5 Years: Our Seattle Trip

Easter this year fell 4 days before our 5th anniversary so we took advantage of the long weekend and dropped the girls off at my parents' house for Fri/Sat/Sun and had a mini vacation in Seattle.  We left really early Friday morning and came back Sunday evening for a family Easter dinner at my grandparents' house. 

The border line up could have been worse and in fact, was made a little better by the fact that we accidentally (truly) ended up in the nexus line and had to then jump into the regular line so we cut in and reduced our waiting time significantly.  It was a honest mistake- we followed the signs and the lane took us into the nexus line instead of to the back of the regular line.  Even after it happened we couldn't figure it out. 

We did some shopping at the Tulalip outlets.  I hate shopping and avoid it at all costs.  But we had some things we actually needed so we thought we'd try to find some deals down South that we wouldn't find back home.  We were fairly successful.  I got a couple of maxi skirts (summer's yoga pants).  Cole got to gleefully make his way through the UnderArmour store..more than once.

Next, we spent some time in the temple book store, which we never really get to go to now that we have the Vancouver temple and it doesn't have a book store.  Now book shopping is more my speed!

Then we checked into our hotel, right near the Space Needle. I was over the moon about having 2 nights where I didn't need to listen out for kids.  My body completely shut down both nights and the sleep felt like 5 minutes.  It was the sleep of the dead.  I would probably need a year of sleep like that before feeling normal again. 

We booked two activities, both for Saturday.  One was a 3 hour walking/tasting tour of Pike Place Market called Best Bites.  I highly recommend it.  It was very interesting history mixed with some super tasty bites.  Our tour guide, Marla, was excellent.  Tickets were $40/each.  Best bite was the chowder from Pike Place Chowder.  It was closed the next day for Easter, which devastated us because we wanted to go back for a proper portion.  But next time.  Best chowder of my life.  Their seafood bisque is also award winning.  Everything we ate was superb.  And as we were on the tour we took mental notes of the places we didn't get to eat at that we still wanted to try.  On Sunday, after we checked our of our hotel, we headed back to the market and had our own tour of the all bites we missed the day before.  My favourites (besides the chowder) were the yogurt stand (will blow your mind), the greek place (don't remember the name), Beecher's mac n cheese, Saffron Spice and Taste (the museum restaurant that is almost all organic/local).  The olive oil/balsamic vinegar tasting bar was probably the more surprising and interesting, though.  If we had a bigger budget for souvenirs, I for sure would have spent some there.  Worth a trip.

I was supremely jealous of the fresh farm dairy, produce and flowers available at Pike Place.  Would love to have a large farmer's market like that to frequent.

Our second activity was a couple's massage at Ananya Spa downtown.  It was a full hour but felt like so much less.  Perfectly timed after a 3 hour walking tour, too.  From what I saw of the services while waiting for the massage and then the massage itself, I would have no problem recommending this spa. 

Our dining experiences were divine.  Friday night, we ate at Il Bistro (attached to Pike Place).  It's super popular, and even with reservations there's a bit of a wait.  It's a very romantic restaurant if you're not near a loud, drunk group like we were.  A tad dark for my taste- but the service and food was excellent.  Cole had a seafood linguine dish and I had a melt-in-your-mouth beef tenderloin.  The dessert was lovely, as well.  Saturday night was considerable less expensive (like our whole dinner didn't even reach the cost of one of our entrees at Il Bistro).  It was this shack on the side of the road outside of downtown.  The beauty of the internet is now those places can be found by the tourists.  It was really busy and we just got in front of the dinner rush so that was lucky.  There's a few picnic tables beside it.  Paseo serves Carribean fare, the most popular being their delicious slow roasted pork sandwiches.  Giant, oozing with flavour and under $9.  Best meat sandwich we've ever had- side of the road or otherwise.  Felt like my own Guy Fieri.

It was a lovely trip and a nice vacation from our kids.  Super grateful to my family for watching them all weekend.  Becca slept beautifully for them- almost 12/hrs straight.  She's NEVER done that for me. 

It was nice to be back in the city where we married for our celebration of 5 years.  It has been an incredibly busy 5 years- it was good to take a couple days to enjoy some peace.

We did take some pictures of our tour, but that's about it, which is so like us:

Pike Place market (Il Bistro is the windows on the far right)

our tour started with a story about the price of onions back in the day
and how the market got started

our bite: banana, almond, nutella crepes

best chowder in the country (many many awards to prove it)

best yogurt of my life

enviable produce

if you like indian food, you'll love this place
(even Cole enjoyed it and he doesn't like indian food)

famous gum wall

Cole adding his own piece

Uli's Sausage (no preservatives or fillers)

such an interesting experience- worth a visit

not your average museum restaurant (organic, local, delicious)

Springtime with my Girls

Time for another general update.  So much changes so fast.  Spring has sprung and as such, we pray everyday for sun but mostly get rain.  The glimpses we get that summer is on its way are delightful and my girls have been seen in shorts on more than one occasion this month. 

