Food, Flowers, and My Favorite Things

When we decided to move up to Seattle, we intended to enjoy all Seattle has to offer. I'm still amazed there are so many things we still haven't seen. These activities were all done within the heart of Seattle.

Volunteer Park Conservatory
There is nothing that we love more than nature and the surrounding beauty of this area. This past week we discovered Volunteer park, a true gem. There we saw the conservatory, an outstanding display of flowering plants from all areas of the world. They had 5 houses that had so many unique plants and flowers. They had the Bromeliad House, Palm House, Fern House, Seasonal Display House, and Cactus House. I will be biased and post 3 of my favorites. But to show it all here would create a book. These pictures were taken with my low quality iphone camera. This is a place worth going back again with a nice camera.





Koi Pond and Trail in the middle of Capitol Hill.
The Water Tower Resevoir, pavement at elevation 444.5’ is high point of Capitol Hill. Beautiful view of Seattle skylines
We're creatures of adventures. We just love going places and seeing new things. But the one thing that we (and the kids) always get excited about is crossing the floating bridges and feeling like you're right on the water. Dan crosses this bridge everyday going into work. Observe the 2 sides of the water. One is quite smooth and the other rough with waves. You can tell the direction of the wind easily by looking at the water.


Watching the sunset on Capital Hill. The body of water there is Lake Union which links into Puget Sound which eventually goes out to the Pacific Ocean.

We went to the Koi ponds nearby and it was seriously one of the funnest things I've done in a long time in relation to pets. The Koi are so cute! They're not like the fish I know from aquariums, they're like dogs. They come to you and eat food out out of your hands and nibble on your hands like they're giving you kisses. I felt like a little kid again when we went there. I was convinced I want a Koi pond. That was probably the easiest thing Dan had ever had to convince me of. Convincing me to marry him took 5 times. Little did he know he should've been a Koi and that would've sold me at first sight. JK.
The kids were a bit reluctant at first but didn't take long to realize how fun it was to touch and feed the Koi.
At first even I wasn't brave enough to stick my hands in the water, but I decided to try it after seeing how much the kids enjoyed it and loved it.
VALENTINE'S PART I
We decided to take the whole family out for steak and crab for Valentine's day. This was all, of course, after we went to the Koi ponds and played with the koi fish. We saw the fish, we ate the fish. Reena and Debrie had fish and chips. Reena was more interested in the inside of the Crab Cracker than in the food I think.We had steak, Alaskan King crab, fish and chips and kabobs of shrimp and salmon.
Valentines was just another holiday to give me an excuse to eat more sugar. We've been eating a lot of sweets. We are seriously lucky that our metabolism can take care of the junk we added to our diet this past week.

VALENTINE PART II
On Valentine's Day I posted pictures of Dan and me on facebook and wrote this "I don't know if it's the way you kiss me, or the fact that you're a nerd and I'm an Asian and people say that's a perfect combo, I'm so into you. There's nobody else I'd rather be with than you. I love you more than I ever thought I could love somebody. Thank you for loving me and for asking me to be yours forever. I love you and the 2 cuties we've made so far that resemble everything I love about you. Daniel Kent Stevens, you're the best". 14 people liked it and commented on it and when I showed Dan and gave him his m&m's, he blushed.

He got me flowers and even made me a heart shape sandwich for lunch. Nerds can be romantic!
This is what happens when you give a photographer flowers. Photography time! This one is going up in our master bath for sure. Doesn't it just have a romantic look to it?!

Lilies and daisies are my favorite flowers. Daisies because that's the meaning of my mother's name and lilies because they bloom so beautifully.When I asked Brie what she would give daddy for Valentines's day, she said "oranges". She LOVES oranges. I'm glad she does because oranges are cheap all year round.

Reena is my crafty child. Everyday she asks me what today's craft is. Sometimes I can't think of anything so baking is the answer. She's very creative and pirate ship brownies was her idea for daddy's valentine's gift. Silly crafts on mommy's noncreative days
Newspaper hats
Barney/Fairy house made out of cereal and raisin boxes. Well at least it's a good way to recycle.
Brie: "oh dear, messy, clean up, oh gosh". Her favorite thing to say after every craft.

