Berry Picking

It all started with a trip to an ancient tree stump. Sort of. We were invited to join friends for berry picking at a farm north of Seattle, and Mom decided a rest area stop was in order before we got there. Mom couldn't resist taking pictures of the Muffins in a giant tree.

Here we have the Muffins heading into the strawberry patch.

Here's Lydia inspecting a berry.

We opted for a fun-only picking experience, not trying to beat any quantity or quality records. Here's our final harvest, which turned out to be a little over five pounds. 

The whole time we were picking, the Muffins were primarily interested in eating the berries. So, we headed out to a picnic table at the farm as soon as the berries were officially ours and let them indulge.

Amanda found a little photo op in the picnic area. She tried to recruit the others to join her, but to no avail, as they were too busy berry munching and exploring. However, it does at least show the name of the farm, should anyone be hunting for Seattle area berries next season.

Sunny Days at Golden Gardens

When we first heard about a play group outing to Golden Gardens, Mom was initially underwhelmed, since we'd been there before (albeit on a rainy day). Nevertheless, we went, and we were glad we did. Turns out there's a creek down the beach that we hadn't found before that runs from the woods into the sand. Ultimate sand-and-water playtime for the Muffins! We even eventually bought our own sand toys, we went there so much over the summer. Definitely a Muffin-approved beach.

Zoo Boise

On our way back to Seattle, Mom and the Muffins stopped at the zoo in Boise. Not only was it our first time going to a zoo in Idaho, it was also Mom's first time ever taking the kids to the zoo all by herself. Even before we got in the gate, Curtis spied the giraffe slide through the fence. Here he is trying it out:

Right across from the giraffe slide were some non living animals for kids to climb. So they did. Here's Amanda:

And Jared:

Lydia, meanwhile, decided to check out the mulch. She's probably quite the mulch expert by now.

Curtis decided to try life as a prairie dog for awhile:

We saw Mr. Mac, a 356 pound Aldabra giant tortoise, and he even looked at the camera!

The meerkats were also good at posing, and very entertaining to watch:

They had a chevrotain at the zoo. Crazy, perhaps, but Mom's wanted to see one of these tiny deer-like creatures live ever since she was a kid lugging around a big science book way back when.

The kids had fun feeding the goats. There were also sheep and llamas in the enclosure, but for some reason on only the goats were hungry that day.

Watch out, National Geographic, beware the sheer awesomeness of Mom's zebra photo! (We'll ignore the fact that they were in a pen in a zoo, no chasing herds or braving predators required to photograph them.)

We also got to see another random animal of interest to Mom: maras, also known as cavies or Patagonian hares.

We spent a couple of hours at the zoo but only got to see about half of it; something to add to our "next time we're in Boise" list. Mom considered the outing a great success, since we left with the same Muffins we came in with (no permanent prairie dog or goat feeder careers for Curtis). A good start to zoo season.

The Bean Museum

The Bean Museum . . . sounds like classic Seattle, yes, considering the massive coffee and cocoa bean industries in the area. But, no, it wasn't that kind of Bean Museum. While preparing for the inevitable return to Utah, Mom began working on a list of things to do there. Believe it or not, despite years of direct or indirect association with BYU, Mom had never been to the Monte L. Bean Museum on campus. Ever. So, when she found out that it would be closed for construction for over a year beginning in July, potentially eliminating Mom's chances to see the place for the foreseeable future, there was only one thing to do . . . head back to Utah before it was too late. Here are the Muffins by Shasta the Liger:

Mom's old faithful camera jumped off a shelf onto a tile floor not long before we left on our trip, and the general interest in Mom's replacement camera made it difficult to take many pictures during our visit (at least without risking the immediate destruction of the new camera). Perhaps someday we will see about adding some of the pictures Amanda took with the phone camera. Most importantly, though, the Muffins enjoyed the museum, and we even found a play room where Lydia could enjoy the place, too.

The Practice Beach

As Mom began getting the kids ready for their summer adventure, one of the big selling points she pushed was the beaches in the Seattle area. So, when a couple of weeks went by with no beach trips, the Muffins really started to wonder what was going on. Where was all that sand and water Mom advertised? Finally, Mom defied an afternoon shower, loaded up the kids, and took them to "the practice beach," a place to see how they would do being that close to a large body of water (and hopefully a step to practice for an ocean visit later). The destination: Golden Gardens on Puget Sound. The afternoon shower stopped by the time we got to the beach, but it had lasted long enough to leave the beach pretty much empty, aside from a few very dedicated sand volleyball players. The first thing we found was this nautical-themed playground:

There was also a rope climbing structure that the kids really liked (hooray for rigging):

Soon enough, we made our way to the actual sand and water. Curtis made lots of circles in the sand:

Amanda found a genuine shell and a seagull feather:

Lydia thoroughly investigated the sand:

Amanda and Jared were very interested in the water, but Mom and the water temperature kept them from exploring it too much:

However, they did find a "sea creature" of some sort in this bucket of water they pulled up:

It wasn't quite what the Muffins had imagined (what with the lack of extensive water play and all), but they still appreciated having finally gotten to the beach. Best of all, their good behavior on the outing gave Mom the courage to plan for more beach trips over the summer.

