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/