New favorite play place....

Another Thursday another soccer class! Thomas is improving every week. This week I was so so happy to see him participating and really getting into what the coach was asking them to do. Next week I will take the camera as its his last soccer class for a while. And he has the cutest little soccer uniform I want to have a pic of here in the blog.

After soccer Sarah, the kids and I all headed out for lunch....where to go?
Where else but the new kids play area and food court at the local mall.

Southcenter Mall is our local Westfield mall, its huge! And now that the new extension is complete its even bigger! I had not seen the new addition so it was very exciting.

I was completely shocked! Not only was it huge, but so nicely done....very swish! It has a very Bell-square feel about it (or for those in Aus, very much like Chatswood Chase) They even have a Pumpkin Patch store, first one in Seattle!

The kids had so much fun in the play area. Lots of fun things to crawl through and climb on, its a fun modern, jungle theme. Even the family restroom has a wonderful play area, toys, a TV, comfy chairs for the adults, more like a living room! Even nursing moms had their own areas with personal TV's....nice! One other thing that really rocks about the new play area is that they were smart and put a Starbucks right next to it for the mama's....yeah!

I have no pic's from today but found an article from the Seattle Times which has some photos of the new renovations....

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008067251_southcenter23.html

A Blue Angels kind of weekend!

Seattle Seafair weekend August 1st-3rd 2008

This is one of the those weekends we look forward to all year!

Seafair is a family tradition. If we don't go down to the event itself we watch the airshow from somewhere on the foreshores of Lake Washington. This year we could even see the Blue Angels from our house...

Seafair is Seattle's annual summer festival.

Located down on Lake Washington over near Seward Park, South Seattle area, just a beautiful location. Its been going for 58 years and consists of hydroplane races, airshow, fireworks, music, parades and so much more....check out the official website in my links.

This year we decided to go down to where all the action was taking place. I had been there a few days before with the boys and scoped out a location for us to watch from. (Plus we got to watch them practice, a sneak peek of the day! See previous post =)

The day was finally here!!! After our usual IHOP Sunday breakfast, we headed out to the lake. We parked the car, right where I had hopped and avoided driving around for ages trying to find a spot...yay for us! We then packed up the stroller and made our way down to the waters edge.

The boys were so excited! we had packed their fold up tent, blankets, games, coloring books, crafts, snacks...etc they were set! Dave and I just kicked back in the shade with the cool breeze blowing over us from the lake, looking out over the water. We had taken our camping chairs too so we sat in comfort and relaxed!

While waiting for the Blue Angels we were entertained by the hydroplanes...Unreal! They really do fly, you can see the boats leave the water as they go by so fast. Harry was amazed and a little confused as to why they were not called boats?

Snow cones, sunburns & Smiles...ahhh summer!

Then Finally it was time for the Blue Angels.....

Need I say more, just check out the photo's and see the video...amazing!

The boys had a wonderful time. Thomas was a little scared by the noise, they really did get close. Flew right over the top of us at times, we loved it, poor Thomas not so much! Its funny Thomas was 2 weeks old when he attended his first Blue Angles show, now he's 3!

We can not wait for next year when we get to go to Seafair again....

Night out with the girls.....

Beatles Laser Show & Cheesecake Factory

Finally a night out! Although it meant Dave would be home early and I would really love to spend the time with him, it's nice to get out with the girls minus the kids! It's been a few weeks after all and I was dying for some girl time!

Tonight was to be my first laser show experience. Not quite sure what to expect, I just wanted to get out with the girls, plus this sounded fun! A laser show to Beatles music in a huge indoor dome theater...Beatles music you can't go wrong!

So off I went to Sarah's house, we would all go in together from there...It was quite exciting to do something I had never done before. Its funny how life can become quite monotonous, same things day-in/day-out, you have to keep it fresh and try new things to make life fun!

Anyway, after running through the rain from the car park to the Science Center we finally got there. What a night! So much for summer, it was more like winter, I even had a sweater on....

We entered the dome building and found a spot on the floor. Its best if you lay down and look up. The room went dark, the music started and BAM! The lasers started dancing around the room to the beat of the music. How cool was that! They played some really good Beatles songs like Get Back and Hey Jude, two of my favs. It was quite a tripy experience and honestly you feel like you should have taken some kind of drug before hand to have the ultimate experience...lol!

After about 15 songs it was over, a fun experience and would do it again. I would love to see the Doors like this, although I would take a pillow to make it a little more comfortable (do I sound old or what...lol!)

The night was still young so we headed off to the cheesecake factory for desert! Yummo. Hmm what to get, it's never easy to decide as they have over 60 different cheesecakes to choose from. After recommending so many of my fav's to my friends I had no idea what to get so I tried something new.

OK, so I know I am working out with a personal trainer, hoping to lose weight. And Yes I felt guilty and yes I looked around to make sure he was not there to see me. But its cheesecake with the girls, who can say no to that!

So anyway, I ordered the tuxedo chocolate cheesecake. I had a bite then let everyone else have a bite, had a little more and took the rest home for Dave...so I wasn't that naughty!

Long story short, I had a wonderful night and can not wait to hang with the girls again....I feel so totally lucky to have the friends I have...love you guys =)

Chasing the Blue Angels.....

Today Thomas had soccer as always on a Thursday morning. He is really getting into it and participating....go Thomas!
Well after soccer we were heading home, nothing much planed and then.......

