Slow Week // Fun Saturday

You know what I've discovered lately? That even my daily women's devotional emails or posts on social sites become too repetitive ... and that sort of bums me out. I guess even reading devotional words of wisdom can sometimes also become mundane. I think at one point or another everything does. I believe it's natural to feel this way but I also know that reading these emails and newsletters from inspiring sites is what helps me cope when I'm feeling stressed out and reminds me to stay humble when things are going good. It also has me looking up scripture which is good because I immerse myself in His word. I tell myself that its ok to want to take a break from all this, after all I'm not abandoning my faith ... I'm just setting aside my deep scripture readings for a day or two. But, praying ... I always ALWAYS pray, nightly and throughout the day.

One of the topics that I continually come across is comparison. We all know we shouldn't compare ourselves to others. We're all on different missions in life even if we have some things in common. We all live different lives. I've learned long ago to not be envious of anybody, to not compare myself to anyone, to not wish I had this or that. It just robs you from living your days to the fullest. If I like something someone has or is doing something fun I give them props. I truly am happy for other peoples happiness. There are things that I know I will never get to do in life but the way I see this is that one can live through the lives of others especially if they're constantly traveling the world or living a more glamorous lifestyle, which is not my thing but fun to see nonetheless.
I know that if you work hard for things and you pray about them that eventually you'll get what you dream of ... but this happens on God's timing not ours. If it's meant to be it'll happen. At least this is what I believe in ... and you know what? He's come through every single time. Again, it may not have happened when I wanted it to but it happened in His timing.


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Right now, during summer I have a lot more free time on my hands. There are many days when I have no important errands to run and on these slow days or better yet, on these free days I take Riley to craft stores or Party City or Target.
I love the toddler stage because they are so easy to please. It doesn't matter if you're spending a dollar or twenty. We went to Party City to look around. We walked through the entire store and stopped at almost every isle. We saw several Toy Story decorations. He tried on a few baseball caps and masks.

It looked like they had just gotten a shipment in because they were setting out their Halloween costumes. So exciting. Something to look forward to. Planning for Fall and Winter activities is the best. He spotted a Buzz Lightyear picture and watercolor paint activity set. I got that for him and as we were paying he saw a Lightning McQueen balloon, a jumbo one and I said no. I wasn't about to spend ten dollars on a huge balloon but I did get him a smaller one. He was so happy and was careful to not move his arm so the balloon wouldn't fly away. Target is in the same shopping strip so we walked there. I got myself a dish towel because I have a slight addiction to them. And I finally bought Princess and the Frog. I really like that movie.

Thank goodness for watercolor paint. Riley loves to paint and he'll stay engaged for a long time. Sometimes he'll ask me to draw him a picture and I really dread it because I am horrible at drawing. I can't draw worth a lick. The one that can is Jacob. I should have him draw Riley pictures of his favorite things and have Riley color them during the day. Hey, how come I hadn't thought of this before. Brilliant!

Honestly, taking the kids to the doctor for whatever reason is such a drag. First, its the parking because where we go the parking spots are small and some people don't give a toot about parking straight which is so annoying. Second, its the waiting to be called and waiting again for the doctor.
Anyway, I scheduled Sydna and Nathan's yearly physical. Most of the time when Sydna is seen she goes in by herself. She's old enough to where she can do that and less embarrassing for sure. She's all caught up with all her vaccines and wont need any for two more years.

About every night last week I kept waking up in the middle of the night. Sometimes I would wake up at 1:30 and other times at 3:30. I go to sleep fine. I actually fall asleep praying most nights and when I wake up in the middle of the night I don't wake up with something on my mind so it's not like if I'm worrying about something or thinking too much about something. I just wake up for no reason. Falling back to sleep is the problem. Sometimes I even pray but there I am still tossing and turning for a couple of hours and before I know it I've fallen asleep.

Another thing too is that I've been getting tension headaches. Not sure if its my pillow causing them, allergies, or what but I've been getting them quite often lately.

To destress you know what we do? We go on drives ... just the two of us and Riley, and if we're lucky he falls asleep during our little getaway.
Sometimes we stop and grab some coffee and we get Riley hot chocolate. He downs that in about a minute. Geez! If I would do that I would definitely get a stomach ache.

We usually don't have a destination during these little escapes but we always seem to stumble upon nice neighborhoods. We came across one that had a cozy feel to it. We were in awe at how pretty these houses were and how spacious every single property was. They were just awesome houses.

