Tag: photographs

“Happiness radiates like the fragrance from a flower and draws all good things towards you.” – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

The featured photo has a sliver of the morning moon amidst the clouds and fog.

Pool time…

Watching the freeway and the free breakfast buffet when we took an overnight getaway at a hotel less than a mile from home.

Mr. D’s first Little League practice. It was so fun that he wanted to podcast about it…stay tuned for that!

Signs of spring

Discarded socks and watermelon rinds. And Mr. D reading to Cooper who was a dog-gone good audience!

A perfectly balanced squirrel and the sign of the week.

“If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat. Just get on!” – Sheryl Sandberg

We went downtown for the St. Patrick’s Day parade. I’ve lived in Seattle for more than 35 years without realizing we had such a delightful parade complete with leprechauns and Irish Wolfhounds

While we were downtown, we rode the Seattle monorail and Miss O got her ears pierced.

At a birthday party, we experimented with the concept of getting the ball rolling. It’s almost comical how stereotypical this picture is with the older sibling telling the younger one, “I’ll just push it up the hill and get the ball rolling for you.” Turns out even light beach balls can pack a wallop with enough speed. Who knew? 🙂 [Fortunately no younger siblings were hurt in the making of this picture.]

Also this week, Mr. D wanted to learn how to grill and he’s taking the role seriously. 🙂

In an one thing led to another progression, we set the Crocodile Cave up in the backyard and…

The kids had a water fight. It was not swimsuit weather (at least not in my book at about 48 degrees) but at least they filled the guns with warm water.

And that wraps up a pretty typical week on our rocket ship hurtling towards adulthood complete with love (and ice cube hearts) and a punny sign of the week.

“We are just an advanced breed of monkey on a minor plant of an average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something special.” – Stephen Hawking

Featured photo is of the lunar eclipse. It was spectacular — and so considerate to be at a decent hour before I went to bed. What an incredible Universe we live in!

Cooper seems to think that walks around the neighborhood are mostly opportunities to visit with friends.

I thought the people out sailing on a rainy Saturday morning were pretty intrepid. Then I spoke with my brother and found out that he was one of them. Then I knew they were intrepid.

Mr. D and his friend don’t seem to mind the rain as long as the view is good and there are juice boxes.

The kids are hatching salmon at their school. Is that redundant? And you know we take our salmon seriously here in the Pacific NW when we made salmon slides.

Bringing our best drama to pictures. The second one is our attempt at Mary Poppins!

Mr. D looks like a teenager on with his pajama pants on his skateboard. But he wasn’t dressed that way because we were trying to be cool. Just getting cozy after a wet morning at the park.

“The soul of an animal is as delicate as yours…Treat it with kindness and love; It deserves it as much as you do.” – Lights of Venus

Seeing the eye of the goat, the hide of a rhino, the preening of a flamingo, and the hair of a lion made for a great trip to the zoo.

Of course, my own wild creatures showed off their untamed side at the zoo. In the first picture, Miss O is pointing out a giraffe that shares her name.

We also met a puppy down at the local bar and grill. It was so tired from a full day of socialization that it could barely keep its eyes open. Cooper is going full beam with his own cuteness to try to keep up with the puppy.

The kids found a baby snail to put in with Gary the snail. It’s starting to look like spring in our neck of the woods. I hope they don’t think they are going to bring in every snail they find outside!

Mr. D learning how to fly a drone and the sign of the week. I’m trying to think of some drone/done joke to make but I can’t get one to land. I wonder what happens to the last minute when we spring forward into daylight savings time?

Hope you all have a great week!

“Keep your feet on the ground and your thoughts at lofty heights.” – Peace Pilgrim

There are few things sadder at a kid’s birthday party than having your face paint smear. But there’s nothing better than someone who will sit in line with you to get it touched up.

We went to see a concert and Hamilton this week. Hamilton was a-amazing!! When Mr. D emptied his pockets at the concert, I got to see what he thinks is important enough to bring to a show.

Making popcorn. And I’m not sure about the clouds – but maybe a kernel is escaping through the hole in the sky?

We had lovely spring-like weather. So we spent some time practicing baseball. Shagging balls isn’t as easy as it used to be — for me, at least!

Miss O had two more teeth extracted — this time on the other side. Cooper is channeling his best empathy.

Cooper wants everyone to stay safe. Especially if you are skydiving! I think I’ll do as the quote for this post suggests and keep my feet on the ground.

“The scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things can only get better.” – Stephen King

In honor of Valentine’s Day, here are some of the pairs in our neighborhood.

We went to the local pub to watch the second half of the Super Bowl. Shirley Temples (for them), wine (for me), Foos ball, and french fries – it was a win all the way around!

We were all hyped up on sports. So we came home and turned on The Mighty Ducks (Disney hockey movie from 1992). It inspired all sorts of play this week.

Miss O had to have two teeth extracted. I was struck at how similar the picture looked from when Cooper tried to steal the carrot off a snowman earlier in the week. Family resemblance, I guess! 😉

We played at a really cool playground in Seattle Center

To get to the slides and walkways, you had to climb cargo nets. There was one that went straight up like a ladder but five-year-old Mr. D didn’t want to go that way. So he tried the cargo nets but it required some big steps. I climbed up alongside him and helped only on the last step.

The next time, he did it all by himself (see his feet disappearing in the first picture of the set). The amount of well-earned pride he felt was delightful and infectious.

Cooper at school with the kids channeled that same sense of smugness. As does the sign of the week!

“The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them: there ought to be as many for love.” – Margaret Atwood

Views from the ferry ride to Bainbridge Island with my brother.

Hitting and hiking on our weekend trip to a cabin on the Washington peninsula.

We tried to do our share of work while we were there.

Then we came home and had a week with snow in Seattle. Even the pets thought it was pretty cool. Well, the cat doesn’t think anything is that awesome (because she’s a cat), but she did at least go out in the snow.

The ducks down by the lake seemed less impressed with the snow. There was a lot of quacking which I interpreted as “What the duck??” 🙂 Mr. D also found that wet snow is heavy to shovel.

Snow angels…

We get very little snow — so we were determined to do as much with it as we could.

The sign of the week — and a gelato lid that made us smile!

“Everything we say at funerals should be said at birthday parties instead. We leave so much love unspoken.” – unknown

Mr D saw this coating of frost on our railing and said, “It snowed!” Wow, is he going to be surprised when it really does snow here!

Our beautiful, clear skies have led to chilly weather. Chilly for the PNW at least.

Kids at play. I am still marveling at that 12 foot hedge our friends have in their yard. The kids can climb into it and pop out the top.

This week our family made a point of going to eat at this long-time, family-owned restaurant near the University of Washington because it’s going to be torn down to build a big apartment complex. We have generations of memories here because it was my grandmother’s favorite place to eat.

Speaking of food, we went to my brother’s for dinner the other night. He made fresh pasta and my sister-in-law made a chicken-broccoli sauce. When my brother went to serve the sauce to five-year-old Mr. D, he said, “It looks like prison food.” He may never live that one down.

All I can say is that it was delicious. I don’t think they serve that in prisons — but I don’t know because I haven’t been to prison either.

But it makes the picking up garbage project that Mr. D and nine-year-old Miss O did for MLK day even funnier. It was community service but not in a “time served” kind of way.

My devices share a photo gallery with Miss O so sometimes I open my photos and find sweet surprises like this image she created. So here’s some love to go along with the sign of the week.