ZOOM!..ZOOOM!..ZOOOOOM!
One after the other. What was that? Harry called out.

I can not take credit for this photo, just a cool shot I found onine today

The Blue Angels are in town and are practising before their big annual Seafair show this weekend.
Well.....screech went the tires, huge U-turn and off we go! Follow that plane!

I called Dave to see when they were practicing and found out they had two sessions today. Great we will watch them land and catch the second show down by the water.

After stopping to buy some lunch we missed the landing...bumer! So we hung out at Boeing Field so we could at least watch them take off. Talk about fun! We had planes landing right over our heads. Trains going by, huge trucks and construction. What more do two little boys want!!! Talk about great entertainment.

I parked the car at the south end of the runway, opened the sunroof and sat on the roof with Harry, it was so much fun! Thomas was in his seat watching a DVD. I think the last airshow has turned him off loud planes for a while, he didn't want to get out of his seat and was asleep shortly after anyway!

Finally after an hour of waiting the Blue Angels took off.....

see video, still to come. I lost my cell phone shortly after this, so check back for pics and video!

Quick Harry jump into your seat and buckle in, lets follow them again. So off to the Lake we went to continue our plane chase. They flew over the top of the car a few times, the sound was deafning!

We found a great spot down near Seward Park on Lake Washington and watched again from the roof of the car......Just Amazing!

Here are some more video's from the day........Check back when I have found my phone!

What a Noise!

More photo's from the McChord Airshow July 08.....

Hands on the ears, that was a common site today!

Dave, Grandma, Grandpa, Harry & Thomas (in the stroller) out front of the hanger!

The huge crowds, there must have been tens of thousands!

Harry, Mom and Nikko, he was scared of the noise so he hid down Harry's top! The Thunderbirds were amazing! Mt Rainer made a beautiful backdrop for the show on such a clear day.

The boys enjoying the day when it wasn't noisy. We set up camp where the kids had fun playing, coloring and eating frozen lemonade, that is when they were not hiding from the noise.

Here is Harry on the C12...agh forgotten the name (Dave help, what was the plane called?)

Great day and can't wait for the next show!

Claim Jumper....home of the motherload!

One of our favorite places to take our out of town visitors, for a true taste of American food not to mention outstanding American portions is....Claim Jumper's.
A fun family restaurant located 10mins south at South Center (great shopping area)
River stones, log beams, chandeliers made from antlers and a huge buffalo head over a very impressive stone fireplace, its got the charm of a huge log cabin that offers wonderful home cooking.
Meatloaf, pot pies, pot roasts, biscuits and gravy just to name a few of their signature dishes. But the real signature dish that its know for has to be the Motherload....chocolate cake 8 layers high!
This cake measures over a foot high and when you ask for a piece don't expect to finish it! Even Dave couldn't finish it! The deserts on their menu are crazy huge and will need to be shared, that's even if you get to the desert! The meals in general are just huge, you don't leave without a bag of left overs.
Today we headed there for lunch with Dave's mom and step-dad who are in town this week. We had a great time catching up and hearing all about their travels up to this point.
We didn't order anything to outrageous today, mainly salad's. They do a killer Asian chicken salad which I got. Warren ordered a crab wedge salad which I think I will be ordering next time we go, looked sooooo good! Man were we full but it didn't stop us from heading of to the Cheesecake Factory for coffee and cake for afternoon tea....yummo!

My new favorite place to spend way to much money....

Today while the boys were in Soccer camp, Sarah and I got to have some more hang out time...whoo hoo! We both have a love for gardening and home improvements (someone else who is just as addicted to HGTV as I am...lol!) We spent the other day visiting nurseries like Furnies in Burien and Lowes in Tukwila. OK Lowes is hardware but they still have wonderful plants.
So today we wanted to head out again and visited a great little hole in the wall outdoor garden sculpture place, very cute frog there! We also stopped in at another wonderful little family run nursery, I think it was called Earlington's? Up in Renton, very friendly and helpful.

But my all time favorite place, where I could spend all day not to mention all my money was "Second Use" OMG I am in love! I was so tempted to ask if they had any positions available...lol! Second Use is a salvage center, mainly salvaged house parts from demo's. I have never seen so many wonderful old lights, fittings, knobs, doors, windows...etc mostly from old old houses.
I am so going back there with measurements and a list (should I be saying that, Dave if your reading I won't spend too much...lol!)
Anyway I will post here any treasures I find, hopefully something old that needs some restoring. I would love to find a new dinning table and chairs.
Check out their website link on the side of my blog, I can even shop there online, so dangerous!

What in the world are we doing in Seattle?
I have been getting this question a lot lately so thought I would post it here.
In 2001 Dave was offered a job here with Boeing developing the software for the AEWACS...very exciting project with the Department of Defence. On what was to be an 18mth contract.
Dave and I (and the dog) packed up our life in Australia and ended up moving to the states 2 weeks after 9/11, what a crazy time to fly let alone move to a country that was about to go to war!
Anyway, long story short. We are still here! 7yrs later and loving it more than ever. Dave found work with another aerospace company after our contract ran out with Boeing last year. He is now working on the software for the Boeing Dream liner.
Since moving here we have had 2 amazing boys, bought a house and made the most wonderful friends.
Even though we do get homesick from time to time and we miss our family and friends so much, not to mention the beautiful Sydney weather....this is home!