Get Your Squeal On !

This was the theme of this year's Evergreen State Fair. We love this fair. It is a good size, but still small enough to enjoy

Our first stop was the Phineas and Ferb Show! Put on by Radio Disney.  Part of the fun was a trivia contest. Lon got picked by virtue of his awesome dance moves. We saw Alex there too, and he was also picked for the same team in the trivia contest!

The boys won some great Finding Nemo magnets.

A reprise of the awesome dance moves that they got them picked for the trivia game. It was fun to have met up with Alex and his family

Grace and Lon looking at the Lego collection and kid made creations. Lon thinks he would like to enter one next year.  I think we might. Mommy will enter a cake and a quilt and Lon will enter a Lego creation!

Helping the man tear off the plastic from the wing of this radio controlled airplane.

A little bit of a snack! Lon liked his corn dog. Mark got a smoked turkey leg!

Testing out some garden pruners. We went through all the booths. All the fun things we did not know about and wonder how we can live without!  Mark did buy me a pretty ring!

I just liked this sunset photo

In a fit of nostalgia, Lon went through the Farm to Market booth.  He more or less just looked at it and then we could move on.

We had been thinking about milk delivery since last time we were at the Fair. This year, we signed up for Smith Brother's Dairy home delivery. We will let you know what we think about it.

Checking out the bees. They were all asleep. It was getting a little chilly!

Lon riding the ponies.  This might be his last year, we did not get the photo this time. The photos did not turn out as cute as in past years.

We love the Grange exhibits. They are highly creative

Catching up with Mark, Lon, Meagan, Gernot and Grace.  They went to the rides and I wanted to check out some more booths.

The midway

In the spinning helmet. We were going to let Lon ride on 5 rides. The cost of 5 rides was the same price as an all you can ride pass.  We got him an all you can ride bracelet.  He thought he has the best Daddy EVER

The fun house exit. They went through there 4 times.
While we were waiting, I went to get some mini doughnuts, since it was getting late the man at the O-Gee donuts gave me a bunch of extras. We were very appreciative of them!

Lon and Grace on the Haywire ride. They were loving being able to ride all the big kid rides. No more baby rides for these two!  We started to make our way out of the Fair. We passed a booth that said your name on a marble. We have never seen Lon's name pre-printed on anything. So we asked, to our amazement, they had his name already on the marble. Of course, we bought one!

On our way out, we passed a couple of kid rides that they still wanted to go on. The big slide,  the shrek maze thingy, and of course, the carousel. That was the last ride of the night. It was almost 11pm.  Yes, 11pm. We spent the whole evening at the Fair. It was very fun. We have never closed down the Fair before. I think we should do it again!

Lady Washington

On Thursday I had tickets for Lon and I to take a cruise aboard the Lady Washington. Washington State's Official Tall ship!  I went down on Wednesday to make sure where the ship was going to be.  Then the car died, again.  We waited for it to be towed, again.  This time they assure me it will stay fixed. This meant that we had to get up early on Thursday to take Daddy to work so we could have the car.  We were not going to miss this!  We drove down through Marina Park, no tall ship. Perhaps they were still at Carillon Point.  We drove down there, it was 8:51, the ship was due to depart at 9am.  The only ship at Carillon Point was The Hawaiian Chieftan!  OH NO! I was sure we missed everything. We were driving home. Sad. Lon, spotted the Lady Washington, still tied to the dock. Behind The Fish House. This is Kirkland Marina (who knew?). We pulled over to the curb, I stashed by purse under a blanket and we RAN across the street and down the dock. We were the last people to board.

WE MADE IT!

The beautiful tall ship!

Ships bell, with the Master and Commander behind

This was not a pleasure cruise. This was a youth educational cruise! The kids were to hoist the sails! Lon jumped right in to learn how. He was part of the younger kids group, the Alphas.  He impressed all the hands with his willingness to take part.

Learning to belay a line. They also told Lon there are no ropes on a sailing vessel.  I have told him that too. Lines, sheets and halyards. He learned about all of them!

Seeing what they were doing!

Learning how to control the lines, letting them go slowly

This time, Lon could not be the first one on the line, they had to have a little bit stronger boy up front

What they did!

Hosting more sail. This time from the quarter deck

Once the sails were hoisted, they were not done ! They learned about how the sailors lived on board a ship. What they ate, what tools they used to repair a sail, and why some boys went to sea.

Lessons on the quarter deck. How long a watch was, how to tell how deep the water is, how to tell the Captain which direction they went over night.

Playing with the tool the sailors used to show the Captain what they did while on watch

Lowering the sails. We were becalmed. There was no wind. None.

