The Weatherman

On Saturday, the West Seattle Junction businesses hand out candy for a few hours.  So every year we get the boys together for some photos and a round of trick or treating.  Zach is a little speedster so we end up getting separated from the group pretty quickly, but we made it to all of the businesses and both boys were good during the walk.  Here is a quick shot of Nate and Zach.

Nate had taken about a 40 minute nap before this…He was really tired.  In fact, when we got home, he slept for another 3 hours – very unlike him.

On Saturday morning and Sunday morning, we worked with Zach on peeing in the potty.  He went through 3 pairs of pants/underwear on Saturday, lots of time on the potty, but no success.  On Sunday, we skipped the pants/underwear and let him go naked.  HE FINALLY DID IT!!!  He peed in the potty.  This was his first time ever.  Later he wet himself and peed on the floor…but, no matter, we’ve made progress.  Daycare is working with him as well so we’ll just continue the training next weekend during the day.

Yesterday I got out for a few hours to go on a hike.  I went up to Twin Falls State Park outside of North Bend.  The trail runs along the south fork of the Snoqualmie River.  I took some shots along the way.

Large waterfall.

View through the trees of the river.

View of the upper falls.

Looking for Brad Pitt.

It was nice to get out on a trail for a few hours – can’t wait to take the boys.  Actually, lots of people were taking their toddlers and infants on this trail.  I think Zach would tire out – we probably need to do some practice runs on the trail along the Cedar River.

Yesterday we made our annual PEPS group migration to the Remlinger Farms pumpkin patch in Fall City.  The drive out was beautiful with the leaves changing, some broken clouds, some sun…perfect mix.

The pumpkins were all looking good this year – not many rotten pumpkins and good assortment of healthy pumpkins.  Many different sizes to choose from.  Zach found his pumpkin pretty quick – that only means we had to carry it around the rest of the time.  We also ran through the corn maze with all of the boys.

Now for the photos.

Children of the Corn (err Pumpkins – corn is behind them).

Hammin it up with his HMB pumpkin hat.

Tractor and hay bale trailer that takes you to the pumpkin patch.

Zach playing in the mud…I mean…looking for that perfect pumpkin.

Nate found his pumpkin.  Daddy said that he could have it if he could carry it back.  Nate didn’t get a pumpkin.

Morning farm shot.

After the pumpkin patch we invaded Fall City Cafe.  Props to them for quickly accommodating 9 adults, 5 toddlers, and 3 infants.

So I’ve been a bit busy with work trips over the last two weeks.  From Sept 16th to Sept 18th I did a quick trip to Baltimore.  I had no time to tour around as I arrived late on the 16th and flew out at 6:15am on the 18th.  We stayed at Henderson’s Wharf and had dinner at the Black Olive (highly recommend it).  Here is a shot of the neighborhood near our hotel – very Boston-like.

I came home for a short stay and flew to Ireland on the 20th.  I left on the 9:45pm British Airways flight to London-Heathrow and then took Aer Lingus over to Dublin.  This was my first flight on BA and I was very impressed.  The only problem with the flight was the fact I drank too much before hand.  Not a bright idea.

So before I left the house that evening I had a couple of glasses of wine with Steph.  I had to check in bags at least 2 hours before departure so I had 2 double gin and tonics in the hotel bar.  You would think I would stop at that point.  Nope, I had two of the little bottles of wine on the plane.  Yep, I was pretty toasty…and really dehydrated.  I made it through the flight but not without some discomfort.

I worked in Dublin from Monday to Thursday.  We met with two companies while there.  The first company setup a private party at the Guiness Brewery – including a private tour.

After dinner we had drinks in Temple Bar at Gogarty’s where we could listen to some traditional Irish music.

On another night we had dinner with many of our Dublin coworkers.  I also went running one day in Phoenix Park – had to get some exercise while out there.  On Friday I flew to London for a day.  Steph and I had spent 8 days in London back in 2004 so this wasn’t my first visit.  It was absolutely beautiful in London so I decided to spend most of my time outstide.  I walked through Parliament Square (think Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, 10 Downing Stree), to Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, and then down to Thames and over to Tower Bridge.  I probably put about 4 to 5 miles of walking in during the afternoon.

