Sightseeing

I’m getting way behind!  It has already been two weeks since Kermit, Kelly, Ian and Emme headed back to Phoenix, but here are some pictures from their visit.  I didn’t get a lot most days; Thursday we went to the zoo, but I forgot my camera.  Friday we did a walk around greenlake that took all morning.  We found a cool flower design:

And as we walked around the north end of the lake, we saw they were filling the wading pool:

We also stopped at the playground, which is why it took 3 hours to cover 3 miles!

Sunday we hit lots of touristy highlights.  The pike place market:

Followed by a long hike down to the aquarium:

In the entryway they have a huge tank called “Windows on Washington” and Eli was fascinated by the scuba diver inside. 

The next exhibit was lots of big tidepools where you could touch the critters!

Cool!

Emme wanted to squat on the divider between inside and outside:

So of course Eli did too!

We had some fun with cutouts:

Saw the rest of the fish (and otters and seals), then went outside to the fountain…

..then on to the ferry.  What a beautiful day for a ferry ride!

Me and Emme:

Calvin and Ian:

The three boys having a snack on the ferry:

We explored Bainbridge island for a while, had some ice cream, then got on the next ferry back.  On the ride back we could even see some of the air show that was going on over Lake Washington!  We had a great time with everyone and were sorry to see them go!

Another day, another lake

One day in the evening we took the kids to the wading pool at Green Lake.  We packed a (somewhat meager) picnic dinner, and headed out for an afternoon of water fun. 

Unfortunately we were in the wading pool for all of 5 minutes when they told us to get out, they had to chlorinate it.  So we packed up and headed over to the interesting “beach” on the east side of green lake/  We had our picnic,

then went to play in the muddy sand. 

The view out on the lake was beautiful!

But the kids were very busy in the mud.  Someone before us made a “pool” that the boys took over as soon as it was abandoned. 

Mostly Eli.  He had this elaborate story going on about how this was his nest and he was hatching some eggs, etc.  Finally someone decided we should go in the lake.  It was just the right depth for swimming!

I supervised these aquatic adventures.  It was a beautiful day, but the water was chilly so we headed out after a while.  On the walk back to the car we saw the wading pool was open and we stopped for a while there since we had missed out earlier. 

I think Eli was telling me a story here.  He has a lot to say!

A day at the lake

One day last week we set out to explore Lake Washington a bit.  First we went on a trail that meandered through some wetlands.  It was kind of swampy (the trail, obviously wetlands are always swampy), but a nice walk. 

Then we went over to a cool playground in Madison park, right by the lake:

There was a swing on a zipline that Eli loved; we waited in line to do it over and over:

Then we got a snack and went across the street to the beach:

There was some serious construction work going on here,

some splashing around,

and even some swimming!

Zoo, take two

A little belated… we went to the zoo a second time and again the worms and tractor were the big hits:

Plus we saw a cool slug!

And we made bubbles!

I was pretty awesome at it if I do say so myself.  Believe it or not, it’s really a big zoo, nicely done, lots of animals…we just seem to care about the other stuff more!

Eli’s turn

After 2 Brian posts it seems fair to balance the coverage a bit.  While at the beach this weekend Eli decided the seaweed looked like a snake and decided to start reenacting the snake show we saw at the science museum, complete with me as an audience, and then he would switch, having me be the snake handler and he the audience. 

The snake’s name was something like Estella, and they had the audience shout and stomp their feet to “wake her up” before the show.  In reality, she was a boa constrictor, and NOT a cobra, as he calls it; obviously that would be a bad idea for a live snake show in front of children. 

He loves dinosaurs.  We had a book called Dinosaurs: A to Z and he knew them all.  When he learned about the letter Y at preschool he went around saying “Y is for Yingshanosaurus” but probably nobody understood what he was talking about.  He saw this dino with his daddy:

and asked, “Is that Parasaurolophus?”  Um, yep!  He is just a little parrot, repeating everything we say, and really picking up new stuff so fast!

He wants to do everything his big brother does, but struggles to keep up:

 

He finally decided he wants to try the strider. Right now he just walks with it between his legs, but we walked for a while and he sat down for a few strides. If he figures this out it will make it a lot easier to go for a walk around Greenlake all together!

And as always, he is smiley!

But don’t let it fool you, he is laughing because he is up to something, I assure you!

Life’s a beach

We finally made it to the beach the other day; yes, Seattle has some nice beaches!  Trouble is, most of the time it is too cold to go.  Saturday, though, it was warm(ish) and sunny, so we headed out there. 

We even got some new beach toys, in the hopes that this can be a regular thing!

Calvin with the boys in the water.  Way back on the right, you can see one of the cruise ships that went by.  We saw three of them, and we figured it must be the time that Alaskan cruises all set sail. 

Eli giving me…sand?  Seaweed? 

It’s a beached whale… no, it’s Brian “basking in the sun”, as he told me. 

Lots of sailboats were heading in to the marina while we were there. 

This picture shows a little better how crowded it was.  Somehow I got a lot of pictures that make it look like we were the only ones on the beach, but really it was PACKED.  There was a wedding going on behind us, along with several beach volleyball games, a dozen cookouts, and at least as many kite flyers.  Only the people with kids were near the water, I guess, everyone else was just enjoying the sun and sand farther back. 

Perhaps because the waterline looked like this:

And the water is f-f-f-reezing!