Seattle - Part 2

On the second day of our trip, we were able to spend the whole day sightseeing and doing what ever we wanted either with members of the group or alone.  There were so many things to do and so little time to do them!  The space needle, tracking down the building from the book 50 Shades of Gray, there was also some Twilight stuff to see but it was a long drive away.

First stop, look for Escala!  For those of you who don't know, I was a little obsessed with the book 50 Shades of Gray.  The main character (Christian) lived in the penthouse of a building named Escala in Seattle.  I had no idea the building really exsited!  You can imagine my excitement when we found it!

Woo-hoo!  Found it!!  And no, we didn't go inside.  :-)

There was a Starbucks on almost every corner of Seattle.  I think these people must be high on caffeine all the time!  This pic is at the original one!  We actually didn't drink any Starbucks while we were there.  We liked to support the little coffee shops.

Check out these pastries!!  This was a great little coffee shop across from the fish market.  The line was literally out the door but it was so worth it!

I should've taken this pic before we devoured the pastries.  That was the best raspberry croissant I've had.  Ever.  And the coffee was good too!

 

This random dude was walking around accepting donations for a picture with him.  What a quick, genius way to make money!

The Space Needle!  We didn't feel like paying an obscene amount of money to ride to the top, take a pic, and ride back down.  So we opted to take pics from the ground.

We loved the around surrounding the Space Needle.  It was very well kept and had lots of photo ops!

Seattle - Part 1

Thanks to Mondo's hard work, he was rewarded with a trip for being on the "Select Team".  His job on this team is to have new employees ride along with him for several days so he can teach them the ropes of selling.  It was really nice to be rewarded for his hard work...and it was nice that I got to tag along.  There were a few other couples plus the president of the company and his wife.  It was fun to get to know other employees and Mondo was able to see a different side of the president. And on a side note, I'm blessed to have awesome co-workers who switched their schedules around at the last minute so I could have the whole weekend off!  And my parents were able to watch the critters for us.  (There will be several posts because I have so many pictures!)

We stayed at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in downtown Seattle.  It was very nice and felt like a cozy, ritzy hotel.




Our first excursion was riding on a ferry to Bainbridge Island. 






I was a little worried about getting sick on the ride over since I have crazy motion sickness.  But lucky for me it was really smooth.  It was also super cold, windy, and misty!



It was pretty amazing to watch the ship dock.  This giant boat parked effortlessly in the perfect position.  We imagined what it would be like to live on the island and work on the mainland and have to ride the ferry everyday, twice a day.  I'm sure it would get old really fast!





We LOVED Bainbridge Island!  That's totally where I would want to live in Seattle.  It was a cute, quiet little town.  Lots of little shops to check out.

We found a great little coffee shop that made me something close to a caramel macchiato.  YUM!

It rained off and on all day and it was pretty chilly!



Our next stop once we got back frrom the island was the fish market.  Honestly, I didn't think it was worth all the hype.  I guess it would be pretty awesome if you loved fish.  Mondo really enjoyed it.   I didn't love the smell. 

Ya...gross.

There were also little souvineer/trinkets you could buy.  These flowers were gorgeous and super cheap!

We did a little sight seeing on the way back to the hotel.  There was a park type area downtown that seemed to be a hangout...for hoodlem teenagers and homeless people.  I posed with a random statue here.

Yep, just a homeless dude taking a nap.  I guess it was like any downtown area...homeless people everywhere!

After our day excursions, we went back to the hotel, got cleaned up, and went to dinner at the Georgian in the hotel.  It was a fancy schmancy restaurant.  Fun, with no kids.  ;-)

Here's our whole group...minus the president and his wife.  They were sitting at the head of the table that you can't see.  We had a nice dinner and were able to really get to know each other.

The appetizer.  It was actually the size of a marble.  It was some type of crusted cheese thing.  Mondo loved it.  I didn't.

My ceasar salad.  Never seen one quite like that but it was tasty.

Steak.  :-)

Mondo had some sort of fish dish.

***More posts to come.***



Baseball

As I write this, Ethan has one more game left and then the season is over.  He had a bit of a rough season this year.  It seems that his golf swing is better than his baseball swing.  ;-)  After a few games of stiking out he was ready to quit.  But each game he has improved and figured out how to tweak his swing from golf to baseball and now he's all about baseball again.  As usual, we're glad to have the season end and a little sad that it's already over.

Go Astros!

The cheering section.  Caleb just goes to eat. 

At the end of every game the coach hands out little silver stars to put on their hats and tells them what a great job they did to earn them.

The boys got a little surprise during one of their games.  Their 1st grade teacher from last year showed up to watch their game.  They were so excited!!

PTA Program

The second grade preformed at the PTA meeting last month.  It was a patriotic theme.  The songs were really cute.  It was a short and sweet program.  I posted a video at the bottom of one of the songs.

Don't they look thrilled to have to listen to the PTA meeting before the program?

That's Ethan's teacher.

Caleb kept himself entertained by playing the DS.

Ethan and his buddy Brock.

Beware, it's a tear jerker!  ;-)

Caleb's First Day of School

Another sad day.  My tiniest baby started pre-k....which means next year is kindergarden!!  I'm not ready to talk about that yet!  I really wanted him to have the same teacher that Ethan had in pre-k but she's not there anymore.  I was pretty sad.  But it turns out that he LOVES his new teacher Ms. Dianne!  Every morning he asks me if it's a school day (he goes T/Th/F).  When I tell him yes he says, "I get to see Ms. Dianne?  Yes!"  She is really sweet and has a very quiet, calm voice.  He is also excited that he doesn't have to take a nap this year.  They have a 15 minute rest time where they have to put their heads on the table and listen to music.  I'm so glad that he is enjoying school!

He has turned into a little ham for the camera.

Showing his Batman backpack.

Had to have a pic with mommy before leaving.

Not too sure about going into class....

Then he decided it might be ok.  He walked right in with no tears.  And of course I didn't get a good pic of him going in.

First Day of Second Grade

It's hard to believe my little Ethan is in second grade!!  I'm happy to report that this was the first year of no tears on the first day!  This is also the first year he is not in school with his buddy Will.  They have been in class together every year since preschool.  I was a little worried but he is unphased.  I think it helped that they were separated in baseball starting last season.  He seems to like his teacher so far.  I think she's a good mix of nice and strict.  He says he doesn't like her.  He likes another teacher better because she calls him "sweetie" whenever she sees him.  I guess to a 7 year old that makes her the better teacher.  ;-)

This was actually the night before at Meet the Teacher.  He got to put his school supplies in his desk.

This was te best pic I could get.  I think he's getting to the age where he doesn't want his picture taken.  That's sad for a momma who loves to take pictures!

He chose a Ranger's backpack this year.

Drop off was totally uneventful.  There were no other parents in the classroom so we just dropped him at the door and left.  I was a little bummed that I didn't get to walk him in.

This was from another morning that week.  He's showing off his new school shirt with the Ranger-like logo.