So why did I go to London if I’ve been there?  Purely to meet up with George (good friend from College) and her family (Dermid and Max).  Fortunately I was able to see them Saturday morning before departing for home.  George and Dermid have a wonderful 4 month old name Max.  I got a ton of smiles – he was a charming little chap!

George lives in Richmond – suburb southwest of London (not far from Heathrow).  It is the greenest community in London with many parks.  Here are some shots along the Thames.

The flight home was uneventful – just long.  It was great to see Steph and boys – it is very tough to leave them for so long.  Today was went to Grady’s one year birthday party so Zach and Nate had on their birthday clothes – they even posed for some photos before we left.

BTW, these might be the first pictures of them together where someone isn’t crying!

I met our project manager/contractor assigned to our project today.  He showed up at around 9:45am and we stepped through a bunch of checklists for the next 45 minutes.  Today he laid down a protective floor covering, he moved in his tools, and basically demo’d the whole kitchen.  All of the cabinets have been removed as has the dishwasher.  I have some picutres from before the demo (haven’t took pictures of the kitchen yet today).

Just to make today even more interesting, the boys’ daycare was closed so daddy was very excited to hang out with them all day.  Well, not really excited…more like scared.  Trust me when I say that work is much easier than watching a 1 year old and a 3 year old.  So to make the best of it we went to Endolyne Joes for lunch (best french fries in West Seattle if you didn’t know) and then I took them to the Zoo.  Now this was dangerous since we didn’t leave the house until almost 11am.

The zoo was great.  Zach ran around the whole time with Cars backpack on checking out all of the animals.  I think he liked the elephants the most – at least that was his favorite today.  As for the backpack, we picked it up on Sunday so Zach could carry around his own stuff.  He seems to like it a lot.

Pre demo picture.

Second view of kitchen pre-demo.

Zach at the zoo.

Zebras at the zoo.

Zach’s favorite alphabet.

Bee in the yard (for those who know me, my lens had a min focus distance of 1.5m)

Nater on the swing.

Next up for the kitchen – complete the demo tomorrow, new appliances arrive tomorrow (to be stored in the garage), and the electrician will be here on Wednesday and Thursday working on the canned lights, plugs, and switches.

Well, we kept pretty this weekend again.  Friday evening we held a BBQ at our house for Steph’s work…we had around 15 people over for a potluck – we supplied the burgers, hot dogs, and refreshments.  But the big story for the weekend was our one night of camping at Millersylvania State Park – about 10 minutes south of Olympia.

First, Millersylvania is a beautiful park and campground situated amoung a primarily Douglas Fir forest and bordering on Deep Lake (don’t think it’s very deep).  We had two adjoining campsights (the other site being used by the Alessi’s).  We packed up the van on Saturday morning and left home at 12:30…We were checked in just before 2pm.

The only painful part of this trip was the amount of stuff you need to bring camping when it involves 2 kids.  So we had our huge Kelty Green River 6 tent, the queen size air mattress, a single air mattress, and the pack-n-play.  We had enough room in our test for another queen size mattress!

We took a walk to Deep Lake where the boys ran around the little beach touching the water.  Zach did fall in – about 3 inches of water.  He got soaked and I think a little scared from his mishap so we had to hurry back to camp and get him changed.  The night was cool (Olympia got down to 37 which tied a record for this date), but the boys slept well.  Mom didn’t sleep since dad kept snoring (he was drunk).  The morning for dad was rough with his hangover.  But the boys jumped right into their playing routine.  We packed up camp and left at around 11:30am (home by 12:30)…then the unpacking started.  2 to 3 hours later everything we put back and things were cleaned up.

Lots of work for such a short trip…but we had a good time.

Palace de Arthur

Minutes before Zach fell in.

Looking out over Deep Lake.

Canoeist on Deep Lake.

Looking up from our campsite.

Random picture of Nate about a week ago…funny laugh.

And for the movie…This covers Memorial Day weekend with Jan and Mike, setting up the tent in our yard, camping, and post camping fun with the kids – It’s a long one.

