Come Visit

Everyone keeps saying they will come to visit, but visitors have been few and far between. This weekend we took in two visitors and used them to document all the fun things there are to do here on a nice weekend visit. ( Thanks Mom and Dad for helping with this advertisement)

Welcome to your new vacation home away from home!

Your vacation setting is on the Puget Sound within sight of Mt. Rainier.

Summer is the best time to visit our tiny harbor town.

For the visitors who were trying out our tour package this weekend we began Friday with sightseeing in the harbor, shopping at the cute shops, viewing of the harbor at low tide with a harbor seal playing in the inlet (our visitors suggested the seal was a robot we placed there to enhance their experience-- we will neither admit nor deny such things).

We then lunched at the world famous Tides Tavern (winner of the Farmers Market Chowder cookoff multiple years) and spent the afternoon kayaking and relaxing; ending the day with a cookout.

Saturday we got off to a great start with a walk through the zoo (animals seem to be a theme here). We recommend an early morning zoo trip when the animals are out and about. Feeding the Budgie Buddies was fun though they were shy and some of the kids were disappointed the birds wouldn't come right to them.

This particular weekend became a quest to try as many restaurant fish and chips and chowders as possible. Saturday's contender was Duke's Chowder House on the water in Tacoma. A sunny beautiful setting right on a pier over the water.

Sunday we scheduled a cloudy, cool start to the day. We headed to Bremerton to take the ferry across to Seattle. A walk along the waterfront before boarding led us to find 3 bald eagles fishing from a battleship docked in the harbor. (Again we were accused of setting this up with robotic eagles--- just enjoy the view and don't question how we make it happen). The ferry ride was comfortable with a slight hazy view of the Seattle skyline as we came into dock.

When we arrived at the market the sun was beginning to show through the haze and things were already bustling.

We continued the theme of "culinary quest" with fish and chowder at the Fishman Company on a pier in Seattle. After lunch was a carousel ride ( though with the speed of this carousel this ride is usually recommended before eating-- I didn't know a merry-go-round could go round so fast).

Sunday ended with a marshmellow roast with neighbors at home.

For the final day of our visitors stay we relaxed around the house, lunched in the harbor ( this time Kelly's for fish and chowder) and ended Memorial Day with a cookout of homemade sausages we purchased at the market the day before.

Other activities we managed to pack into the weekend were:

Viewing of the child eating tulips (toddlers please keep away-- this child disappeared soon after the picture was taken.)

And a watermelon eating contest

This could be your summer getaway too! Make your reservations soon!

Dad and Mom, thanks for being our sample visitors and thanks for coming in for E's first communion!

Hope everyone had a terrific Memorial Day Weekend and hope to hear from you all soon as you call to make your reservations!

love and hugs,B

Eli a Terrific Birthday Had

For those of you who don't recognize it that is Yoda speak for "Eli had a terrific birthday". It was a full weekend of birthday fun centering on the Star Wars birthday cookout Saturday night.
Friday I went to school and read some of his favorite books and fed his class cookies. Fun! (for me and him-- I love reading to classes).
Saturday we went in the morning to get pictures made of all three boys. They did well; I will detail and put up pics in another blog later in the week. Saturday afternoon we played around the house and he had 4 friends from the cul-de-sac come over for hot dogs and yoda cake. Yoda turned out pretty well (lets consider I have no Star Wars experience having never seen a movie or been interested in any of it). The cupcakes that we called the 'yodettes' turned out cuter. My neighbor said that everything is cuter in miniature and I think that is true. I made light sabers out of wrapping paper from dollar tree and they had light saber battles.
I think everyone had a great time.
The volume of snoring coming out of the bedrooms Saturday night would be testimony.
Sunday was the actual day of birth and E enjoyed all his birthday calls and messages. He went to his friends party and then we played in the neighborhood, ate pizza and the yodettes, and opened cards and his gifts (he already got the big gift of his new bike a few weeks ago). He said this morning that it was his best birthday ever. I have to agree with him. We kept all the celebrations casual and low key and just let the kids play which is their favorite thing to do.

I am adding a few random pictures of my finally mostly open tulips, my favorite rhododendron which is finally blooming (sorry it is sideways, but not sorry enough to go back on the laptop and edit the picture), and M being M.
Hope everyone has a super week!
love and hugs and can you believe it has been 8 years? B

Thoughts from the Weekend

* It was Mother's Day! Happy Mother's Day to all the moms! Isn't it ironic that on Mother's Day everyone thinks it is wonderful to gather and spend the day with mom. I just really wanted to get away from my kids for a bit. Maybe I am just so covered up by the little monsters all the time I don't appreciate them as much as I should.
* D and I did get away for a little while on Mother's Day. We hired our sitter so we could go kayaking without the kids. The first time I have been able to go. We paddled from the beach where we start to the Fox Island bridge. It was very fun and very funny. Here the currents move very quickly; paddling down was great, back--- not so much fun. For a few minutes we were literally paddling in place. We were both paddling away when I said to D " I don't think we are going anywhere". After 50 or so more strokes right next to the same dock he finally agreed. We stayed closer to the shore and the current wasn't so bad. It would have been really embarrassing to call the sitter and ask him to have his dad pick us up.
* We saw a hawk catch a fish, many crabs and sea stars, and a harbor seal while we were kayaking. The seal was too cute;I wanted to take it home with us to show the kids. He was more than a bit suspicious of our boat.
* M was under the weather last week and when he came out of it he seemed to have jumped a couple of milestones. He talks more than E now--- say a little prayer for us, we are going to need it.
* Just when you think the kid will never get it, we are raising him wrong and he is going to have a bad case of the Gimme forever E says this: I think I just want my friends to make pictures for my birthday book this year. I have enough stuff. I like looking at all the cards my friends make for me that we keep. (All the cards the kids receive each year go into the birthday scrapbook). Maybe there is hope for him after all. We are having more and more of these nice moments happening with E. :)
* E fell and really scraped up one of his elbows. After we got him cleaned up we noticed G off to the side crying. His explanation: I just feel so sad that E got hurt. E was over the tears, G was almost inconsolable with sympathy for him. :(
* Our desktop computer is so slow that I now bring in the laptop to work while the PC is loading pics from the camera or printing. I love the laptop!
* My tulips have finally (kind of ) opened. They still close at night when it cools off. At this rate they will be around forever! I will put pics on sometime when I have 3 hours to waste on the desktop.
love and hugs, B

An Uphill Battle

A question before I begin: what color will this flower be when it opens?

When D comes home and says "You should take a walk; it's beautiful out tonight." I first think "Yippeee... freedom!!!" and then I think about where I should walk. The walk to the water is so tempting, but the walk back is no picnic. From the water looking up it looks like this:
From that little turn in the road you look up to this:

Where that portion disappears in the trees you look up to see this part:

The final piece of the climb is this:

So when I have the chance to walk I love to do it, but when I walk down to the water I have to remember to save some energy for the climb back up. Why walk this do you ask? Well, Old Man Rainier of course. He was wearing a pinkish snow sweater last night when we met at the water.

I am proud to say I have not yet (not ruling it out either) stopped at someone's house and called D to come and pick me up. ;)

By the way the answer to the question about the rhododendron is this: White with pink edges and the longer it is open the more white it gets.

love and hugs and have a great weekend,B

PS--one final question: why won't my tulips open? They have been like this for 2 weeks.