The Constant Gardeners

Since we moved in last spring, Pete has spent his time planning and mulling over those plans, and he is finally ready to begin work on the backyard. Phase one is starting in very small steps so that Kate can help out wherever possible. The first things to tackle? Flowers of course.

The problem was twofold: sun and yellow jackets. First, as research for the backyard flower beds, Pete wanted to see what flowers will do well in the full, full sun exposure our south facing, non-tree shaded backyard receives. Second, we had a very determined group of yellow jackets who’d set up house in a cedar box Pete formerly used to house my fountain. Reduce, reuse, recycle! The magic mantra led Pete to the brilliant idea of setting up a corner garden on our patio in that cedar box so the yellow jackets will have to seek shelter elsewhere and we can try out a few flowers without having to plan out the full beds.

Here we have Kate and Pete coming up with the plan.

 Executing the plan.

And satisfied with all their hard work, reveling in their beautiful creation.

Our 2nd time through the Annual Gumshoe Extravaganza

Aunty Tricia and Aunty Amy live in an incredible neighborhood that loves to do all types of activities. One that we’ve taken to very well is called the Gumshoe. It’s a neighborhood scavenger hunt where they have you run through 30-40 clues and provide contextual answers. It’s also a decent walk (5K) so it’s a fun event on the weekend.

We started out with our normal pre-activity fuel up. Here are Kate, Aunty Tricia, and Jake with assorted beverages and pastries.

Then we were off. Oh, what a joy to be a child and not have to worry about how I get around. Gma Roo as Kate’s personal chauffeur.

But I have to admit, we were very lucky Kate held this vantage point as we would have wasted a ton of time on the “SSS” clue. We were told to go in the direction of the triple “S.” We searched and searched for signs until Kate pipes up with “Mommy, it’s on the street!” And thus the child led us to the truth… Seattle Sewer System is SSS and it’s on all the manhole covers.  

We lost Jake early on in the process to nap time. How is it that kids can sleep anywhere?

But he rejoined us in the fun later, all bright eyed and bushy tailed.

And finally here’s most of this year’s crew: Nehru (another Phinney Ridge resident who works with me and Trish), Kate, Gma Roo, Candice, and Jake. Aunty Tricia and Aunty Amy aren’t pictured.

Kate’s fifth and final birthday party — for 2008 at least

Due to a wonderfully crazy family and friend filled summer, we finally got around to Kate’s fifth birthday party for 2008 in August. We are not trying to set precedent on anything but we figured why not have as many opportunities to celebrate her birthday as she is old this year.

We had originally planned for Kate’s party to happen at a local park, but the weather (in August no less) decided to not cooperate and the rain was falling up until 2 hours before her party was to start. Luckily, we were able to get in touch with all the guests to let them know that we were moving party central back to our house.

Here we have Kate and most of her guests eating lunch (it is really hard to get a good angle on our dining room that will let you see this many people ).

Kate’s birthday party wasn’t on her actual birthday but it was on or near the birthday’s of two of her guests, so we did a big Happy Birthday song to Brenna, Chris, and Kate. Here they are with their cake.

I was able to catch some great family moments during the party. Here are Kate and Dad giggling about cake.

Then we have Father Chris and Jake giggling about who knows what.

Then we moved on to the craft activity–sun visors, which made much more sense when we were going to be outside. Here is Blake with his creation.

 And Maddie and Kaylei with their’s. 

Finally, we got around to the present fun.

Thank you to everyone who was able to join us for Kate’s birthday! She had a blast.

Chicago – Day 4

Our last full day in Chicago we decided to go on an architecture cruise on the Chicago River.  It lasted a little over an hour and it was a great way to see all the various architecture that has been built in Chicago.

We started off at the dock which is right next to the Lake Point Tower.

Then we proceeded down the Chicago River into the middle of town where you can see the Jewelers Building, the Leo Burnett Building and the R.R. Donnelley Center.

We then turned up the north fork of the Chicago River, and looking back you can see 333 West Wacker

We then turned around and went down the south fork of the Chicago River and turned around once again to stare up at the Sears Tower.  On the right is River City designed by Bertrand Goldberg.

On my last trip to Chicago I took a picture of the corn cob towers, this time I got a much better one and found out that it’s called the Marina City, and it was also designed by Bertrand Goldberg. 

The rest of our day was spent exploring downtown and doing some shopping for the kids.  If you want to check out the rest of the photos from our trip, you can go to look through our Flickr collection.

Chicago – Day 3

The third day was all about Wrigleyville.  We woke up at our leisurely vacation-time of 10:30 a.m. and finally got moving around noon.  We jumped on the ‘L’ and headed north.  You get off the train right next to the stadium, walk down the street and by the statue of Harry Caray, and you get greeted with this…

We bought tickets to go on a tour of Wrigley Field, and took a walk around the outside of the park while we waited.  The seating on the rooftops of all the buildings around the field is just crazy.

While we were waiting, we saw this guy in a full Cubs uniform getting his picture taken with folks.  It wasn’t until I saw the name on the back of his uniform I realized who he was.  Ronnie “Woo Woo”, the Cubs superfan.  Candice and I got our photo taken with him as well.

