It is hot!

Welcome from a very hot house! It has been a really scorching weekend here this weekend – our house thermometer says that it was nearly 90 (f) inside (109, outside!) today although that was when the afternoon sun was on it! It is set to be really hot for the next couple of days and then cool off a bit!

We have had a good day though! We knew it was going to be hot so after church we headed down to the University Village shopping centre which we always enjoy going to as it has a superb book shop and a covered area where the children can play. The book shop was air conditioned and so the girls enjoyed reading and playing with Thomas and then they had a play at the little play ground, which as it was covered, was not too hot. We had a good afternoon and then came home! Unfortunately, our house gets very hot if the windows are closed but it has started to cool down now!

Yesterday was also hot and we had the morning at home and then met Melinda and Chad at a Strawberry Fair in Bellevue, which was fun. The girls had a bounce on the bouncy castle and Tim had to go in after Esther as she refused to come out when she was called! It was very typical Esther! Melinda and Chad came home with us and we had a raclette for supper. This is a mini grill where you can melt cheese over your potatoes and vegetables. It was a bit like a fondue, but you melt the cheese rather than dip the bits into the cheese! It was fun and we all enjoyed it!

On Friday we met up with Vanessa and the children at the park in the centre of Issaquah which was great. It is a lovely little park with plenty of shade in the mornings and so it was very popular. In the afternoon Brooke came to play with the girls and then I did some clearing up! Tim and I watched the end of the “Merchant of Venice” in the evening which we enjoyed too!

On Thursday Esther went to Gym class in the morning and then the girls went to Playland at the supermarket whilst I did the shopping. In the afternoon we met up with Fritzi and Caitlyn at the park for a little while. It was good to see them again!

Well, that is about it for now! Sorry it is so short today! There won’t be any blogs until next Sunday now as Mum and Dad arrive tomorrow (which we are very excited about!) and we are in fact going away for a couple of days. Well, Tim is working but the rest of us are going away!

Until then! Take care and hope that you are all well!

Morning Clouds, Afternoon Sun

Hi there! Hope that this finds you well! Esther has been a bit under the weather today but slept well at lunch time (over 2 hours) and was then much more cheerful! We are having very typical Seattle weather at the minute – morning clouds and afternoon sun! If ever the weather forecaster was having a day off then anyone could pretty much write the weather for him! Summer or winter, it is fairly typical, only in the summer it is warmer!

Consequently, we have been doing our jobs and things in the morning so t hat we can go outside in the afternoon to enjoy the sunshine! Today the girls played in the garden but yesterday and Monday we went to the park in the afternoon. On Monday we went to the park with Maddie and by chance met our other friends, Nina and Ali and so we had a good time with them all!

Yesterday morning, Esther had her last music class of the year, although I hope that she will be able to go again in September. As Naomi has finished school until August she had to come with us and she was very good! She enjoyed it I think and it helped that she knew most of the songs as we listen to the CD a lot! Thankfully, Teacher Louise didn’t mind her joining us and she was a real star! Esther was a bit fazed that Naomi was coming with us at first but she didn’t mind and she enjoyed seeing her friends one last time! We are hoping to meet up with one of the children during the summer as they only live up in Issaquah Highlands.

We had a quick shop after ‘dub-dub’ (Esther’s word for music class!) and then came home for a bit. It was then Naomi’s turn to go to her ballet and tap class and Esther and I were able to stay and watch her as it was the last one of the semester. Unfortunately we didn’t know that it was happening before we got there otherwise I would have let Tim know too but Naomi enjoyed the fact that we were there and Esther was reasonably patient although it is so hard for her as she is so desperate to join in! AT the end of the session they all received a medal, which Naomi was very pleased with!

On Monday we went shopping to Costco and to Trader Joes in the morning and then headed out to the park in the afternoon. Naomi’s word of the day on Monday was “delicate” – everything she talked about was delicate! It was very funny! She also said that she wanted the baby to be called Cinderella if it was a girl or Handsome Prince if it was a boy!! Watch this space!!!

During Together Time this week, Naomi wanted to make another large picture – she was flushed with the success of Elmer the elephant before we went away! She selected a picture of Cinderella and the Prince that she wanted me to draw so that she could paint it! Well, we finished it today and it sort of resembles the picture! I need to cut it out and stick it onto another sheet of paper, but I don’t have any large sheets right now! It will look better then I think! It would help if I could draw really, but since I gave up art at 14, there is not much hope for me now!! Anyway, she loves doing it, which is what matters and she is pleased with it! I bought a craft book from Ikea last weekend and so I need to look in there for some more inspiration!!

