Weekend getaway

Shawn and I had our first night away from both kids. Our first totally kid free night in over 4 years. Shawn went down to Portland on the train thursday morning for a bachelor party of a good friend. Saturday at noon Alicia and Loren came over to stay with the kids, I hopped in the car and trucked down 1-5, making it to Portland in just 3 hours. I picked Shawn up at a friends house. We had a lovely summer walk down the street to get a bite to eat, we browsed a vintage clothing sale, and drove over to our nice hotel, the Inn at Northrup Station. We used to live 4 blocks from there and I'd always been curious about the rooms. We checked in and had a nice hour and a half to ourselves before we had to leave for the wedding. We took the street car down to the Chinese Garden where the wedding was. We enjoyed chatting with several friends and walking through the garden. The ceremony was very sweet, our friends Nick and Vickie were so happy, and it was really sweet to be able to just sit and hold Shawn's hand and listen to the ceremony. We enjoyed tasty food and more good company. Around 11pm we headed back to the hotel, walking about half way, just enjoying walking through Portland on a summer evening. We awoke this morning with plenty of time for breakfast before driving back to Seattle. We had a good chat in the car and got back here by noon. It was a really lovely 24 hours away!
Alice and Max had a great time, too. A&L took them to my nephews birthday party at Jump Planet (think tons of bouncy houses, giant ones), to play at Greenlake, made them a tasty dinner and read them many bedtime stories. They went to sleep easily, and slept through the night! This morning they played at a park enjoying the weather. Right now Alice is snoozing, and Max and Shawn are up at the library. I'm enjoying some time to reflect on the lovely night away with Shawn. We can't wait to do it again!

4th of July weekend

Friday we kicked off the holiday weekend with a 5 hour outing at the Volunteer Park wading pool and playground! We had lots of fun hanging out with our friends and soaking up the sun. A little too much sun, Max & Alice got their first sunburns. Max's is pretty bad on his chest and shoulders. I've acquired a swim/sun shirt for him with long sleeves that should help. And Alice's days of being in her itty bitty suit outdoors are over, she'll sporting a swim shirt and trunks now too. With their swedish and irish genes, tans just aren't in our family. Saturday morning I worked a few hours while Shawn took the kids for a long and fun (they were out of the house by 8:30AM!) outing to Meridian Park, Max's favorite Seattle park. I picked them up and we came home for a quick lunch and Shawn and Max took off for their weekly library trip and to pick up Shawn's mom at the airport. We had fun hanging out with Grandma in the afternoon. She brought some fun gifts for the kids and they spent some time getting to know each other again. We had a nice family dinner and then all went to bed exhausted :)
The kids woke up super early sunday morning and Shawn took Max to Meridian Park again, and drove his mom to Mass. Alice took a super long nap and I ended up working from home for 3 hours while she snoozed. Shawn took his mom and Max out to lunch and to see "Cars 2". They all thought it was lame and ended up walking out of the movie! I took Alice up to a park to play with friends after her nap and then we came home and had another nice family dinner. Finally got a teething Alice to sleep (thanks, Tylenol!) and Shawn and I were able to step out to catch the sunset and go for a drink. It was sure nice to have someone here holding down the fort! This morning both kids got up at 5AM again, so another early breakfast and I was out the door with them headed for the zoo before 9AM. Shawn and his mom got to spend some nice son and mother time getting coffee and taking a walk. They met up with us at the zoo, we enjoyed perfect weather and then headed to Uneeda burger for a delicious lunch. Home for resting, napping and playing games. I was able to take a leisurely trip to Fred Meyer by myself and pick up some much needed summer shoes for the kids (for you locals with kids, clearance sale on kids summer sandals right now!). I scored them each a pair of new shoes for $28 total, a real steal! It was still so nice out when I got home that we packed up a picnic dinner and headed to Volunteer park for more wading pool time. We had fun playing with the kids and picnicking. Now we're all home, exhausted again, and waiting for the kids to fall asleep. They are currently talking while laying in bed....

It was a fun weekend and I'm glad Grandma Rose was able to come visit!