The pumpkin and corn farm that we go to began selling their sweet corn over the weekend. I remember it was so sweet, so yummy. I told Jacob that I wanted to go and pick some up. I don't know why Jacob thought that the place was gonna be up and hopping. When we arrived there were only a few cars parked so he thought it must be closed. I laughed. I told him that they were selling their sweet corn and that their country store was open but that was it. He said he felt cheated, lol. He's such a goof.

We got our corn, pumpkin butter, and some taffy. I've been having Riley help me whenever possible and he just loves it. It makes him feel more grown up I guess plus, he loves the hugs and kisses that I shower him with. I love my little guy!

There's not many places that we avoid driving through or stopping at due to a different element than we're comfortable in but we recently had an inconvenient experience that made us not want to go back to a particular street on Capitol Hill. First, the ambiance of the area is way WAY out there and second, the initial pizza place that we had hoped to have lunch at wasn't kid friendly. They had only two tables right at the entrance that seated only two people each. We're a family of five so that wasn't gonna work. They had booths that could seat all of us but that was near the bar and no one under the age of 21 could sit there. Isn't that rude?! To only cater to family of no more than four? I think that's BS. Obviously, we left that stinking joint real fast.

We drove for several more minutes and ended up in Queen Anne and had lunch at Pagliacci's. We found a parking spot right in front of the restaurant too. I guess it was meant for us to eat here. We've eaten pizza at two other different locations but never at this one and compared to the other two this location is more inviting, comfortable and in a way better area than at E Pike Street on Capitol Hill.
We were starving. I had my very first Italian beer there. It tasted a lot like Coors Light ... my kind of beer.

Since we weren't too far from the Science Center we decided to stop by. It had been a while since we've been here. The boys entertained themselves a while at the fountains. It was their first time shooting water out of these gun looking things.

It's a pretty cool thing for a toddler to do. He didn't want to leave.

We were all over the Seattle area on Saturday. After we had our fun at the Science Center we stopped by Molly Moon's homemade ice cream.
I got their "Scout" mint ice cream. It's vanilla ice cream and they crumble girl scouts mint cookies in it. It was very yummy and the waffle cone was good too. It was too much though ... I couldn't finish the entire thing.

We've had very warm and sometimes hot weather here lately. {It sucks!} On Sunday we stayed home. Hot weather makes me very sluggish and since I had been suffering from headaches I really wasn't in the mood to go anywhere let alone be around people. Once it cooled off we drove through some back streets and picked some blackberries. It is so awesome that wild blackberries grow everywhere in WA. Wherever you drive you will see them. Jacob promised to make us blackberry cobbler. I'm looking forward to that.

Six weeks left of Summer.

Sunny Saturday

I was catching up on reading blogs when I noticed one that just went private. I was like, what?! and she didn't invite her faithful followers to continue to follow along? Aw, that's sucks. Oh well. Best of luck to her. For future reference dear followers ... if you plan on making your blog private please make sure to add me :) Thanks!

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We had such a beautiful day on Saturday. The high was a very pleasant 65 degrees and breezy ... and just look at that sky. My perfect kind of sky on this sunny day in lower Queen Anne.

I get email notifications whenever a new IMAX movie is about to come out and when I found out Madagascar -Island of the Lemurs was gonna show I knew that Riley would like it and find it funny ... because lemurs are funny looking especially when they hop around. The neat part of it is that it was in 3D ... although I've got to admit that it takes my eyes a few minutes to get used to 3D. Once my eyes have adjusted, it is so fun to watch.

While we waited for the movie to begin.

Right after the movie was over Riley asked to see the Dinosaur exhibit. He still wont get close to the T-Rex. He says, "I'm scared".

After walking around for a bit we headed back outside. There was a Cherry Blossom Festival going on inside the Armory Center. We went in to take a look see but it really didn't catch my attention so we went back outside.
The day was glorious and it really makes me appreciate this pleasant weather that much more because I know from experience how devastating the desert or TX humid weather feels like. So we hung out here and let Riley run free ... chasing a seagull.

Riley liked looking at the crazy kids that were getting wet at the fountain. I'll let him get wet when we have 80 degree weather not 65, it still a little chilly if you're planning on getting wet.

I called his name and told him to smile and this is what I got...

Lol! ... ok, I didn't asked to see your uvula.

As we continued to walk we came across a Pet Fair. They had so many adoption booths set up. Of course, Jacob and the kids fell in love with their own favorite dog ... not me. I thought some were cute but I am not interested not one bit in adopting a dog. I'm just not a dog person. Maybe when I reach my 60's I'll adopt a dog then. Having a dog now will definitely hinder our weekend plans especially any future plans where it may consist of being away from home for more than a day. I don't want to have the hassle about putting the dog in a pet hotel let alone the added expense that this would entail. No thanks!!! The kids tell me I'm mean for not wanting a dog ... I'll take that over taking care of one in a heart beat. 