Esther has been tickling us this week! Her favourite nursery rhyme is “Walky round the garden”, although she likes to whiz through the first bit and get to “one step, tickly under there!” You see, we don’t even get 2 steps! She is funny and much prefers to do it to you than for you to do it to her!!

Anyway, that is all for now! I’ll write on Sunday! Bye!

Lincoln City 2

Welcome back to the second part of the Holiday Blog! I hope to get it finished tonight so it might be quite long again! Better make those cups of tea now!!

Last Saturday, Tim, the girls and I went out for the day to see some interesting places further south along the coast. We had a bit of a drive and had lunch in Yahachts, which I quite liked really. It was small and had a cosy feel to it and was prettier than some of the places along the coastline. We had a very nice sandwich in a little café and one of the nicest cups of coffee I have had in a long time!

After lunch we drove to up to a look out set high up on the cliffs. The photos are the ones of the girls looking out of stone windows, if you want to place them! We had a fun little walk to the look out point, stopping frequently to show the girls something or to let them walk along the logs. They were fascinated by the little bugs that encase themselves with bubbles and kept on wanting to look for them! Coming back to the car, Naomi wanted to be a bird so we were all flapping our arms pretending to be a bird much to the amusement of some fellow walkers!

At the bottom of the cliff we stopped again to look at the sea and the seals and to let the girls have a bit of a run before starting to make our way slowly back up to Lincoln City again. On the way home we stopped at another little town that had an interpretive museum about a large concrete bridge that had been built that saved you either crossing the sea by boat or having to drive a long way round. The girls really enjoyed this museum, mainly because they could play with the bricks and drive little cars over the bridges! Naomi was also fascinated by the model of the bridge in a glass case and proceeded to tell me a little story all about the people who had to cross it!

Tim was telling me though that the original bridge had been replaced since the model had been built as the original bridge had been very narrow. In fact, when the town counselors had walked over the bridge to examine it prior to making their decision for a new one, one of the ladies had been hit on the head by the wing mirror of an oncoming lorry and had been killed outright. Isn’t that a terrible story? Consequently a wider bridge was built in the late ‘80’s.

That evening, Tim and I went out for dinner to a great fish restaurant; we both had freshly caught salmon and it was delicious! It was great to be able to have a nice meal out by ourselves too!

On Sunday we went for a walk in the morning and let the girls have half an hour at the park we had been to on our first day. In the afternoon we went to the beach and had a great time building a huge sandcastle. Unfortunately this proved to be our last visit to the beach as the rain came on Monday and we were forced to find wet weather activities for the last 3 days!

We didn’t do too badly though at finding wet weather things to do. On Monday we went to the Aquarium in Newport, which was Ok, although not as good as the Seattle one even during its reconstruction period. The girls enjoyed seeing the crabs though and the sea lions and Alex was able to see many of the fish too, which was good. In the afternoon, Tim, the girls and I went to a second hand book shop in Lincoln City, which looked really tatty from the outside but was a real treasure trove inside! They had a good little section for the children and we stayed there for a while reading stories and selecting some to buy. Opposite the shop was a Christmas Store that had large Father Christmas’s on the roof outside and so I also took the girls there as Esther was desperate to look round it! We bought a little Christmas decoration that will remind us of our holiday when it comes to December! Esther was very happy playing with their soft toys and Naomi found a wonderful advent house. This was brilliant! It was made of wood and had little wooden doors that you could put things behind so that you could open one each day of advent. It was expensive – about $80 but I was quite tempted!

Once the children had gone to bed that night, the adults played Cranium, which was great fun and we laughed a lot! I have a memory of James trying to be Camilla Parker Bowles which really was quite something!!

On Tuesday we took the children for a play in the McDonalds play place, which they enjoyed! In the afternoon we returned to the book store with James and Vanessa and the children and then went to Depoe Bay to eat. We had both independently seen a restaurant called the Sea Hag which looked quite good and thought we would eat there. The food was OK but we think we were served by the Sea Hag herself! Our waitress was obviously a heavy smoker and had a very gruff voice and was a grump! We (as usual) had to check the ingredients for Esther and she was gone ages to find out what was in the batter – we thought we would never see her again! What made it worse was that when the children’s meals came they were served with smiley faces and not chips as the children were hoping for and so we had to change them; she didn’t like that either! The menu said fish and chips (not smiley faces) but she was arguing that that was what we had ordered despite Vanessa and I strongly proclaiming that we hadn’t!! Tim saw the look that she gave her colleague when we finally left and we are glad that we are not likely to go back there again!!

That evening we played Balderdash, but this game required us to use our brains rather too much and we were not as good at it as Cranium the night before! We also watched a bit of the extra features on the Lost DVD as we have finally finished Season 1! We loved it – it was great! Very thrilling!

