While Paul's at Work...

Parker, Autumn and I have tried to keep ourselves busy while Paul is at work all day. Here are a few things that we have been doing:

• We have been to a lot of parks. We found a couple on our own and then were told about a few to check out. There are some really neat parks around here. We have also visited a few different mall playgrounds. (Fuzzy also comes along sometimes.)
• We went to story time at the beginning of May. Parker loved it. It was fun, interactive and the kids got to sit on animal shaped pillows. Then we found out it was the last one until after we are gone. But we still go to the library to check out books. This is Parker reading a book with Fuzzy at the library. I thought it was so funny that Parker put him in the seat next to him. (And Fuzzy's beady little eyes look so funny just barely peeking over the table.)
• We have been going to one park every morning with Parker's friend, Molly, and her Mom, Darci. We put our kids in the stroller and walk for about 45 minutes (on the really nice paved trail) and then let them play at the park for a little while.
• Darci and Molly invited us to their neighborhood pool.
• We play a lot at home. The Jenson's have some blocks that Parker loves and some posters that Autumn loves. Parker likes to play outside with the rocks on the gravel path and on the trampoline. Although, Parker's favorite thing to do when we first got here was play 'Pretty Pretty Princess.' I don't think Paul was happy about that because he hid it for a while. But now we just play snakes with the necklaces.
• Nap times have been crazy. Parker usually plays around for a while and then falls asleep somewhere on the ground in his room (that is, when he does actually fall asleep).
• Parker also likes to play with Josh. He is older and so cool. He is the son of Paul's law school friend, Dave (who also is here for an internship). His wife, Melissa, is from this area, so we have hung out at her parents house a couple of times. They have lots of fun toys and things to do. Parker just loves to follow Josh around.
• Just recently, I made a last minute decision to take the kids on a trip on the ferry to Bainbridge Island. It is the island just across the Sound from Seattle. It was such a fun little place, with tons of shops. I wish I had more time to look around, but I had to get back before my parking meter expired. Yes, Parker is in his PJ's!
• Kristen, our upstairs neighbor has also been someone we have hung out with a few times. She has been so nice to show us the neighborhood park, take us to the dog park and accompany us to the beach.

I was so excited to come to Seattle and explore somewhere new. When we first got here and I realized that I didn't know anyone, it was a little scary. But now that it is getting close to leaving time, I am wishing we could stay. It is beautiful (although people tell us that it has been unusually dry and warm) and I have made some great friends. I don't know if we will ever end up here, but I really like Seattle.

Woodland Park Zoo, Ballard Locks and Snoqualmie Falls

Well, we had a great weekend once again. Here are the fun things that we did:

Paul's friend from Law School is living up here for a Summer Internship as well. He and his family only live a few minutes from us and we had them over for a BBQ. It was a lot of fun. Parker loved playing with their 5 year old, Josh.

We went to the Woodland Park Zoo. It was a perfect day for the Zoo. Overcast, but no rain and the sun peeked through the clouds occasionally. I am posting a few pics of our favorite animal sightings.

We also went to Ballard Locks. Locks are kind of like elevators for water vessels. It was awesome to see how the ships and boats were lowered from the river down to sea level and vice versa.

We also got to see Salmon Stairs. There were only a few salmon there, but we got the idea.


We saw Snoqualmie Falls. The Falls were beautiful, but Parker fell asleep before we got there and didn't wake up until we got home, which was actually bed time. Crazy kid! He has been on a crazy nap schedule lately and it usually ends up with us staying up late with him. We took a picture of him at the Falls, so he would know that we did actually go.

More Seattle Fun

I figure I should post about last weekend before I get too behind.

Last Friday, after Paul's work, we met up at the Factoria Mall in Bellevue to go to the free hours at Kidsquest. It is a little children's museum, that even Paul and I enjoyed. There was a puppet theater where you could perform your own puppet show, a tree house to climb in, a big wooden train set, arts and crafts area, building blocks area complete with hard hats, a 'garage' where you could bang on pots and pans and make other fun music, scarf shooter, an old Peterbilt truck cab to 'drive' and the list goes on. There was one whole section of water fun. The kids were given big bibs to keep from getting all wet. Parker called it his swimming suit. There were water chimes and drums and a mini Lock system to see the toy boats go up and down. Parker's favorite thing, by far, was the mini river(above). They had plastic balls in it and you could take them to the top and watch them float down. Of course, we had a few races with them. We would venture to other areas of the museum, but Parker always wanted to go back to the water.


We decided we should see 'the' San Juan Island. So we drove up to Anacortes and took the ferry over to the island. We walked onto the ferry, so we didn't have our car when we got to the island, but Friday Harbor was a fun little town. We looked in a few shops, found a park for the kids to swing a bit, went to a bowling alley with arcade games to entertain Parker and then ate a nice dinner at the Blue Water Grill. The ferry ride on the way back seemed to take forever because both Parker and Autumn were tired. For the most part though, the other passengers on the ferry were entertained.

On the Ferry

This Race Car Arcade game was on the ferry. Luckily, it was broken so we didn't actually have to keep putting money in it, but Parker liked playing on it anyway. As you can see in the picture, the vending machines were right next to him. A few times when people would come to buy something, Parker would turn to them and say 'Hi, what's your name? What are you getting? You want some water?' I was sitting at a bench across from him and it was funny to watch the people's reaction when they realized this little toddler was striking up conversation.