We had another busy weekend for the Arthurs.  We didn’t travel far but seemed to move around a lot…trip to REI, trip to the grocery store, running, walk to coffee, morning trip to Seward Park, lunch in downtown, trip to pickup firewood, trial setup of our new tent, walk the dog, clean, and cook…it all adds up.

Before I forget, here is a picture from Zach’s birthday party that Steph took.

Rare moment on film where they are together.

While I was picking up firewood, I was able to take a quick shot of this racoon.  He wouldn’t look down since he was sleeping.  Jim kept throwing wood in the vicinity (absolutely far enough away to not even come close to hitting it) and finally the lil guy popped his head up.

Raccoon in the tree.

Zach at Seward Park

Looking over Lake Washington at Seward Park

Smith Tower in downtown Seattle (we ate just up the street at Collins Pub).

Now onto the tent…the thing is huge.  We bought the Kelty Green River 6.  It has floor space of 13.5′ by 9′ and an 80 square foot vestibule.  Center height is around 6 and a half feet.  I was able to get a good portion of it setup on my own but definitely needed help to move it and setup the rain fly.  It is a sweet palace.  We are going away for one night of camping next weekend – the first camping night with the boys – it could be interesting.

Today we cruised around a small portion of Seward Park along Lake Washington.  Wow, what a beautiful park.  It is amazingly untouched with beautiful forests and paths throughout.  I definitely want to head back and go running around there.

A quick comment about the firewood – Jim, friend of mine in Sammammish, lost some trees in the December 2006 wind storm.  He had cut up the trees into largish chunks last year and he has been splitting the wood over the last month – so I was able to pick up some (probably a fifth of a cord)…I agreed to pay $1.18 per cubic foot (don’t ask).

And now for one really annoying item.  As some of you know, Steph was at Whistler in early May for a conference.  Steph has an iPhone.  These two facts can really f*ck you over if you don’t turn off the data part of the iPhone.  We got dinged for $650 of data transfer fees…basically any email she downloaded on the phone incurred huge fees.  For example, one data transfer session for 6.2 MB (this could be one email with a largish photo) cost $94!  AT&T, those stealing bastards.  That’s ridiculous.  They have one page buried on their website that I found that discusses this.  I’ll be honest, even if I looked before she left, I may have not found it.  I need to call them, although, I’m sure it will just piss me off and I’ll get no where.

Sometimes, not all that glitters is gold.  During the week Steph and I talked about heading out to Mt Rainier on Saturday if the weather cooperated.  Friday night was wonderfully clear and we awoke on Saturday morning to clear blue skies.  We promptly packed up and headed out on our journey with Nate and Zach.  As we were driving south we heard there might be showers in the cascades…well, it didn’t take long…it started raining in Auburn (only about 20 minutes from our house).  So much for the clear blue skies.

The total drive up to Paradise took about 2.5 hours (we didn’t stop heading up).  The boys were very good the whole way.  Once at Paradise we checked out the inn and the visitors center.  We couldn’t do much hiking on account there was still 13 feet of snow on the ground…yes, thirteen feet.  Plus it was raining off and on.  We could see about halfway up Rainier – the remainder was stuck in the clouds.  We had lunch at the visitors center and took in the views between rain showers.

The plan on the way down was to stop several times so I could photos.  There are several scenic viewpoints along the way of waterfalls, glaciers, rivers, and forest.  There is one longish turnout with dramatic views of the Nisqually River – while there we decided to change Nate’s diaper.  He had been fussy since we left Paradise.  He had some poops, but otherwise no big deal.  Then Steph changed Zach…OH MY GOD!  He had shit down in his socks and almost up too his neck – I kid you NOT.  Every piece of clothing he had on had crap on it.  Not only that, we got globs of poop smeared in the back of the van.  Change of clothes for Zach?  Nope, we didn’t bring any – didn’t really think he would need them.  So Zach rode the rest of the back in his diaper and baseball cap…and yes, a few blankets.

Bag of poop and clothes – yes, we tossed the clothes.

Post poop nap.

