Anya Is Packing to Run Away with Liam

Well, the video pretty much says it all. 

School Christmas Concert

A few weeks ago, Anya's school did their annual Christmas concert. Here's a video of the first grade class singing, "The First Noel". Part of the class, anyway. About half of them were out sick with a cold or flu-type virus that had swept through the school that week. There seems to be a glare, so if you can't tell, Anya is front and center in the red dress. She took her role as singer very seriously :-)

PEPS Birthday Party

On Saturday, the PEPS families got together for a joint birthday party to celebrate all the kiddos turning 7. Afterward, the moms took the kids for a shift at Food Lifeline.

While it made things a little more difficult trying to wrangle the kids and keep them on-task, they were pretty good and accomplished a lot. I really hope we make volunteering at Food Lifeline a PEPS tradition.

decorating gingerbread houses

the annual "PEPS babies in a circle" photo

Getting the sillies out before our shift at Food Lifeline

Anya is labeling bags, one of many jobs she did that day

 woot!

Super Star

Congrats, kiddo!

Fall stuff

Just a general blog update. All is well. We are in the thick of fall and now winter activities. It feels like there's always something going on or something to plan for, but life isn't overwhelming by any stretch.

We had the first parent-teacher conference last week with Anya's teacher. Overall, it went well. There are no surprises. She got mostly 3's (out of 3) for grades. She just needs to slow down and think about spelling while she's writing, slow down while reading, check her work, and generally, just ~slow down~ and not think of every activity as a race. She's polite, respectful, and generally well-behaved in class. Can get distracted by others and be a bit of a tattle-tale (or "reporter" as her teacher nicely puts it :-) ), so needs to focus on herself and also keep working on social problem solving. I feel like her teacher "gets" her, and am pleased with how the year is progressing.

Last week was also Thanksgiving break. She had the whole week off from school. We had many playdates. Thinking back, I guess we didn't do anything major. Just playdates and family stuff. Of course, there was Thanksgiving day itself. We spent it in the usual way with Chris's extended family, which was pleasant. The next day was also spent the usual way - setting up the tree and decorating for Christmas.

Peter, our Elf on the Shelf, showed up while we were at Thanksgiving dinner. Anya really loves him and confides in him and was so happy to see him. Before he came, she wrote notes for him and a big welcome sign. Even made him a special throne to sit in. She believes in him more than Santa (whom, she somewhat believes in -- more that she's afraid that if she doesn't, she won't get presents -- even though it might be family who leaves the presents) and I hope she won't be too upset when she figures out Peter is not really magical. After all this time, I think of Peter as being a bit magical too and a good friend to our daughter. Kind of like her Elephant.

We got our first snow of the season Friday into Saturday. Enough to play in, but not enough to mess up the roads or cause any real issues. Anya, of course, was thrilled. It's been quite cold, so hasn't yet melted, but should sometime this week.

On Sunday, Anya wanted to go ice skating up at Highland Ice Arena. She had only gone once with a friend a year ago. I hadn't skated since I was a kid. So it was a bit of a learning curve for the both of us initially (I didn't fall, though!). Of course, Chris with his annoyingly good balance and agility had no issues. Jerk. Anyway, it was a fun outing. Anya made immediate friends with a group of girls and they skated together. Then, randomly, one of her classmates and his family showed up, so we chatted with them and the kids played. And then 20 minutes later, another classmate came. A little bit later, an old preschool friend of hers (and mom friend of mine)  showed up. So it was a very social, fun time for all. And, as we were in the parking lot leaving, another classmate happened to arrive. All random. It looks like this is the place for St. C's folk to hang out and we will definitely be returning.

And this week, she is back at school, I'm back with errands and general stuff, Chris is back at work, and the holiday season is in full swing. Life is good.

Great Wolf Lodge

In lieu of a birthday party this year, Anya opted to go to Great Wolf Lodge. We told her she could take one friend, so she chose Eloise (good choice). We left Seattle Saturday at noon and got back sometime Sunday afternoon. I think Chris, Anya, and I had somewhat different opinions as to how the weekend went. So here are each of our perspectives:

Amy

I mostly hated this place. It was like Chuck E. Cheese on a grand scale. The worst part was having to wait for our room. I did pre-check-in and we came in early, hoping it would speed things up. Nope. The room was late, so we had to spend a few hours around the hotel. It was loud, crazy-crowded, and kids were running around all over the place making noise and spreading germs. There was no escape from it. A good portion of the first and second floors were filled with ways to get parents to spend money and we managed to avoid going into most of them. After accompanying the girls on a MagicQuest and a little arcade time, I sat in the (crowded) lobby for a bit until the room was ready. At this point, I was ready to go home.

