Shoreline Ocean Beach

On Labor Day, we headed North to an Ocean beach in Shoreline.  It was only about 45 minutes away, but this beach was salt water and had a normal sandy beach vs. the rocky beach at the Lake beach we usually visit.  The water was absolutely FREEZING!  But, It was a perfect warm day to play in the sand at the beach. 

This beach had these huge logs all along the shoreline that were perfect for building forts and hours of imaginary play.  Our kids had a blast!  Picnic, treats, good company, warm sunny day, not a care in the world - what more could you ask for?!?

Owen didn't nap in the car like I was hoping he would, so he started getting sleepy around 1:00.  He laid down with me on the blanket and relaxed under the umbrella and enjoyed the ocean breeze.  Drew thought we looked so comfortable, he came to join us too. 

We barely saw Allie - she was too busy digging, building, exploring, creating, playing with friends, etc.  This was her "perfect day".   

Every now and then, a train would pass by on the railroad tracks.  The kids would run up to the bridge to watch the train pass by below.  It was a fun day hanging out with our dad and with our friends and with the sun...  It won't be long until we don't see it for months.  I'm not looking forward to winter.   

He's too cute to stay angry at...

Soooo, EVERY time I turn around, Owen has drawn on something new...  I have about 6 walls that I have scrubbed my heart out to remove Owen's markings.  He's also left his mark on an ottoman, table, counter, desk, kid table, and the wood floor.  He LOVES to color and write in notebooks, like mom and the older kids, but after he doodles in his notebook , he then draws on his skin, couch, wall, phone, anything that is around him. 

I've moved all markers, crayons, color pencils, any coloring object up high in our craft closet.  And all pens and pencils were moved up into a cupboard.  Allie has to wait for me to get a pencil so she can do her homework...   But that doesn't seem to stop Owen.  He saw me get Allie  a pencil one day, so he dragged a stool over and climbed up onto the counter and helped himself to the pencils. 

He finds writing objects in my purse, backpacks, church bags, etc. I'll tell him "we write only on paper".  He'll draw carefully on his paper until I am not looking anymore...  He loves to draw his "Blues Clues" clues. 

 He'll talk to himself and say "hmmm  puppy, circle, colors".  (It's from one of his favorite Blues Clues book).  If I find a spot where he's drawn on something and I have him come help clean it up - he'll pat me on the head (his way he say's sorry) and gives me a hug. 

 It's hard to get angry at him when he's so sweet, but this is getting ridiculous.  What makes it even worse is we have flat paint.   I don't know if it looks better before I try to clean it or after...  I guess I'm gonna need to bust out my paint brush here soon!

Flashback: Househunting Trip to Seattle

A little flashback to our househunting trip to Seattle:

We crammed a TON into our 48 hour trip to Seattle. We spent the first day looking at houses. We met up with a realtor (assigned to us by Microsoft), and we drove in his stick-shift, 2-door civic. The intense cologne smell remind me of 7th grade - when all the boys wore WAY to much cologne - and thought the more the better ;-). I kept getting car sick riding in the back of this car, winding through the neighborhoods looking for the next house, covered in dog hair (from his 2 dogs), while cold and wet, from the rain. WELCOME to Seattle!

This first impression was not a good one for me. By the end of the day, I was car sick, cold, wet, tired of looking at bad houses and had a headache from the musty smell in the homes we'd looked at. I was discouraged. The next morning we decided to hit the Temple before we continue with our house hunting. It was a great session, and we headed to explore the neighborhoods again.

We'd narrowed it down to an area we thought would work well for our family. Unfortunately, there weren't a ton of houses available right now. And if a good one came on the market, it was snatched up so quick.

Our trip was winding down quickly, and we still didn't have a home we could move into in 2 weeks.  I kept hitting, refresh, refresh, refresh on craigslist, desperately hoping for any new listings to come up. Saturday afternoon, a new one popped up. We called on it, and went straight to see it. We immediately fell in love and were fortunate to rent it for the next 2 years. It is in a cute neighborhood, with parks and a forest greenbelt backed up to our backyard.  And the bonus part is its only about 4 minutes from our dear friends! 

It's amazing how throughout this whole process of getting a job with Microsoft, finding a house, finding a renter for our AZ house, moving up here, etc. the Lord has had his hand in it. We'd feel super discouraged - and then it would all work out - everything would fall right into place. We truly felt like this is where we should be (I'm not sure why or how), but hopefully we'll learn that later :-)

Dan admiring an enormous fish at Pike's Place Market, in downtown Seattle.  The next pictures are of downtown seattle next to the Puget Sound. 

Me, checking in on the Kiddos, back in AZ.

