What a great weekend to be out and about in the Seattle area. The weather was just splendid and the kids (and parents) in excellent moods!
On Saturday we headed north to meet up with my coworker Bryan and his family Annie, Lucy, and Luke for a visit to Jetty Island. Jetty Island is a little island located just a few hundred yards from Everett. The Island is part of the City’s Park System and boat rides are free, though they can fill up pretty quick on the weekend. We took the 10am boat ride. We found a nice spot on the beach that looked towards Whidbey and Camano Islands. The kids enjoyed playing in the sand while the parents conversed…well as much as we could when you have four little ones. After a couple hours we headed back to mainland where we headed back home. It was a great visit to Jetty Island and with Bryan’s family.
After our afternoon naps I spent a couple hours hanging items in Ethan’s room. Since the kids switched rooms last weekend we’ve spent the past week painting the walls and some shelves in his room. Everything was finally dried and we hung them up. I have to admit that his room looks sharp. After dinner we hopped on our bikes and took the kids for a nice bike ride through town. I think Ethan’s finds enjoyment yelling at me to go “faster, faster, faster!” as I sweat my way up the hills.
On Sunday the kids painted and did a few art projects before we headed to the backyard to do some thrilling tree trimming. Our neighbor’s trees are a bit overgrown and not maintained by them. I decided to trim the trees…a lot. A few hours later, and lots of pick-up loads from Ethan’s Tonka dump truck, I finished the project. We now have a nice pile of tree limbs that will take a couple months to get rid of (our yard debris pick-up comes every two weeks) but it’s well worth it.
After afternoon naps, we took the kids for slurpees. Actually the slurpee was for me but I let others come along too and get their own. ; ) Ethan has fallen in love with slurpees as every young child and adult should. In the evening we did a great BBQ! We BBQ’d ribs and zucchini and enjoyed fresh bread, watermelon, and pasta salad. Laura and I finished the night watching the classic “Chariots of Fire“.
On Monday we headed south for a family bike ride around Green Lake and some pizza for lunch at Zeek’s. The park was swarming with people out for a run, walk, and ride. We did a lap, let the kids out to play on the playground, did another lap, and then headed for lunch. We enjoyed a lazy afternoon around the house playing outside and releasing our “packaged butterfly” in the great outdoors [See video below]. We did another fantastic BBQ tonight with portabello mushroom burgers, hot dogs for the kids, pasta salad, watermelon and grapes, and corn.
I’m not sure we could’ve asked for a better weekend for activities and weather in the Seattle area. It was a terrific three days!
