Emma is 13!

 Yesterday, Emma turned 13. That is wild to me. We officially have a teenager!! We had a super busy weekend. On Friday, Emma got back from Panther Camp, she got to be home for about an hour, and then her and I headed to Minnesota. We met up with Mom, Todd and Julie. First, we went to Todd and Julie's to see their dogs, and then we headed to the Fairfax bar for supper. Ryan met us at the bar, and we had a nice little gathering. 

On Saturday, Emma and I got up fairly early, ate breakfast and left the farm by 9:00 am. We were heading to Minneapolis to watch the Lynx take on the Los Angeles Sparks. We were lucky enough to get some free tickets, and we had great seats. We also saw a really good game. The Lynx were up by 30 points for most of the game, and we just enjoyed ourselves and got to see a bunch of Emma's favorite players. We walked around, got a free banner when we entered, and just enjoyed ourselves. Emma wore her new Napheesa Collier jersey, and she was just loving life. 

After the game, we went to Mall of America to do some shopping. We found a Father's Day gift for John, and just enjoyed walking around and checking the mall out. Then, we had to head home for supper at Ryan's house. He grilled for us and Rachel and Elena also joined us for supper. It was a nice evening, but a super busy day. 

Yesterday was Emma's official birthday. We went to church, and then Grandma spilled the beans that it was Emma's birthday, and the whole church sang to her. She was a little embarrassed. It was cute. We ate some lunch, and then we went to Kathy Wellman's house because she wanted to give away some art supplies to Emma. Emma loved that. We left with a whole tote of supplies. 

After all that, we finally headed for home. We were so tired. Once we got home, Emma and John went to go pick up Emma's friends, and she went right into a sleepover. They had fun singing, putting on talent shows, and just doing girlie things all night. It was a little wild, I couldn't wait until it was "quiet time" and bedtime. 

Today, Katie and I are taking all the girls to Yankton. We are going to paddle board, picnic, swim at the beach, and just have a summery day. It looks like it's going to be sunny and hot, and a little windy, but it should be a great day. After all the beach time, we have to get back for some softball tonight. I think the rest of our week should settle down a little bit after this. 

Emma still enjoys basketball and art the most. She has her own style and look, and she's not afraid to do her own thing. She is a great friend, and is very sarcastic and silly. She still eats like a bird. She also loves swimming, paddle boarding, and camping, especially with friends. We still get along, even though she is a teenager, and I can't wait to see what this next year brings!

I couldn't get dropbox to cooperate, so I don't have any new photos. But this one captures Emma's personality perfectly. 

Happy Birthday Emma!!

Seattle 2025- the last days

 Monday was our last full day in Seattle. We decided we wanted to get some better views of Mount Rainier, so we found a scenic bypass route that took us up into Mount Rainier National Park for some great photos of the mountain. 

It took about a half hour to get to the scenic bypass, and then we spent a good 2-2.5 hours on the route. We made stops at some shops along the way, and we just took our time and stopped along the way whenever we wanted to. We hiked on one trail and found some really tall trees and a beautiful river. We also got out and took some beautiful shots with Mount Rainier in the background. We got high enough that we ran into quite a bit of snow. We ended up eating our packed lunch in the back of our car, with the mountains and snow as our background. Emma said it was the best picnic lunch she's ever had. 

After a solid 4 hours of mountain viewing and driving, we headed to Snoqualmie Falls. It's a beautiful waterfall, that has been featured in shows and is pretty famous. It was a beautiful, quick stop. The kids really enjoyed our nature-filled day, but they were pooped and sick of the car, so we finally headed back to Peg and Willie's. We hit terrible traffic on the way home, and it took way longer than we expected. But, we finally made it. 

For out last night in Seattle, Peg and Willie made crab legs and alfredo for us. The kids had never had crab legs before, but they had a lot of fun learning how to eat them. They said they were "okay" but not their favorite thing. I was proud of them for trying it. John and I love it, and we devoured as much as our stomaches would allow us to. After supper, the kids stayed at Peg and Willies, while the four of us went to their local bar for a couple drinks and to visit without the kids. It was a nice send off for us, and we got some good time in with Peg and Willie. 

Tuesday was our travel day back home. We spent the morning cleaning up, packing up, and getting the car dropped off and getting to the airport. It was a bittersweet day. We were all ready to be back home to our routines and normal life, but we were going to miss Seattle. We had a long, uneventful day traveling back home. We made it back to Sioux Falls at 9:30pm and Jim came and picked us up and brought us home. We had fun, but we were tired and very ready to sleep in our own bed. 

Wednesday was a catch-up day. We mowed lawn, did laundry, cleaned house, and unpacked all our luggage. The rest of the week was back to work for the adults, and the kids enjoyed having no agenda for plans during the day. 