The room was fine and the girls seemed to like that they had their own little camping-themed bunk bed nook. We decompressed for a bit and drove to Centralia for dinner (the food at GWL is known to be awful, so we didn't even try eating there). After we came back, we hit the water park area. This part was lots of fun. There was a wave pool, and various slides and water contraptions. The only bummer is that the really good slides require kids to be 48 inches tall, no exceptions. Anya measured at 47 inches. So Chris and I took a few turns going with Eloise on the big slides and Anya didn't mind. The girls seemed to prefer the wave pool to anything else anyway. We all had a good time and stayed until closing time. Everyone fell asleep pretty quickly.

The next morning, Chris took the girls back to the water park (well, I waited in line for them for the waterpark to open. And what started as an orderly line quickly dissolved into chaos once the doors opened. At least I managed to snag a good table for our stuff), and for a little more arcade and MagicQuest time while I went back and organized everything for checkout. At 10:30 the girls felt like they were swimmed out, so we left. We stopped in Olympia for a nice brunch on the waterfront and then headed back home.

So, overall, I'd say the water park part is fun. I loathed just about everything else about the place, though. So if Anya wants to do another birthday here, I'd begrudgingly go. But ONLY on a weekday. You will never get me to step foot in that place on a weekend again. And, Anya, if you are reading this, know how much I love you that I did this trip for you. I wouldn't do it for anyone else.

Chris

I wouldn't say I had fun as such, but I could see the appeal. It was like Vegas for children.  Lots of noise, no clocks, and people looking like they could puke or freak out at any moment.

My main complaint was that there was no hand sanitizer anywhere. I know I'm a special kind of germ-worrier, but even a New Orleans street sweeper would have complained that there should have been some way to combat the infectious diseases which were doubtlessly wafting through the place in invisible clouds, or being continually smeared on door handles and elevator buttons.  I filled out a comment card suggesting that perhaps the fire suppression system could be filled with bleach water and periodically switched on for good measure.

I thought that the wand game was brilliant.  You had to buy a wand ($15-$19)  but no wand is complete with out an accompanying jewel (which you have to buy separately for $10-$17) And even though it only makes sense to buy one MagiQuest game for a team (another $16) you can't only have one wand for two girls. So you gotta buy two of those.  These two wands enabled the girls to "magically" turn on various animatronic beasts and electronic paintings around the hotel.  It also let them play the aforementioned game, which I contend was a brilliant trick to keep the children from touching things, while at the same time encouraging the children to run up and down the stairs until they were deliriously tired.

The water park was actually entirely cool.  I didn't see a single band-aide afloat (though I did strangely see a receipt drift by in the wave pool like a 2 dimensional jelly fish.)  The slides were awesome.  It was especially cool because it was totally black in the tubes at night.  Sad that Anya was 1 inch below the "free to ride anything" line.  But we all had a blast. When it came time to go, both Anya and Eloise didn't fight it. Eloise actually said, "I'm good, we can go." That is about as good a sign as any that the place sucked the life out of them.

I would go back. But only on a week night. Outside of flu season.  And I would leave poor Amy at home.

Anya
I love Great Wolf Lodge. It was lots of fun. The swimming pool was best.  The wave pool was fun, the slide were more fun. We bought a wand, mine was blue with a beat up jewel on it. We used the wands for opening up secrets in Great Wolf Lodge, all around we had to find them.
These things were called Magic Quest.
Back to the water park, the next morning: I got to go on a different slide. I almost drowned by the wave pool, the slides gave me a heart attack.  It was so much fun.  But I was jealous that my friend got to go on a bigger slide that was more fun. She said she went into a drowning funnel on the inside, it was deep and she almost fell off. I was jealous.  Back into the wave pool for me! I got sweeped up by the wave and all that stuff and I got to play a game of shark mermaid and dolphin.
Oh wait! And when we went back to the hotel, we changed into our normal clothes, and played some games in the lobby.  My favorite one was the Haunted Mine and Roller coaster (these were motion movie things) of course they were pretend, because, I mean, it was in a lobby. As I was saying, it was pretend. It was actually like an accordion which was carrying us back and forth, up and down and back and forth again.
Oh and, um whenever we played a game and did okay we got tickets (we got 392 tickets). And when we were all done with the games on the last day of Great Wolf Lodge we got the prizes that we wanted. I got a ball, a candy bracelet, and an airplane.
It was lots of fun!
And my friend gave me a present. It was a hair stylist doll.  I got to brush her hair. Put one of MY head bands on it and put stickers on her face. And she looks just like me. My parents said she looked freaky in the dark.
The end.

