Mid-Winter Break

Kiddos in Seattle typically get the week of Presidents Day off of school. I think it’s sort of nice for those families who opt to take a vacation to get a break from the clouds; however, this year we stayed local.

We split the week up a bit and spent the long weekend out at The Lodge with some friends. Ben’s friend Ali, from school, and her family, who live a block from us, came and joined us for some skiing, Valentine’s Day fun and a whole lot of playtime.

{Ben and Ali were snuggling together watching Daniel Tiger}

The weekend was really smooth and Alex and I even got in a day of skiing {in powder nonetheless!}.

{It’s literally been years since I’ve gone skiing with a girlfriend! It was SUCH a treat!}

I stayed up at The Lodge until Tuesday to enjoy the fresh mountain air and then packed up the kids and headed back to Seattle. The weather was sunny in both places, I just thought it would be especially fun to be in the city. It’s the shoulder season now in Leavenworth so all the snow is melting at our house. The snow that is there is not good enough snow for sledding or doing much and there’s massive muddy puddles everywhere. Nonetheless, we still enjoyed our time and got in some bike rides and playtime out on the deck. Ben even pulled out his baseball gear.

Every day while in Seattle included SUN and a trip to the park. It was glorious. Those days felt like a preview of what’s to come this spring and summer. The grass is green here and there are daffodils and crocus in bloom – cherry blossoms are starting to emerge, too. The kids had their lightweight fleece jackets on and we took a break from wearing boots. I even packed up our chalk and sand toys to bring up to the park, too.

{ICED coffee for the sunny drive back to Seattle!}

In addition to our park days we had some big outings around Seattle. We visited the Pacific Science Center one morning and checked out the dinosaurs, the butterfly exhibit and watched a preschool planetarium show.

After the science museum we grabbed Shake Shack for lunch and met Alex at The Spheres.It had been quite a while since we’d been down to his office to meet him for lunch and it was so nice to see him mid-day.

{Ben was so enamored that he could write his name on the white board in the elevator.}
{When did this girl get so big!?}

We were all exhausted from the busy Wednesday that we opted to have a low-key day at our neighborhood park on Thursday. We made two trips up there and it was nice enough that afternoon that we even stopped for ice cream.

{Hannie fell asleep on our 3-block walk back to the car from The Spheres}

Friday was our busiest day and our day filled with the most hiccups. I’m not quite sure how we did all that we did, but we managed!

Our day started down at Seward Park with a {short!} scooter ride/run/stroller ride, followed by a stop at the playground. We headed over to the community center to go to open swim, only to find out upon our arrival that they had *just* sold out of tickets.

Ben was devastated. He asks to go swimming just about every day. He quickly came up with the idea to go to a different pool. While the kids played in the toddler gym I scouted around on my phone for an alternate pool. Mission accomplished! I found a pool, got Hannah back into her car seat {victory and a half!} and we scurried over the bridge to Mercer Island. Despite being a 25 minute drive from where we were, this pool ended up only being about 6 minutes out of our way, actually.

The kids LOVED this pool. The original pool we were at was so much more ideal for toddlers, as the one we ended up swimming at had a minimum depth of 3 feet and it was FRIGID, so neither kid could be independent. Thankfully the pool had life jackets and lily pads. There was a water aerobics class going on at the same time and the kids were hysterically dancing on the lily pad to the upbeat music. It was a riot.

By this point it was nearly 1:00 and we needed a lunch spot. Alas! My favorite lunch restaurant was just around the corner so there we went. My lunch was amazing. Ben was so excited to eat chips {a very special treat} that he dropped them on the ground. And then on top of the chips he dropped his steamed milk. And on top of that he dropped the contents of my wallet. Oye. Back in the car we went.

Ben transferred from the car to my bed but Hannah did not stay asleep. Minutes after we arrived home my calendar alert went off reminding me of Jackson’s grooming appointment. Oye. I pulled out the stroller, not wanting to deal with getting Hannah in the car again, woke Ben up and buckled the kids in and literally ran the 10 blocks with both kids and the dog to get to the appointment. No we were not on time. We stopped at a little sandbox park on our way back and then I pushed both kids up four consecutive blocks of massive hills. Whew.

My oh my what a week it was. It was filled with an abundance of memories and some definite challenges. It was completely exhausting and most days I didn’t even get a 5-minute break while they were napping, let alone some time in the morning before they awoke for the day {at least one kid was up before 6 each day}. While I do appreciate the stability school provides for Ben I really, really love our days together when it’s the three of us out and about having fun on our own.

The lack of consistency and structure reared itself and we had some off-the-wall behaviors as the week carried on. It started to make me really nervous for summer, but by the end of the week I was really excited for the lack of structure we’ll have this summer. Certainly some boundaries and expectations and a bit of a routine will need to be put in place this summer, but sometimes the best days are the ones where you are able to be spontaneous and fly by the seat of your pants.