Zach and Nate fell asleep for a bit but not long enough.  For the last 90 minutes of our drive, Nate cried.  The whole time!  We’d give him toys, he would throw them.  We gave him his binky – he would throw it.  We gave him a water bottle to play with – yep, he threw it.  We gave him a bottle of formula – he drank it then threw it.  He just wasn’t going to be happy (at least until he got out of the car seat, ie, home).  Zach was good except he kept bugging Steph every few minutes – ‘Momma, momma, momma, I want another movie.’  ‘Momma, momma, momma, I’m hungry.’  ‘Momma, momma, momma, I want a book.’  Steph was going looney.  I found this all pretty comical (which is odd for me – I usually get stressed out).

Anyway, we are back from our little day trip…here are some more photos.

A stream.

Grove of trees in the middle of glacier runoff.

Nisqually River as seen from Poop Point!

Tiny waterfall.

Jagged peaks across from Mt Rainier.

Near the entrance of the park.

Yeah, I know, no pictures of Mt Rainier…that’s what happens when it rains.

Auntie Jan and Uncle Mike drove up from Eugene to hang with their nephews for the weekend.  We had a great time.  They arrived around 8:30pm on Friday night – much earlier than expected since they left work a little early and there wasn’t traffic.

On Saturday we took the ferry over to Vashon Island and headed to Point Robertson where we threw rocks in the water and picked up shells.  It was incredibly beautiful and clear during the day – we were able to see for miles north, south and east.  To add to the amazing views, there is also a lighthouse on the point.  We had lunch at Casa Bonita Mexican Restaurant in town and we ended the day chowing down on Paul’s chili and Mike’s cornbread.

On Sunday we went up to North Seattle to check out a Hawaiian store for Mike.  After that we spent the afternoon in a park in Wallingford.  Zach mixed up his time on the playground equipment, swings, and playing frisbee.

Today was a recovery day (yep, I had to recover from all of the drinkin we did).  The boys took long naps, we cleaned house, and did some shopping.  I took Zach to Lincoln Park – in addition to playing on the playground we went on a 30 minute walk through the park – he really enjoyed it (my little hiker).

Playing with rocks on Vashon Island

Auntie Jan and Uncle Mike hanging with Nate.

I can’t hear the ocean in this rock.

Looking out to the Olympics.

Climbing over driftwood.

Wildflowers.

More of the Olympics.

I like the swing.

We spent this last weekend down in Eugene with Jan and Mike.  It was a terrific weekend and the boys were awesome!  We left Friday evening just before 7pm…yep, 7pm.  Basically I wanted to wait until traffic died off so we could sail through Tacoma and Olympia.  While we didn’t sail through Fort Lewis area, traffic was much more bearable then it would have been had we left at 3pm or 4pm.  We drove straight thru to Eugene – yes, we actually drove nonstop for 4.5 hours with a 2 year old and an 8 month old.  Pretty Impressive.  Nate slept for 90% of the trip and Zach spent time looking out the window, sleeping, and watching a movie.

We started Saturday off by going to Bounce Gymnastics – a padded gymnastics studio that is open for 90 minutes for kids 6 and under.  Just imagine Zach jumping up and down on trampolines for 30 minutes straight.  We followed that up with Mike’s favorite part of the weekend – a trip to Chuck E Cheese.  We couldn’t hold Mike back…it was the highlight of the weekend for him.  Zach was good if you didn’t try to control him!

Then we came home and crashed.  I got caught up on all of my violent movie watching.  First we watched No Country for Old Men, followed by a 2 movies series by Quentin Tarantino – Planet Terror and Death Proof.  I must admit these were pretty cool and funny movies – but if you don’t like over the top violence these are not the movies for you.

This morning we took the boys to Skinner Butte Park and Zach spent his time on the slide and Nate split his time between the stroller and swing.  We left Eugene after the boys ate lunch (around 12:15) and we got home around 5:15 (1 stop).  We saw a nasty accident caused by the freakish snow we’ve been getting up here.  Based on what I read on the blogs, it looked like it snowed some more on Saturday in West Seattle.  It snowed in Eugene Friday night and parts of Saturday…not much really sticking.

On the running front, I have run 60 miles in March…my new monthly record.  My previous record was only 50 miles in one month.  I also saw an Orca pod about 50 yards offshore at Lincoln Park this evening…pretty cool way to end the weekend before heading back to work.  And now for some photos.

Hangin at Bounce Gymnastics

Mike, in the zone, at Chuck E Cheese

Goin down the really big slide.

