The Maners Visit Seattle

This last week we enjoyed a visit from Justin’s parents and sister Luann. It was so fun to have them in town and show them what our lives are like this summer. After they arrived we had a yummy dinner featuring lots of fresh veggies from Pike’s Place market. Then we took them on a little walk out on the waterfront before we put the kids to bed.

The next day we took them down to the infamous market to see the fish throwing, farmers markets, flower vendors and other vendors. It’s always so busy there.

After lunch and a short nap, I took them on the streets of downtown as we went up to Justin’s building to meet him. We took them up to the top of the Columbia Center Tower to show them the amazing view.

Justin was able to leave work and on the way home we stopped at the Seattle Library, which Luann was very excited about.

We went on a “Ride the Ducks” ride which included a tour of Seattle on a strange looking boat with wheels that could drive and also float in Lake Union. It was a fun ride and we enjoyed learning interesting facts about Seattle, like there are 400 Starbucks Coffees here. That’s a lot of coffee!

We enjoyed a yummy dinner in true Seattle fashion, eating at Steamer’s outside on the waterfront. It was a beautiful night.

The next day we had the morning to spend with them before they had to leave for Oregon. Justin had to go back to work, but the kids and I went with them on a ferry ride over to Bainbridge Island. It was a fun ride over there. The kids thought it was fun to be on such a big vessel in the water.

Here's a view of our apartment from the water: it's in the middle, the taller of the shorter buildings. Does that make any sense?

We turned around to come back and then ate at Steamers again for lunch. They didn’t want to miss out on the yummy fish tacos that Justin had ordered the night before.

It was a short trip, but we really enjoyed spending some time with them!

Ward Campout

This weekend was the ward campout at Ensign Ranch. Since we don't have a pack n' play or extra blankets, we decided to drive up Saturday morning rather than spend the night on Friday. The drive up was beautiful! Green everywhere, waterfalls, clouds in the trees.

When we got up there, we enjoyed some breakfast followed by some games and activities put on by the Primary. We began with balloon stomping,

three legged races,

relays and a Twinkie eating contest. We didn't win, but we sure enjoyed our Twinkies!

Justin and the kids loved the canoes and horses and we couldn't leave until we tried out the huge slip n' slide.

We did come home with a little too much sun. For some reason, we're having a hard time adjusting to the Seattle climate. It was cool and cloudy this morning, so we forgot the sunblock. Hopefully by the end of the summer we'll remember sunblock and jackets wherever we go! All in all, it was a very fun day.

China Town

I have been dying for a haircut for a couple of months now. It never happened before we left Utah because life was just too crazy. My most common hairstyle lately has been a ponytail, which is a big sign that I need to get a haircut!

I asked around the ward for some suggestions and got a few replies. I decided to go to a place in China Town that was recommended. I left the kids with neighbor Megan and took off for my appointment. I found my way over to China Town and found a place where I could pay and park on the curb. China Town smells like Chinese food! Who knew? And a lot of the signs were in Chinese too, which wasn't very helpful when I realized that the address I had led me to a vacant store. I walked around trying to find the salon without any luck. I called Megan on the cell and she looked up the salon phone number but when I tried that they didn't answer. So I walked up and down a few blocks. The shop signs were all in Chinese and I was worried that I wouldn't recognize it if I passed by it. Some of them were more run down looking as well, so I was getting a little worried. Thankfully, I finally found it, and the sign was in English. All those Chinese people could probably tell I was lost.

I'm so glad I found the place. The lady did a good job (yes, she was Chinese and had a pretty thick accent, but I could understand most of what she said), and I am really enjoying the change and the shorter style for the summer. I'm especially glad I got it before I meet any of Justin's co-workers! Hooray for good haircuts!

Brandon is the photographer for this shot. He was quite excited that I let him take a picture with the camera.



As a side note, I have never lived anywhere before where there are so many different languages provided on general advertising mailings. I got a flyer for cable service or something and noticed the translations into 4 or 5 other languages on the bottom. One was the typical Spanish, one was Chinese, and the other 3 I didn't recognize. One was probably Thai, one Vietnamese, and the other one I couldn't even guess. That is one thing about living here. There are so many different cultures and lifestyles, and from what I can tell, people are much more accepting of these things (for good or for bad), hence the more liberal population. For example: Justin started with a few other interns on his first day (there were several days they could choose to begin the internship). There were three other MBAs and probably 10 undergrad computer programming interns. One of the undergrad guys showed up to work on his first day wearing among other things a white lab coat, sporting pink hair, a purple hat and big pink sunglasses on his hat. And Justin has not heard any comments from anyone on that day or since. The MBAs were all much more conservative in their dress, but it is very interesting. We're definitely having quite the experience!