arcade time

visiting with one of Santa's helpers

reading in their bunkbed nook at bedtime

posing with their magical wands

one last posed picture before leaving

Halloween

Another Halloween has now come and gone. This year, I half-assed it, since after 6 years of costume-making, starting the Neighborhood Boo, various class parties, activities, etc. etc. etc,... I'm a bit burnt out on Halloween. I wanted a little more low-key holiday this time around.

Anya had her heart set on being Hermione (from Harry Potter) for the last few months. Fortunately, she already had half of her costume in her school uniform (the skirt/shirt/tights are very similar to Hermione's). So we purchased the Griffindor tie, a cheap wand, Griffindor robe, and a wig. All the extras set me back about $30 total. Done. I didn't have to do any sewing this year. 

I of course started the Neighborhood Boo again. And now I'm done. This year we got boo'ed a few times and not with the printouts I use. So people are doing it independently of ours now (woot!). It was fun for the first 5 years, but then became a chore in subsequent years. So I'm pretty thrilled it's caught on in the neighborhood - widely even - and we can just plain old participate.

At school, there was the Harvest Festival (fun for the kids, loud) and then the Halloween assembly. I thought the assembly was great -- the 7/8th grade leadership team kids put the whole thing on, with games, prizes, etc. And they all MC it. They did a wonderful job. 

We had the annual PEPS Halloween party. Fun as usual. Very creative food setup by the hosts. On Halloween, we decided to completely stay in our neighborhood this year. I'm so glad we did....it was always fun with our friends in Laurelhurst, but the drive back home during trick-or-treat time wasn't. We ended up having a prefunk at Josh/Shannon's with some other neighbors and friends and then went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood, wine in hand. Ran into other neighbors and friends and the group morphed as we went along. It was nice.

I dressed up as a helicopter pilot. Steve was generous in letting me borrow a flight suit and flight helmet. Easy. Done. And Chris picked up a mask and some junky chains at Display and Costume. Sadly, I don't think we have any pictures of us. If friends have any, I'll put them up here. 

And we also didn't get any good pictures of Anya's costume. We forgot to take pictures (see half-assing comment above) beforehand. Got a few at the end of the evening, but with her wig askew and body full of candy, she just looked drunk. So here is a video I took at the Halloween assembly at school. Her class parade starts just before her teacher, who is the cute Minion.

Happy Birthday, Anya!

Our dearest Anya is now 7 years old. By all accounts, she had a wonderful birthday. She had free-dress at school, treats and her birthday announced by the principal over the intercom, and we brought Top Pot Doughnuts for class treat. The sun came out right as school let out, so she played at the school playground with friends for awhile. Then we walked to Maple Leaf Park to play with more friends on our way home. She opened a few presents and relaxed with some Minecraft for a bit. That evening we went to our annual PEPS Halloween party. It was great fun for the kids, as usual. She was pooped by the end of the evening and fell asleep quickly.

playing after school on a sunny birthday afternoon

In lieu of a party, Anya opted for a trip to Great Wolf Lodge. We're doing that next weekend and bringing her buddy, Eloise. But as a bonus, our friends ended up hosting a small-ish joint birthday celebration last weekend. Tracey, Maria, Marisol, and Anya all have birthdays within a few days of each other, so we had a lunchtime gathering. I made a chocolate cake for the grownup birthday girls, and a strawberry-lemon cake (which turned into a trifle, since the whole thing fell over while setting up in the fridge) for Marisol and Anya. It was a good time.

As for Anya, her personality hasn't changed much in the last year. She still wants to be a herpetologist when she grows up. But she's just as interested in fish, birds, and bugs. All creatures, really. Considering where she's growing up, perhaps she'll be a marine biologist or have interest in local fisheries.

