Seattle

We spent last weekend in Seattle for the PSA conference in which J presented his research paper.  One of his other classmates, Teri, came with us to present her paper.  Graduate and post-graduate students were chosen from across the nation to present their papers at the conference.

We took advantage of being in Seattle and went to the Space Needle, the Pacific Science Center, Pike's Fish Market, the University of Washington, and just wandered downtown Seattle!  We had a blast!  Although we learned that we really don't like Seattle's road sytem.  The streets split of in three or more directions without warning, the one-way streets are a nightmare to navigate (and are all over), and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the street planning.  We had ourselves some adventures through Seattle looking for our destinations.  Luckily, we spent 95% of our time on foot, which made it easier!

We stayed in the Camlin/Worldmark right in the heart of downtown Seattle.  The conference was at the Sheraton Hotel, which was just a few blocks away, and the Space Needle was also not too far from us.

Our hotel.  I had never been to Seattle so I wasn't sure what to expect.  I knew it was a big city but I was thinking more along the lines of Sacramento or Salt Lake.  My impression is that Seattle is a colder, wetter San Francisco--even to the point of coming into the city across the bridge!

 View of Seattle from our hotel room; we had a nice view of the bus depot.  A picture of downtown Seatle.

 Teri and J before their presentations

Teri just before her presentation

J during his presentation

University of Washington:

 Emily would like to attend the University of Washington so we went over and checked out the campus.  It was really cool--lots of New England/old world style architecture--buildings you would expect to see back east in Virginia.  The campus is also very big, we barely covered half of it in the short time we were there.

 The space needle can be seen from the campus

The first signs of spring approaching.

Pike's Fish Market:

 This little fruit place in the market had the most delicious fruit!  We bought quite a bit of fruit from them :-)

 Balloon guy

As we were looking for a place to eat, we spotted this Bolivian restaurant.  J was so disappointed this place was closed.  It is due to reopen in a few weeks.

 Making cheese!

 There was a parade in honor of St. Patricks Day.  We missed the parade, but this was a fun momento from the parade!

 Space Needle during the day

Pacific Science Center:

 Right next to the space needle is the Pacific Science Center, so we went in and explored.  It was a lot of fun and even had a small butterfly emporium!

 

 Teri and J were playing with this contraption--you speak into the center and the person can hear you on the other end, a good 75 feet apart!  It was really cool.

Butterflies!

 

 

 

Space Needle:

We went to the Space Needle on a mostly clear, cold night.  It wasn't too bad on the ground, but at the top of the needle it was really windy.  The battery on J's camera died so we used my camera for the pictures.  They still turned out pretty well but we were disappointed not to have the pictures from J's more sophisticated camera.

 The blue is the Pacific Science Center; below is the photo we got at the Space Needle.

Dancing

Zuri loves to dance.  She will dance to songs on the radio, songs in movies, and anytime there is anything with a beat.  Her favorite though, is a singing moose. 

For his birthday one year, my grandparents gave J a hunter moose that sings and marches in place.  Zuri loves it.  She loves dancing to it, she loves singing along with it, and she loves playing with it.  We had it put up for a while in the closet, but she caught sight of it and wanted to dance.

She had J dance with her and wouldn't let him stop.  After the third or fourth dance, I pulled out my camera to get it on video.  The video is quite long--over three minutes, but pretty funny.  You can see how J tries unsuccessfully to get put the moose away.

Zuri also has a tutu that was given to her for Christmas that she wears constantly.  You can see her in it and with her play jewelry.  She finally gets tired of J and wants me to dance, which is where the video ends.  Hope you all enjoy as much as we did!

(Not sure what happened to the video)

Priceless

This is a view of our little toddler turned teenager.  She demanded to watch Shrek, then stretched out in this pose.  It was too priceless--I had to capture it!

 

 

Ice Castles

On Saturday, we went to see the ice castles in Midway.  It was a beautiful day and very warm so we were glad to be able to take advantage of the weather and be outside.  We were hoping that Zuri would fall asleep in the car on the way up, but no such luck, so she was very tired while we were there.  Her favorite part was picking up the ice and playing with it.  

The ice castles are very intricate and very beautiful.  At night they are lit up--we have decided to go back soon and see it at night--sans Zuri.  If you haven't gone up to see the ice castles and are in the area, I highly recommend it!

 

  

 The ice melting in the heat--luckily, because it has been so cold lately, all of the caverns were open to walk through

 

 

About half-way through while Zuri and I were walking, she suddenly said "Daddy...." and wanted to cuddle with daddy for the rest of the time.  There were a couple of times that she almost fell asleep, but each time she would force herself awake so she didn't miss anything.

A Word of Encouragement

It really is amazing how much something so simple as a little word of encouragement can go a long way.  So often all we hear is criticism or corrections.  This has been a particularly stressful and difficult week for our little family. 

I don't often post things like this, but I feel it is important to share, because honestly, there is so much criticism and judgment that goes on in this world.  No one is immune.  Sometimes what is needed more than anything is a little word of encouragement.  A little nod here and there to acknowledge the good and the efforts that are being done.

Over the last twenty-four hours we have received two such acknowledgments, and it was like a ray of hope in the storm we have been traveling through.  Small though they were, we are able to stand a little straighter and try a little harder, especially at a time when we were ready to give up.  Life is hard, help make it a little easier for those around  you. 

For those who have supported us through these hard times, from the bottom of our hearts, we say thank you.

Pookie

Sounds like a term of endearment, right?  Pookie.

Nope, Zuri's word for poopie.  She knows poop just fine, but for some reason poopie becomes pookie.  Nickname?  Haha, maybe in the future she will become my little pookie.  We laugh because we try to correct her, but she is adamant on pookie.

Funny kid.