Sad to be heading back to the dock with diesel power

First lessons in how to coil the lines

A little extra help in coiling and belaying the lines. I think Miss Lindsay wanted to hug Lon!  She was very nice. She was part of a program called Two Weeks Before the Mast.  I can't wait till Lon is old enough for this program! He is looking forward to it too.  He had a great time.
The sail was billed as a two hour educational cruise. Our cruise took 3 1/2 hours. It was so much fun, but we owe the City of Kirkland 35 dollars! The quick parking I found was only two hours.  The cruise was worth every penny!
We had a great time

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Today is Mark's birthday!  We held our birthday party today.

Our birthday cake! Mark found me the cake pan at a garage sale. I have a feeling I am going to be using this one alot!  We put the route we drove on the cake.  Yellow was just Mommy and Lon, Red was the whole family!

I forgot to take a photo of the table before we started eating! The deviled eggs are already gone!  I found a new recipe for baked beans that is finally a keeper!

Having fun out on the deck ! Megan, Gernot, Grace, and Ben, Prachi, Rahul and Reyanch, Kory, Kate, Josiah and Sadie and our neighbor, Kris,  helped us celebrate!

The kids are having fun in the backyard. Reyansh loved to turn the bubble machine on.  He loves his bubbles!

Reyansh wanted to help Uncle Mark with his cake.
Cake was almost more important than bubbles!

We sang Happy Birthday and blew out the candles! Then it was time to eat cake with ice cream.  We had no leftover cake! Perfect!

More playing in the backyard. The tent was a big hit
Mark's birthday present is the camp rocking chair (the brown one is on rockers) He can now enjoy the campfire in style!
Lon is wearing the helmet so have ride his bike at a moment's notice

A funny little thing Lon got for Daddy was Spam flavored macadamia nuts.  Roasted macadamia nuts with spam dust. Not super tasty, but hearing the spam song being sung was priceless.
It was a good day. The clouds did not roll in till late, the company was good, the food was good.
Everyone had a fun time!

Lon Rides!

This summer one of our goals was for Lon to ride his bike without his training wheels!  Yesterday was the day!

Mark and Daddy started in the backyard. Grass is much more forgiving.
Since we found and eradicated the hornet's nest, the backyard is a wonderful place to be again!

Coming to the end of the ride

He did it! He was so proud of himself.

This morning, we went out to try riding in the cul-de-sac!  He did it!

I have a feeling that I am going to see him riding his bike a lot more now! He is having a lot more fun riding, and going much much faster!

Happy Birthday to Mommy!

Today was my birthday! I had planned to take Lon to King Tut today ever since I learned King Tut was coming to Seattle. I bought tickets as soon as they went on sale. I had them pinned to the wall near my dresser ever since.

There might be time to see it again. For anyone on the fence about seeing this. GO! It is worth it!

On the way to the Pacific Science Center, we passed the Museum of Glass.  Lon wants to see that.   We saved it for another time.

Lon inside the Pacific Science Center. We have to come back and see more of the Science Center. I have fond memories of these ponds, but I can not remember if they had the dinos in them then.

We were there just a few minutes too early to get in line, so Lon got to play with the water things. It was really fun!

Then it was time to get in line! Yipppeeeee!  The line was not long and we only had to wait about 6 minutes. Much different than 1978!

We got the audio sticks. Lon really liked his, he wanted to hear everything they said, sometimes twice

The tomb of a royal cat.  Lon thought this was very interesting.  The cat was turned into a mummy, ready to be a royal cat again in the afterlife

The statue was originally over 17 feet high, still very tall, even without the legs intact. Harrison Ford was telling us to feel the power of the statue as he stared down at us.

Kai and his children..  Loved this statue.

The mask.  It is amazing to see it

It is dark inside the gold room. The objects seem to float, as they are the only things lit.  It is impressive

Lon learning more about the jewels. They went into a lot of detail on the audio stick.

Entering the second half of the exhibit. Lord Canarvan and Howard Carter, how they discovered the tomb, etc.

One of my favorites, the leopard mask

King Tut's bed. It was not very big.  Lon was fascinated by it.

We both loved the little chair, for King Tut when he was a little boy.

The face of Tut in alabaster. This is the top of one of the coptic jars.

On the way out we could see a replica of Kin Tut's unwrapped mummy.  Lon was not sure about it.  He thought a King should be a little bigger.

Time flew by when we were inside the exhibit. We spent two hours inside! It was time to get some lunch. We went to what used to be the Center House, it is now called the Armory. Not sure why.  Most of the food places are gone.   There was a new pizza place called Mod. It was good pizza. Thin wood fired crust. It was made to order and made fast.

City Scape on the way to pick up Mark!

We had a lovely surprise visit from Reyanch and his parents!  Auntie Bubbles did her part and turned on the bubble machine! I have to get new batteries for next time.  Sadly, we have a wasp nest under our deck somewhere, both Lon and Prachi got stung.  I felt bad about that. I have to get rid of that before we have kids in the backyard again.

Prachi brought me a wonderful Tiramisu cake! Yummy!

Reyanch helped me cut the cake! He was happy when he got to eat some too!
It was wonderful to see them.
It was a good birthday.