On Wednesday, our final day, we spent the morning at home doing bits of clearing up and letting the girls do some craft and baking. In the afternoon we went to the local pitch and put place which turned out to be a big hit! The girls really enjoyed trying to hit the ball through the funny holes (although Esther just picked up the ball and put it in the hole)! Vanessa and I raced each other on the cars too!

Just as we were leaving we paid 25c per child to get a lucky egg from the machine; Esther got a small ball – shaped rubber/ eraser but I didn’t remember to call it an eraser when I said to Esther “Oh look, Esther you have got a rubber!” Since a rubber here is a condom, all the families in the place are now wondering why I am delighted that my 2 year old has a rubber!!! Never mind!! Why does something so innocent in Britain have such a bad connotation here?! Is it just to get me into trouble?

We were out of the house early on Thursday morning and had a good journey home; we were home by 2:30 having had a few short stops and one longer one for lunch. It was great to be home and to be in our own beds again. Esther really hadn’t slept well on Tuesday or Wednesday night.

On Friday morning I had my scan for baby #3 and we are delighted to say that everything looks as it should be. The scanner lady was very thorough and we were there for a long time – well over an hour. The baby did not like being scanned one little bit and wriggled and wriggled all over the place! I knew that the scans were quite long here but I think that the baby’s wriggliness delayed us a bit further. The girls were very good and watched Cinderella on the portable DVD player. We also saw the Radiographer and she said the baby was fine, so that was good!

We went shopping after the scan and then came home. In the afternoon we finished the unpacking and then went to the park. Tim went out to the Baseball on Friday night, which he enjoyed and I wrote the first part of the blog!

Yesterday we had a busy day! We went to Fry’s (electrical store) and to Ikea and then down to see the Russians. The Russians were all delighted to see us, especially Tim who they had not seen in about 6 months. It was great to catch up on their news and to see how far they have come in less than a year. M (the first lady who stayed here) now has a job and a car, although no license yet. She says that she drives about looking for policemen! I told her I didn’t want to know!!! She is doing very well and is very driven. Her husband is not so driven! The other family now has all the man’s extended family here which is making them very happy and they are in better jobs, which is good for them. They are expecting a girl in October too and although they have had a few concerns for their baby, they think that it will be OK.

Esther did something very peculiar whilst we were there and I haven’t worked out how yet! Somehow she managed to tear a large piece off the out side of the nappy; she didn’t undo it but tore the encasing layer. We learnt the hard way how vital that layer is as the whole of the inside of her nappy then fell out all over the floor. It was horrible! The inside of a nappy is cottony stuff which absorbs the wet and believe me it is not a nice experience having to pick up wet cotton stuff that she has shred all over the floor! Yuk!

Finally at 6:15 we were finally able to leave our Russians and come home and so it was a quick bath and bed for the girls last night! Today we have had a much quieter day, just going to church and then coming home to play in the garden and to do some gardening.
Tim goes back to work tomorrow; we will all miss him!

I will end it here but will leave you with a funny thing that Esther said whilst we were on holiday! She was doing some colouring I think and said “Edda genius!” So we said “Are you a genius Esther?” “Yes” she said Edda genius!!” Bye for now!

Lincoln City 1

Hello! We’re back! Hope that this finds you all well and that you have had a good couple of weeks! We have had a lovely holiday in Oregon and are now back in Issaquah! The unpacking is done and the photos are up on the website!

We have been to Lincoln City on the Oregon coast for the last fortnight in a house with our friends, Vanessa, James, Maddie and Alex. Lincoln City is about 5 hours south from here by car if you go directly. It took us about 6 hours to come home but that included several short stops and one longer stop! We actually went via Astoria on our way down and took 2 days to get there which was fun!

We left here on the 3rd June and stayed in Long Beach over night. Long Beach is south west of here, just at the bottom of the Olympic peninsula and at the start of the Pacific coast. We had an interesting drive down on a route we hadn’t previously taken. At lunch time we were looking for a nice place to have our picnic and thought that a place called Aberdeen sounded like a reasonable place as the map said that it had a castle and a boat as tourist places. Well, it was a truly dire place and one that you would not want to stop in if you had the choice. It was the sort of place where the sun fails to shine every day and where you lock the car as you drive through it!! We couldn’t get out fast enough!

