Seattle, Week 3

MONDAY

We went to the Children's Museum with new intern friends that live in our complex. Elly spent 20 minutes painting on one piece of paper. Although she used several different colors, it was pretty much black by the end.
 

She had a fun time with Clara in the "bus" and at the "grocery store".
 

That evening after Brandon came home from work, we headed to Discovery Park for a jog. It was incredible and made us feel like we were hundreds of miles from the city. It was a complete forest and it smelled so good...it made me miss camping. At one point Brandon said "shhh, what was that sound?" I didn't know either. Then, we figured it out. It was the wind blowing through the trees, it makes this weird sound. Anyway, you know you've been away from nature too long when you don't recognize the sound of wind.
 

After our jog, we stopped and played with Elly at a little playground. Not the greatest picture of us, but bear in mind, we had just been on a run!
 

There was an awesome zip line which I sadly discovered was only for small children when I tried to squeeze my rear end onto the seat. But, Elly loved it!
 



TUESDAY

Since the weather is so nice here, I've loved finding new places to jog. One morning I went out to Magnolia (where our ward building is) and ran along Magnolia Bluff with a view of Puget Sound to one side and to the other...amazing houses like this:
 

and this:
 

I asked Brandon how long he thought it would be before we'd could be living in houses like these and he just laughed. Is that a bad sign?

After my jog, we headed to a beautiful park where Elly spotted these flowers. She smelled them and played with them for a good 10 minutes!
 

WEDNESDAY


Then...LOOK WHAT WE FOUND IN SEATTLE!!!!
 

A real live beach! I have to admit, I did not think there would be beaches like this here. I thought they'd all be rocky, not sandy. I don't know why. But, Elly loved it and she even got in the water up to her diaper (it was pretty darn cold, though). It felt so great, though because Seattle got pretty warm the last few days of the week. I had to laugh a little because when I went to weather.com to check it, there was a heat advisory for the Seattle area...86 degrees. But, when you're used to 72 all summer, I guess 86 is a big jump. It was not a fun few days for us because our apartment doesn't have air conditioning (most here don't). Mostly, you don't really need it, though.
 

THURSDAY

We went to lunch at Pike's Market with our new friends, a place called Beecher's Handmade Cheese. It was the best grilled cheese sandwich I've ever had.
Then, we hit the library and Elly got a few new books to occupy her for the next week. Look how grown up she looks!
 


FRIDAY

We walked literally two blocks to Benaroya Hall (where the Seattle Symphony plays) and enjoyed a Music for Tots show. Elly absolutely loved it!
 

These are our new friends, Marti and Baby Jack: (Marti's husband is getting an MBA at Michigan and working for Amazon this summer)