B is 10 months old: she has 4 teeth, she can crawl, she can walk while holding onto something, she has taken her first step solo, she can stand up from sitting position without holding onto anything, she can climb, and she can say mama, dada and nana (which she uses for no).  She knows Cole and calls him dada, and she uses nana when she really does mean no.  Mama is used periodically and not necessarily when she's talking to me.  But that will come.  She is big enough and strong enough to wrestle with her sister.  She is brave and when she hears me chasing after her, she crawls faster to her destination instead of freezing in the excitement.  She sleeps practically through the night- she no longer gets up to eat before 6am but she sometimes needs us to go in there to give her back her soother or put the blanket back on her.  She loves food- she's my little garburator and often finishes her sister's dinner.  She does not like spicy food like her sister did at this age, though. 

Cole's favourite B moment lately has been when she started rushing to the gate when she sees him coming home, she crawls fast and says "dadda dadda".

K is 2 1/2 and is now completely potty trained- even at night.  Don't know how that happened...she's been waking up dry for about a month now.  It was nice of her to take care of that on her own.  Her speaking is taking off and she says complex, multi-word sentences now.  She's learning present, past and future tense right now.  She still has trouble pronouncing the "l"s, "y"s, "w"s and some "r"s (depending on where they are in the word).  She's learning to pray and says her bedtime prayers almost on her own.  She sometimes says the meal prayers as well.  She's getting better on her bike- we don't take her as much as we should so it's slow going.  She loves going to church.  Her new thing is to tell us about all the things, places and people she loves. 

My favourite K story lately has been when she went into the kitchen looking for a wipe.  She looked around and then cupped her hands around her mouth and said, "Wipe! Wipe! Where are you?? Wipe?"  She hasn't figured out that you can't call out for inanimate objects.

The girls thoroughly enjoyed having their cousin "J" come visit for a couple days.  He seemed to enjoy them, too, most of the time.  B and J are only 6 months apart.  K couldn't get enough of another baby being in the house.  She loves babies.

I can't believe B will be a year in less than 2 months and K will be 3 when the summer ends.  This has been the fastest year of my life.  I'm thoroughly enjoying this stage right now where B is active but not running away and the girls are able to play with each other.  This has been the fastest year of my life.

learned to pull self up holding on to something

often waits at the gate now

10 months old

chocolate for breakfast- helping mommy bake a cake

this one loves chocolate

asleep with her baby at grandma's

asleep with her baby at grandma's

5:30pm....still napping on the couch about to fall off

loves to be thrown by daddy

looks so peaceful so high in the air
(also kind of looks like she's on the floor and the picture is upside down)

stands on her own without support

daddy can still throw the big kid in the air

not as high as she'd like though

love this face

love her hair

K calls them "monkey kisses:

happy girl

Crawling and Winter Days Inside

On Family Day, B started crawling.  She loves the new found freedom.  She explores the house everyday and everyday it takes her less time to get into something she's shouldn't be.  She has a fascination with cords, with the bathroom and with the pantry.  AND with the gate at the top of the stairs! She's much more able to interact with her sister (and tear down whatever she builds).  Find Videos of her learning to crawl HERE, HERE and HERE.

This last month we've also spent a lot of our days inside.  We've had the flu, pink eye and a huge snow dump all at the same time it seems.  As a result we haven't spent as much time outside as K, in particular, would like.  When it was just snow, I made sure to take her out everyday when B was napping (B isn't so much a fan of sitting in the snow in her snowsuit).  But when pink eye hit, and then this flu hit me and B- our outside days were cut down significantly.  K has been a pretty good trooper and she's been trying to play with B more, so that's been cute to watch.  K has spent some time playing out in the big snow dump on our deck.  I even moved her whole kitchen out there one day at her request.  Video of K being dumped in the snow by dad, HERE.

I spent one weekend this month out at my parents' place.  Managed the ferry by myself with the two kids.  On the way there, they had pink eye so they couldn't go to the play area.  On the way back, I had the flu so I was counting down the minutes till I got home. 

8 months old today- almost ready to crawl

lazy Family Day with Dad building forts

Family Day snuggle time

Last Valentine's cake pop

Getting so big!

Since figuring out to crawl, she has realized she's trapped!

spends a lot of time here

CRAWLING

big girl sitting in the chair

falling out of the chair

giant snow dump

13 inches

Sister reading time

Valentine's

This year we got two Valentine's celebrations.  We took the girls to Victoria on Wednesday to play with Papa and had the whole day to ourselves as an early Valentine's date.  We had lunch outside in the beautiful sunshine at the delicious Tacofino food truck.  Always delicious! We walked around downtown and I looked around a little Italian market for polenta and a better quality risotto rice than I currently have.  Success on both accounts.  We got our traditional Valentine's chocolates at Roger's.  We also walked the breakwater (first time since the guardrails were installed) before our movie.  We saw Monuments Men- we enjoyed it.  If you are interested in that topic manner and you thought looking at the preview that you would like it- you probably will.  If it's not an area you find interesting, you will probably think it's slow and boring.  For dinner we finally tried Pescatores.  I have mixed reviews.  I will try it again before passing judgement. 