We got to tour the entire ballpark, check out the view from all the various spots (including the press box and the suites).  It was game day, so the workers were busy getting the park ready for the game, and we were at the 2:00 tour, so we got to see players starting to show up and warming up.  We had tickets for that night out in the bleachers, and by coincidence I got a shot of the stands empty where we actually ended up sitting.

And even though there were people running around everywhere and players milling around, we actually did get to spend a little bit of time on the field (in a little roped off section behind home plate, especially for us).

After the tour we had to run back to the hotel to get the tickets that I so cleverly left in our hotel room.  Luckily we had plenty of time and still got good seats in the general admission outfield bleachers in time to watch both teams take batting practice.

I was surprised at how little advertising and electronic scoreboards there were at Wrigley (much less a Jumbotron).  You pretty much are left to your own devices to figure out what the pitch count is, how fast a pitch was, who is on deck, etc.  Definitely a much different experience than I am used to.  The seats out in the bleachers gives you a great view, but they are really uncomfortable, and it definitely didn’t help Candice’s back.  We were happy that we got to see the Cubs win (since our Mariner’s let us down the day before). 

After the game we stuck around Wrigleyville and had dinner at the local brewpub, Goose Island.  It was one of the few places we found that actually had beer taps (everywhere else it was bottles).  They even make a pretty good brew.

Chicago – Day 2

After waking up at the vacationing-hour of 10:00 a.m. we finally got moving in time for lunch.  Our hotel was three blocks from the John Hancock tower (second in size to Sears Tower).  Up on the 95th & 96th floor is the Signature Room which has a reasonably priced lunch menu.  We figured it would be more worthwhile to get a meal and a view, than just pay to walk around the observation deck. 

Candice sitting at our table while we wait for dessert to arrive.

After lunch we hopped on the ‘L’ and made our way down to the Shedd Aquarium.  We never once had to take a taxi or a bus in Chicago, everywhere we wanted to go was either close enough to walk, or we could take the ‘L’ and get there.  The aquarium is right on the edge of Lake Michigan and gives you another beautiful view of the city skyline.

We enjoyed the aquarium, though it was more exploration than I wanted.  Apparently there is no map (or nobody offered us one), and we had to find everything ourselves.  We almost missed seeing the Beluga whales, the dolphins and the lizards that were downstairs.

We had to take some pictures of the clown fish (Nemo) for Kate.

There were three Beluga whales, I am assuming a mother and father, since the third was a little grey baby.  These are my favorite types of whales, they always seem so interested in the people around.

Here is a Komodo Dragon something I wasn’t expecting to see at the aquarium, but definitely cool (as long as there is some thick glass between us).

On our way down to the aquarium we met a local prosecutor who noticed my Mariner’s shirt and Seahawks hat and concluded that I was going to the M’s vs. White Sox game that night.  He mentioned a few good places around US Celluar Field to grab a drink and some food.  We were running a little bit late from the aquarium to the ballpark so we could only grab a couple drinks at Jimbo’s, a sports bar just up the street from the park.

The first pitch of the game to Ichiro.

As the sun went down it was obvious that the Mariner’s were not going to win this (though it looked hopeful after the first half an inning).  They ended up getting drubbed 13-5.  The most excitement came when a fight broke out across the aisle from us.  One man broke anothers mans nose and then began choking him.  Myself and a pair of other guys got over there and broke it up.  Just about the time we got them seperated and subdued security decided to show up.  The kicker to the story is, it turns out those two guys (and the entire row seated with them) are all co-workers.  Talk about team building…

Chicago – Day 1

We flew into Chicago, and got there just before dinner.  We checked into our hotel, Sofitel Chicago Water Tower, which was a great place to stay.  One of the things people were constantly mentioning when we said we were going to Chicago was that we had to try Chicago-style pizza.  So we went straight to the source for dinner: The original Gino’s East.

I’ve got to say, I’m not sure what all the fuss was about.  It wasn’t bad, I enjoyed the meal, it is pizza afterall.  After gorging ourself, we decided that we needed a work some of that off, and took a walk down to the Navy Pier that stretches out onto Lake Michigan.  There is a large ferris wheel there, and we took a ride to see the city skyline at night.  Without a tripod, and in constantly moving ferris wheel the pictures ended up a bit shaky, this was the best of the bunch.

Maison du Giffin, épisode trois et la fin

Our third and final set of guests for the summer were the Griegos: Kim, Ryan, and Dan (pictured below). Dan is a childhood friend of Pete’s and Pete is Ryan’s Godfather. Pete only made mention of kissing his ring 20 times or so but we were very lucky no horses were injured during the Griegos visit.

Kate was so excited for and during this visit because Ryan is just 6 months younger than Kate so she had a very willing and present play mate for the whole visit. That and the Griegos were here for Seafair weekend so we made our second annual jaunt to Madrona Park to watch the Blue Angels. 

 

It was a great show, with the little kids and big kids alike enjoying the daredevil stunts. Even though Pete hates my camera, he was able to get a couple of decent shots of the show.

Tricia and Grandma Roo also joined us again this year for the fun in the sun. Here is Jake saying hello to Grandma Roo.

Kate saying hello to Aunt Tricia.

Kate giving Daddy some much deserved loves.

And Jake getting excited about seeing the Blue Angels–which he somehow managed to sleep through again this year.

Requisite family photo coming up, feel free to skip if you’ve already had your fill.