School is going mostly well. Academically, she's doing wonderfully. The only thing that hasn't come easily so far is spelling (just like her daddy). But we work on it daily and she does great on her tests. Frankly, I think it's good for her to have something to struggle with and have to work on overcoming.

The thing that's not going quite as well is the social stuff. She likes to play chase with the boys and seems to prefer physical play. Unfortunately, this kind of play often ends up escalating and someone's feelings get hurt (they are being mean! she is being mean!) and has resulted in blows. It's mainly been an issue with one boy, but has been a problem with a group of boys. We are trying to help her with her communication and body language when she's playing these games. There's also a bit of girl drama, but that seems to have subsided for the moment. I hear from parents of older girls that First Grade is a big drama year for the girls. So many hurt feelings and things to work out. So, I think that's a good part of what's going on with Anya in general. I have hopes that she'll figure it all out. She is starting to branch out and make more friends.

She does seem happy when I see her at school, but often reports that she hates school and wants to go back to Wedgwood. It's only two months in and might take more time to adjust. Or she's just trying to get us to feel sorry for her (which she's been known to do). We honestly aren't sure how much are real feelings at this point. We know what we see and hear from parents/playground monitors and her teacher. I think things will ultimately be OK, though.

For other stuff, she's still very physical. Loves climbing and running. We signed her up for after school drama, which she has enjoyed immensely. Loves fishing with Chris and going on nature walks with me. She's also getting into Minecraft, which we are fine with. It's one of the only video games we condone, as it helps kids develop problem solving and logic skills, among other things. She's also very into Harry Potter, even though we've only read the first book/saw the first movie.

Anya also loves reading. She "sneaks" reading after we put her to bed every night and that's on top of the ~25 minutes of reading both she and Chris do for a bedtime routine. She's now a fluent reader, which was a hurdle for her this past year. Chris and I get a kick out of the reading material we find sprawled out on the bed after she's fallen asleep.

Some current favorites: food: spaghetti and meatballs (always), blueberry pancakes, Chicken with Bread Salad, Grandma B's pumpkin bread. Girl likes her carbs. Shows: Magic Schoolbus, any nature show, Walking with Dinosaurs, Jeff Corwin....but the last few weeks these have been skipped in order to play Minecraft. Music: Imagine Dragons "On Top of the World", Hozier "Take Me to Church", and The Pixies "Debaser" (which is so funny to us, because back in the Spring when she wouldn't stop singing "Let it Go" from Frozen, Chris had the brilliant idea to play Pixies every time she sang that song. It totally worked. She stopped singing that awful song and became a Pixies fan in the process. Win!)

All in all, I'd say that Anya is vivacious, intelligent, funny (she's developing a sense of humor liked Chris's, which is one of my favorite things about him), caring, empathetic, and giving. She can also be defeatist and quick to get frustrated, which we try to help her with. Love you kiddo! Here is to a wonderful year.

School Pictures, Hair, and Such

Here are Anya's school pictures for the year. As you can see, she's sporting the typical K-3 smirk-smile.

The class photo isn't great. The shadowing makes all the boys in the back row look like they've got mullets.

Initially, I thought it strange that they had picture day the first week of school. But at this point, I'm glad for it. . It's been helping us match names with the faces we've seen running around on the playground after school. Also, we have a normal enough picture of our kiddo, because....

Last week, Anya decided it was a good idea to cut her hair while she was at school. I noticed it as soon as we got home. On one side, she gave herself a nice mullet and extra bangs and on the other, cut off a few inches. Pretty bad. I really wish she let me take a picture of her hair like that so I could throw it up here. But she was too embarrassed. As she should have been. Her embarrassment was punishment enough. We went to the salon and the stylist did as much as she could to fix it. It's not a great cut, but one can only do so much when the kid leaves about 2 inches (from the scalp) on the front-side of her head. It will grow out. I'm relieved picture day is not this week.

I haven't been able to get an answer as to why she cut her hair. I figure it was just a whim. Most kids do it at some point. I probably did. I find it all pretty amusing.

School

Anya is one week in to her new school. So far, so good. The first day was a bit bumpy, since she really wanted to go to Wedgwood and be with her friends there. But by day two, she already had a new "BFF" (Clara) and "a boy that fell in love" with her. And she adores her teacher*

In the car on day two, dad asked how she was liking it.  She said, "I hated it yesterday, today was okay, tomorrow I'll like it. But the end of the week I'll love it."

