The family that makes trash

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Where we live, Part 1

I shared, in a previous post, what our new home and area is like, but now I can show you the photos!

Our house front

From the side

The fire lane behind our house.
It goes to the elementary school and is our super short cut to the park

This is a really cool covered playground on the school property.
It is kitty corner to our house and very convenient when it rains.

Central Park

We spend most of our time here.

Our poor camera met a sad end. Actually, we aren't exactly sure who or what broke it, but regardless it was nearly impossible to take pictures due to a shattered LCD. Jake thought he could fix it and ended up with a handful of leftover parts and a camera more broken then when he started. So, we decided to bite the bullet and get a new one (after my brother failed at his try of fixing the old one too). After 2.5 months of no camera, our new one finally arrived in the mail and we are back to our snap happy selves!

I wish I could take a picture of the new camera. It is unbelievably tiny, less then half the size and weight of our previous one which I thought was small when we got it. I will share all the lovely photos it takes so you can see the quality too. Superb!

Monday, August 3, 2009

The Wonder of Sippy Cups

Adrian decided at 10.5 months he no longer wanted his bottle... at all! Just cold turkey! He went from downing 6-8 ounces 3 times a day to nothing. Normally that wouldn't be such a big deal except he was totally unable (or unwilling... not sure which) to drink for a sippy cup, straw or anything that would keep him from totally dumping milk all over himself every time he drank.

I tried several different spill free methods and finally gave up, resorting to taking out the lovely 'spill free' part and just had a huge mess to clean up after every meal. Plus it was stressing me that he was getting virtually no liquids as most ended up on him, the high chair and more popularly, the floor. However, he didn't seem too dehydrated so I tried to not worry too much.

After about 2 weeks, he just seemed to figure it out! He got a hold of my Camelback water bottle and was able to bite and suck at the same time, getting out enough water to gulp. So I gave him a sippy (with the spill free piece in place) and Viola! He downed the entire cup and another half in about 3 minutes. Of course, he drank it all too fast and proceeded to throw it back up, but I was not in the least bit upset. I could now envision spill free meals in my immediate future! Sigh..

Overall, I'm pretty excited about the whole thing. He has now eliminated the whole hassle of tring to break him of his bottle, which was pretty hard with Allie.

First Official Hike

Our family did our first hike with the kids. It is something I did a lot before getting married and virtually not at all since then. But, since we live in Issaquah and Allie is fascinated by all the tall mountains (well, tall to her anyway) surrounding us, I decided we would take the kids on a little hike to see how they/we did.

Saturday, we drove to Snoqualmie falls (about 15 min from our place if you don't take the longest possible route... which we did unintentionally) which is only about 1/2 down (pretty steep) from the top to the boardwalk at the bottom. I had Adri in the back pack and Allie walked down on her own two feet. She did make it all the way down on her own and about 20 steps back up before Jake had to resort to the on the shoulder carry.

The kids had fun playing in the water at the bottom, but Jake and I got a little tired of the crowds that swarmed after we arrived. Over all, it was a good trip. One of Jake's coworkers has a backpack I think we will take for Al next time.

Sorry there are no pictures to show. Our camera is currently on the fritz.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Our new home

I am sitting here trying to find the energy and words to express the whirlwind I feel we've been swept up in for the last several months. I am just coming off of a pretty crappy day, but in retrospect probably don't have a lot to complain about. We are all home, healthy, a little hot as we don't have AC yet, but mostly happy (Allie is talking in her room, Adri is asleep finally and Jake is gabbing with Dan... I'm the only grouchy one here).

We are fully moved into our new apartment in Issaquah, WA and I absolutely love it. It is in a large complex, but as we are the very last building at the top of the complex, it feels a little more secluded then it really is. We have 2 bedrooms, 3 floors and a tandem 2 car garage, so I no longer feel like I am living in a garage. Alleluia!!! The commute for Jake isn't spectacular but it isn't terrible either. The house is very bright, as we have 3 sides with windows, and the kitchen is my favorite room. It is large, bright, has lots of storage space and inspires me to cook and keep it clean. The only three downsides to this place are that both the bathrooms are on the top floor, it isn't a 3 bedroom (we are still struggling with sleep time having them in the same room), and it is a 15 minute walk to and from the park and ride (1 mile from us).

There are (so far that I have found) 6 parks within walking distance of our place (even for Allie's small steps and slow pace), 2 smallish retail centers (one that even has a coffee shop though I don't like their coffee), several restaurants (we have made it to 3 of them and I'm looking forward to the last 2) and lots of neighborhoods... Oh, and a grocery store going in between us and the P&R. There is a community center just up the street that does different classes for children and adults and I'm excited to get Allie set up with some new friends. We are also in the foothills of the cascades, so it is gorgeous even for Seattle standards.

I walk about 3 miles a day with the kids, Allie walking next to me and Adri on my back. We go to one of our favorite parks after lunch (before nap time) and then after nap we walk down to the P&R or coffee shop to meet Jake as he gets off the bus. The kids and I have done a lot of exploring around Issaquah itself and I feel like I know it pretty well.

Life is good in Issaquah!