Fired up the BBQ tonight

Mmmmm....can't you just smell that wonderful farmer sausage right thru the screen?
We definitely enjoyed our first grilled dinner of the summer at our place.

Sunshine in Seattle

Sun glorious sun! Monday we woke up to grey drizzle....nasty, dark, and depressing. The weather man promised a good day though so we decided that it had to clear up any minute! I mean it had to because today was the BIG day. This was the day we were going to RIDE THE DUCK! I had already purchased our tickets online before we left so we were committed to go...rain or shine. We desperately wanted sun though. One day of playing tourist in the rain was enough. So once again we had our free breakfast....which was actually pretty good. We packed up our room, loaded the car and took off for the Space Needle. The kids were pretty excited about the seeing it and asked a zillion questions. Oi! As we got closer and closer to downtown we could see the clouds breaking up and the sun was warming up our car nicely. It was very promising. We parked right beside the Space Needle and took a nice walk around the grounds. The whole area is called Seattle Center and it is home to the Children's Museum, theatres, Pacific Science Centre, Monorail and EMP Music museum to name a few. It's a wonderful place to hang out. We took the kids to see the giant fountain. They loved it and I'm sure were disappointed that it wasn't quite warm enough to run through it.

We also leaned up against some brozne structures that were all warm and toasty from the emerging sun and watched airplanes coming into Sea-Tac airport. There was about one plane every two minutes or so for a stretch there. Finally it was time to head to our tour at 'Ride the Ducks'. Have any of my readers been on this tour? Let me tell you, it was worth every penny. What fun we had! The driver was a zany and completely crazy guy with a very American way about him. Big accent, big laughs, and a big bald head :) He was hilarious! He drove us all through downtown and gave us lots of interesting tidbits about history and the people living there now. Such as....90% of people in Seattle own bikes. Or did you know that Seattle sells the most sunglasses in the country? He also was very cheeky and since he was on a microphone headset he could call out to people on the street. I haven't laughed so hard in ages. He would honk at unsuspecting people making them jump as they were crossing crosswalks, yell out things to people with weird hair or whatever. It was all in good fun and most everyone took the teasing good naturedly. He also played lots of disco '70's music which was a hoot. There was this guy jogging beside the 'duck' and we were keeping pace with him so he cranked the Rocky music and we cheered him on. What a laugh! Another funny moment was when we were stopped at a red light beside a huge carwash. There were guys out there buffing cars by hand so our tourguide cranked some '70's tune called 'At the Carwash' and those guys out there put on quite a dance show for us!

First photo is of a fire hall (taken for hubby). Second is the new stadium where the Mariners play and the third is just a pretty street.

After we had toured on land the 'duck' took us on a water tour of Lake Union. We saw many very expensive houseboats and yachts. He knew all kinds of interesting things about how much some of the places cost and who lives in them. He also pointed out the houseboat on which 'Sleepless in Seattle' was filmed. Very cool! Anyhow, that tour was 90 minutes long. After which we decided we'd better head home before rush hour started. At this point it was around 2:45 so we managed to time it quite well and made good time getting back. Unfortunately a big line-up awaited us back at the border. BUT...that was expected and we just patiently inched our way back up to Canada.

Chad's feelings on the topic of border line-ups!

So now we are home and have some wonderful memories of our family adventure in Seattle! Oh yeah...and I didn't take any pictures of food. Weird! I only realized once we got home. Oh well...I must say that eating out three days straight isn't as good as it sounds. I missed veggies and fruit. As soon as I got home I had an apple and a plate of yams :)

Wet & Wild in Seattle

Sunday morning we woke up to the pitter patter of typical northwest rain drops. Ugh. We knew the forecast wasn't that great but had hoped the weather man was very wrong. He wasn't. Since sitting in our hotel room all day was out of the question and shopping all day at the mall just would not be fair to the boys we decided to just go out and have fun anyhow. I would like to know why I was stupid enough to flat iron my hair that morning though. Hmmmm...I suppose I am very vain. After the free breakfast included with our room at the hotel we jumped in the car and headed downtown to the Woodland Park Zoo. I'm not a huge fan of zoos but from all accounts this zoo was supposed to be excellent. I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed myself. The exhibits were so well done, the variety of animals was incredible, the grounds were beautiful and not crowded due to the weather. Each animal had such a realistic habitat that you didn't really feel bad they weren't in the wild.

The boys each got a stick with bird seeds stuck on to feed the birds in a big open rooms with hundred of them flying around. All you had to do was hold out your stick and they would land on it and eat the seeds. That was the theory. We ended up having to put those seedy sticks right under their noses for them to partake. I guess they were already full! I was just glad I didn't get pooped on. I mean my hair was already frizzy from the rain...it didn't need sticky bird muck in it too!

