The Way of Water

Today is Benny's hebrew birthday. Last night, Shuky carved him a birthday message into his hot dogs and this morning he got birthday cake.

Then, after packing up lunches, the kids and I went on a special birthday trip. I took them to Lake Union Park and we hopped onto the Ice Cream Cruise. It was a cute little cruise that took us around the lake for an hour, sightseeing and enjoying the gorgeous weather. The name comes from the little snack shop they have on board!

On board with us was a cute group of senior women and a couple of their daughters, along with a guy from the senior home they were coming from, acting as their guide. The views were amazing, we saw some awesome things!!

They sat themselves down for a nice game of chess

Some of our senior friends enjoying the view from the roof deck

Having a delicious snack of strawberries

An old fire boat

Kayaks alongside us

And on to a game of checkers

Adorable little houses on the water

Nice big house on the water

Houses and houseboats are friends

The home and studio of the artist Dale Chihuly

A window exhibit in his home. The little car thing on the deck is one of many unique birdhomes.

Just amazing homes on the water

Oh the natural sunlight!

It blends with the background but this home has an AMAZING rooftop garden!

  

An Alaskan Salmon fishing boat

Gas Works Park (awesome paintball scene from 10 Things I Hate About You was filmed there)

I'm sure there are better quality videos out there, just grabbed the first I found :)

Just liked this one and the next one :)

Downtown skyline - AKA our current home!

Boeing's corporate yacht, Daedalus, named after the Greek mythological character, meaning 'clever worker'

What a cute little community to live in!

The floating home from Sleepless in Seattle

Studying the map

Smallest houseboat I've ever seen, with lawn chairs on top!

Another view of the downtown skyline

Caught some seaplanes landing

Little class of kids learning to sail. Was so cute!

Air traffic

Of course, Benny made a friend

So, the woman that Benny is sitting with.

As we were all getting off the boat, the kids and I stepped to the side to let the group of seniors off. We were enjoying just standing and looking at the boat next to us. All of a sudden we notice the woman from above, instead of turning to go up the ramp and off the dock she just kept going forward and walked right. off. the. pier. She hit her head on the boat next to us and went in the water, walker and all. Benny and I both started screaming and everyone turned to see what happened. The man with the group jumped right in after her and pulled her up from under the water and held up her walker with his foot, while a bunch of people pulled her out of the water. They set her down gently and asked if she was ok. She said she was fine and that nothing had happened so I went over quietly (holding my kids' hands tighter than ever before) and told them that she had actually hit her head pretty hard and should be checked carefully. She kept insisting that she had not hit her head. Someone lifted the hair off her forehead and saw quite the bump so 9-1-1 was called. I could see that she was being taken care of and Benny was starting to get very nervous so I left. When we got to the parking lot, there was a fire truck pulling in to help her. We pointed them in the right direction and off we went. That was about five hours ago and Benny is still asking me every so often if I think she was ok. We talked a lot about it. I was pretty shaken up by it as well so we discussed what happened and why it's so important to always be careful and look where you are going. And we talked about how young kids and older people sometimes don't realize what is going on around them. I'm sure the topic will come up quite a bit over the next few days and hopefully he will really understand. I actually circled back around the area about half an hour after leaving and both the fire truck and senior shuttle were gone. Hopefully everything was ok.

And now, I need to start making our food for Shabbos, we have a new guest coming tonight and the cleaning service left our apartment sparkling clean!

Have a beautiful Shabbos, a relaxing weekend, and keep your kids close!

Too Much Fun and Sun

We've had a busy month here. Sometimes that translates into multiple posts, on a very regular basis. Sometimes it turns into a lump of silence. Time to get rid of that lump!

