Father's Day Weekend

First off, a big HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to my husband, my dad, my step-dad, and my father-in-law.  All four are amazing men and I feel so incredibly blessed to have each of them in my life.  How did I get so lucky?

We decided to do some site seeing for Father's Day weekend and we had so much fun having some good ol' family time!

Saturday, we started the day off with my favorite breakfast place in the world... The ORIGINAL Pancake House.  A little background of this place.... I have been going to this place (in a location in Cali) since I was little and my stepdad takes each of his kids and grandkids for their birthday's every year.  So when I saw this place in Seattle, I was pumped!  Oh, and don't confuse this with IHOP because IHOP doesn't even come close to the goodness of The Original Pancake House.  

I got my usual, the German Pancake (or Dutch Baby).  You serve it with lemon juice and powdered sugar... sooooo yummmmmmy! 

Lyla and Ruby split their chocolate chip and blueberry pancakes...

Nate got blueberry pancakes...

Rube with her food...

For some reason my girls like to eat lemons...

After our amazing breakfast, we went to the Ballard Locks and Fish Ladder.

I'm not gonna lie, it was sort of fascinating seeing how the boats get from salt water to fresh water (Lake Union).  

When they open the gate when a boat is traveling back into fresh water, the fresh water is a few inches higher so it rushes back into the canal and prevents the salt water from mixing too much with the fresh. Did that make sense?

Cousin It... I mean Ruby...

This is what she thought of me pinning her hair back...

After checking out the Locks, we went over to the fish ladder where the salmon migrate from salt water to fresh.  Because they built the Locks, they had to build a fish ladder for the little guys...

I don't know if you can see it but there is a blackish salmon jumping up the ladder.  So cool!

Cute little story: Lyla and I have been practicing her Father's Day song all week that she was supposed to sing with the primary kids on Father's Day.  She loved the song but she didn't like singing with all those kids.  I think it makes her nervous or something.  Anyway, she was so excited to sing it for Nate for Father's Day.  So on our way to the car from the Locks, Lyla and Nate were holding hands and she just started singing him his Father's Day song, all by herself.  It was such a cute and touching little serenade and Nate was in daddy heaven.  It melted both our hearts and Lyla was giggling out of excitement, embarrassment, and whatever else that girl was feeling.  And of course, when it came to actually singing with all the primary kids, she was totally uncomfortable and didn't sing a peep.  Oh well, she loves and adores her daddy and she definitely shows it every single day.

On actual Father's Day, we went to church, relaxed, talked to family, and ate a yummy dinner.

Nate and the girls with their Father's Day gifts they gave him.

Dinner :) 

Nate and Ruby

 Happy Father's Day to the best man, husband, and father I know.  My girls are so very lucky to have Nate as their dad and I could not have chosen a better man for the job.  We love you Nate!!!

accident prone

 Maybe we have had too much fun here in Seattle but since we have been here, the girls have sustained a few injuries.

Actually, I don't think Lyla's qualifies as an injury.  One day I just noticed that there seemed to be a chip in her tooth.  Neither of us could remember any sort of injuries that came with hitting her mouth or teeth on anything.  So we have no idea how it happened.  However, she did chip her front tooth.  Luckily it is pretty small.

And then poor Ruby has had some bad luck with doors and drawers.  First off, don't judge the nasty fingernails.  She has been a little sensitive with her fingers the past couple days so I'll get to them later.  Anyway, the first accident happened on her middle finger (the black one) the first week we got here and it is STILL black.  I can't tell if it has grown out at all but if it has, it has been a SLOW process!  Anyway, I am pretty sure she slammed her finger in a drawer.  She cried but didn't seem to upset about it and it wasn't until the next day when we saw the fingernail.  Poor thing!

And then two days ago we were in a restroom at Nordstrom and Ruby tried hiding in a stall while Lyla and I were washing our hands and she accidentally slammed her finger in a door or something.  I'm not quite sure what it was exactly but she was SCREAMING!  I thought she broke her finger or something but it turned out to be another fingernail injury.  We didn't notice the discoloration on her ring finger until the next day.

Hopefully when my girls are older, they will be able to have pretty, unchipped teeth and pretty fingernails.

I love my accident prone girls!

If... then...

My, dear, sweet Lyla is going through a phase of threats.  I think it's because we will "threaten" consequences like "Ok Lyla, that's ok if you don't eat your food, but if you don't then you won't get any snacks or desserts and you'll have to wait to eat until tomorrow morning for breakfast" or "Lyla, if you don't stop fussing then we'll have to go home".  You know, that type of thing... normal, right? 