Last Day of Swimming Lessons

The kids have really had a great experience with their first swimming lessons. Even though they are outside and it is raining or overcast for most of Lindsey's lessons and some of Brandon's lessons they have learned to love the 92 degree pool water. They've become much more comfortable in the water, so I'm very pleased with their classes.

On the last day, the kids got to go down the big water slide as a treat. They loved it! Lindsey went down with her teacher several times.

Brandon finally went down by himself after doing a couple of times with his teacher.

Way to go kids!

Ward Missionaries

Our calling has been going great so far. We have had some interesting experiences already. One of the most memorable ones happened this last Sunday. We found a lady that grew up in the church in Utah and has been inactive for about 25 years. She has since decided that she identifies most closely to Buddhism. She mentioned a couple of times during our visit how she had been meaning to get her name removed from the records of the church. As we were leaving, she said that since we visited her on her birthday it must be some kind of Karma confirming to her that she needed to get her name removed from the records. I thought to myself, "Oh great! We're supposed to be helping people come back to the Church!" That was interesting! Hopefully someday she will be more open to the gospel and her heart will be softened so she can feel the Spirit. One thing is for sure, we have been given the opportunity to get to know this area and the people in a unique way. We're definitely excited about it, and I'm so glad I get to do it with Justin! It's kind of like going to a date twice a week because we get to walk together without any kids in between. (By the way, after we mapped all the contacts, we realized that the list of inactive members in our ward is over 500 households long. Oh boy!)

This truly is a wonderful work!

Pike's Place Flowers

Justin and Brandon surprised me with these beautiful flowers from Pike's Place Market on Saturday. They are absolutely beautiful. I love walking down there looking at the flower vendors and the beautiful boquets they make right there. They are just huge and so cheap! You can get a big boquet for $5-$10. It's quite amazing. I'm really enjoying these on our table right now. Another fun thing about living downtown! It's quite common to see people walking around with a big boquet from the market.

Love it!

Fathers and Sons

This weekend Justin took Brandon on the stake Fathers and Sons activity up at Ensign Ranch here in Washington. Did you know that the Church owns 5 ranches here for the use of wards and stakes and families? They are very cheap to use and are run by missionary couples. Ensign Ranch is the only one that has horses for horseback riding. Brandon especially liked that part....

And he really liked canoeing on the lake....

And he thought he really wanted to to down the hill-sized slip and slide. When he got up there in his swimming suit, he realized how cold the sprinklers were, he changed his mind. But at that point it was too late. He was committed. So he went down anyway! He had fun, but was very cold after that. Is this the biggest water slide you've ever seen?

And of course how often to you see waterfalls spontaneously falling off the rocks on the side of the highway? We're really enjoying the beauty here.

We are going back this weekend for the Ward Campout. It should be lots of fun....there is so much to do! And there are heated cabins with beds, full bathrooms with showers and paper towel dispensers, a huge kitchen to feed hundreds, pavillions, the lodge with stage and sound system, fishing, hiking, etc. Now that's my kind of camping!

Poor Katelyn

I've got to enjoy that cute 2 tooth grin while I can. She will soon have a 6 tooth smile.

This cute little girl has been cutting her front four teeth on the top all at the same time for about 2 weeks now. I got a clue when she started gnawing on my shoulder. Her gums have been very swollen and we could see the four bumps where the teeth were trying to come down. One of them was even bleeding a little yesterday. So today, three of the four teeth have broken through the skin. Now we're just waiting on the last one, which will be any time. It's right there. She's been more irritable lately, and I'm sure that this has been a big part of the cause. I hope that she starts feeling better soon. In a strange way, I can partially realte to her, as any of you who know what's going on with my braces and teeth will know. I'm just glad that this traumatic experience of all of your teeth coming in happens when we are too young to remember. That's gotta hurt!