There is some getting used to the different rules and way things are done here. Anya told me that last week, she got up out of circle time to grab some water (totally acceptable thing to do in her Kindergarten class; the teacher let the kids self-manage bathroom and water). The assistant teacher was kind, yet firm in letting her know her actions weren't OK and had her go back to circle. Anya got right back up to get water; assistant teacher picked her up and moved her back to circle. Rinse, repeat until she gave up on water until break time. 

It looks like she might be slightly behind in some of the things they are studying. Current and old school are both doing common core, but St. C's seems to have pushed ahead a little. I'm not concerned; she'll catch up quickly. 

But other than the expected adjustment period, all is well. She started CYO cross-country yesterday. At this age, there are only a handful of practices and meets. This Friday also starts CYO soccer. The entire grade is doing it and Chris is one of the coaches. He was born to be a dad, he will also completely rock being a coach. The kids are lucky.  I'm meeting lots of nice parents and we've already got a mom's night out scheduled for later this month. 

Here are a few pictures from the first day. 

with one of her best buddies right before we all walked to school 

posing in front of a building (this pic makes it look run-down, but it's a nice, pretty campus)

A few minutes of playground time before heading in to class

reading something on the chalkboard a few minutes after we got to her classroom. 

*Although, on the first day, Anya told a rather creative and elaborate story about how her teacher is actually a witch. That, as soon as the parents left, she changed in to her witch outfit (so the parents wouldn't suspect anything). And that at the assembly, she tied all of the children in a rope and took them to Maple Leaf Park. There, she banished them all from the school. Anya said, sorry, she was not allowed to come back to school the next day, since she had been banished. 

The End of Anya's Summer 2014

Yet another beautiful Seattle summer has come to an end.  Lot's of little things happened, so we're throwing together a quick summary of the last few weeks.



Anya finally learned how to drive.  Here we see her scooting around at Magnuson park and getting annoyed at traffic, just like mommy taught her. 

Seattle seldom gets rain to speak of.  This video shows that Anya is (yet again) her mother's daughter.  And Laika shows that she is her father's dog.

No summer is complete with out a trip to the Evergreen State Fair.  Here we see Anya practicing to be a marine hamster.

Also at the ESF, Anya got on her first big person ride (she was "taller than this" and was able to get on.  Seemed to like it.

She made a very good friend of a sheep.  We asked her to quit harassing the animals, but this sheep had a different plan.

Anya brought her good buddy Eva H to Remlinger Farms. 

And of course fishing with dad.  Anya is still crazy about fishing.  This summer we discovered that the closest water is also the most productive for our needs.  The Arboretum has tons of fish we don't want to eat, so the kid is never bored and I don't need to clean anything.  We smash down the barbs, and catch and release all day long.

An early shot of one of our more productive mornings.

Here we see evidence of Anya the fish whisperer at work.  She really does love to handle wild animals.  Speaking of which...

Anya's yearly snake handling revival in the woods.  This year it was at Dash Point camping with about 1/2 the PEPS kids.   

Here we find our love children making a stinking nest of sea weed.  Which they claim was necessary as a "clam sanctuary".

The PEPS kids. Liam in action.

Jump Roping Queen

One of Anya's current interests is jump roping. This is rather convenient, as she is usually jumping rather than standing still at any given moment. Put the rope in her hands and it turns into something slightly more constructive. 

I signed Anya up for a week-long day camp that focuses on jump roping. It was put on by the Ropeworks and the YMCA and was nearby at Magnuson Park. Double-win. The first half of each day was spent jumping rope; the rest, playing at the park. 

Anya had a wonderful time. She was really impressed by her instructor (whom, Anya would mention often, was the world jump rope champion multiple times. She had even been on the news, and, did we recognize her from TV?). I had no idea, until recently, that competitive jump roping was even a thing. There are certainly worse activities to be interested in. It's great exercise. 

At the end of the week, the students put on a performance for parents and other YMCA campers. Lynn and I went, expecting to see something rather slapped together, with the kids more or less running around and jumping. It was an actual thought-out performance and we could tell the kids practiced hard. Sure, there were mistakes, but it was a bunch of kids that had only been doing it for a few hours a day for 5 days. Overall, we were really impressed. Here is a clip from one section of the performance. Isn't my kid flipping adorable?