This past weekend, we had a nice weekend at home. On Friday evening, we had a bonfire and brought the projector outside and watched a movie on our patio. On Saturday, John took Emma and Elliott to the Sioux Falls Renaissance Festival. Emma absolutely loved it. She dressed up and even wore one of her cat masks. She found other girls dressed up like her, and she just loved the whole vibe. Elliott also enjoyed it, but I'm not sure he understood what it was all about. We also ended up pressure washing and staining our entire deck and the front steps of the house. It was a very busy day, and we were so sunburnt, tired, and sore after it, but we felt so accomplished. 

On Sunday, we went to church, and then I took Emma, Hannah, and Katherine to Watertown for Panther Camp. Emma was so excited to go to camp, and she comes home tomorrow and I can't wait to hear about it. Elliott has spent the week out at Jim and Barb's house since Emma is gone, and he is having the time of his life as well. But, I do miss my kids. We did eat supper last night at Big J's with Jim, Barb. and Elliott, so that was nice. Tonight, we are having steaks with Katie. We have been finding a way to keep busy!

Mount Rainier 

Snow!

Crab leg feed 

Time to go home 

Seattle Days 3&4

 Saturday was our "water" day in Seattle. We had another scheduled appointment with out City Pass, and this time it was at the Seattle Aquarium. We hit much better traffic heading into Seattle on Saturday, and it was a nice, uneventful drive. We found a place to park in the public parking ramp, and we ended up being a little early for our 9:30 scheduled time. So, we walked through Pike Place again, and John and I ended up buying a laser cut metal skyline of Seattle sign. It was pretty cool, and we were happy to find it. 

Next, we headed to the aquarium. The kids really enjoyed this stop. The first thing we did were the touch pools. We got to touch sea cucumbers, sea urchins, star fish, and other squishy things. It was pretty cool, and we all enjoyed it. Then we met Kitish, the aquarium octopus. It was moving around and really showing up all her tentacles and suction cups, the kids loved it. We also got to see sea otters, sea lions, different birds, and all kinds of fish. We spent a good 2 hours at the Aquarium looking at everything and really enjoying everything. The kids really loved the sea otters and the octopus. 

After all the looking around, we were all ready for some lunch. It ended up raining, so we searched for a place indoors. We found "Elliott's Oyster House" and decided we couldn't eat anywhere else. Nobody got any oysters (gross) but we all had really good food. Emma got Alaskan cod and fries, John got rockfish tacos, I got Clam Chowder, and Elliott got Waygu Cheeseburger and fries. Everyone enjoyed their meals and the atmosphere of the restaurant. We shopped along the boardwalk for a little while, at then at 1:30pm we had our Argosy Harbor Cruise. 

The Harbor Cruise was okay. The weather ended up getting chilly, windy, and rainy. So, we rode on the bottom of the boat, so we were inside and out of the rain and cold. The tour took up through Elliott Bay, and told us of a lot of the history and buildings in the bay. It wasn't the most exciting thing, but we got some great views of the skyline and learned some things about Seattle. 

After the rainy tour, we got on another boat. We decided to take a ferry boat to Bainbridge Island. It was still a little chilly and windy, but the rain had finally shopped. We enjoyed hour half hour ride to Bainbridge, and we spent it walking around the ferry boat, taking pictures, and just enjoying ourselves. Once we got to Bainbridge, we walked into town, did some shopping, and then we ate at a wonderful Mexican Restaurant called Isla Bonita. It was delicious. Emma and I shared the enchilada trio, and John and Elliott shared a sampler platter. Then, we ordered some fried ice cream for the table, and everyone enjoyed a taste of that. Finally, it was time to head back. We caught the ferry boat back to Seattle, and then got to our car and headed to Peg and Willies. Peg and Willie had to work and then had a wedding to cater, so they were gone all day as well. We didn't get back until after 9:00pm, and we basically cleaned up and went to bed and called it a night. 

Pike Place fresh flowers 

Emma buying honey sticks 

Seattle Aquarium 

Sea Lions 

Emma living her Seattle Life 

Great food

On Sunday, we had the morning to sleep in, hang out at the house for a while, and just relax. Late morning, to we met Peg at the light rail station, and we rode it into Seattle with her to go to the Twins versus Mariners baseball game. We had pretty good seats at T Mobil Park. It was a beautiful sunny, warm day and we were just out of the sunshine, but we had a great view of the ballpark. We ended up getting some lunch at the game. Emma got fish and chips, Elliott got chicken strips and fries, and John and I shared some clam chowder. The game was fun, but the Twins ended up losing 2-1. It wasn't the most exciting game ever. But, after the game, we walked to Chinatown to check it out and walk around. 

We saw some parks and decor, but couldn't really find a place that we wanted to eat, so Willie picked us up and we went back toward Peg and Willie's house and ate at a Hibatchi Buffet. The food was very good and plentiful, and there was even ice cream, so the kids were thrilled. After our large meal, we headed back to Peg and Willie's house and hit the hot tub, had a fire, and just visited. 

