Tag: photographs

“Sometimes you have to travel a long way to find what is near.” – Paul Coehlo

There were a few moments during our recent trip to New Orleans where I felt like we flew 2,086 miles just to spend all our time in the indoor swimming pool. If it wasn’t for the company meeting, I could have just driven 2 miles to check into a local hotel. Except we would have missed…

Seeing the Mississippi River.

Wandering the streets of New Orleans (no, not Bourbon street) in good weather and stormy weather.

Petting the sting rays at the Audobon Aquarium in New Orleans.

And coming home to sweet Cooper and Seattle spring.

Home, where the soda displays celebrate the Seattle Mariners and the gas station signs always amuse…

“Don’t be afraid to start over again. This time, you’re not starting from scratch, you’re starting from experience.” – unknown

It felt like we did the same thing all week long. We picked some wheeled transportation and then meandered through the neighborhood to the small park. Then we repeatedly rolled down the grassy hill. But it was so fun that the kids wanted to do it night after night, regardless of the weather.

And Miss O found a recipe in her kids cookbook for chocolate mug cakes she could make in the microwave. We did that night after night this week as well.

We were having so much fun that the daffodils showed up.

So we cleaned the windows to see out better, and the cat wanted to join in.

Add in a rainbow, some meditation, and the sign of the week and it made for a delicious recipe of a week.

“If you’re blessed, you’ve got to be a blessing.” – Pharrell Williams

Work

Play

Love

Neighborhood

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.” – John Muir

We went on a road trip to Leavenworth, WA. I felt the truth of the John Muir quote above as soon as we crossed into the mountains. “…places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.” – John Muir

Speaking of play, rollercoasters aren’t my thing so thankfully my dear friend was up for the rides!

And everyone was in for the snow and slides!

Maybe Cooper missed us…but kept busy finding some enticing distractions.

Snow tracks and signs.

“The only source of knowledge is experience.” – Albert Einstein

One morning this week, we decided to be a little late to school and work so that we could spent quality time together at Starbucks. Seattlites at Starbucks – seem too cliche? Regardless, we made good use of our time as Miss O’s sign conveys!

Cooper spent some time learning to blend in. He’s behind that gaggle of kids outside the school (no wonder he loves going to school pick up for all the attention he gets). And in the next photo, he was hanging out with some older retrievers. I’m not even entirely certain which one he is.

Mr. D on a mission: spraying, building, and doing push-ups

License plate art at the licensing office. Isn’t that the coolest map? And the sign of the week.

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

As often happens, I opened my phone thinking we didn’t do much this week and then found…pictures of the “make your own pizza” sleepover,

Decorative puddles after the ice melted,

And quality time spent in the garage as Miss O learned to hoverboard while

Coop ate the cones.

And funny signs under blue skies. A pretty good week!

“Beautiful, powerful, dangerous, cold
Ice has a magic can’t be controlled
Stronger than one, stronger than ten
Stronger than a hundred men, ha” – Frozen Heart from Frozen

How do you know it’s cold in Western Washington? Mt. Rainier wears a hat. Ba-dum-dum.

But I can’t take credit for the joke because I heard it on the news. The weather seems to be the story of the week for most of the country. Maybe everyone except Arizona?

We didn’t get snow but we roamed around the neighborhood til we found some frozen ground water. Then the kids sang songs from Frozen and pretended they were ice workers.

Tug of war is just a mechanical engineering problem isn’t it? The weight differential multiplied by the friction coefficient or something like that?

Slime, hugs and motorcycles. All good separately – but never good combined in any way other than a gallery of pictures.

A stick for Cooper to chew on. And a sign for humans to chew on.

“Waiting insistently in front of a tightly closed door is unfair to all of the open doors! Give a chance to the open doors!” – Mehmet Murat ildan

There was a lot of excitement in our house for the UW vs Michigan game last week. It didn’t quite turn out as we hoped but it wasn’t for lack of cheering.

Shredding and cooking. Two distinctly different activities but done in our house with the same amount of enthusiasm.

“A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.” – Ogden Nash

Word!