more Seattle - finally!

Ok, finally I am posting more Seattle pictures. I just don't sit down at the computer like I used to so I'm a little slow. I still have to post Halloween too - I will get those done this week. I had such a great time visiting with Amber and Matt and their two cute little girls. It is a gorgeous area, with mountains, valley's, watterfalls and the leaves were so vibrant while I was there . I'm definitely looking forward to going back for another visit. Hopefully it doesn't take another 2 years to get there.

Space Needle
Matt and I took an Underground Tour one afternoon - it was pretty interesting, they had fires/flooding etc back in the day and decided to build the city up, filling the streets with just about anything they could find, as they originally just kept piling dirt on the streets, it was just a big mud and sewage problem. Anyhow, without rambling too much, they built the streets up to the second story of many of the buildings, leaving the sidewalks on the original level. We went under the existing sidewalks and were walking on the old original ones and looking at the original storefronts which became basements.

Here is where we ate lunch - it was an old saloon built 100 years ago or more.

pretty buildings

the colors - we missed that at home this fall

Matt and I at lunch

tour office

Old pergola that was an old train depot (I think???)

I made the Spencer's an apple pie, I couldn't locate my favorite recipe online so I went with another and Amber I decided it sounded good to add a bunch of extra caramel - well it tasted good but it was soup

we are standing below the sidewalk above us and trying to watch people walk over the glass

Cool buildings - you just don't see enough of the cool architecture anymore

Chief Seattle and Matt

I guess no trip to Seattle would be complete without a trip to Pike's Market. It was pretty cool, I enjoy markets, we had a good time and watched them toss a couple of fish too.

Sasquatch (sp?) - I was trying to show him grabbing my behind while I was trying to hid his codpiece so the girls wouldn't notice it. I'm so inappropriate at times!

Amber made me ride the pig

Our tour guide is showing us what has become the first floor. We are standing outside of the old first floor which is now underground.

Matt

Amber and I

Puget Sound

The hills kind of reminded me of San Fran

Amber is saying "what are you doing?"

Sunset outside of their house, I don't understand it but the sky was not quite that color, my camera picked up colors I didn't

this was so gross and slimy looking

the flowers were so pretty along the balcony

Seattle

I am here in Seattle, here are just a couple of pictures for Piper and Reagan to see where I'm staying and who I'm with.

My bedroom
Annika having breakfast, she's becoming my little friend which helps me with missing my girls

dining room

Kitchen

Living room

entry

cutie pie

view from the backyard, the horse wasn't outside but I'll get a picture of the horse for you Piper

more backyard views

they have a lot of rocks to clean up before getting grass, Reagan would be in heaven

The house

the neighborhood, it's pretty new, they are still building houses

some of the new houses that are going up

Fall fun

Mom and I took the girls to Emma Krumbee's in Belle Plaine for their Scarecrow Festival. There were tons of things for the kids to do, they rode ponies, we kept them away from the camel ride, they climbed a giant hay stack, played on some park areas, rode a train, and picked our pumpkins. Piper, in typical fashion wanted to do everything without catching her breath while Reagan just wanted to hang out and was content to go with the flow. Piper is definitely my child, she's headstrong and wants to do things her way on her time schedule, I get so frustrated by her at times because of course, I want to do it my way. We are going to have an interesting back and forth over the years, if I could just rein her in a little while letting myself go a little I think we'll find a happy medium.

train ride, this was a cute little contraption made out of barrels and pulled by a small tractor
they both got up on stage and played instruments while the entertainer was singing

Ooooh ponies, who doesn't want one? Piper is such an animal lover that she just jumped right in there, I was worried about Reagan, she's pretty hesitant around animals but she loved it too, she just didn't make it the entire ride, she was "done" before everyone else.

yeah, I stepped in quite a bit of poop - gross

I love her face, she must have been saying "boo"

our pumpkin selection - the big one was only about 22lbs but the guy pulling the tractor took pity on me and loaded it up for me and then went to find me a wagon to load it onto after the ride. He was so kind, people like that make my day!

Reagan was a little trooper, she was getting tired and tripped a few times but just got back up and took off again.

Piper was on the search for her perfect pumpkin, if we let her she would have spent hours scouring the entire field. I wish I had her attention span.

I love how Rea is looking up at Piper ala Brady Bunch intro, so funny!

Wedding fun

Today Jason's cousin Andy got married, I decided to brave bringing the kids, it was their first wedding (as with Piper's sudden illness they missed Bill's). Considering Reagan didn't get any nap they were great, very wound up, but great. Reagan started yelling for waber (water) during the ceremony so she and I didn't get to watch the entire thing but once we got to the reception hall they went nuts. They started running and Piper made instant friends with a little girl named Katie. It was so fun to watch the girls. Reagan wasn't being very shy today which is so refreshing. Piper is rarely shy so it's fun to watch her interact with people and I just love her confidence! The best part of the entire day was when the band finally started playing a little after 8pm. Both girls had plenty of dancing to do and Reagan being absolutely exhausted finally gave up on the dancing and parked herself front and center on the dance floor and just stared at the band. It was almost like she was watching TV, it was just hilarious!

Rea and I toured the parking lot during the service

Piper and Katie

Our little groupie Reagan. Piper was running circles around her and she never broke her stare.