Last week the kids had a week off for mid-winter break. Yeah, up here in the dark annals of the northwest, you need a break about this time of year. Madalyn spent most of her time in Utah, but came home for the weekend. The Institute rented out Husky Stadium on for some ultimate frisbee and flag football. We had the whole football field to run around, and Cayleb did with his friend Thaddeus (bummer my batteries gave out or I'd have better pics), but little Makenzy-coo kept going for the stairs. Who knows how many dirt clad shoes, bacteria filled flip flops and sticky, poopin pumps have gone up these stairs. I had to keep a close eye on her because at the base of the stairs is a moat complete with little wooden bridges to cross over. Luckily there wasn't any troll. It is about a four foot drop by 5 foot moat that runs the length of the north field. It is probably to throw bad players in after they've made a bad play - a tidy little time out area safe from the crowd.
This is an exhibit from the Wing Luke Museum in Chinatown in the International District a Pan-Asian museum. This is a display of people's experience during the Korean War which they consider the forgotten war. As you walk through this part of the museum, the stories are read in the native languages of those who survived the war. We didn't spend as much time here as I would have liked, we only had so much time on the parking meter and Makenzy meter.
We took a class on Vietnamese calligraphy.
This was the teacher.
Instruction time. Later we stopped by Mon Hai, a Chinese bakery, it was sooo good. Since we were being "international" we decided to forgo chicken nuggets and fries and go for lunch at Pho, a Vietnamese soup restaurant. So, as a food critic I would say, o.k., but not exactly kid friendly fare. Plus, I honestly didn't know what to do when the waiter brought out a plate of bean sprouts, hot green peppers and lime. I thought perhaps it was a salad so being the mom that knows everything, I told the kids this must be a Vietnamese salad. So we started to eat it that way. It seemed odd, so I started rubber necking to see what other people were doing with their salad. Apparently, it all goes in the soup. It totally reminded me of the time when I was at a restaurant in Park City with my sisters and I mocked one of them for eating the whole artichoke leaf instead of scraping it off. I know someone in that restaurant was slurping down a chuckle as they thought "total first timer." Instruction time for me. Anyhow, we had a 2nd dinner that day, Italian cuisine with Ghiradelli brownies and ice cream.
Our visit to the Zoo. Of all the animals, this is the only animal picture we took.
All my baby birds in the nest, though the littlest baby bird is trying to fly away. In fact, most of the time we were at the zoo she was pretty much a wild animal wanting to run all over the place and escape the captivity of her stroller.
Itsy, bitsy spiders. The week literally crawled past us too quickly. We slept in, went to the movies, had some friends over, slept in, went shopping at Bellevue Square, slept in, Makayla and I did a few projects while Cayden went motorcycle/4-wheeling. For the most part, I really enjoy having my kids home and being on our own time schedule, but it nice to send them off some days.
