Week in Review

Last week, we spent lots of time filling out paperwork for house purchase and sale (not exciting), and doing errands (not exciting), but we did meet Colin and Sam and Tommy at the Museum of Flight on Wednesday (Jack thought this was very exciting!). The boys were running at full speed, so we didn't get to actually read much about the planes or exhibits, but they liked just being able to see them. 

 Their favorite part was the tot section where they could climb into the little planes and try them out!

 Saturday morning, we drove down to Tacoma to spend the night visiting with Susan and Marty and their family.  Jack had fun playing with Ari, and Ari was quite taken with her "boy cousin."  Nikki came over with her girls for dinner, and KT came too. Susan and Marty fed us very well, and it was great to visit with everyone.

 Sunday, we drove home and then went straight to Kirkland to celebrate Tommy's 1st birthday! He had fun with his presents, but I think his favorite was definitely the cake. He enjoyed it from head to toe, quite literally.

 Today, it was very rainy outside, so Jack and I went to the Pacific Science Center for some indoor fun. We started with an IMax movie about astronomy. Jack liked the special glasses and was enthralled with the big screen and 3D, at least for a little while. The film was a documentary on astronomy, so not very interesting for him, but I was really impressed with how he did. He watched nearly 30 minutes of the 40 minute show before getting restless.

 Then, we went to check out the dinosaur models. They are mechanized. This guy's head moves up and down. I tried to get Jack to stand in front of it for a picture, but he said, "I scared. It bite me.", and he refused to go anywhere near it despite my reassurances that they weren't real.

 He also enjoyed other sections…like building,

 checking out the cool live butterflies,

 spraying water and playing at the water table (his favorite!),

 driving emergency vehicles,

 and playing music!

 There were lots of fun things to do at the museum, which was a good thing because he didn't think walking home in a major rainstorm was fun at all!  Then, when he got home, he was excited by his mail from Grandma Harper...

We are heading out on Thursday to go back to Colorado and get the final move under way (not looking forward to this!). Tomorrow, I'm driving down to meet Susan again since she and Marty have offered to watch Aspen while we're gone so that she doesn't have to be kenneled.

Seattle Snow

It hardly ever snows here, but it did yesterday. Only about an inch, but everyone was really excited. Jack loves the snow and you could tell he has missed it because he was so excited too. He played outside and in the snow until his little hands were frozen (he refuses to wear gloves), and then he fell in the snow and cried all the way home, but he wanted to do it all again a couple hours later. He was that excited. Here we are playing in the snow on the Pier. I think Jack dragged his feet through ever inch of snow between here and there, and then enjoyed throwing handfuls of snow into the water of the bay. Some other people were there making snowmen, so he checked out one of the big balls they'd built. Of course, when I built him his own smaller snowman, he immediately "crashed" into it and stomped it to pieces. Such a boy!

Today, it was all melted and back to just raining. Apparently the cold spell is over, but it's still very drizzly. All of us have been fighting off colds, not getting very sick, but all with symptoms and enough to be annoying. Hopefully, we'll beat it quickly. We have submitted the house inspection report and are waiting to get a response back from the current owners. We've scheduled a trip back to Colorado to collect our things there February 20th.

Seattle Celebrates

Since the Seahawks won the Super Bowl last Sunday, this city has been in full celebration mode. I marvel at the shear amount of team clothing these people have.  They've been wearing blue and green gear every day since last Thursday or so, leading up to the Superbowl and celebrating after. It still continues, but is perhaps finally starting to wind down. Yesterday, they had a parade down 4th Ave. to welcome back the team. They were originally estimating that 300,000 people would attend. Then, they upped it to 500,000. Then 750,000 actually showed up!  It was quite a sight to see. 3/4 of a million people on one street, although a long street, really means that most people couldn't see anything! And, the parade took an hour longer than anticipated because they were having trouble keeping the parade route clear of people!

Naively, I thought Jack and I could visit the local library, and then pop out to the street when time for the parade, so we headed for the library around 9:45am (parade started at 11:30).  There were so many people already there that it took us 30 minutes to go 4 blocks, most of the time spent trying to get across the street to the far side of the parade route. The library was a good idea because it gave us something to do and was warm, but I quickly realized popping outside wasn't going to happen. People were standing 200 deep in front of the library, so even if we did go outside, there was no way we'd be able to see. So, we decided to watch the parade from a window on the 9th floor of the library. It turned out to be a pretty decent viewpoint. However, it took until nearly 1:00 before the parade made it to our block, so we spent 3 hours at the library yesterday! Here are a few pictures:

Watching the parade from upstairs, Jack developed an intense desire to have a flag. He doesn't care so much about the Seahawks, and I couldn't figure out why he wanted one, but he asked so many times that when the opportunity arose on the way home afterward, I purchased him this $5 flag.  He's been carrying it around every since waving it and talking about his "race car flag." He waves it and yells, "Ready, Set, go!" Apparently, we've watched too many race car shows because he associates flags with starting a race, but he's very excited about it. 

In other news, we have had an offer accepted on a house, so we will have somewhere to live in mid-March if all the inspections stuff comes out right. I'm looking forward to having more to do with some updating, painting, gardening, and things like that. And, I'm looking forward to having our own stuff again!!