The Ferry, the Space "Noodle," and the Children's Museum

I'm a little behind, so I'll start with last weekend. We spent most of the weekend looking at houses, and of course watching football. The city was crazy Sunday after the NFC Championship win for the Seahawks, so we didn't get much sleep Sunday night!  We're very tired of house hunting and a little discouraged.We took time to stop at a park for Jackson and Aspen in among the home viewing.

 Monday, Mike didn't have to work because of MLK Day, so we took the ferry to Bainbridge island just to explore. At first, Jack didn't realize we were on a boat because we drove on, but once he figured it out, he was fascinated. He didn't like the cold wind that blows on board, so we spent most of the time dashing in and out. He'd want to go in to warm up but 5 minutes later he'd be asking to go back outside because it was so exciting! He cried when we got off because he wanted more boat.

 Once off the ferry, we drove up to Poulsbo, which is a very cute little town. It's got lots of fun little shops and restaurants, and a pretty little harbor. It also didn't hurt that it was a beautiful, sunny day. Jack had fun running around and throwing rocks into the water.

 Tuesday, Mike went back to work and Jack and I spent some time on laundry, groceries, and the like. Every day, we walk the dog, and then do some sort of outing, so we've been to the library, the grocery store, and the swimming pool this week. Wednesday night, Jack decided he "needed" to ride the bus, and he didn't care where to. He's still so excited by all the busses and trains around, so we rode to the Seattle Center and took a night time stroll around the Space Noodle. That's what Jack calls it. He can say needle, and will repeat needle after you if you say it, but then he always reverts back to noodle when he talks about it himself. The whole family will probably call it the Space Noodle from here on out :).

Anyway, the Space Noodle looks very pretty at night.

Today, we met up with Uncle Colin, Sam, and Tommy and went to the Children's Museum. The boys had fun playing will balls, constructing things, driving trucks and trains, and pretending everything from being firemen to grocery shopping, to mountain climbing, and playing with all sort of toys too!

Jack got to ride the train (aka monorail) home from the museum, and the conductor let him honk the horn, so he was happy, even though the train ride is always too short to suit him! Now, he's taking a long nap after his exciting morning. 

Views from Seattle

Well, we've had a very busy weekend. We house hunted and then had dinner with Lesa and Colin on Saturday, and house hunted and went to their house for football viewing on Sunday! Yesterday, we sold our house in Colorado (assuming all the paperwork goes through and everything works as it's supposed to). While I know this is what we needed to do and it's a good thing, it's still really sad for me to have this final reminder that we aren't going "home."

Today, Jack and I headed out to the Space Needle by way of the monorail. Jack did a great job walking the 7 blocks to and from the monorail without complaint. He was very excited to ride the "train," but he was disappointed that the ride was so short (about 3 minutes). Still, me liked going up in the Space Needle. Here's a pictures they took of us at the entrance. Of course it didn't really look like that outside!

 It actually looked like this. Foggy and drizzly...If you look closely, you can see Mike's work in the middle right of the picture. Of course, he wasn't there because he's working at the Bothell site today, but still...

Jack was really tired by the time we returned, so he headed off to his nap without much fuss, giving me some computer time :).

Downtown Apartment and the Beach

Yesterday, we had to be out of the hotel by noon, we couldn't move into the downtown apartment until 4pm, and Mike had to go back to work, so Jack and Aspen and I went to Edmonds to explore the neighborhood since we are considering a house there. Then, Mike told us about a park with an off leash area at the beach, so we went to visit that. I've never seen a dog park which such a nice view before!   Aspen had a really good time, but she decided to run into the waves several times, so she was muddy and wet when she finished! Jack had fun throwing rocks into the waves and came out almost as muddy.

After we put Aspen in the car, we walked over to the playground, which is also right on the beach. It was gray and misting, so the place was pretty empty, but we had fun sitting at the top of the play structure watching boats come and go. And then, Jack got even more excited when a train went by on the land side! 

We showed up to the new apartment wet, muddy, and ready for baths! Aspen and Jack had to get cleaned up right away. Luckily, we don't have much stuff with us, so the moving in process was pretty quick.  

The new apartment is pretty good. It's right downtown near the water. It's two bedroom, two bathrooms. The furnishings are nothing special, but the view is pretty neat. We're able to watch the ferries and boats come and go from the pier.  The view on this very gray day:

One of the bathrooms:

Our bedroom:

 Dining room:

 Jack's room:

 Kitchen:

Living room (and tired dog):

It's odd to walk everywhere, and all the stores are tall and have several floors instead of being spread out. The hardest part so far has been finding a place for Aspen. We finally found a small park this morning about 6 blocks away where we can take her to go potty, but there's no grass anywhere nearby!  She'll be glad when we get settled in the suburbs. In the meantime, it's interesting experiencing city life. 