My least favorite exhibit was the spiders. There was a tarantula the size of a volleyball. It really made me want to puke to look at it. Nate wouldn't even look at all. My most favorite exhibit was the gorilla family. They were seriously entertaining and boy did we laugh at their antics. I could have watched for hours. We also saw bears, otters, raptors, all sorts of monkeys, nocturnal animals, reptiles, tigers, birds, giraffes, hippos, domestic farm animals wild dogs, crocodiles, elephants, jaguars, pandas, and more. It was great.

This orangutan was quite funny walking around with a burlap sack over himself. I guess he doesn't like rain either.

Oh yes...the bears. I love bears....HAH! No, actually they are really huge and scary to me. I don't mind them at the zoo but never want to see one outside of a zoo!

Komodo Dragon....a big ole nasty lizard.

This eagle was huge and gorgeous! They did a little flying demo with the raptors...a falcon, owl, and vulture. Really quite amazing birds!

We were on our feet for six straight hours....in the rain! Fortunately it wasn't very cold so we were only damp...not shivering too. Anyhow, we highly recommend this attraction!

Nate and Chad demonstrate the right and wrong way to milk ole Bessie.

Sleepless in Seattle

Months back we planned a little get-away for the May long weekend. We decided last fall when we were in Seattle for our anniversary that we definitely wanted to bring the boys because of all the fun things to do and see. So, we set forth on a little adventure for four. Oh but did we plan ahead for border line-ups? No. So we wasted a good portion of our early start sitting in traffic waiting....and waiting. Lesson learned.

But once we crossed it was smooth sailing all the way to Burlington where we had lunch and then again to Lynnwood where our hotel was. This was only the second time the kids had been in a hotel. They asked such funny questions such as.....when will they make us supper? Or....why doesn't our room have a kitchen? They quickly adjusted to hotel life though. They loved the pool and hot tub and they spent many happy hours enjoying them.

The sleepless part was that Chad who had just started a cold this past Thursday gave it to both Keith and I. It hit us Saturday afternoon and by evening we were both sneezing, coughing and generally feeling yucky. So to add to the fact we were sleeping right next to the kids who snore (Chad) and talk in their sleep all freaking night (Nate) and the fact it was a new bed, the congestion and miserable-ness prevented a good night sleep. We both felt like we got four hours or less each night. Not an restful holiday by any means!

Therefore you shall see flowers

Sorry blog friends. There is nothing witty or intriguing or adventurous to write about today. So....how about another garden tour? Yes? Okay.....

What are these pretty pink flowers? Help!

My ferns are growing very quickly! I'm sure they were just a few inches high a month ago.

My 'Creeping Jenny' is creeping nicely. I really wanted to buy some 'Creeping Phlox' today but couldn't find it at my local nursery. Anyone familiar with that particular perrenial?

And last but not least my rhodo in the back yard has the most beautiful white blooms!


So do any of my fellow Canadian blogger have plans for the upcoming long weekend?

Mom's Day

A few quotes for this special day...

~All mothers are working mothers - Author Unknown
~A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie - Tenneva Jordan
~A suburban mother's role is to deliver children obstetrically once and by car forever after - Peter De Vries

Dinner Divine

My bro and I put together a fantastic Thai stir-fry tonight. I ate so much but it's made from some pretty healthy ingredients so no need to feel bad, right? AND...we went for a nice walk after supper so maybe that balanced it all off.

Tasty Chinese noodles

Lots of red and orange peppers.

Yummy savoy cabbage and bean sprouts

Saucy sauce

Chicken is the 'meat' of this stir fry but I bet it would be really good with shrimp instead or even in addition to.

The finished product with a sprinkling of crushed peanuts and some hot pepper flakes.

Flora & Fauna

There's been a serious lack of blogging material lately....or a serious laziness come over this blogger! So even though it's not a very exciting post I thought that I should do something. Here's a little garden update.

Look see what I can do. I can kill lavender bushes quite well. Actually, I'm not 100% to blame because my mom suggested I use 'Round-Up' to kill the grass that was threatening to take over the bush. The grass is all dead now....and so is the bush. I think there might be a wee little bit of life in it though so I transplanted it to an area in the back where it won't be noticed. I'll give it another few weeks before I throw it down Kori's ravine :)

An here are some flowers that are very pretty that are coming up all over the place. No idea what they are called.

Again....not sure what these are but they are really pretty. The lighting isn't that great today for photos...it's too bright out.

And finally, my raspberries are doing very well. My mom planted them for me about 6 weeks ago and they 'took'. They must like their new home here in my patch of dirt. I am looking forward to tasting some in July. Yum!