Brian turns 5!

I know, I know, we just had a birthday post, but here is the documentation of the big day itself.  Unfortunately, it was a cold and rainy day, so no trip to the zoo like we’d planned.  As a backup, you decided we should go check out the science museum.  It was raining so hard we even scrapped plans to ride the bus to downtown and decided to drive.  Of course, one of the perks of driving is that you can make whatever stops along the way you feel like making, and since it was your birthday, I decided we should get a snack of donuts!  And not just any donuts, but Mighty-O donuts, which are apparently famous. 

Faced with the case full of donuts, the first thing you did was decide on a sprinkles donut for Eli.  What a sweet big brother!  We finally made it to the Pacific Science Center, and managed to get the last spot in the garage.  It was so tight, we had to unload you guys before pulling the car in!  It was a taste of life in the city; I am wondering how much of this all you guys will understand, or remember.  It’s pretty different than Rochester!

Once we were in the museum, we spent a while in the science playground:

before heading over to the tot zone, where we found…

tidepools!

a cool water table!

a car!  And some other cool stuff we didn’t take pictures of!  Eli was NOT getting out of that car, so you and I wandered over to see the bug exhibit.  From there we met up with Dad and Eli over in the…

dinosaur room!  We were in the right place at the right time to see a live snake show, and then we headed over to the butterfly garden to cap off our visit. 

We made our way outside, where we found ourselves in the middle of the:

YUM!

First up: a giant corndog!

Eli and I had some rice, pad thai, and coconut shrimp, then on to the hit of the party:

A nutella crepe for dessert!  Mostly you guys were debating what color drink you were going to get and I had to break it to you that were were not buying a $6 cup o’ food coloring, but in fact buying the lovely dessert that was being made RIGHT OVER THERE. 

Now we get it!

It was devoured.  After this we headed home for nap time, and our only other outings for the day were an ill fated trip to Trader Joe’s that doesn’t bear remembering, and an ill fated bike ride with dad that is also best forgotten.  We got this yummy cake, though!

Happy birthday to our sweet boy!  I hope this year in Seattle will be the best year yet!

Happy Birthday Brian!

Grandma and Grandpa had to go back to Delaware before Brian's real birthday so we celebrated a few days early.  We got cupcakes from the fancy cupcake place.

Eli enjoyed the cupcakes too, with the usual smudgy face that results when he eats... :o)


And, Brian finally gets a bigger bike!

A day on the Olympic Peninsula (part 1)

Today started out pretty cold and cloudy but we decided to take our chances and head out for a big day trip to see the Olympic mountains.  The ferry crossing was so foggy I don’t think the kids even noticed we were moving. 

But then the fog started to lift, and the sun began to peek through!

We rented a minivan for the day and the kids looooovvved it. 

Can you see the goofballs?

There they are!

And by the time we got up to Hurricane Ridge…

…it was a spectacular day!

Here’s the whole crew, with some reluctant little boys. 

After lunch at the visitor center, we went for a hike on the meadow trails and found…

…SNOW!  They really did not believe it was real snow until they were up in it, in person. 

The trails up here are just beautiful; you feel like you are at the top of the world.  Grandma and Eli stayed on the meadow trails, playing with the snow, while Calvin, Brian, Grandpa and I went up…

…up…

..and down the other side…

…where Brian made friends with a deer!

This deer came really close to us; it was pretty amazing!

We saw lots of beautiful flowers too, avalanche lilies and lots of lupine:

In the late afternoon we visited another part of the park, but that will have to wait till tomorrow (or whenever I get around to it).  A very busy, very full, very fun day!

Museum of Flight

On Saturday we went to visit the Museum of Flight, down by Boeing field.  Unbeknownst to us, there was an “American Heroes” air show going on also, so we got to see some helicopters up close and personal!

  (Eli was mostly into this angry birds balloon.)

They both got to “pilot” several helicopters… there were Army helicopters, a sheriff's helicopter, a medical helicopter, plus a bunch of fire trucks… everything a little boy might want to see!  When we were tired we headed inside to see the airplanes. 

Eli running towards the Blackbird, the world’s fastest airplane. 

Brian in some kind of jet.

Eli in an older Air Force One.  Overall, a lot of fun things to see and do there, can’t wait to go back!

Exploring Seattle

The boys arrived in Seattle laaaaate last night and came to see their new home.  I’m happy to say they loved it!  In fact, they wanted to stay up and play all night but around 1:30 we convinced them that it was really nighttime and they did in fact NEED to go to bed.  No house pictures yet; we are still setting up, and it doesn’t help that our little tornados are here!  But today we went to the Essential Baking Company for breakfast, and in the afternoon we went to the zoo! 

Brian watching a penguin go by

The boys loved the inanimate objects.  Eli sat for a long time in this boat, navigating with his “nap”. 

Then Brian joined him.  I loved how it was called Los Amigos. 

The meerkats were popular because we could actually see them, unlike most of the other animals. 

Mostly the kids were excited by the animal statues. 

Komodo dragon statue (we saw the tail of the real thing)

Lion statue (couldn’t see the real thing at all)

Hippo statue ( they thought this was the real thing)

Cow statue with moving wheels (petting zoo was closed). 

So that was our trip to the zoo; not a whole lot of animal sightings, but a good time nonetheless!

in DE summertime...

While mama and auntie Denise are out having fun with Sasha on their cross-country car trip, Brian and Eli have been having even more fun back in Delaware.  Stories with grandpa (right before Eli's naptime, hence the thumb-sucking)

Celebrating grandma's birthday with double helpings of chocolates, birthday cake, and ice cream

and of course, lots and lots of swimming!