There was talk all over the internet about being able to see the Northern lights on Sunday night, so at 10:00pm, we headed to a park by the Elliott Bay to try and see the lights. We had zero luck with the lights, but we ended up seeing Harbor Porpoises (which was kinda like dolphins). We walked all the way out on a dock, and we ended up seeing and hearing them pretty close to us. It was pretty cool and we called that a win, even though we didn't see any lights. Finally, we went home and called it a night. 

Baseball game 

Emma and Harry 

Beautiful Seattle flowers 

    

Seattle 2025 Days 1&2

 Our trip to Seattle was amazing! We spent 5 nights in Seattle and we had the greatest time. We were busy and super tired at the end of every day, but we had such a good time. We saw everything we wanted to see, had amazing weather, spent time with family, and made great memories. 

We flew out to Seattle last Thursday morning. We had Heather drop us off at the airport, and we made it through security and to our gate in no time at all. We had a good hour and a half to just hang out in the airport and chill before our flight. Out flight out of Sioux Falls was delayed by an hour and 15 minutes because of weather in Denver, so we were a little late coming into Denver. On the plane ride, Emma had a middle seat, I sat by the isle, and across the isle was John and then Elliott in the middle. We all had a good flight, and then we had to book it off the plane, get to our next gate and immediately get on the next plane. It was a tight layover, but we made it! Elliott left his water bottle on the very first plane, but other than that we survived. 

The flight to Seattle was a little longer. Emma lucked out and got a window seat because a passenger no-showed. So, she got the window seat, then Elliott in the middle, and then me by the isle. John was across in the isle and had no one in the middle, which was nice for him. We had a great flight. Emma saw the Rocky Mountains and Mount Rainier from the air. We landed, got our rental car, and then went to meet Peg so we could head into Seattle. 

Once we picked up Peg (and hugged and said hello) we headed to Pike Place. Both kids really like Pike Place. Elliott loved all the shopping and food. Emma just loved the experience. We got to see fish being thrown, we saw the gum wall, and we tried all kinds of food. We had some Piroshky, Piroshky pastries, a salmon wrap, fish and chips, popcorn shrimp, and hombao. It was all really good. 

Once Pike Place closed, we went to Kerry Park to get some amazing pictures of the Seattle Skyline and then we went to visit the Freemont Troll. After all that excitement, we stopped at a grocery store (the kids hated that part, especially because the car alarm went off twice) and then we finally went to Peg and Willie's house. We unpacked, and then enjoyed the hot tub and a fire before going to bed. 

Friday was our first full day in Seattle. We were up and at 'em at around 7:00 am because we had a 9:00 appointment at the Space Needle. The Space Needle is so busy that you have to reserve a time to go. We ended up hitting some pretty thick traffic on the interstate and we weren't sure we were going to make our time, but we parked outside the Space Needle at 8:55 am. We beat the crowds, had a beautiful sunny, clear day. We saw both Mount Rainier and Mount Baker. We took our time taking in the view, taking pictures, and just enjoying ourselves. We also went on The Loupe, which had see-through glass floors and rotated 360 degrees. It was pretty cool. The kids loved the whole thing (so did we!)

Once we were done viewing everything, we had a nice lunch at our car with the Space Needle in the background. We packed sandwiches, chips, fruit, and water. It was a lot nicer than overpriced tourist food. 

Next, we went to the Chihuly Glass Museum. This was pretty cool. It was beautiful and set up really neat. Emma really enjoyed the artistic vibes and got a t-shirt there. We spent a good hour there and even got to see a glass-blowing demonstration. 

Our next stop was the Mo-Pop museum (Museum of Popular Culture). They had movie props, costumes, guitars, and all kinds of cool things to look at. Emma loved this museum, Elliott got bored. They also had a hands-on exhibit where you could play musical instruments and sing in sound rooms. Emma really loved that part. We spent a solid 2-2.5 hours here, and Emma would have loved to spend more time. 

We finally headed back to Peg's house around 5pm. We relaxed for a little bit, and then we headed to the Binford Field of Dreams car show, where Willie's BBQ business "Willie's Addictive BBQ" had a food tent. The kids worked in the foot tent while John and I walked around and looked at cars. We all got to enjoy some wonderful BBQ, and then we headed back to the house at around 8:00 pm. There was more hot tub time and campfire, and then we all went to bed really tired, but happy. 

Ready for our flight

The fish market 

Pike Place 

Gum Wall 

The original Starbucks 

Pastries!

Kerry Park 

Freemont Troll 

The kids loved the hot tub 

Beautiful backyard 

Bonfire 

The Space Needle 

Glass flooring 

Space Needle (so fun!) 

Chihuly Glass Museum 

MoPop Museum 

Working in the food tent 

Yum!