We've heard that this Ride the Ducks, land and water tour is quite fun. We're hoping to do this one day. I also just found out that San Diego offers this same thing. Neat.

Whenever I plan an outing sometimes it consists of doing several things to make it worth even getting dressed, I don't just want to go to one place then have to come back home. That's when my research or planning come in full swing. Especially if its a nice day out like Saturday was.
After leaving Seattle Center hopped on the freeway for a fifteen minute drive to the opposite side of the Space Needle in Lake Washington. We had Five Guys at The Landing. We've been craving a burger and the only one that satisfies that craving is Five Guys. We've had Burger King or Carl's Jr. burgers before but it's just not the same and the craving for a good burgers is still there. This is only the case while we're away from home because once in San Diego we eat burgers at Hodad's in Ocean Beach. Jacob might still have another at IN N OUT.
We left Five Guys with a happy belly. So tasty.
The day was still gorgeous so we decided to take Riley to a park.

What a fun and pretty day it was.

After the park we finally came back home. I changed into sweats and comfortable socks and planted myself on the couch. About fifteen minutes later this girl comes downstairs and makes her way onto my lap. That's very weird. She doesn't typically do this during the day. She must have missed me. She loves me and chose to sit with me even though Jacob was sitting right next to me. She's my girl!!

He was so proud of himself for being able to zip up his vest all my himself. So I took a picture of his accomplishment. Love his silly faces and that bed head. He had just woken up from his nap.

Around 7:30 pm yesterday Jacob, Riley and I went to get a white chocolate mocha. I hadn't had coffee yet and I was in need of some caffeine. Then we drove to this park that Jacob happens to like quite a bit. It's very quiet out here. I prefer Lake Washington or The Puget because it has that beachy smell.

The weather on Sunday was completely the opposite of Saturday. It was back to cloudy skies and in the low 40's and since it was still a bit breezy and being near water well, we were cold. I was freezing because once again I forgot to bring my jacket. Maybe if Jacob had told me he wanted to come here before we left the house I would have definitely brought my jacket. So we left after about ten minutes. Riley wasn't too happy about that and kept on saying he wanted to go back and throw rocks in the water, over and over. Ay!
But,
according to the weather app, we are supposed to have sunny skies all week long. Hope they're right even if it does end up raining in the evening.

In-Laws Visit

There are many U-cut Christmas tree farms here in WA and it was our intention to buy one from a tree farm. Sadly, that wasn't the case ... at least not this year.
We did go to one but once we got there and began looking they really didn't have a good selection of noble fir trees {our favorite}. The few we saw were either too tall or very awkwardly skinny and weird looking. It was a bit of a disappointment. Hopefully next year. We'll just have to do better research and find out where the reputable Christmas tree farms are at.

So, we went to our go to store for a Christmas tree ... Home Depot. There they had a good selection of noble fir trees. We got one and it was a well rounded Christmas tree and quite tall.
Riley stressed me out a little. He was so excited and was running around all over the place. I had to speed walk to grab him by the arm a few times to avoid someone hitting him with their shopping cart.
Oh, by the way, he is {obviously} back to his old self ... happy and very active. Thankfully no signs of a cold.

I'm glad my father-in-law was around to help Jacob carry the Christmas tree from the truck into the house.

Once they stood up the tree we noticed that it touched the ceiling. We totally Griswold this tree. Of course things are never not funny when Jacob's involved. We were cracking up like dorks. So, Jacob had to cut off the top branch. This was our very first time of not having a Christmas tree topper. There just wasn't any room for it ... and I secretly loved it because I didn't feel like using our angel topper this year. So it really worked out to my liking.

This was also our very fist time buying such a tall tree. The best part was that we got it at a reasonable price. We were surprised. Jacob had to get the stepping stool and the ladder to help with hanging the Christmas lights on the tree. I stopped trimming the tree several years ago. I just didn't have the patience for that. Thankfully Jacob doesn't mind taking over that part.

It was nice having loved ones help out. It made this part a lot more enjoyable plus we were blasting Christmas music on Pandora.

This little guy happily helped out too.

and I even found some felt balls he thought would look good on the tree, lol.

As I was putting away the empty ornament boxes I turned to look at Riley {because I always have to keep an eye on this little guy} I saw this:

Unreal!
He was wearing mine and Sydna's stockings as socks. Smart kid.

