Pictures at the Redmond Town Center Mall

Scary Santa

Santa Brunch at the club. Ryan is still afraid of Santa....

Thanksgiving 2011

For the first time since 1998, Brooke and I spent Thanksgiving in Seattle instead of Reno. But besides the change in location, all other activities stayed the same: watching football and eating....





On the weekend after Thanksgiving, while the girls went shopping, the boys went to the playground…

Katrina

For two weeks, we had a house guest who was in town for a veterinarian internship. She had never been to Seattle before, so it was a good excuse for us to revisit some touristy destinations….

Halloween 2011

Ryan's first potty in a potty!

We purchased a potty for Ryan near his 2nd birthday. And since then, he's sat in it at most a total of 6 times. So it was a surprise when tonight, out of nowhere, Ryan said "try the potty". Brooke took off his diaper, Ryan sat down and said "read the book" (referring to the Potty book). We walked away for a couple minutes and came back to a pool of pee! Yay! I can't wait to be done with diapers.

Future Soccer Star?

Pumpkin Patch

We had an uncooperative model who refused to look at the camera, so this is the best we could do...

It was a bad football weekend for our Huskies, but Ryan still loves them...


We had a giggly baby during bath time, so Brooke couldn't help taking a few shots...




19 minutes at the dinner table with Ryan. The video is low on entertainment value, but I enjoy documenting how his language skills are developing...

Picking Fruit in Wenatchee, WA

Apple, pear, and nectarine picking on a 100 degree day at Stutzman Ranch. We got 40 lbs of fruit for $20….


It seems obvious now, but I realized what the two dents on top of nectarines were from. I used to avoid ones like this in the grocery store. Now I know it's the sign of a good tree-ripened nectarine….

Vancouver, BC

We took a short trip to Vancouver for the Labor Day weekend. We were considering either a trip to Oregon wine country or a trip to Vancouver and decided that since it was a holiday weekend in the US, we would escape to Canada where it would be less busy. Did you know Canadians observe Labor Day too? We found out on Monday morning when many of the downtown restaurants were closed.

Day 1 - Queen Elizabeth Park


Day 1 - Fairmont Waterfront (Hotel) Pool.
The rooftop pool was a bit small, but the views of the city and harbor were fantastic. Ryan is still afraid of the water. I couldn't talk him into going beyond knee-deep.


Day 2 - We started our day with a nice breakfast on the waterfront, then drove up to Grouse Mountain. According to their website, a general admission ticket costs $39.99 CAD ($41 USD) and this includes a sky tram ride up the mountain, a live lumberjack show, a bird demonstration, and more. However, by talking to some locals, we found out that if you skip the tram ride and hike up the mountain, then all the other activities are free! Easy decision for us...hike up the mountain and save $82 USD.

It was a hard earned $82. Aptly named "The Grouse Grind", the trail gains 2800 feet in elevation in only 1.8 miles (29.5% grade). If it weren't for the fact that the trail is a one-way single-file path all the way up, I would have considered turning around.

One-way return tickets on the sky tram were $10, a reasonable price to pay for avoiding hiking down. We got an unfortunate middle spot in the crowded tram, so I couldn't get any decent video. From what I did capture, you can see the steepness of the mountain....


Day 3 - To spare you the unpleasant details, let's just say that Ryan must have caught some stomach bug. We had a quick picnic back at Queen Elizabeth Park, got some poutine for lunch, and headed home….

Hiking

We had a great hike at Mt Rainier. At 2.5 hrs, it was a bit of a long drive for a hike, but totally worth it. We drove to Longmire on the southern side of Rainier, took the free shuttle up to Paradise, and hiked up the western side of the Skyline Trail to Panorama Point. The conditions were perfect: mid 70s, clear skies, and just enough snow on the trail to make it a bit challenging and fun.


We took a break at Glacier Vista (about 2/3 the way up) for a snack. Immediately afterward, we started up a long snowy slope to Panorama Point. We turned around at Panorama and descended the way we came up. We would have liked to continue on the trail and descend on the eastern half (completing the loop), but we were warned it still had too much snow. And good thing we heeded the warning. The descent on the snowy areas was fairly difficult with Ryan on my back....


Mt Rainier more than made up for our disappointing hike a few weeks earlier at Mt Washington. First, I had gotten lost and wasted half an hour finding the parking lot. Once I found the right area to park, the only directions offered was on a crummy hand-drawn map (with no distance scale). The map directed us up a gravel path for some unspecified distance and then make a left turn on some unmarked trailhead. We probably hiked to an elevation gain of 1200 ft and turned around. Afterwards, we stopped at a diner in North Bend made famous by the show Twin Peaks. On the show, the main character frequently commented on the diner's "damn fine cup of coffee" and cherry pie. We tried both and they were in fact damn fine.....

Taylor Shellfish Farms (Samish Bay)

During my brother and his girlfriend's recent trip to Seattle, we drove up to Taylor Shellfish Farms. We got 3 dozen small oysters, and 2 freshly steamed crabs, 1 oyster knife, 1 lemon, and 2 mini Tabasco bottles all for around $60. There were charcoal grills available for us to use, but we all prefer our oysters raw.

KW Family Day

We went to the KW Family Day so Brooke could see my work for the first time. There were many activities for the kids including bouncy houses, rock climbing, clowns, caricaturists, face painting, and train rides. But the only thing that Ryan wanted to do was play in the haystack....

Bite of Seattle 2011

We felt like true Seattleites again after going to the Bite of Seattle despite the rain. We managed to eat at about 6 booths and watched a cooking demonstration with the chefs from Rovers and Tavolata.

The photos show a typical Ryan move:
If he likes what you're feeding him, he'll snatch the fork out of your hand.
If he doesn't like it, he'll snatch the fork out of your hand and feed you the offensive food. Clearly, he didn't like the gourmet sausage.

Ryan Update

At his last pediatrician visit (25 months old), Ryan's stats were:
Height: 36.5 inches (85%) - this was the first time the measurement was taken while standing
Weight: 30 lbs 8 oz. (60%)
Head: 51 cm (90%)

Ryan knows his letters....


Ryan is a 2 yr old who thinks he's a 3 yr old....


Playing at Grass Lawn Park, Redmond....

Our Weekend

Redmond Derby Days Parade.
We had forgotten about the parade, but luckily for us, the parade route began just outside our front door....




On Sunday, we made another trip to Woodland Park Zoo. It was about a year ago that we let Ryan feed the giraffe and birds. Last year he was extremely afraid of both, so we were curious to see how he had developed.

Ryan enjoyed feeding the giraffes. He even wanted to hold the leaves himself....




Ryan enjoyed feeding the birds. We had to restrain him from petting the birds. I'm certain Brooke was more afraid than Ryan....




Oddly, he was afraid of the carousel horses. He cried and refused to sit on one. We finally gave up and let him sit in the carriage instead....


The dancing elephant. Ever since we saw this at the zoo, Ryan's has been saying "elephant" and trying to do the same dance. We're still trying to get it captured on tape....


Ryan loves penguins....