So anyway, Lyla has turned these "threats" against us.  I know what you're thinking, how could a sweet girl like this....

... spew out threats at her parents?

Let me give you a few examples of our favorites...

Us: K, Lyla, climb in bed.
Ly: I will NOT go to bed.
Us: Sorry sweet girl, it's bed time.
Ly: (in her most threatening tone) Fine but I will not close my eyes all night long. I'm going to keep them open the whole time.
Us: Ok, good luck with that :)


I don't remember the exact situation for this one but it might have been that we made her give a toy back to Ruby that she had taken or something.  Anyway, she declared to us:
Ly: Fine (as she throws herself on the floor)!  Then I will not be happy for the whole week!
Us: (trying not to laugh) Oh, we're so sorry to hear that.


There have been many others but tonight she pulled the ultimate on me 3 separate times.  It started when she took a toy from Ruby to "fix" it.
Me: Ly, give that toy back to Ruby.  She had it first.
Ly: But I'm fixing it.
Me: It doesn't need to be fixed.  That is how Ruby wanted it.  Please give it back.
(silence as she keeps "fixing" it.)
Me: Lyla...
(silence)
Me: Ok Lyla, 1......2.......3 (at 3 she runs over and throws the toy down next to Ruby).
Ly: I am not going to be your daughter anymore!

She threw that one at me again when I sent her to time out for pulling Ruby off a chair by her feet so she landed flat on her back and hit her head.  And there was a 3rd time with that ultimate threat/consequence but I don't remember what for.


To be fair though, Lyla really is an absolute sweetheart.  She is one of the most caring little girls I have ever known.  She made up for her comments this evening during family scripture study... Nate was reading and she silently got my attention and mouthed to me "I love you".   It was super sweet.  I sure do love my Lyla girl.

still having fun

I have some catching up to do, so here I go...

We are so very blessed with the setup we have here in Seattle.  We live in corporate housing that we pay a small fee for and it came fully furnished, which is a huge blessing.  The only thing that I HATE about this place is we do not have a single non-stick pan.  It has seriously hindered my cooking.  The other day I went to make hole-in-one's.  I buttered both sides of the bread, PLUS sprayed the pan with cooking spray and it STILL stuck to the pan.  Seriously?  Needless to say, I do as little cooking in those stupid pans as I can.

seriously?

We were entertained for a day by the window washer's at our buildings.

We took Nate to the Pacific Science Center...

My favorite, the tiger looking butterfly.

Ruby likes to stick her hands down her pants.  So does Nate.  

The Robbins clan and us.

Butterfly

Naturally, one of the main purposes of going into the butterfly house is to see if one of them will land on you.  However, once they get close your head, your body goes into a sort of panic and you start flailing your arms and screaming like a little girl.  It's cute.  Anyway, one of the little guys landed on my arm and I felt like I was just chosen to be the winner of a new car.

So excited!

 Naked Mole Rats.  The most disgusting rodent's I have ever seen... seriously.

ew

The girls on some space shuttle type thing...

Ruby having fun with Chet.

Lyla, Rip, and Ruby having fun.

So this was actually a funny story... Lyla loved these little statues they had here.  There was a pig, some other animal, and these three fish.  She decided to name them Jaxon, Rex, and Tyrus.  Jaxon and Rex are buddies from Chicago and Durham, and Tyrus is her friend's dad :)  Funny girl.

Lyla kissing her fish friends goodbye.

 Some other mom's and I decided to hit up the Central Library. So we took the monorail and walked the rest.  These lovely blue tree's were along the way.  Lyla loves them and thinks they are so silly.

The kids all pretty much played instead of read books.  It's all good.

 Courtney and I did a little tour of the library.  This is our viewpoint from the top floor looking down to the bottom.

 The center middle floor of the library is painted completely red... floors, ceiling, walls, everything.  They did it because it's supposed to be the heart of the library.  It was kind of cool, but mostly really creepy.  Like, seriously.

We've also become gymnasts in our home.

And today, we headed to the aquarium.  The highlight was the big Fur Seal that Lyla and I saw poop in his tank. It was so gross but so funny.  And also this octopus... it's pretty big.

Look at the size of that thing!

Lyla was NOT happy to be leaving the aquarium.

 I am super excited about this ferris wheel they are building right next to the aquarium.  It's going to be so much fun and will probably be extremely overpriced.

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That's all for now :)