Bike Riding

When we were kids, bikes were freedom and we rode them everywhere: far and wide, high and low, at night, without helmets over wobbly home made ramps which launched us over the neighborhood kids who weren't riding bikes at that particular moment. 

 

Suffice to say bikes were a big deal, and there was a lot of pressure from lots of angles to get on the road ASAP. 

 

Not so Anya's generation.  We live in the city where cars are everywhere and drug addicts and kidnappers lurk behind every bush...or so we believe.  Bikes to these kids are like a Ferrari you can only drive around your circular driveway.  So the pressure isn't quite so high to get pedaling.

 

But bikes are still important to us, damn it, so like good yuppies we pay total strangers to teach our kids to ride bikes.  Ridiculous right?!  I thought so too...except...that it worked.

 

Amy signed up Anya for Pedal Heads, which was a one week long bike camp.  Yep it's a thing. Look it up.

 

With in the first 20 minutes they had pulled the training wheels off the bikes our little girl was scooting along unaided.  We were very proud. And Amy earned the right to say she told me so, though she was far too gracious to cash in on that right.

 

Below are two videos I took chasing Anya around the Roosevelt  High school track on day two of bike camp.



 

 

Kindergarten Graduation

A few weeks ago (June 19th), Anya wrapped up her first/last year at Wedgwood with a Kindergarten graduation celebration. She has blossomed so much this year, made lots of friends, and adored her teacher, so it's somewhat bittersweet moving on to another school. We will have fond memories of Wedgwood.  

 after receiving her diploma

The back of the diploma. What a sweet idea. And of course, this shows Anya being Anya.

Grandma and Grandpa B visit

Grandma and Grandpa B showed up in Seattle for a much-anticipated visit.  Mostly, we all hung around the neighborhood (with some side adventures taken by the grandparents), ate good food, and visited.  Bruce helped Chris polish off the fence project, and ensured that our deck finally got a much-needed sanding and a coat of paint.  (Thanks Bruce!) 

Matt and Heidi gifted Anya with some sea-life cookie cutters and frosting. Grandma B. and Anya made some delicious cookies. 

The crown jewel of their visit was our trip to Victoria BC.  We took the Clipper up early Wednesday morning, and arrived a few hours later. 

We wish our kid showed some excitement about the world.  Her ho-hum attitude worries us sometimes. 

On the way into the inner harbor, Anya somehow got it in her mind that there were snakes to be caught nearby. So after checking into our hotel, we took off walking and visited Beacon Hill Park - a fantastic park only a few blocks from downtown. Anya and Dad tromped off through the rocks and tall grass in search of reptiles, while mom and the grandparents leisurely strolled along the thoroughfare.

 

Anya trying to make friends with a decidedly disinterested duck

Whenever the ducks would exit this log, it would roll and all the turtles had to scramble to keep on.  It's hard to see the humor in this shot, but it kept us entertained for some time.  Guess you had to be there.

On the foot bridge.

While Anya had to wait for parents and grandparents to catch up, she climbed this tree.  There was a boy a bit older than her just out of frame to the left who watched slack-jawed at her monkey-like abilities. She knew it and was very proud of herself.

We went to a petting zoo full of cool animals including a large herd of tiny goats.  This particular beast (whom Anya was delighted to learn was named Olaf after the Snowman in Frozen) liked to chew on Dad's shirt and shoe laces. 

This goat, more than any other, explains why we say that Laika is a "goat" dog.  She even has the same collar as Laika and was about as good-natured.

Peacocks and peahens were roaming free in the park.

One of the main reason we have always wanted to return to Victoria is so that Anya, our little naturalist, could visit the Royal BC Museum of Natural History.  Probably one of the coolest museums outside of the Smithsonian.  Sadly, Anya had learned a few days earlier that she couldn't accompany her cousins, Mia and Cole, on their trip to Northwest Trek (one of Anya's favorite places) because we were headed up to Victoria.  This distressed her greatly, and she began to associate going to the museum with NOT getting to go to NW Trek with her beloved cousins.  So when it came time to go, she pretty much lost it, and couldn't calm down.  We explained that not going to the museum wouldn't magically put her back in Seattle a full day earlier so she could go to Northwest Trek.  She understood this on one level, but still had trouble coming to terms with it, and would actually say things like, "I understand, but I just can't calm down!"

Eventually Mom calmed her down. Crisis averted.  We all had a blast at the museum. Mom loved the languages, Grandpa loved the totem poles, Anya loved the fish, Dad the Vikings, Grandma, the kids screaming in the café.  

