap time on Blue's Clues, so Lacey grabbed a blanket and pillow and followed suit. Sister!

We went down to the lounge for lunch and had fun spinning around in the chairs.

We also enjoyed eating lunch at the tall table. Looks like Amy was having an interesting hair day.

Another day, we took a walk to the library. We're lucky enough to be able to walk on this beautiful river trail. I really love it.

Our fourth Saturday we took a ferry over to Bainbridge Island, mostly for the experience of riding on a ferry. We missed the ferry that we intended to take because there was a road race in downtown Seattle blocking our way we had to figure out how to get around it.

Waiting to get on the ferry.

On the Ferry. Lacey took the picture, and I'min it to prove that I was actually there.

Look, a teeny space needle in the background.

 After we disembarked, we went to lunch at a little pizza place.Then we went and found a beach to play at. Lacey was so excited to go to the "beach." There wasn't much swimming going on,  because the water was so cold, but we had fun playing in the sand, and sticking our feet in the water.

After this, the camera's battery died. After we had our fill of the beach, we got dinner at a little diner and made our way back home. The girls both fell asleep on the way, so when we got home we just dumped them in their beds and were done for the night. :) It was a really good day, and we're looking forward to many more beach trips. 

Seattle week 1

So, posts for the next little while will probably be a little out of order, since I need to catch up anyway. But I thought I'd start where am now, which is in Seattle! We've relocated, just for the summer, while Phil completes and internship with Microsoft IT.

Last Saturday morning, we left our house and our car in the hands of my brother, got on a plane in SLC, and landed in Seattle. We got here at 9:30 in the morning and couldn't pick up our key for our apartment until 5:00 in the evening, so we spent the day finding things to do in the area. First on the list was just driving around while the kiddos slept in their car seats (it was a VERY early morning for them). Then we went to lunch at Panera Bread in Redmond. Then we made our way down to a park Bellevue where we played and walked and watched some ducks. There was a mall right next to the park, so we walked around there for a while and ended up in an indoor play area that Lacey and Amy absolutely loved. From there we went to pick up our key... found our that that we were just a little bit too early, so we went to the grocery store to grab a few groceries to last us until Monday, and back to the key pick-up place, only to discover that the cleaners had been late to our apartment so our key wouldn't be available for another hour. By this time we were all very tired and grumpy and just not in the mood for all this nonsense. We drove around some more looking for a place to eat dinner, didn't find one, and ended up back at the key pickup place, and, of course, our key wasn't there. So we drove around a bit trying to figure out what to do, afraid that we'd be stranded for the night with two small children, and I was ready to get back on the plane and go home, and Phil was ready to break something, Amy was ready to get out of that car seat and was fussing. Lacey was almost supernaturally cheerful through the whole thing, but she was just super excited to be having an adventure. Eventually we made our way back to the key office, our key was there, and we got into our apartment, exhausted, starving, and oh so glad to be "home." After we at dinner, the girls climbed into their beds climbed into bed and stayed there all night. I was expecting some resistance to their new beds, but they surprised me.

Our temporary apartment is huge. It's two levels and almost as big as our house (especially if you only count the living areas), and has two bedrooms (three, if you count the gigantic walk-in closet that Amy sleeps in), two bathrooms, a decent kitchen, two living rooms, and a "den" just off the kitchen that's perfect for dance parties.

Most of the week Phil has gone to work and the girls and I hung out at home just trying to get adjusted. It took a few days to get used to new beds and new sounds and a new time zone and all that. Sunday we did try going to church. We got through Sacrament meeting, but Lacey did not want to go to primary, and since we were all so tired still, we just went home and rested. (Update: today we tried again, and Lacey was super excited for primary. I'm pretty sure she just needed a good night's sleep.) We've been for lots of walks and taken lots of naps, and pretty much had a good time together. There's a nice maze of trails, and we're within walking distance of pretty much everything we need--grocery stores, parks, the library.

On Saturday, we went out to a Children's museum in Bellevue. It was very fun for the kids, and for Daddy, too. :)

 I had to throw in this last one to prove that I was there. :)

January 2013

January was kind of a dreary month, full of snow, smog, and sniffles. Lacey started preschool (for the second time, lol), and she absolutely LOVES it. She's always so excited to see her teacher in the morning when I drop her off. I'm pretty sure that she knows about 10 times more than I knew at her age. Amy has turned into an absolute menace, but nothing out of the ordinary for her age. She always wants to empty the dishwasher, even if the dishes are dirty, and any time I open the pantry, fridge, or bathroom doors, she dashes in front of me and screams when I move her out of the way and close the door. Any chance she gets, she'll rub vaseline all over herself and the carpet, empty a full box of diapers (we're talking aprx 200 diapers) into her bed, and empty all her her clothes from her drawers. I have a sneaking suspicion that her older sister taught her the last two. It's enough to make a person crazy, I think, and that is why I'm done having children for the moment. Gah!

Anyway, they're cute.