Higher Than the Birds

Today we ventured out into downtown and this time took a different route to get up to the library. I am very happy to report that not all of the streets that run east-west are steep like San Francisco. It is well worth it to detour up a couple of blocks to walk up a much more gentle incline. We even found a Walgreen's a few blocks away where we were able to pick a few needed things. We enjoyed the library this time (as opposed to last time) and then walked a couple more blocks to the south to meet Justin at the Columbia Center Tower for lunch. He took us up to the 73rd floor of the tower afterwards and what a sight!

This is our neck of the woods. Our 25 story apartment building is one of those little ones down close to the water front. It's amazing how little it looked.

Here is the view to the south and the 2 stadiums:


Amazon's headquarters:

So close to the clouds!
It was a fun morning. I guess we'll go to the library again after all!

Our New Calling

First of all, you must know some things about the Seattle 1st Ward. They are incredibly friendly. They are very diverse, in race, in background, in economic circumstances but they are a vibrant ward family. We've never been in a ward quite like this one, and it's very fun. The ward has a good number of older couples that have been pillars in the church here in Seattle for years and years. Then there are the younger families that have just started to move back into the city in the last 3-4 years. So in that time the primary has grown from 7 kids to 40 or 50. The nursery has 17 kids and it's still growing with the summer interns still moving in. Last year they had about 50 convert baptisms. So this ward is changing in many ways and it is very exciting.

We knew when we talked with the Bishop on the first Sunday we were here that he planned to give us callings while we were here for the summer. We were pleasantly surprised that the ward wanted us to be so involved, even though we were only going to be here for 12 weeks. We figured that they'd probably give us a small calling to fill in some corners in the ward while we were here. Well, last Sunday we found out what we were going to be called to do, and it is quite different than we had expected. We have been called to be ward missionaries with two other couples that are here for the summer internship. But this is not your ordinary ward missionary calling. We were given the assignment to contact all of the inactive members and find out who they are, what their situation is and invite them back to church. Why aren't they already on top of this you might ask? Well, they have about 300 active members and about 450 inactive members. And many of those records have been rolling in in just the last few months. It seems that the big city is a good place to disappear if you want to. The Bishopric cannot keep up with it, so we have been asked to contact as many of the inactive members as we can (that means in person). We're hoping to get through at least 300. We've only got 10 weeks!

This is a huge undertaking for us! We spent Sunday evening getting all of these contacts onto our spreadsheet and mapping them all out (with Justin's cool mapping program that he built for his Elder's Quorum calling in Topeka). This way when the couples go out (one couple watches all the kids while the other 2 couples go knocking on doors) we can be much more efficient because we can get everyone that lives in a close proximity, rather than just jumping around to different neighborhoods. Justin and I have already been out once and it was a very interesting experience. It feels like a mini-mission. And walking around certain parts of town at night made me very grateful that the wives will have our husbands with us. We are trying to dedicate 1 weeknight and every Sunday afternoon to this effort. I think that we will be able to make a huge difference in the ward by doing this work this summer. I hope that we have some success with it!

Another Fun Weekend

The kids and I enjoyed taking Daddy to go and see the temple last Friday night. It is just so beautiful. And we are lucky because it only takes us about 15 minutes to drive over there. We can't get over how many different beautiful kinds of flowering plants and trees they have.

On Saturday we decided to drive over to Snoqualmie Falls, which probably is about 40 minutes away from us. It was a beautiful drive and when we got there we could definitely hear the rushing water! We went up to the lookout and started to feel a thick mist. It was almost hard to see through it down to the falls. It's amazing how much water comes up in the air because of the force of the water falling down into the river. Now I understand why we saw people walking around with rain jackets! Then we went on the 1/2 mile hike down to the bottom of the falls. It was a nice hike and so beautiful!

We made it! In the evening we went over to the Ballard Locks which is where ships and boats must go to go from one water level in the ocean (Puget Sound) to the higher water level of the lake (Lake Union). They go into the locks and secure themselves and then the water level in the locks either rises or falls to get them to the right level. Then they go out the other side. It was very neat to watch!

Before:

After:

We will have to go back when the salmon are "running" in July. They have a salmon ladder where the fish go from one body of water to the other when they're migrating. They jump out of the water, so it must be quite the sight to see. I tell ya, this summer is just like an extended vacation with all of the sight seeing we've been doing lately!