Getting Older

Since we spent the weekend before my birthday (about 3 weeks ago) in Seattle enjoying lots of fun activities and eating out, we kept my birthday pretty low-key. Lunch at a little creperie, then dinner at Zupas and cake & ice cream with Bryce & Camille. We decided to play a game after eating cake but made the mistake of letting Bennett choose the games – We ended up with quite an entertaining game of Twister, then played a little Jenga. I was, as usual, spoiled by kind messages (phone calls, texts, emails, facebook posts) from friends & family, along with some great gifts. I think I’m to the age where I don’t necessarily dread getting older, but I definitely don’t look forward to it anymore. A few pics from the day:

Soccer Wrap-Up

Bennett had his last soccer practice / game on the 17th. We were glad he got to play – he loved it! A few pictures and video of his last day:

Playing kick the ball at the coach – obviously one of Bennett’s favorite drills :)

While his team was taking a break between their practice and the game, Bennett ran up and down the field by himself kicking the ball and scoring goals.

This video is mostly for the grandparents. I don’t know how to “crop” it to just show the fun part. It does show Bennett’s usual strategy during games – he would circle around the pack of kids who were going after the ball until he found the right angle / opportunity, then go for the ball. Pretty funny to watch.

Weekend in Seattle

In an effort to convince Nate to accept the full-time job offer they gave him, Amazon flew the two of us out to Seattle last weekend. Nate’s parents were SO kind to watch the boys for us while we were gone! We flew out Thursday afternoon, and went to dinner with Nate’s mission companion & his wife that night, then hung out at their place for a while.

On Friday, Nate had meetings at Amazon all day. I went for a long run along the waterfront in the morning (it was overcast and had rained earlier, but it was still pretty to run along the waterfront and see the piers, boats, etc.), then went to an Amazon-hosted lunch for spouses and tour of the Amazon campus. We went to the top of one of the buildings, where you can walk out and see this great view:

After lunch, I went shopping with the other 2 BYU wives (reminded me that shopping can be fun…without kids!) then relaxed at our hotel (which was in a great location right downtown – we walked everywhere) before going with Nate down to a yummy Amazon dinner. We relaxed in the pool & hot tub after dinner, which felt great after my long run in the morning then shopping and walking all over the rest of the day.

Saturday morning, we thoroughly enjoyed sleeping in, then went to a “Savor Seattle” food tour of Pike’s Place Market with some other Amazon offerees. It was great! Our entertaining (if at times cheesy) guide told us some of the history of the Market as we tried samples from some of the many restaurants. Some of our favorites were the hot mini doughnuts, the clam chowder, Piroshkys, dried cherries and other goodies from Chukar Cherries, smoked salmon, Beecher’s famous Mac N Cheese, and crab cakes from Etta’s. Nate commented that trips to the market will now be much more expensive because we know where the good food is & will have a hard time passing it up.

us with Maximilien (who sits outside the Maximilien spice store); our guide with his pink umbrella

We went back to our hotel and relaxed / did homework / watched the BYU game, then caught an early movie before walking down to the water for a yummy dinner at Ivar’s. We planned on going on a ferry ride after dinner, but as we were waiting in line, it apparently broke down – they had been stopped loading people and when it started gong again, it made a weird banging noise and they stopped it, tried again the other direction (same sound) and eventually started unloading people. Since we didn’t want to get stuck on there, and didn’t want to wait forever while they fixed it, we gave up :( We tried alternative 2 to see a bird’s eye view of the city, but after walking all the way down there, the Columbia Center was shutting down. We still enjoyed walking around the city at night and getting milkshakes :)

 

We didn’t have time for too much on Sunday morning before we had to leave to catch our flight, but we enjoyed a wonderful weekend – the one thing we didn’t do in Seattle this summer was have a date night, so it was fun to have a full weekend to explore, spend time together, and enjoy the city at night without the kids!

The views of the Space Needle and Lake Union from our hotel room. And a lovely self-portrait :)

Whether the weekend was successful for Amazon in convincing Nate to accept his offer remains to be seen – we’ll keep you posted!

Pumpkin Patch

One of the highlights of fall each year is picking out pumpkins from Grandpa’s pumpkin patch. On our way home from my grandma’s house, we stopped at Nate’s parents’ house and gathered up the pumpkins. The kids each picked out a pumpkin to keep for themselves and sat on it until someone came around to cut it for them, then we cut the rest of the pumpkins and they were divided up among the grandkids to take home and have a pumpkin sale (proceeds to go in their savings account). We had about 30 small, medium, and large pumpkins, plus about 40 more mini ones for our pumpkin patch sale. Bennett mostly rode his bike around, but he had fun playing with our friends who stopped by to pick their pumpkins. We still have a few left if anyone is in the market :)

 

Over the River and Through the Woods {Oct 5-7}

We found ourselves with an unscheduled weekend at the beginning of October, and Nate had had a couple days off of school and was caught up on schoolwork, so we decided to go up to visit my Grandma in Idaho Falls for the weekend. We left a little later than planned Friday night and got there about 10. My Aunt Susan waited up for us at Grandma’s because she was leaving town in the morning, so it was fun to see her for a few minutes. Camille & Bryce came up and joined us on Saturday morning. We spent a lot of the weekend watching LDS General Conference (where our Prophet and Church leaders speak) and enjoyed just hanging out with Grandma. It was cute to see how quickly Bennett & Ryan warmed up to her. We did manage to get out of the house a little bit, despite the freezing weather (the days warmed up but still felt cold to us). Nate, Bennett, Ryan & I went for a walk through my grandparents’ field behind their house (which they used to farm, but lease out now), and we all went down and had a picnic by the river and fed the ducks. It was a fun, relaxing weekend!
 

  

Ryan thought the stale hamburger buns from Grandma’s freezer were for him to eat…I think he ate the whole thing.

 

And a lovely one of Bennett. He didn’t want to be in a picture.