Here we see some Viking jewelry.  Who knew Vikings made this sort of stuff!? Very intricate!

Anya wasn't particularly interested in Viking fare especially since there were dioramas of elk and tidal pools to behold.  Though she was interested in the Viking burial ship pen. A note she wrote in her kids' guide to the museum: "Vikkings, put ded peepl in ships and lit them on fir to sho rispekt"

Later in the day we all went to the Lemur IMAX which was pretty cool.

Our hotel was two blocks from the harbor, and had a great view, and a swimming pool which didn't melt your eyes out with chemical fumes. Anya made friends with a girl her age named Kiera and they busied themselves moving foam from the hot tub to the pool, and racing. 

Grand folks B. and Anya overlooking the inner harbor

Them again!

Anya with bench sans Grandparents

A very cool bit of orca topiary.  There are even little flowers on their heads to show their spouts.

Of course Anya had to go to the Bug Zoo, where she geeked out on bugs, and did her very best to spend all of her money on stuff in the gift shop. Settling (after about 10 minutes of annoying angst) on a leather purse with a butterfly on it, and some lollipops with meal worms and scorpions in them.  (See below) 

Anya enjoying the company of a stick bug.

Cockroach (which dad can't stand)

Praying mantis or leaf bug

After the bug zoo, we wandered to Chinatown for dim sum, which was great.  I did notice there was an entire back room full of Asians which they were keeping conspicuously separated from the American tourists. I can only assume the food carts were different in that room.

After dim sum, we all separated: Dad with Anya, Mom getting some time to wander alone, Ellen and Bruce doing their thing.  Dad followed Anya wherever her whim took her and let her get them lost, in back alleys which was a lot of fun. Lots of neat little stores. We eventually wound up in an Asian toy store where Anya dropped the last of her cash on an egg which hatched a toy iguana.  (These are the things the kid likes to spend her money on)

Here she is eating her afore mentioned meal worm lollipop.  Note that she ate the worm, but threw away half the lollipop.

Every fountain she saw had to be inspected for the presence of fish.  This one, like all the others, was certified fish-free. 

Ah the enigmatic Miniature world.  Seems I thought Brian and I loved this place when we were kids.  I didn't remember it, but trusted Brian's account because he remembers everything.  So we sought it out, and went. The weird part was that I misheard Brian.  We never went as kids. That being said, it was pretty cool as far as tourist traps are concerned so Brian's non-recommendation was good advice.

Anya met some Australian girls at Miniature world, and the three of them loved it.  They ran around screaming and having a ball pushing the buttons and lighting things up or making little cars drive in circles.  She believes the girls played with were the same as the girl the day before in the hotel pool, but she's wrong, the girl from the night before were from St. Lawrence Canada not Australia.  I write this only so that when she recounts the story 15 years from now, I can show her this and totally make her question the foundations of her reality.  It's what good parents do. 

All in all, a nice jaunt up to Victoria. The rest of the visit with Grandma and Grandpa B. was spent hyper-locally with some trips to parks, St. Catherine's, and topped off with a yummy meal at Mojito (one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants). It was a nice, long visit. The perfect amount of time, although Anya requested today that they stay 9 weeks next time. Perhaps they should just move out here. :-)

A weekend of Lodwigs

It was a long weekend of family reunions. 

 

Grandma and Grandpa B are in town.

Uncle Brian and Cousins Mia and Cole are here for Emily Scheuer's wedding.

Uncle David and Aunt Heather Lodwig (technically cousins) and Cousin Jackson happened into town.

Even Greg, Nathan and Janette stopped by Grandma and Grandpa's house for a Lodwig reunion. 

 



 

The cousins at Woodland Park's Rose Garden for Emily's wedding.

Cole attempts to loosen the nuts on the Space Needle

I told them the climb would be much cheaper than the elevator.

 

 

 

 

Playing in the fountain at Seattle Center

 The entire family fishing at Gold Creek trout farm.

 

 

 

 Anya wrote a good-bye letter to her beloved cousin Mia.
"I will miss you Mia when you leave in 2 days. You are the smartest kid I have ever known. Smarter than my dad. When you were a baby, my dad nearly killed you." Please note that I tripped while carrying her up the stairs. I wasn't trying to eliminate intellectual competition