NO Children

David asked if he could take his lego car to Costa Vida with us for dinner.

I said no.

David flipped the box around and said I won't eat it,

showed this symbol:

"Children don't eat this or they turn zero again."

Dustin and I were dying laughing.

Bedtime

I was downstairs getting things cleaned up from dinner. Dustin was supposed to be putting Matthew to bed. David went up and all I kept hearing was lots of noise.

This is what happens when Daddy is in charge of putting the kids to bed.

It took Matthew a while to settle down enough to go to bed.

Laughing

Some of you probably haven't heard Matthew laugh. He just loves to be lifted high in the air.

SAAM

Once Dustin finished working on the 30th of June there was only one item left on his list of things we wanted to do.  That was to go to SAM (Seattle Art Museum).  After reading in the SAM Connect he realized that there was an exhibit he really wanted to see that was actually at SAAM (Seattle Asian Art Museum).  So Grandma Sharon took the kids so that Dustin and I could have a morning date at the museum.  

The exhibit we were visiting was the Japanese Woodblock Prints.

The exhibit was awesome!

The most famous picture was In the Well of the Wave off Kanagawa.

In the Well of the Wave off Kanagawa

also known as The Great Wave

Color Woodblock Print

10 1/4 x 14 7/8 in

Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)

We learned that two originals were done - one in black outlining and one in blue.  The whole exhibit was really cool but to see something so famous was really neat for me.  We bought of the book that has a print and explanation of everything in the exhibit - so if you ever want to see what we saw just come on over and look at our book.

This gem was in the contemporary art wing.  It's really amazing and the pictures done do justice but at least you can see the detail.

Top of Paper Bag

Inside of Paper Bag

untitled (sigonas), 2002

Brown Paper Bag

Yuken Teruya

It was a great date!

The Seattle Asian Art Museum is nestled in the middle of Volunteer Park, which is a very old park in an old part of town.  The park is huge!  It's a beautiful park!  We were able to get there easily and parking was free since it was a park.

View walking out the doors of the museum.

4th of July & the next day

Here we are in our matching attire.  Don't we look good nice in our red, white and blue.

This was the best we could get with David, all the other ones he was just a blur.

July 4th we went to church and came home in order to immediately (after feeding and drugging David with Dramamine) leave with Grandma Sharon & Grandpa David to go to Bremerton.

We checked in to our hotel and walked along the boardwalk enjoying the sights and sounds along the water.

We had a few meltdowns before the fireworks started.  Tired boys meant they went to bed earlier than fireworks and Grandpa David kept an eye on them in the room while Dustin, Sharon & I enjoyed all the fireworks displays that we could see from the hotel balcony.

It was so nice to enjoy the fireworks with my husband.  If only it got dark sooner in Washington so that David could have watched them too.

On Monday we did a little more touring of Bremerton.

Bremerton is a Navy Base.  We were able to see the ships as we drove into town.  

We visited the Battleship Turner Joy.

It was really cool to walk around.

Dustin really enjoyed being able to walk around the ship with his dad and learn more about his grandpa's career in the Navy.

USS Turner Joy

We rode the ferry back to Seattle.  It was about an hour trip.  This was the view as we pulled into the pier.

Babies!

Since our discovery of Northwest Trek, no visit to Washington is complete without a trip there.  This trip was so different for us in so many ways.

1.  We were there in the summer time - previously we had only been in the fall and winter

2.  We got to see every type of animal in the free roaming area - including the Caribou, which were always put away due to the over active, rough elk in the fall/winter.

3.  There were babies everywhere!  It was really cute to see all the baby animals.

Grandma & Matthew

Baby Big Horn Sheep                                 Elk herd            .

Male Elk with Velvety Antlers           Female Moose from Alaska   .

Matthew's hand is not as big as a Grizzly Bear's

We had lots of fun.  Matthew did very well despite getting a little cranky on the tram because he has hungry.  It was another great trip to Northwest Trek.

Kid's Quest Children's Museum

Playing in the water.

David enjoyed it much more than Matthew did, both even stayed dry.

Playing with Air.

It was really cool.  You could stick these little scarves in a vent and they would travel around in the mess of tubes and shoot out onto the floor.  It fun to play with.  David bored with quickly though and moved on to something much more loud and disturbing for Matthew.

Birth to Three.

While David was making his own very loud, Matthew upsetting music, Matthew and I went to the little kids area.  First he ate and then we played.  He really enjoyed this ball and the wire thingy.  He was a much happier baby in this area than we were with David and his "band".

We had a great time at the children's museum.  David had lots of fun running around from activity to activity and playing with everything he could.  Matthew enjoyed the slower pace of things in the baby area.  I enjoyed being able to spend time with both of my boys.

Fire trucks!

I was able to meet up with my friend Beth and her two kids, Caleb & Parker, while we were in Washington.  We played at the park, had a picnic and walked over to see the fire trucks.  Caleb wants to be a firefighter when he grows up and so does his dad.  David has also decided that he wants to be a firefighter just like his friend Caleb.

We were in for a lucky treat when we observed the switching of firetrucks at the station.  A fireman noticed our inquisitive little boys and offered them a closer look.

That darn kid never would look at me and smile for a cute picture, so you get him crawling around inside!

Thanks for the fun visit Beth!  We will definitely get together again the next time I'm out and I promise to call you sooner in our trip next time.