January crawled and February flew and now I’m seeing cherry blossoms blooming and 70-degree days in the forecast. I know we’re still a couple of months away from consistent sunshine, but it certainly feels like we’ve made it through winter. WE MADE IT! I think I’ve blogged each and every snowflake in great detail, but here’s a quick round-up of the other Q1 goings-on:
The last few weeks have been a bear, as I’ve been traveling for a project almost every week and cracking open the work laptop most nights. I set boundaries around weekends as much as possible, but there was a Sunday when the call of duty was especially strong, so I brought home some model pieces from my project and let Juliette build and scheme while I dashed off emails. This picture feels like a February emblem – work-life integration, folks…
The sun came out a handful of times in January and February, and when it did, we were OUT, hiking or walking or scootering. We checked out a new trail at Cougar Mountain with the Chens on a Saturday afternoon.
The kids’ feet really started to drag around mile two (of four!), so Shane coaxed them along by recounting the epic tale of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins (Lord of the Rings has somehow become our hiking go-to when Juliette needs a distraction).
These kids are as fond of each other as ever, wanting to be together all the time. Like, together. All the time.
At Kubota Gardens the following weekend, Shane and Jack found new ways to lug around our conjoined twins.
The waterfront continues to be our West Seattle happy place. Juliette and I covered some new ground with her scooter on a Sunday afternoon – I somehow had missed this half-mile stretch of pavement full of inlaid constellations. We stopped to “identify” each and every one. “It’s a person holding a stick! It’s a backhoe picking up an ice cream cone! It’s a spider eating a banana!”
Even after the sun goes down, Alki Beach beckons. We bundled up with our neighbors for a January bonfire and made a meal of roasted hot dogs and s’mores.
Our neighbor’s crispy Christmas tree made for quite the pyrotechnic show.
Shane’s mom and dad spent last week in Seattle and we toured them around our West Seattle faves, from the Sunday Farmers Market to Lincoln Park.
Shane had a contact at Amazon that offered us a tour of the downtown Amazon Spheres, a pair of glassy greenhouses filled with thousands of plant species.
This space serves as an employee lounge and workspace for Amazonians – how fancy are they?!
It was all pretty stunning – in the midst of a bunch of ho-hum new development in Seattle, it felt good to see something exceptional.
P.S. Juliette LOVES Grandpa.
Sight-seeing with Denny and Pat was fun, but doing the day-to-day with them was even better. They joined us for Juliette’s swim lessons and excitedly cheered her on every time she made it across the pool – these are things I know they miss regularly being a part of. Grandpa slipped her twenty dollars one day and then we swung by the toy store for a shopping spree; they loved watching her labor over her choices. Sweet, spoiled girl.
These two were inseparable – every time Denny walked into the room, Juliette ran to wrap her arms around him. He ate it up.
I mean, how could you not?
Denny gleefully chowed down on his beloved Penn Cove mussels at the neighborhood seafood place last Saturday afternoon, and then it was time to say goodbye. Golly, we miss you, Schnells! Shane and I are having a hard time meeting the daily hug quota you set with Juliette.
And now, on with the business of Spring! We brunched on the Westward patio after church on Sunday and I am feeling all kinds of hopeful about entering a new season. Winter had its highlights, but I also feel like I vacillated a lot between amped-up busy-ness and too-tired doldrums. Here’s to a mid-March breath of fresh air…