Mom making sure Zach doesn’t go swimming.

Spring!

…Big Red Car…Yes, we saw the Wiggles on Friday night. Nate stayed with a baby sitter and we took Zach to his first concert at the Tacoma Dome. The performance lasted about an hour and 20 minutes and Zach loved it. He was definitely into the songs he knew but was not overly enthusiastic about the other songs.

When the Wiggles performed a familiar song, Zach would sing, dance, wiggle, and do everything he is supposed to do. As for mom and dad, we loved seeing Zach jumping around. As we walked out of the Tacoma Dome after the show, Zach was continually saying ‘Bye Wiggles’ or ‘Bye Wags the Down’ or ‘Bye Henry the Octopus’ for the better part of 5 minutes.

Yesterday was a beautiful Seattle spring day. We had our concrete poured for our spa – so the area is ready for the tub. We took the boys out to a friends place in Sammamish whose neighbors have miniature horses, sheep, baby lambs, chicks, ducks, and a dog! Zach loved it. He got to run around in the large open spaces, feed the animals, and pet the animals. The sheep were bahhing, the lambs were bahhing, the chicks were chirping, and the ducks were quacking – the animals obviously loved the nice spring day as well.

I picked up my next pair of running shoes yesterday.  I still believe that Road Runner Sports is one of the best places to buy shoes.  They have a pad that you walk on to register your pressure points and they video record you running on a treadmill – both of which help put in the correct shoe.  I put 319.27 miles on my last pair of Brooks Adrenaline ASR 4.  Yesterday I bought Brooks Infiniti – I did my 4.6 mile run today and they seem solid.

Today is a typical Seattle rainy spring day. Oh well, good day to do blogging, photos, videos, and reading. Oh, Happy Easter. We did do an easter egg hunt with Zach this morning – he had a blast. Actually, Zach has been in an awesome mood all day…now he’s napping.

Ducks on Pine Lake.

Nate studying the birds on the lake.

Happy Zach! It’s tough to get a smiling photo where Zach is looking at the camera – he moves to quick.

Checking out Pine Lake.

Feeding the sheep.

We’ve been up here almost 2 years and we had yet to spend any time in Tacoma.  So yesterday we took a drive down to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium on the northern point of Tacoma.  The grounds at the zoo are beautiful – they’ve done an excellent job at making it feel like a natural park.  Many of the plants and trees are labeled so you know what type of species it is.  It is a unique place since it has both zoo animals (ie, elephants, tigers, wolves, etc) and an aquarium with sharks, seahorses, beluga whales, and walruses.

Fortunately it is not very big so it makes it easy when you are lugging a couple of kids with you.  Oh wait, this is for them, but we are still lugging them.  We were only there about 90 minutes – we had to go get lunch since we got a late start.  We doubled back on North Ruskin Way and ate at Ram Brewery along Commencement Bay.

After lunch we shot up to the Point Defiance ferry dock but it was still over an hour from leaving.  So we drove across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (first time on it – famous for falling down in a windstorm in the mid 20th century), up the Kitsap peninsula and took the Southworth/Vashon ferry back home – this one drops off about a mile from home.

This morning I took Zach down to Seacrest Park so he could ride his trike.  We also spent some time on the small pier there and had breakfast at Skylarks.  Here are a few photos.

Zach loved the peacocks.  Sophie would be jealous.

Yeah, I’m a little freaked watching these guys after what happened at the SF Zoo.  They seem so peaceful and cute.

Looking east toward West Seattle from Vashon Island ferry.

Nate’s first ferry ride.  What a ham!

Zach doesn’t like photos – so just getting this pose was lucky.  He was actually having fun…really.

A little late…well, we were sick, busy, and unable to get photos up.

Boeing DreamLifter taking off.  This beast is used to fly 787 fuselage pieces to Everett where they are assembling the 787.

A WWII Corsair at the Museum of Flight (handheld with canon 17-55 f/2.8 IS lens).

Zach and Auntie Jan at the zoo.

I really do like to swing.  But this was my first time so I’m a little freaked out.

Dad taking photos from the top of Crystal Ski Area.

Some giraffes at the zoo.