Kubota Garden

One of Mom's big little discoveries from the summer was how much she enjoys Japanese gardens. One day she subjected the Muffins to the Kubota Garden in the Rainier Beach neighborhood. It turned out not to be quite the Muffin's idea of fun, and so we didn't get to see as much as Mom would have liked, but Mom still got a couple of pictures anyway.

(Lest you be concerned that the Muffins were permanently scarred by garden exposure, rest assured that they recovered just fine after going to our neighborhood playground later in the day.)

The Burke Museum

Mom and the older two Muffins spent one of their Saturdays visiting the Burke Museum at the University of Washington (while Dad watched over the mini-Muffins). One of the first exhibits that caught Amanda's eye was this one with lots of shiny stones:

The museum had lots of natural history things on the upper level and lots of cultural things on the lower level. The kids' favorite thing in the cultural section was a video with Native American story tellers sharing traditional tales. Back in the natural history section, the kids had fun doing puzzles, examining things under a microscope, playing with dinosaurs, and generally exploring. After some play time, we found these flowers among the fossil collection:

Amanda has been very interested in height lately, and so she enjoyed seeing how tall she was compared to a dinosaur:

This dinosaur picture is for Curtis:

Once out of the natural history exhibit, we explored an exhibit about food. Part of the display included photos of families from around the world next to whatever a week's worth of food was for them. The kids' favorite thing, though, was a hands-on kitchen area. Amanda spent lots of time playing an elaborate kitchen game with Margaret, another girl visiting the museum that afternoon:

Jared, meanwhile, did his own "shopping" from the "pantry" and prepared his own unique recipes for Mom to "taste."

All in all, a fun afternoon.

Zip Line Park

First, a big thanks to our church congregation in Seattle, especially the moms who included us in their activity group right from the start. The very first activity we went to was at Salmon Bay playground (Ballard neighborhood). It had a merry-go-round like our park, but the kids barely noticed because of some other special attractions, particularly the zip line. That's pretty much where Amanda and Jared were the whole time.

Curtis and Lydia took in a little more of the park. For instance, they both loved the sandbox, which was full of random toys donated from around the neighborhood to make it even more fun. They also liked the swings, especially this big one.

Curtis really liked the big teeter totter, too, as did many other kids. What you don't see on the back of his head is just how frustrated he was at the time to have "his" teeter totter overrun by so many competitors. Only a few minutes before, it had just been Mom helping to make the teeter totter go. So, we'll just pretend he's still got the same smile on he had before.

The Squirrel of Beacon Hill

The various neighborhoods in Seattle have their own festivals over the summer, and we were lucky enough to be around for the Beacon Hill Festival. Dad watched the youngest two Muffins, which gave Mom and and the other two Muffins a little more freedom to enjoy the occasion. We made our way to the festival in a leisurely fashion, complete with a library stop, and we even saw some vintage street cars on the way. The actual festival had lots of food, music, and vendors, as well as a bouncy house area. However, despite the very modest cost, we still had a bit of sticker shock over the bouncy houses after having had unlimited free bouncing in the recent past. Fortunately, the event venue had a nice permanent free attraction: the Jefferson Park playground.

The coolest thing we encountered, though, was definitely the squirrel. We were on our way back to the car when we saw a squirrel circling a couple of people pretty closely. There was a guy making squirrel sounds, so at first we just thought it was a case "squirrel charming." We stood and watched for a little while, but then, lo and behold, the squirrel came to check us out, too! See how close it is to Jared in the picture? It spent a few minutes with us before moving on to more people. Probably the friendliest squirrel we've ever met.

Nordic Heritage Museum and Mom's Birthday 2012

Behold, a wooden horse! No, it wasn't a birthday present for Mom, but Mom and the Muffins did go to see it at the Nordic Heritage Museum on Mom's birthday. It was quite fitting, really: Mom had been curious about the museum for awhile, and it turned out to be the sort of place the Muffins were not quite as enthusiastic about (not a lot of hands-on science stuff). So, it was nice of them to put up with the outing for a sort of birthday present for Mom. One of the more interesting exhibits for the Muffins was the collection of authentic Nordic costumes, such as these:

Curtis was also fascinated by this little milk maid, since she was just about the same size he was:

Amanda got a kick out of the troll photo op. The others did, too, but Amanda put on the best troll face:

We also saw this neat Lego viking village (Legos are Danish, after all):

The Muffins' favorite part of the outing by far, though, was after we got out of the museum and Mom let them play at the rainbow slide playground across the parking lot (Webster Park). It had been raining when we got to the museum, but the sun came out again in time for the Muffins to play.

Lydia really got the hang of getting up and down slides this summer, and she had a lot of fun on one of the smaller slides.

The other Muffins, meanwhile, spent most of their playground time with their favorite attraction: the leftover puddles (and mud) under the swings.

Back at home that evening, Mom made lasagna for her birthday dinner, just because she wanted to.(And yes, it was very yummy, thank you.)

Dad brought home a card for all the Muffins to sign and some chocolate for Mom that evening. Nevertheless, Mom couldn't resist one more little outing. After the younger Muffins went to bed, Mom and Amanda headed off to Chocolopolis, a chocolate store in the Queen Anne neighborhood,  to try out their gourmet hot chocolate, as well as whatever other samples happened to be out that evening.

And, yes, we did sample the ultimate in chocolatey-ness, the 100% cacao bar.

All in all, a good birthday for Mom.