Photo Recap: Daily Life

I'm a few weeks behind on the blog, but trying to play
catch-up a little here today. This was the last little snow
we got...I think it was right around March 10.

Skippy has been an indoor cat her whole life, but we've recently been
letting her out on the fully-enclosed, second story deck. Rain, snow, or
sun, she loves it out there!

With so much rain and snow, the boys have been watching more TV and
movies than usual. Mike recently introduced them to vintage G.I. Joe.

Tuckered out after an afternoon of action figure play.

Breakfast one day.

Ollie with tanagram puzzles. He goes into preschool at
12:35, but he and I do some "schoolish" stuff together
in the mornings. 

I'm finally going through the last of our boxes. Believe it or not, I even had
to make a trip to Goodwill!

Every Wednesday, Merrit has a half-day of school and Ollie's out of school
all day. Wednesday afternoons are perfect library days!

Merrit is going through a graphic novel/comic book phase. I hope he
returns to the plain ol' written word again one of these days...

Another day, another breakfast.
We love being able to see the lake from our dining table!

Ollie and I have been having fun with the train set.
Until we have our guest room set up, it's the perfect
spot for building big tracks!

Feeding the ducks at a local park on Lake Sammammish (about a 10-minute
drive away from our house).

You know I had to buy this shirt for Ollie in the Seattle
Aquarium gift shop. He loves all things Star Wars.

Mike splurged and bought the boys a set of Star Wars
ships to go with the action figures they already have.
A TIE Fighter and an X-Wing.

"Luke Sci-copter" (as Ollie says) and R2-D2 go in this ship.

A week later. Still infatuated.

We have been getting tons of rain lately. It rained straight for, I think, 12
days. It was really getting to be crazy. Skippy likes to go out and lick up
the puddles on the deck, though.

My new favorite hot beverage. Perfect on cold, rainy days.

I wear a size eight. This is a huge earthworm!!!
(Like my new boots? Now I want a navy blue rain trench to go with .)

A hairstyle I'm trying out. Big loose curls.
Bangs growing out. Length growing out.

We were killing some time last weekend. Spent $20 on lottery tickets,
won $16 back. Then spent $16 and won $4 back. Ah, that's the way it goes...

Mike and I cheezing it up at a neat little place we found in Seattle
called the Little Water Cantina, right on Lake Union. Patio seating
looked awesome...but too cold. We'll have to go back in summer.

Being little hams.

My best friend and I.

The guacamole was really good.

"Oh yeaaaaaah!"

Later that same weekend...
We met up with my brother, Rich, for authentic Ethiopian
food. Everything is served on sourdough flat bread (called
injera), which is sort of like a spongy, tangy crepe. You
use little pieces of the injera to scoop up the food from
the shared plate in the center of the table.

To be honest, I'm not even sure what we ordered; Rich ordered. But there
was homemade cheese (delicious), a lamb dish, a beef dish, a chicken dish,
sauteed greens, a lentil dish, a marinated salad, and a potato dish.

Rich just got back from a five-week trip to Australia, which he told us all about.
What an adventure!

Sunset, a clear night, and the Space Needle as we drive
through town.

Getting ready for my next killer workout. I've been working out like an animal
since late February. Doing Shaun T's "Insanity" workout. I'm smiling now,
but I won't be in about 45 minutes...

Those workouts ARE insane. I had to take this pic and send it to my friend Dawn
 as a joke, but it's worth including here. This is me half-way through one workout.
Dying. On the floor. In a pool of my own sweat! :)

Part two of the plan: Lots of veggies and lean meats.
Also doing some protein shakes and lots of water!

We have this great tree out in front of the house. Merrit has
learned to climb it and likes to sit up in the crook.

Mike and Ollie ... Mike took this pic. So cute.

The best part of the day!

Hiking at Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park

Mike only had to ask us once. "Hey, do you guys want to get out on your own today?"

That's a "yes." :)

Since today looks like it's going to be the only sunny day we'll have in the 10-day forecast, Dawn and I knew we'd have to do something outdoors. I'm still figuring out the area, so I was a little stumped.

And then I found the website for Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park. I typed it into the GPS and we were off! Cougar Mountain is a 25,000-acre park that is, believe it or not, just minutes from our house! There are lots of trails with great little names like Shy Bear Trail, Coal Creek Falls Trail, Clay Pit Road, Licorice Fern Trail, and Klondike Swamp Trail. Dawn and I hiked Old Man's Trail, Coyote Creek Trail, and Radio Peak Trail...about 2.5 to 3 miles in all. 

We felt great and had planned to hike farther, but we turned around and headed back for the car when we started to get some light frozen precip. Sleet? Or tiny hail? We really weren't dressed for cold temps, and started making jokes about the headlines we'd make: "Two girls, ill-dressed for winter weather, lost on Cougar Mountain with only 16 ounces of water and two cheesesticks between them."

You're reading this blog post, so you know how the story ended. :)

Lots of moss-covered deciduous trees, serpentine trails,
giant ferns, and tall evergreens.

Dawn trailblazes ahead. Great picture.

We had steady uphill climbs. Nothing too strenuous.
Mike and I will have to come back with the kids; they could
totally do these trails.

Since we've gotten so much rain over the last 48 hours,
there were lots of mucky spots in the trail. Action shot!

We sprinted a few of the hills, just to make our hike a bit
more of a workout.

Workout? What workout? Well, whatever calories we burned, we quickly
gained right back with a trip to the Issaquah Brewhouse. We split the four
sampler glasses. We chose a cider, an IPA, a pale ale, and a winter brew.

Sipping hard cider. Mmm.

Dawn discovers she likes IPA.

About an hour later, we're back home and ready to relax. The boys hopped in
the hot tub with us and Mike snapped this pic from the balcony above.

Little Hot Pot

Today, we drained the hot tub, cleaned it out, cleaned and sterilized the filters, filled it up with water (we're on a well here), treated it with chemicals, and heated it up to a deliciously bubbly 104 degrees. Yes, it took all day. But by Sunday evening, we were so excited and happy to climb in and relax! 

It took all day and, of course, we documented with photos. Having our very own hot tub is, after all, pretty freakin' silly. :)

Pulling the filters out of the now-drained hot tub.

Merrit is getting a little tutorial in what we're doing here.

Killing some time riding scooters on the back patio
while the tub fills up.

Ollie's turn!

A moment of relaxation. How did we end up with such
a GORGEOUS spot?! We really still can't believe it.

From one hot pot to another. We left the hot tub project and went out to eat at a
restaurant called Little Hot Pot. It's sort of like fondue, with a big boiling
pot of broth on the table and raw ingredients to cook and eat. It was fun,
delicious, healthy, and affordable. We'll definitely go back!

The ingredients we ordered: thinly sliced lamb, thinly sliced beef, noodles,
bamboo shoots, baby bok choy, and watercress. (We ordered too much;
next time, we'll get about half this much!)

Mike cooking noodles in the "Rejuvenation" broth,
which was full of garlic and ginger.

The broth is boiling away while our meats and veggies
quickly cook.

Hot tea to finish the meal. 

 

When we got back to the house it was starting to get dark
and the hot tub was perfectly warm. Get your suits on,
everyone! All four of us enjoyed about an hour-long soak!
Awesomeness.