For Labor Day Weekend, my parents came up to Seattle to help Camille and Bryce move in, and although they spent some of the time helping, we convinced them and Camille & Bryce to take Monday off and do some fun stuff with us. We first went over to the Columbia Center tower, where we loved the gorgeous views of Seattle and the Puget Sound! We then went up to the Ballard Locks to see the fish climbing the fish ladder and to watch the boats go through the locks. There were tons of boats! We’ve been there several times but haven’t ever seen it even remotely that full. We had a little picnic and enjoyed watching them pack the locks full of boats.
below: the locks full of boats, and the boys herding the geese to come attack their grandma. They were actually quite successful!
The day after Labor Day, Bennett started Kindergarten. He was pretty excited to go, and his report from the first day was that 2 good things were that he didn’t have to go potty, and he liked the name game they played. Two bad things were getting tired of sitting criss-cross applesauce, and not knowing who or what to play with at recess. The most fun thing (according to him) was seeing me come to pick him up :)
We convinced Camille and Bryce to go to see the last “Duck Dodge” boat race of the season. They’re held throughout the summer on Lake Union and there are great views from Gas Works Park. We took a picnic dinner and arrived amidst a torrential downpour, so we ended up picnicking Seattle-style: under the covered area.
We kept thinking we didn’t have many sunny weekends left, so we decided to cross something off our ‘Seattle bucket list’ and drove up to Deception Pass. It was beautiful! There is a big bridge that crosses from the ‘mainland’ over onto Whidbey Island. We stopped and saw the bridge and could see a few seals swimming in the water way below. We had a picnic at the park and went for a walk and spent some time at a couple of beaches. The water was freezing cold but fun to at least dip our feet in. The boys loved skipping rocks; Eliza loved eating the rocks.
Eliza turned 9 months in September. She was as uncooperative as ever when I tried to take her picture, but I finally managed to get a few cute ones.
And a few random ones – Ryan insisted on wearing his backpack to drop Bennett off at school (and ran back to the car), Ryan and Eliza in the shopping cart at Fred Meyer (I think he’s making sure she doesn’t fall out…)
a beautiful sunset boat ride when we were at Nate’s co-worker’s house for a work party, and a sunset view of Seattle when I went to a little girls’ night with some friends.
