Bathroom Remodel: After

Here's the new bathroom! Our friend Justin did a great job. We are really happy with the new look and function (except for the water that leaked through the ceiling last night when I ran a bath for Joey but that wasn't his fault, it was because of the guy we hired to refinish our tub).

And this picture just cracks me up. Justin also installed some new lighting in our living room and this is a picture of the kids standing on the shelf in the closet, watching him work on wires in the attic, early one morning. Justin was so great with the kids. He let them "help" when they could or watch when they couldn't. They are both going through Justin-withdrawals this week.

Bathroom Remodel: Before

We decided to have our upstairs bathroom remodeled. Here are the before shots. It is almost done now so stay tuned for the beautiful, much improved, after shots.

You Know You Are a True Seattleite If...

...you attend a SeaFair parade in the rain. OK, it wasn't THE SeaFair Parade but it was the Lake City Parade which is part of SeaFair complete with the SeaFair Pirates and Clowns and the iconic pink Lincoln tow/toe truck. Neither kid liked the pirates. Claire liked the clowns and Ronald McDonald. Joey didn't. When he saw the tow/toe truck I asked him if he thought it was funny. He said that he liked that it towed but he didn't like the toes. Of course they enjoyed the candy as well. I think it was mostly a success. I know I had fun.

Art

San Fransisco Getaway

M and I spent 4 days last week in San Fransisco. We left the kids behind. Our wonderful parents took turns taking care of them. M had a conference there for a day and a half. I enjoyed having a few hours to myself. The rest of the time we did touristy things, ate yummy food, shopped a bit (there is never any time for clothes shopping when you have little kids), watched a couple movies, walked all over town and enjoyed being together. Here's a few pics.

Riding a cable car (transportation system from 1873, the cars grab cables running on a loop underground, wiki it if you want to learn more).

Then we rented a tandem bike and rode across the Golden Gate Bridge (note: tandem bikes are not as fun as they look, especially when riding across a windy bridge).
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Here we are about to get on the bridge with the city in the background.

Action shot.

On bridge.

And we made it.

Thanks to M for making me go and thanks to our family for taking such great care of our kiddos.

Visiting Papa Fitzer at Work

This is a stacker. Papa Fitzer has been driving one of these almost every day for decades. He took each of them for rides and they loved it. I used to love riding/driving these when I was a kid, too.

Bellingham Friends

We have gotten a chance to spend some time with our friends in Bellingham twice recently. The kids always have a blast together playing outside, feeding the chickens, running around downstairs, and sometimes we take them places. Only the tiniest nap and everyone gets dirty. It is super fun and my kids always want to go back. Now that many of the kids are older and more independent and we only have one "baby" between us, the moms actually get to chat a bit. During our visit in May, I was trying to take a picture of Claire and Ari on the couch but this little guy kept getting in the way.

See? He is kind of a ham.

So, I finally got a good picture.

I think she might be a baby-lover like her mom and grandmas.

For this June visit, we ended up at a local spray park.

Ari chilled in the backpack.

And here's the group, all 7 of them.

It is nice to have good friends.