Jacob made pizza for dinner. Always a favorite.


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Jacob had been wanting to visit Bangor Base in Bremerton since we moved here and given that his dad {retired Navy} was visiting he decided it would be a nice outing ... reminiscing where he lived during his middle school years.
We had not driven on this bridge before. I knew there was a bridge from researching places in Tacoma but I didn't know it looked like this. This bridge is called Tacoma Narrows Bridge and takes you from Tacoma into Gig Harbor and Port Orchard. I thought it was an awesome looking bridge. I just hope we're never on a bridge during an earthquake.

Once past security and inside the base Jacob wanted to stop by his old home first.

We went on a short walk behind the townhouse he used to live in. It was pretty cool hearing him tell stories of when he was a young teen.
I saw a slug. A big fat oblong looking slug and it grossed me out. After that I was watching where I was stepping.

He then took us to the rec center where he used to hang out and make rap videos, lol. My gosh! Now, this place is a daycare. According to him and my mother-in-law the base has changed a bit but to Jacob it still felt pretty much the same. He enjoyed coming back here and I liked hearing his stories.

We then drove to the Exchange. For those of you that don't know, the Exchange is a retail store that sells just about anything and some of them have several restaurants inside as well. It was so warm in there that I quickly began to feel uncomfortable. I cannot go from feeling the cold then into a warm building. I quickly get a dull pain on my head. There has been one time where I almost fainted because I got too warm when we were at a mall in Dallas. True story. No joke!
Relieved we walked out of the Exchange we then stopped by the bowling alley. Jacob said that it was very different from what he remembered it to be. It looks nice. It's not big but all the bowling lanes have cosmic lighting. There's a Pizza Hut and a Taco Bell {which I don't care for} inside. A nice place for kids to hang out or to bring the family to.


We realized we were all very hungry so we left the base. We had dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. This little guy ate almost all of his fettuccine alfredo again. He only left about four noodles. So happy he ate so good.

We went to Kohl's after we ate. Wanted to walk off our meals. As soon as we walked inside Riley immediately noticed a Charlie Brown stuffed doll. They also had Snoopy and Woodstock. He grabbed Charlie Brown and wouldn't put him down. Jacob had to buy it for him. So cute too because he really loves Charlie Brown.

I do love coming home after a fun long day of spending it out and about. Having all of my loved ones at home, getting into my sweats, cozy socks and a sweater is the best cozy feeling in the world.

I read that a nursery in Seattle had live reindeer and this past weekend was the last weekend one could take a picture next to one. I told Jacob that we had to go and have Riley take a picture with Jingle, the reindeer. But first we visited with the other two that were also there.

LOL!

And there was also a camel named Curley. Riley tried to feed it hay but it wasn't interested.

Riley taking a picture with Jingle. Isn't it cool?!
He was a bit nervous sitting on the sleigh all by himself next to a reindeer though. That's why he had that funny look on his face.

They also had a nice train display.

After the nursery we drove to lower Queen Anne. Wanted to take the in-laws to see the Space Needle and also wanted to go to the Science Center.

I know I've said this before ... about how cool it is to see the Space Needle in person but seriously, it is awesome! Just knowing it is such a famous landmark is beyond cool. And we are so blessed to have been afforded the opportunity to live here. I love big cities as much as I love the country.

Riley loves dinosaurs.

And when he saw this T-Rex he was beyond himself.

He played a little while the older kids walked around and explored.

The Science Center is pretty cool.  We all had fun time.

I wanted to take my mother-in-law to Pike Place Market because I knew she wanted to visit but finding parking in this area can really be a chore. But after circling the area for several minutes we found parking along the stores. Thankfully there is no charge on Sundays and parking at private parking lots is way too much.

The market was packed as you can imagine. But it's still fun to see and sometimes buy their overpriced produce or seafood.

We didn't spend too much time at Pike Place. It was a very cold day and being close to the Puget feels a lot colder.

We headed back to the house. My mother-in-law was cold even at home. I did tell them to dress in layers but I think they must have forgotten.

Jacob baked his yummy pumpkin bars. So good!
I hope my in-laws enjoyed themselves as much as we enjoyed having them here. Even though their visit wasn't long it was nice to have them visit for Thanksgiving. They flew back to Tucson yesterday.

Now back to our regular routine ... for at least two weeks then it's back to hosting. My sister Claudia will be spending Christmastime with us. She will be here for two weeks. I'm sure it'll be fun having her here but I know Riley is gonna end up getting more spoiled. I have a feeling he'll be getting in trouble quite a bit. I really hope not because I would hate to put him in time out during Christmas.