Friday I successfully photographed my sweet girls.  First time K has ever sat so still for me.  Because we had our out of the house date on Wednesday, we planned an in home night together.  We put the girls to bed after their dinner of KD and had our own special dinner.  I whipped up a delicious bistro-inspired meal:
Appetizer: Bruschetta
Entree: Slow Braised Beef Short Ribs with a Red Wine Sauce over a Pea+Parmesan Risotto with Roasted Asparagus on the side
Dessert: Lime Tart
It was absolutely lovely.  So happy risotto is now something I can do.  Also, note to self and anyone else trying risotto in their own kitchen- arborio is fine and is most easily available BUT if you can get your hands on Carnaroli it really does make a difference and it's barely more expensive. (Recipes for this dinner on my Tested and Approved Pinterest board and soon probably my recipe blog).

We ended our night with a retro movie- "Say Anything".  We thought it was appropriate for the night and neither of us had ever managed to see it before.  Also, my Valentine's gift was a new kitchen gadget: a hand held kitchen torch.  Looks like it will be creme brulee for our anniversary....

Girls Update

Time for another update.  B will be 8 months this week and I feel the need to keep recording all the things that will pass quickly so I don't forget them.

B is on the verge of crawling.  She keeps getting one leg caught underneath her.  But she can scooch, reach and roll to get anywhere she wants basically.  She can get across whole rooms and into all kinds of trouble now.

I had to move B into a sleep sack because she was rolling so much around her crib that she couldn't sleep and would wake up in really uncomfortable positions.

She says dada and mama.  She also says gaga when she's happy and nana when she's not (kind of like "no no"). 

She's a non stop eater.  She loves solid food.  She eats almost, if not more, than K some days.  And she'll eat just about anything, even if she's not loving it.

She was sick with the roseola virus recently and discovered she does not like to take medicine.  K would drink it up and still does- will ask for more even.  B hates it.

B loves to sit for story or song time.  She's much more capable of sitting still than her older sister ever was (or is).

B has her two bottom teeth now- although they are taking their own sweet time coming fully in.  They've been there for a long time now but still are just peeking through.

K lied to me deliberately for the first time, recently.  She coloured all over her arms and shirt and when I asked her if she coloured on herself, she looked down at the ground and said "no".  She looked caught but wouldn't fess up right away.  Thankfully it was washable.  I tried not to laugh in front of her.  I didn't get super mad either.  I wish I had thought to take a picture before I washed it off.

K puts everything down for a nap.  All her babies and toys.  She even went into my cupboard, got a bread pan, and put that down for a nap.  Everything has to have a nap these days.

K is talking up a storm now.  Still doesn't sound super clear all the time but she tries multiple syllables and full sentences now.  She also started singing.  She will sing Itsy Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Popcorn Popping and Ring Around the Rosie.  She knows all the actions to those songs and you can hear some of the words when she does it.  Mostly it's gibberish but the tune is usually pretty good.

K is pretty much potty trained.  No more accidents.  It's just night time/nap time now.  That's hit or miss.  But we're not worrying about it.  If she wakes up on her own to go, we take her- otherwise we sleep. 

K has started drawing pictures now (or what she thinks are pictures).  It's all just scribbles but she tells me she's drawing suns and houses and bugs and butterflies and all kinds of things.  She always asks me to draw pictures of our family (including Aunty Tanya.)

She worships my sister Tanya and is constantly (like honestly everyday) asking about her.

If I give K a little bowl of cheerios as a snack I often come back to find  them all soggy.  She pours her water in them thinking it's the same as milk.

She often, out of no where and for not particular reason, fake sneezes.  NO idea what that's about.

She likes to play this game where she asks us who everyone is.  Like at the dinner table she will point to herself and say "mom? Noooo! dad? yes!" and then laughs hysterically because she's called herself dad.  She does this with all of us.  Asking if we're someone we're not and laughing when she or we say yes.

Super cute/sweet moment yesterday: while Cole and I were lazing in bed, K kept coming in and bugging us.  So we asked her to go to the living room and sing B a song.  She said ok.  But then we hear the guitar and Cole rushes into the living room.  He finds K sitting beside B with his guitar (actually it's a guitalele) strumming out a tune.  She calls Cole's guitalele "song" so when Cole asked her to go sing a song to B she went into his office, got his "song" and played for B.  It was pretty cute- even if it's not what we meant.

K putting her baby down for a nap

K always does it too close to B and this is what happens to her doll's nap time...

how she always sits now

I know it's dark- but look at that smile!

pretty blue eyes

B, K and my sister's son, J