One Week Down

We've officially been in Seattle one week today.  Last week, Jack and I enjoyed a visit to the Seattle aquarium and some walks along the pier. He likes riding the streetcar, so we've done that several times too. He liked the fish and sea animals at the aquarium, but he couldn't understand where the other animals were and got upset that there were no giraffes or hippos. Sigh...apparently, we will be making a trip to the zoo soon too. 

Jack also loves the hotel pool and it getting more and more brave about going into the water. So, I guess that's a good thing. 

The weekend was beautifully sunny for the first time when I've been here, but we spent the entire weekend going to open houses trying to find a house, so we didn't get to enjoy it much. We looked at 18 houses between Saturday and Sunday!  We saw several good ones, but after awhile, they all start to blur together and you can't remember what was in which house. We are going back to look at our top 3 choices again this afternoon to try and remind ourselves. We have had to adjust our criteria a lot. We are just going to have to get used to smaller yards and closer neighbors because that's what's in our price range here.  Oh well...hopefully the house will be nice anyway! Tomorrow, we should also have a new address, though it's temporary too, as we are shifting from hotel to apartment. The apartment is a skyscraper right downtown near the pier, so it's going to be interesting! 

Next leg of the trip

We drove through Wyoming, into Utah, and then to Nevada on Friday and Saturday. We were able to stop and see my parents and grandma for a very short overnight visit it Winnemucca. It was great to see them, even if only briefly.  Jack liked it a lot because he got even more presents (Yay!), and he got to help feed the cows with grandma and ride on a tractor with grandpa. Oh, and he got to stand on a chair and talk to Iggy, the iguana (which we are not taking home!) who pretended to be asleep whenever Jackson talked to him.

Sunday morning, we headed out Highway 95, traveling through Nevada, Oregon (where the speed limits are slow!), and then into Washington through the Yakima Valley (known for grapes and apples; we'll have to revisit here in the fall sometime!). We stayed the night in Yakima, and then finally made it into Seattle on Monday morning. 

For this first week, we are staying at the Residence Inn by Marriott, which is right near downtown. We settled in yesterday, did some laundry, went for a few walks, and got some groceries. It was very weird to me that the grocery store is upstairs, with the parking in an underground lot below it. Good thing Mike knew where it was because I would have gone right by, not realizing it was a grocery store at all.

Here's what our room looks like... It's a pretty nice, but small one bedroom. They serve a good breakfast downstairs in the morning and we can can do some basic cooking here.  Aspen's not too keen on it, but she's doing okay.

Jack likes the balcony, where he can watch the cars, listen for emergency vehicles, and garbage trucks. There's zero view, but he doesn't care. And, he's already learned to recognize the ding, ding bell of the trolley, so we talk about that a lot. 

 This morning, we had to go ride the "train." He was very excited and spent the ride there and back looking out the windows. I took him down to Pike's Place Market just so he could ride, and we wandered around for a few minutes, but it was pretty crowded. I picked up some shrimp to go with dinner, and we headed back for lunch at the hotel.

No big plans for New Years. I think we will spend tomorrow house hunting. We'll probably go to bed long before midnight tonight too.  Oh well!

Christmas 2013

The whirlwind started December 21st when we flew into San Diego. We spent Sunday in San Diego with Mike's dad and stepmom. We had a great visit to the park and beach where Jack spent all him time playing in the dirt. Then, we went to Bob and Susan's house, where we had the chance to visit with Janet and Tommy and their family (Mike's cousins). It was nice to see everyone again there! All the kids are getting so big.

Blue, Anne, Katelyn, Alyssa, and Jack (lots of cousins).

Then, on Monday we headed up to Bonsall to see Mike's mom and dad. While there, we also popped over to Ramona to spend a couple of hours with Great Aunt Shirlee and cousin Donnie. 

On Christmas Eve, we went over to Kami and Jason's house. We had a great time with the family, eating and opening gifts.  Jack, Katelyn, and Alyssa made some great gingerbread houses. I think Jack ate as much candy as he decorated with, but he stayed with it quite well too. He was so excited to play with his cousins and open presents, and catch bubbles in the house!  Of course all the fun made it hard for him to hold still....quite literally, as you can see in the family picture, he's literally a blur...

 On Christmas, Jack and the girls opened presents, and then everyone played outside. Jack was a bit scared of the rolling car, but he liked riding with Katelyn. He also liked playing football.

His aunt and uncle got him a fireman raincoat and boots, which went great with the firetruck that Santa brought.

He enjoyed the dirt at grandma's house, and he also liked running down the hill. 

On Thursday Dec 26, we headed back to Colorado, but we stayed less than 24 hours, just long enough to defrost the freezers, pack some clothes and necessities (like Jack's toys!), and do a little cleaning. Then, Friday Dec 27, we headed for Washington, by way of Winnemucca. I'll post more about that next.