We did however, find a very nice picnic spot a little further down in a forest which was very peaceful and fun! We were playing a game of “What’s the time, Mr. Wolf” with the girls before we carried on, which they thought was hilarious! We arrived at the little resort (think Butlins!) in Long Beach about 3:30 pm I think and decided that we would go swimming. The girls really enjoyed their swim and were splashing about for a while! I enjoy taking the girls swimming, but you don’t get much chance to swim yourself when they are this age. However, Naomi is getting used to lying on her back and Esther is gradually getting used to the water.

We then went out for fish and chips for tea and then the girls went to bed! It took Esther a while to settle but then we all slept well! In the morning, we were out very quickly and found a marvelous place for breakfast that served delicious pancakes! Esther had sausages and bread, which she loves and we had fruit pancakes which were extremely good! The place was so popular that there were people queuing outside the door to get in but it was worth it and definitely worth a detour if you are going that way! I will have to see if Tim can remember the name!

We headed off down the 101 after that and went over a magnificent bridge that links
Washington and Oregon over the Columbia River. It was an incredibly long bridge; I don’t think I have ever driven over one that long before and we had a good view of the river! It was also the last place that Lewis and Clarke (famous explorers) came to before spending the winter in what is now Astoria and then heading back along the rivers to where they had started on the East side of the States.

We stopped for a short time in Astoria and then headed on down to Tillamook for some lunch! Unfortunately it was raining by the time we reached there, so we had our picnic in the car but it did hold off long enough to allow the children some time in the petting farm that was linked to the cheese factory.

We arrived at our house just after 3 on Sunday afternoon only to discover that the lady who was cleaning the house was not aware that there was anyone coming in and so the house was not ready for us! We were able to unload the stuff though and then headed off to the supermarket to by some essentials for the first night. By the time we came back, Vanessa and James had arrived and the cleaning lady had just left!

The house was lovely – really large and it had the best view of the coastline in Lincoln City, we think! It was really high up (less chance of tsunamis!) and it was very comfortable! Naomi and Maddie shared a room, which worked out well, mainly because Maddie would be asleep by the time Naomi came to bed and then Esther had a room to herself. Alex had the closet in Vanessa and James’ room!! Naomi excepting, none of the children slept all that well, for different reasons. Esther didn’t sleep well, mainly I think because she is not any longer comfy in the travel cot! She is fine in her cot here but she is really too big for the travel cot now. We’ll have to switch to a bed soon anyway and definitely when we go away!

We didn’t do too much on the Monday; the Daddies took the girls to the beach whilst Vanessa and I went shopping. In the afternoon we went to a park which had a wonderful wooden castle, with all sorts of hidey holes, tunnels, climbing ropes, bridges and slides! The girls loved it! They had an obstacle course and were able to get all the way round without touching the ground! The park was by a lake and was really popular! It was a fun afternoon!

We had taken the blow up bouncy castle that Hannah had sent to Esther for her birthday and we blew that up for the children on the first day; it was a great success and they all loved it, even Alex although he had to go on it when the others were not there! The girls spent their time throwing themselves onto it and bouncing on it and giggled and giggled!

As the children were all up early we tended to go out once Alex had had a nap if we were all going together. Each day the girls did a different craft activity. I had made some colouring books for them, and had taken some play dough as well as the very popular Poppy and Sam cook book! Vanessa had also taken some different craft things including some paint and some tee-shirts for them to decorate as their holiday reminder! So between us we found an activity for them to do each day, which they loved. We made biscuits and flapjacks too, which went down well with all of us!

On Tuesday we went to the beach and flew our kite! It was really windy and the kite was great but I found it difficult to steer! It kept nose-diving onto the sand when I did it but Tim and James were able to fly it for longer! Unfortunately when we took it again there was not enough wind, so I was not able to get any better! We’ll have to try it here! In the afternoon we went to a place we had seen last year called the Devils Soup bowl. Thousands of years ago the roof of a large cave had fallen in which now means that you can see the sea whooshing in and swirling around the cave! IT is quite interesting and we also had a lovely drive along the stunning coastal road.

On Wednesday, Tim, the girls and I went into Newport which was a nicer town than Lincoln City which was a bit grim. Newport has an older part which was quite pretty and also has a science center that we stopped at. The science centre had a touch pool and a tank that allowed you to see an octopus! The girls were very excited and enjoyed touching the fish and watching the octopus.

We then drove and parked in the older part of Newport and wandered along looking at the shops. We found a wonderful shop that if I had more money than sense I would spend it in! It sold mainly wooded crafts, like xylophones and chimes as well as large and small brass sculptures, including a set of 5 enormous frogs that were playing different instruments. The girls loved them but at $5000 each we were not in the market to buy!! Apparently you got a discount if you bought the set!!! What was amazing about this shop was how child friendly they were and actively encouraged the children to play on the xylophones and other instruments and to sit in the fish net swing that they had there! I was nervous but the assistants were really friendly and totally relaxed about the girls banging on their expensive xylophones!! Consequently the girls thought that this was the best shop ever!!!