After 2 years of working on our custom home, I think I know a thing or two about Real Estate. I'm starting my own Real Estate business with Century 21. Keep me on your mind when you're buying or selling, even if you are outside of Washington. Century 21 has the referral program.

We're grateful that Spring is coming. That means when it rains it rains for 2o minutes or so and then the sun comes out. Which means more rainbows and more sun glasses worn, but it also mean the flowers are blooming. The evergreen rhododendrons (one of my favorite must have flowers around the yard) has already started blooming. Is spring really here? "Or is it?" asks Brie.
TO BE CONTINUTED...

Happy New Year and Party!

Happy Vietnamese New Year! That's right. The Lunar calendar just had their new year celebration. There were celebrations at the Seattle Center and 20 or 30 thousand of Vietnamese were gathered there to celebrate (yeah I don't feel so special about being Viet here in Seattle as compared to when we were in Utah). They had Mua Lan (dragon dance) and musical performances. The Vietnamese are big into music. The celebration brought several celebrities together from the area and from California. There were music, workshops, food and such. Apparently this is a regular annual event and one to not miss. And we missed it because we were doing these things...(Someday I will do more Viet stuff to remind me that I'm Viet :)
Happy New Year!
Amazon's After-Holiday Party
We had a fabulous time joining with about 1000 Amazon employees at the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum.

By the look of the building structure, can you tell it's a Science Fiction Museum?! Star Wars, Star Trek fans, you would love this place. Musicians, too since it extends into the Experience Music Project Museum








Since our last blog we've found a really fun activity for our family. The Center for Wooden Boat! Dan has been reading up on sailing and boats and getting into pirates. No, he hasn't been just reading up on that stuff, he's been obsessed with it and every night he's on the computer looking up how to build a sail boat. He's also been looking up land by the shore or in other words, waterfront property so he could build his ship. Oh and to add to this, he's very serious about everything and a little crazy since we just bought land. And ok one more, he's crazy about Pirates of the Caribbean because it has ships and he's been talking like a pirate. So of course he had to take us to The Center for Wooden Boats. It is a live museum right on Lake Union and it had many different kinds of boat. He is considering joining the team of volunteers to help make boats. For every 3 hours of volunteering you get an hour of sailing for free. He's also got plans for us to go see the ship Lady Washington which was used in Pirates of Caribbean as the Exhibitor. We're excited! Go on a Ride! The Center for Wooden Boat offers free public rides on these classic wooden boats! That's about a $40 value if you were to go rent your own boat somewhere else.

They also have a pond nearby for races.
Brie's about to build a boat.

They also have a Pirate Week where it's all focused on pirates, their antics and their loot.

Dan's excited to move into his new office in April as it is behind that trolley there in this picture which is also a walking distance to The Center for Wooden Boat. He is thinking about taking lunch break and volunteer there for an hour or so during his lunch break.

The neat thing about the Center for Wooden Boat that I'm looking forward to is the Tugboat Story Time. Every 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month they have a free story hour aboard the historic Arthur Fodd 120 year old tugboat that introduces children to boats and maritime heritage. My preschoolers are going soon!

We had Stake Conference and then a fun cowboy cake auction .
(Really shouldn't have taken pictures on the iphone during Stake Conference, but couldn't help noticing how cute my kids looked)

The kids and I discovered a new park that was absolutely fun and interactive. Grass Lawn Park in Redmond.



Thanks for coming and visiting our blog!
Debrie's favorite words of the week: "oh no, mess". She'll even be a little mischievous about it and create a mess just to point it out to you. Her favorite thing to do nowadays is closing the door and play "Knock knock, door" "Who's there?" "I am Me"

A friend of mine on facebook told me about this website. It is so great for preschoolers. My four year old loves this website. Thought I'd throw it in here for keepsake. http://disney.go.com/preschool/#/preschool/activities/