Issaquah Farmers Market

Issaquah has a cute little Farmers Market every Saturday. We decided to go check it out and get some fresh, local produce. Each week they have a different performer. The week we went, there was a Big Band group performing. It was fun to watch and hear music from the Big Band era. We stopped to watch the Trumpets and Trombone players get into the music...

Our next stop was lunch. The aroma in the air was to die for. There was Mexican, Thai, crepes, wood fire pizza, sausage hogi sandwiches, homemade donuts, and more. We also munched on yummy fresh baked baguettes, and our favorite - carmel popcorn.  MMMM, I'm salavating just thinking about it!!! 

We tried the pizza and the Pad Thai with room for carmel popcorn and a shaved ice (it was a bit hot this day). We had a nice little picnic in the shade and enjoyed our feast! We took home some fabulous freshly picked berries (minus the cuts and scrapes from actually picking them :-)) and fresh corn on the cob. You'd better believe they made some delicious elotes...

Snoqualmie Falls

Since we don't have any family here to visit on Sundays, we decided to take a family drive one sunny, Sunday afternoon in August.  Otherwise, Sundays can be VERY long days...

We drove up to Snoqualmie Falls (only about a 25 minute drive).  It was a beautiful day and the weather was PERFECT!  It's a short walk to the lookout points to see the waterfall.  It is pretty cool - the water pummels the rocks below.  You would not want to be below it :-) 

The trail to walk down to the river was closed for renovations, so we just explored the grassy area up top.  Owen (aka Bear Grylls) did his own exploring - anywhere and everywhere he shouldn't be!  He loved to climb up any rock, or back into the brush and trees, or behind the fences.  Allie and Drew were sweet as can be, enjoying the outdoors.  

  

  

Spiders for Dinner

We went out on a date with our friends, the Hawkins, and decided to go to this quaint Mexican restaurant on the water near Univerity Village in Seattle. Dan and Chase had been given a GREAT review about this place from a guy at work… Well, as we pulled up – it wasn’t much to look at, but we were still excited. It looked like a place that locals go – so we hoped it would be great!


We were seated in the patio area. It wasn’t an open patio, it had a roof and it was covered with a canvas side with zipper windows. Well in EVERY corner and all along ceiling where the patio awning touched the canvas side was COVERED in spider webs with tons of spiders ACTIVELY moving, spinning their webs, catching bugs, etc. It was a little creepy and disturbing. Dan got the unpleasant task of sitting directly underneath them with his back to the wall. We had just ordered our drinks and a spider fell onto our table. As well as some bug remnants from the other spiders eating above. YUCK!!! Chase took pity on Dan and went to ask the hostess if we could change tables. While he was gone, another large spider came down on one strand of its web all the way to the floor and then zipped right back up, just a few inches from Dan’s back!

They let us move tables, but I think we were the only ones EVER to ask to move tables by the way they reacted. Inside was a bit better, but there were a few spiders on the walls and ceilings their too – but at least they were a bit further away from us.

Then our dinners came out. Mine was pretty safe – I ordered a chicken burrito – it was okay. Not great, but edible. Then Dan and Ali took a bite of theirs (they ordered the same thing – 3 Enchilada plate – Chicken, Shrimp, Cheese). The shrimp wasn’t shrimp, but a unidentifiable fish-like substance. The Chicken was somewhat edible but smelled like gym socks. And the Cheese Enchilada was made entirely from Cotija cheese. Which Dan normally likes, BUT the entire inside was a chunk of Cotija cheese which wasn’t melted – just a huge rectangle chunk. Then the sauce that was on top was a vomit colored, vomit smelling sauce. It was absolutely repulsive!!! Poor Dan and Ali – their plates were all but inedible.

Another customer dropped a cup of salsa on the floor and the waiter told them “Don’t worry about it, leave it there”. 20 minutes later, it was still on the floor – no one had even bothered to touch it our clean it up…

WOW – is all we were thinking…. Never again!! The guy who recommended this place from their work is from England. Words of Wisdom: NEVER take advice on a good Mexican restaurant from a Brit!  If I had only thought to take some pictures...

Dan's Office

Microsoft
A couple of weekends ago, we had to drive up to Bellevue to drop off some stuff at Goodwill and stop by an electronics store. We were right around the corner from Dan’s office, so we stopped in to check it out. He took us on a brief tour and got to see his desk.  They are moving offices towards the end of the year so he's won't let me help me decorate anything until then!  He'll be at the main campus in Redmond but they are renovating his building right now.  Right now they are in some office buildings in Redmond by the outdoor mall called Redmond Town Center. 

The kids loved the free sodas and juice in the kitchen area. Owen’s favorite part was the ramps and of course the elevator!

(Some co-workers decorated his office for his bday, and gave him a "window view" in case you were wondering about the tropical view in the second photo.