Once we finally dragged the children away we found some lunch and then wandered along the other shops until we came to some large sea lions basking in the sun on a piece of pier. WE watched them for ages but after a while they all went to sleep and so there were not very interesting after that!! Instead we drove to Yaquina Light house where we were able to walk down to the Tide Pools and see the star fish, the anemones, the hermit crabs and the sea snails all living in them. There were rangers there answering questions and showing you things that you would otherwise miss and Naomi loved it! Esther was interested for about 15 mins but then was far more excited by the stony beach! She kept on saying “look, stones” and trying to pick up as many as her little hands could hold (about 3)! She had a great time running and climbing but Naomi was quite fascinated by the sea life!

On Thursday we went to the local factory outlet mall and Tim bough himself a pair of Birkenstock shoes! Apparently they are very comfortable! He also bought himself a very smart shirt in Eddie Bauer’s and also tried on a woman’s skirt for the purposes of some teenage children’s scavenger hunt! Their teacher asked Tim if he would mind posing for a photo in a skirt and he said yes! It was very funny and I am sorry that I don’t have a copy of the photo!!

It was a glorious afternoon on Thursday and we found a lovely quiet cove to enjoy the beach! The girls paddled and made sand castles and it was really very warm and sunny! We had a lovely afternoon.

On Friday we did a bit of shopping in the morning and then went to Depoe Bay in the afternoon. Depoe Bay is another village a little further along the coast and it has a very pretty view of the sea, which we enjoyed! However it also has a lot of little trinket shops which Naomi adored and she kept on seeing ghastly little fairy or mermaidy things and saying “oh I love this mummy!” she really did have a great afternoon looking at everything! Esther was less impressed as she was not allowed to touch any thing and yet she was desperate to get her hands on the large chimes that they sold!

Well, I know that I haven’t finished but I am going to stop it here as I have written loads and you will be needing 2 cups of tea to drink whilst you read it as it is! I will finish off the rest of the holiday on Sunday as usual, so I hope that you can wait until then!

Delayed Blog!

Good Evening! Hope that this finds you all well. We are fine; I had a routine doctor’s appointment for the baby this afternoon and everything is going well. We could hear the heart beat and it seems to be growing normally. I have a scan soon.

It is very humid here today, after a gorgeous day yesterday and an OK day today. It was great to see the sun again after 10 days of rain but it looks as if it was short lived! Rain is on its way again! Still, the girls got in the garden yesterday afternoon and we went to the park this afternoon with Fritzi which was lovely!

Yesterday was a very busy day with our normal activities during the day but then I had a hair cut in the evening followed by some friends visiting! We had a great evening and my hair looks better than it did, so it was successful, although busy! Naomi enjoyed her dancing class yesterday and Esther had fun in her music class.

It was our bank holiday on Monday too and we spent a great afternoon and evening with Melinda, Chad and Melinda’s mother. We took them to Snoqualmie where the children entertained us by playing on the train they could climb on and we walked through the town, looking at the old buildings. Naomi was very impressed that Daddy knew the train driver – the man is a colleague at work in the week! She said, when asked if she would like to be a train driver when she grew up, that she would like to be a ballerina or a fairy! It was the first time I have heard her say that, it was very sweet!

Naomi and Tim discussed the time for no less than 15 minutes on Monday morning as we were all lying in bed! She started off by asking Tim what the numbers were on the clock (it was 7:45) and the conversation continued from there! I got up with Esther at one point and at 8:00 she came running into me to tell me that there was an 8 and two noughts!! She was very excited about it all! It was very funny!

She found stone whilst we were at Snoqualmie and told me this morning that it was Mt. Rainier! I had to smile! Mt. Rainier is the largest mountain in Washington State but was impressed that Naomi knew enough to call her stone after it!

Esther is fine and was very proud of herself yesterday as she was able to do a wee wee in the potty! I am hoping to start training her in the summer, but she is not quite ready yet, but hopefully a month will help! She is a real pickle though at removing her nappy herself! It is worse now that she isn’t wearing trousers so often but that doesn’t help much anyway! She continues to sing to us all and loves to play the piano with Tim. She has started to make up little songs of her own and then say “Edda singing!”

Well, I think that is all the news for now. I am having trouble with the internet tonight, so if it is late, then it is the internet’s fault, not mine! We are going on holiday on Saturday and so there will not be any blogs for the next 2 weeks, I should think!

Until then, take care and I will write and tell you all about the holiday on our return!