Garden D’lights

Although Aunty A had done well on her first couple of nights, it had been down hill ever since. She was going to bed and waking up 3 times before we’d even reached midnight! By the end of her first week we decided to go take her out in the evening to try and keep her up late and hope that the fresh air made her sleep once she got to bed.

As the forecast looked good for Friday night (good = not raining) we bought tickets for the Bellevue Botanical Gardens light display, Garden D’Lights. We arrived at about 7pm and set off round the gardens. The boys oohed and aahed but Anuty A had the Christmas grumps (or was very tired) and didn’t think much of it all! The next day she claimed to be feeling unwell but we think she was just being the Christmas Grinch!

Either way, the rest of us enjoyed it and the lights looked lovely. Not tacky at all!

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It still didn’t make her sleep any better. Oh well, at least we tried.

 

Cannonball Splash

What a hot weekend. Stupidly hot. So hot that we wanted it to rain. But it didn’t.

The weekend started with a trip to the Issaquah farmers market. We stocked up on some lovely fruit and veg, bought a nice range of flavored oils, made our tums rumble looking at all the yummy food and then went back to the frog selling stand and made the purchase that the boys have been waiting for for the last few weeks.

After spending all our dollars we went back home and dropped it all off before heading on up to the Barking Frog in Woodinville. As usual the food was lovely but the service a little slow. But it didn’t matter as it was cool inside and about 95 degrees outside! Our usual dish of roasted chicken breast and ravioli was duly dispatched along with a couple of bottles of wine and then we set off back home.

The little of the afternoon that remained was spent sitting in the garden getting hot, moving inside and staying hot so returning to the garden and getting hotter. Did I mention it was hot!?

Sunday morning appeared and the heat remained. After a quick shower we set off up to Newcastle golf course to have a long, lazy brunch at the golf club. With crab topped eggs benedict, omelettes and chocolate drop pancakes washed down with coffee, juice and champagne consumed we took in the beautiful view across Seattle before returning home to the garden.

At this point the decision was made to inflate the cannonball splash! We’d purchased it in Lake Chelan last summer and it had provided much entertainment. With the slide inflated and the splash pool full it was time for the fun to begin again:

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After cooling down on the slide it was time to make ourselves all hot again by going over to Seattle to watch the Sounders play LA Galaxy. Bad planning on my behalf meant that we were on the side of the stadium that was in the full glare of the sun! Fortunately by the time the second half came round the sun had dipped behind the stadium and the temperature became a lot more pleasant.

Sounders crushed the Galaxy 4-0 and David Beckham was roundly booed every time he touched the ball – quite right too! We had been worried that Aunty A may not enjoy the soccer but we were wrong! Still high on the excitement of sliding down the cannonball splash she really enjoyed it – especially the Soundwave! In fact she enjoyed herself so much that she tried to get Harry to drink alcoholic lemonade – before realizing that it was actually alcoholic! Harry missed his opportunity by saying no!

And so that was the end of our hot weekend! Beautiful weather, lovely food and drink, some new frogs, fun in the garden and all finished off with soccer in Seattle! I need to get back to work to enjoy the air conditioning and have a rest!

Independence Day

It was our second July 4th / Independence Day celebration in America. This time round the build up seemed to center on most Americans asking us if we celebrated July 4th in the UK. They seemed quite taken aback when they found out we didn’t. Nevermind.

Last year we had spent the afternoon and evening in Bellevue in the park enjoying the weather, slides and inflatables for kids and the firework display in the evening. This year we decided to do something a little different – mainly scarred by the memories of taking an hour and a half to get out of the car park after the fireworks had finished.

We did keep one July 4th tradition by going to the Cheesecake Factory for a meal but in the evening we decided to go to Vasa Park rather than Bellevue Park. The park opened to the public at 9pm and we were there with our blankets ready for what we assumed to be a rather low key celebration.

While there may not have been a concentrated 20 minute long firework display we actually got something way better! Super awesome in fact! We found ourselves a nice log down by the beach and sat watching as all around the lake the houses began letting their fireworks off. We had great views of them all plus we could see those on Issaquah Highlands, in Issaquah, over the far side to Sammamish Heights and to the north at Redmond. It was really beautiful – probably the best firework display we’d seen. And the best thing was that it just went on and on and on! We sat and watched them for about an hour and a half and as we arrived home we could still see and hear them going off.

I think our venue for next years celebrations has been set – we’re definitely going back to Vasa Park. I would also recommend it as a good time for people to visit!

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Check out the piccies here.

 

Avery

On Monday afternoon Toby went to Avery’s birthday party. Avery loves Toby very much. Toby is not quite so sure. Avery talks about Toby all the time. Toby doesn’t talk about Avery. However just before the party Avery phoned her Aunty and told her that she had “found somebody else”. Who was this new person in Avery’s life you may well wonder? Who could possibly replace her love for Toby? Well despite the fact that she had never met him, Avery’s new man was Harry! A sign of stresses to come? Who knows. As they left the party Avery did tell her cousin that she still loves Toby. Phew!

What a beautiful couple they make on their inflatable throne:

Brunch

Americans are quite in to their brunch but we’ve only been once since we’ve been here. It was probably the shock of the bill which has stopped us going again! This morning though, we thought we’d sample it again but this time we went somewhere new, we went to the Calcutta Grill at Newcastle golf club. We’d read a few reviews and everyone said how amazing the view was. And it was! Possibly the best view of Seattle, the Olympic mountains, Bellevue and Lake Washington that we’ve found and it’s only 10 minutes from our house!

After admiring the view, we stuffed ourselves silly with omelettes, wagyu rib-eye, chocolate drop pancakes and champagne!

And if the food and stunning view wasn’t enough we missed a stray golf ball on the drive out by a couple of inches!

Garden d’Lights

I’m not sure how many years it has been going but for the last few the Bellevue botanical garden puts on a display in the lead up to Christmas. We bought our tickets and set off to see what on earth it was all about. We made a quick pitstop at the Cheesecake Factory and then with darkness having descended and the rain having stopped we arrived.

The pictures probably don’t do it justice but it was a very pretty walk around the garden. There were squirrels, frogs, spiders, waterfalls, leaping salmon, the loch ness monster and a Christmas tree amongst other things:

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We’ll definitely be going back next year!