So we had two weeks of fun here in Seattle where the kids and I did some major exploring and became members of a few of our favorite spots. We basically became locals, starting giving tips and directions to tourists, that sort of thing. We were mostly downtown, getting tons of miles covered by walking everywhere. We had a few days of discovering other areas in the car, which was nice as well. We started setting up our own little routines. Whenever I had to go to a specific market, we got smoothies and people watched. Whenever the monorail wasn't too crowded, we snagged the front seat and got to know some of the drivers. From that seat, Benny always managed to get invited to honk the horn. We were true downtown-seattlites.

Front row seats on the monorail.

Being a fireman at the Childrens' Museum

And exploring the 'woodlands' there.

In the story time exhibit. That is Benny's work. Found it still hanging on the wall when we came back another day!

Trying our hand at planting. These are chia pets. The yellow one has since died. The green one is vibrantly growing still!

Space capsule at the Pacific Science Center

Enjoying the amazing view from the sky-deck of the Space Needle

And a quick visit back at the Childrens' Museum.

Bella, earning her keep.

Being jellyfish at the Seattle Aquarium. That's Bella's fish face in case you were wondering.

After about two weeks of being here, the kids and I headed out to California for our annual summer visit. My mother and sister met us there and we had an awesome time. It was more of a family visit than I had originally intended [I usually book two weeks, hoping to do one week of family time and one week with friends] but it was just so much fun that I didn't mind that much. We had a lot of low key days and a few hectic, fun-filled days and it totally balanced out.

Waiting patiently to board the plane.

A gorgeous day at the beach

Looking fabulous for my cousin's graduation party.

Benny and Uncle Shmuly had so much fun together. Here, he got an awesome ride into Knott's Berry Farm.

Best restroom sign. Ever.

Doing hard time.

Enjoying the rides!

Workin' on the railroad.

My mom took the kids back home and left the bigger kids to play at the park.

And play we did!

After a rough day of hanging out by the pool, who has the time to walk all the way to bed!

Even Minnie Mouse was enjoying herself on vacation!

Benny and I explored the LaBrea Tar Pits. Definitely a major highlight of the trip for this guy.

We were being squirrels.

A paleontology lab with fossils being identified before our eyes!!

A special visitor at my grandmother's house. Biggest raccoon I've ever seen.

All nice and dressed for a family Shabbos dinner!

Spent a Sunday at a rodeo festival with the kids. Of course Benny rode the bull.

Pony rides!

He spent the entire circle petting and talking to his horse.

Seeing how strong he is.

Riding the little train together.

Come here rabbit!

Not the best picture but a fun one no less. Uncle Shmuly is an awesome uncle!

And she obviously needed her own turn.

Had a bbq dinner with Uncle Shmuly in his adorable backyard after the rodeo.

I took the kids to visit my friend at her shop, which happens to be the cutest shop in L.A. No big deal. Anyway, she has a huge vase of little bouncy balls and offers a free one to the kids walking into the store. We found Bella stuffing them into her pocket.

There were nine in that little pocket. I asked her a few times how many she had and she continuously insisted there was just one little ball in her 'poppet'. 

My parents are awesome and helped me get a new shaitel :) Loving it so much!!

I have a special relationship with Orange Delight. They are usually one of the first places to know I've landed :)

Got some shopping done.

Took a ride on the train in the mall.

I finally cleaned out the last of my belongings from my room at my grandmother's house and had so much fun going through my old things. Especially an old shoe box of pictures ranging from shots of me growing up to me as a teen and onward. Memory lane beyond belief!

My older brothers and I. Back when life was better as a blonde.

Apparently I was sporty. Or just had to do whatever my brothers did. Let's go with sporty.

And quite stylish!

Me and my younger sibs.

We are back in Seattle and getting back into our routine. Aside from local traveling, we are done until it's time to head back to Iowa in August. As far as I'm aware.

We spent Shabbos in Steward Park with a really nice family and had a great time.

Today we took the kids to see Monsters University with friends and loved it!

  

Benny starts camp July 1st and we are all super excited for that to come around! We have a few things planned to do until then so hopefully I will get back soon with more bloglovin for you guys!!