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April, 2010

  1. Piroshky Piroshky

    April 28, 2010 by Katie

    You know how you live somewhere for awhile, but only discover certain places once you have visitors?  It’s like a fresh set of eyes looking at the world and observing everything that has become mundane to you.

    Perhaps Ben’s favorite thing about Seattle was his discovery of Piroshky, Piroshky— a little Russian pastry shop at Pike Place Market.  I’ve been by it hundreds of times, but never made a purchase.  There are always really long lines on Saturdays so I’ve always avoided it, but if you go on a weekday there’s no wait for the tasty goodness.  And the smell….OH, the smell!  MMmmmmm.

    We ate our piroshkies at the park, and then headed to Lake Union for a very important appointment.




    We booked a seaplane tour for Dad & Ben around the Seattle area.  I think these two pilots really enjoyed getting a birdseye view, and somehow convinced the seaplane pilot to fly longer and do some touch-and-gos that he normally doesn’t do for ‘regular’ passengers.

    After that, they ran off to the Museum of Flight and the rest of us relaxed in the sun before meeting up for a fish n’ chips dinner at Ivars.

    And that was the end of one crazy mild spring break :)

    Thanks for visiting, dear family.  It pains me that we don’t live closer (how about y’all move to Seattle? wink wink), but I’m blessed that we have wonderful opportunities like these to spend as a family.  Until next time….

    Category General, Pictures | Tags: | 1 Comment

  2. Cherished Time

    April 23, 2010 by Katie

    Spring Break, Part 2. Told through pictures.

    Visiting the Columbia Tower.

    Getting the keys to our first home.

    Introducing Ben to Vivace.

    Cherishing time with my sibling.

    Pizza & Game Night. And lots of laughs.

    Category Fun, Pictures | Tags: | No Comments

  3. Family Invasion

    April 15, 2010 by Katie

    Since it’s been a month, I figure I should recap our Spring Break 2010 experience before much more time passes.

    No, we didn’t jet off to some tropical island for sand & surf.  Instead, my family came to Seattle to spend a few days with us.  Even better.

    Thankfully, mom & dad come visit us often, but my brother Ben and his wife Kim haven’t been to Seattle for over 2 years.  (gasp!)  We were really excited to have them take some time off work & school to make the trek up here to the Northwest.  It’s always wonderful to have all 6 of us together at the same time.

    I think they were surprised to find Seattle sunny and warm(ish) when they arrived.

    No visit is complete without a ferry ride.

    And that was day one of Spring Break. More tame adventures to come.

    Category Fun | Tags: | No Comments

  4. Urban to Suburban

    April 7, 2010 by Katie

    It’s been awhile since we last ‘talked’.  Things have been busy, to say the least.  My family came to visit us (that’ll have to wait for another post), and we’ve been in transition mode.

    We packed up our 1 bedroom apartment in downtown Seattle…..

    ….and said goodbye to our beloved urban neighborhood.

    Amidst the whirlwind of packing, working, and entertaining visitors, we bid farewell.

    “Bye bye” to the city lights, shops, restaurants, traffic, and homeless people of Seattle.  It was a blast while we were together, but we’ve moved on to the quieter, peaceful place called Kirkland.

    Yep, we dove into the stressful, but exciting adventure of buying our first home.

    no, he didn’t carry me over the threshold. :(

    Gone is the cramped lifestyle of apartment living and hustle & bustle of city life.

    Now (this was very important to Todd), our car has it’s own garage—not sharing one with hundreds of other cars.

    And there’s a backyard (with fruit trees!) to mow and plant a garden (important to me).  It’s peaceful out here.

    The timing worked out perfectly in that we got the keys while my family was visiting, so they ‘volunteered’ to help with a little cleaning.  We’re thankful for being able to share this special moment in our lives with them, plus the house was all ready to move into at the end of the week.

    Fortunately, moving wasn’t very difficult for us (aside from packing what seemed like a thousand boxes) since we hired movers to do all the heavy lifting.  I highly recommend it. Basically, I stood back and drank my Vivace (okay, we do miss living next to that coffee shop) while they toiled away.

    .  .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .

    And the day after we moved in, we adopted these two little brothers.

    This is Guster. He’s mine.

    Nicknames: Little G. Gussy. He’s very energetic, playful and curious.  And gets in trouble a lot.

    And this is Todd’s cat, The Stig.

    First name, The. Middle name, Stig.  (if you’re not sure what that is, go here.)

    Nicknames: Stig, Stiggy.  He’s the more mellow of the two (which isn’t saying much), but is quite the speed demon. Unlike his namesake, he’s quite the talker and will actually hold a conversation with you.

    Their favorite things to do are sleep….

    hang out at the local watering hole…..

    play with random toys….

    work on the computer….

    and have sprint races on the wood floors. No pictures of this because it’s always a blur.

    This new suburban lifestyle seems to be fitting us nicely.

    Category General | Tags: | 5 Comments