Spring Break Seattle - Day 1

The next two days of spring break we spent in Seattle with Donald.
We had gorgeous sunshine!
A rare treat for our Seattle visits.
We went places we had been before, but some new places too.

We walked from our hotel on the Waterfront to Seattle Center.

I never get tired of seeing the Space Needle.
It's just so cool and even more so with a beautiful blue sky backdrop.

Our first stop was the EMP Museum...Experience Music Project.
I wasn't able to get a great shot of this amazing building...its worth your while to take a minute and look it up!
Funkiest architecture ever!
Here's just one side of it...

The focus of the museum is music, Pop Culture and Sci-Fi.
The exhibits during our trip included Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix in London, Icons of Science Fiction and Lure of Horror Film!

Of course there were instruments everywhere!

And a recording/sound area that the kids enjoyed...particularly Jenelle...

Ivan's thrills were at the Sci-Fi exhibit!

These costumes and props were from actual episodes of Dr. Who.

Mind blown!

Green screen fun!

There was an area dedicated to amazing architecture..."Block by Block".
Guess what they were built out of?
Legos!
We could have left Ivan there for the rest of the day...

There was this really strange screen in the horror film area.
If you stood in front of it and moved yourself around, strange shapes and "things" would come off of you.

And then finally we stopped at the Fantasy exhibit where Ivan was in heaven AGAIN...with a lifesize dragon sculpture!

Donald found this place before we went to Seattle...

I think he scored major points!

After the EMP we went to see an IMAX and killed some time waiting for the movie to start.

After the IMAX, we visited Chihuly Glass and Garden.

Dale Chihuly is an artist from the Seattle area.

His glass sculptures are so incredibly amazing!

My camera and photography skills don't come close to doing the colors and textures justice. 

Whatever you see on my blog looked 100 times more amazing in real life!

It was all just a beautiful combination of light and glass and color!

 And my favorite Space Needle picture!

We finished our first day with a walk through the Olympic Sculpture Park...

...and dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory.

Now for some rest as more adventure awaits!

Spring Break Skiing

To kick off spring break, I took Ivan and Jenelle skiing.

Hannah was off in San Francisco and Donald was at work, so the three of us headed to the mountains!

This was the first time I'd ever taken the kids skiing without Donald.

My only concern was how Jenelle would do. 

She'd never skied with poles before and was used to having Donald help her along some flat or uphill areas and assist her in getting up when she fell.

Well...she did so great!

She was very independent and able to handle herself in every situation!

And Ivan even did a black run by himself!

We had sun off and on all day, but when we first arrived, the clouds hadn't completely socked in Mt. Rainier and we could just see the very top of it before it was covered completely.

I was expecting it to be pretty busy since it was spring break but we lucked out and there were very few people there!

No lines at the lifts!

After skiing down the front of the mountain for a while, we went to the newer Basin area.

It is so gorgeous there...like being on top of the world!

We skied until they closed the lifts and it was just in time because my knees were about to give out and we were all tired!

So much fun!

It was a great day!

Tennis!

Hannah recently made the JV tennis team at Eisenhower High School - Ike!
She's having a good time and just last week she participated in her first competitive match against Wenatchee.

She and her doubles partner won!
I was able to capture some pictures of the games...

First I just have to say that there is something very frustrating about trying to photograph tennis.
It's called "the fence"...

It really likes to be the center of attention!

Hannah's uniform was set off with some really cool shoes!

So here's some action shots!

And here's the coach telling Hannah that they need to take it easier on the other team...not beat them too bad!

And here are just a few of my favorite pictures!
She's making tennis look fashionable and fun!

Looking forward to the rest of the season!

Behind the Curtain...

Bridget...a dedicated and enthusiastic reader of my blog says this about my last post:

"I must know, what is hidden behind that draped cloth?!"

Well Bridget, I'm glad you asked!
:)

I decided to take some photos and show you!
First...about the draped cloth.
Its actually a sheet that Hannah helped Jenelle decorate with flowers from an old Hawaiian lei and thumb tacked to the ceiling.

Here's what's behind it...

 These cool lights were snagged on a trip to Ace Hardware with Dad...

The boas were a gift...birthday I think...that Jenelle thought would look good as valances.
And she was right!

All the colorful jewelry a girl could need!

 Books!

 And sweet stuffed animals!

So there you have it!
Now you can sleep at night!
:)

Happy First Day of Spring!

Barely a month ago...after a pretty dry winter...this happened!!

It was pretty and a bit of fun, but we (maybe just me) were already in the "I'm so over Winter...come on Spring!" mode.

Well now it's officially here!
And there was some recent "spring cleaning" in preparation for this lovely time of year!

As well as a few primroses to bring some color to the still brown landscape!

We are ready!!

Fair Fun! (Yes...from Fall 2013)

I haven't been really good about taking pictures lately, so I was looking though my photos to see what I could do a blog post on.

I found pictures from the Central Washington State Fair...that was held in September...of last year!

I see a theme with my posts.  Good luck to me if I ever need to try and find anything chronologically!

Anyway, we try to go to the fair once every other year.  It can get expensive.

This year we all went, just not on the same day.
Hannah went to see a band (Plain White T's) with some friends from school.
Donald went on Rotary day (and me too).
And I took Ivan and Jenelle on a day so they could ride the rides and eat the goodies (and me too)!

Each year you can buy a wristband that lets you ride all the rides you want...as many times as you want.

I thought that maybe I should actually buy one this year.  I always watch and wish that I had...
Well...it lasted a couple of rides until I got on this one:

It really does look innocent enough and I'm no chicken when it comes to rides...

But then it does this...and really fast and furious and round and round and round and round!

I had thoughts of "what if it actually flings my car off and how bad will that hurt before I die!"

See, when you're a kid, you don't fear death at a carnival.

Or maybe you do...

Well that was pretty much it for me.
I think I rode one or two more afterwards, but the headache and stomachache that were setting in made me call "Uncle"!
The icky feeling wouldn't go away, so we headed over to the food area for some greasy, sticky, delicious remedies!
Yep - it helped!
But next year I won't waste my money...I'll just watch and take pictures.

The kids did a few more rides.
We let Ivan do this one on his own!
You know the one - you go inside and stand against the wall while the whole thing spins so fast you can't move.
He loved it!

 Jenelle rode the swings!

 And they both did the big slide.

A fun day with these two!

When Donald and I went on Rotary day, we had a nice lunch and then went off to see a few of the exhibits.
How I missed the Superhero exhibit with Ivan - I'll never understand!
I almost didn't want to tell him that we saw it when he wasn't there!

 This was probably the coolest thing there...

 They even had it set up so it was larger on the inside...

It's a "Dr. Who" thing!

We saw animals, quilts, strange canned food in jars and giant flowers (Dahlias) as big as my head!

And we didn't forget to take a look at the student art section where we found work from Hannah,

 Jack,

and Ivan.

Jenelle is not happy that her art hasn't been included in the fair yet.
She creates some beautiful things so it's just a matter of time!
We'll cross our fingers for 2014!