Seattle, Part 2

Mendi Mayıs 01, 2022

Sorry for the delay. We got back from Seattle, our wifi was down. The moment the wifi was fixed, our laptop got wonky. I fixed the laptop but school started. Sigh. My life sometimes seems endless but at the same time seems to run through my fingers like handfuls of sand.

We were able to sneak away for a bit and visit our friends from South Orange that moved to Seattle a few years ago. They have since adopted an adorable dog who has adopted my adorable husband.

Theo says hi.

I spent so much time with this kid in his preverbal years; I can't believe he's this sharp, well-spoken kid. Thank goodness he's obsessed with Pokemon so he could communicate with my wee savages.

The Goose dug their backyard trampoline.

Hello New Jersey!

That evening, we left the kiddos with the grands and had our yearly dinner out at Dahlia's. Somehow in the past two years, Dahlia's got extremely expensive (more than our water & power bill, which is how you measure everything in SoCal), kinda chincey ($3 for bread? really?) and sloppy (Evan's bread salad contained two grape tomatoes and 1 piece of bread). I love a dinner out with my sweetie but I don't think we'll have any more at Dahlia's.

The next day, the cousins showed up. There was much rejoicing.

I have visited the houseboat for fifteen years, and I have spent the former half of those years petrified that my kid/s would fall into the drink. We finally made it to the point where one of our kids happily dove in.

Hayden's a pro. He's been doing this for years.

After the first dive in, all bets were off. Oscar and Hayden wanted to swim over to the next dock.

Oscar and Hayden took plenty of dives off the dock to the delight of the adults.

Arlo thought about diving off the dock. He decided to wait for next year. (He's wearing underwear, really. Even my little naturist has to wear something on the dock.)

That afternoon was filled with a photo session for the family. My sister-in-law Tiffany and I booked a talented photographer to take lots of family pictures plus pictures of Loretta and her grandchildren, and interacting with each of her grandchildren. I'll share those photos when we have them.

That was our birthday present for Loretta. Really, the present was that my famously cantankerous brother-in-law, Bart, showed up in an outfit that coordinated with our color scheme (black, grey, denim, with touched of purple and coral, based on Loretta's outfit of jeans, black sweater set, and lovely jewelry of coral and amethyst) and smiled for the pictures. Thanks, Bartie.

The next day we all took off for the Seattle Zoo. (Thanks to my father-in-law and sister-in-law for some of these photos.)

Papa Jim's sister runs the Sacramento Zoo, so she reached out and got us some awesome behind-the-scenes at the Seattle Zoo.

Arlo had a couple of spectacular meltdowns. The rest of us got to go backstage to the penguin habitat, pat a baby penguin's down, and coo over a couple of adult penguins.

Until one of them shat all over Oscar and Kendall's feet.

We went behind the scenes with the leopard. Gorgeous animal, who seemed to think my daughter was his lunch.

We had a lovely catered picnic in a shady spot and went to the carousel.

I don't have any pictures of that evening. My sister in law Tiffany and I made a Tex-Mex feast for 25. It was fun but exhausting.

The next day we had a ladies' lunch at Etta's downtown. The Goose was perfectly behaved, if a bit shy.

We handed the kids off to the babysitter and got ready for Loretta's birthday party!

We had a lovely time on a dinner cruise around the lakes of Seattle. We had a wonderful time catching up with all of Loretta's friends who are adopted aunts and uncles to my husband.