Redmond, Part III: Thanksgiving

Thankfully, Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty have a big house, and the cousins spent the night, too.

We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, a tradition for millions.

Uncle Bill made a delicious pancake and bacon breakfast - the feast before the Feast.

We then took a walk to a great park that is basically on the outskirts of their neighborhood.

The park has natural areas, and a farm yard with animals.

Cora was in her element, and took off toward the creek bed to explore on her own. She found this brightly colored mushroom.

More animals - this rabbit was a giant!

The big race: Cora thought she had Uncle Bill, but he was merely playing her. She then went rogue and tried to bring him down.

Stace and I put together a charcuterie board for lunch... yum!

I didn't get a pic of our Thanksgiving feast, but it was delicious. Oh, the stuffing! And the moist turkey!

Here are the pies, though! Blueberry with home-grown blueberries.

Tyler's parents joined us, too. It was great catching up with them, for the first time since he and Alison got married nearly nine years ago.

After a thoroughly enjoyable day, we did some online Black Friday shopping Friday morning, while Cora made us biscuits for breakfast. Also, Aunt Patty fixed the dress Cora will wear to her first junior high dance in a few weeks. It fits, but just needed the shoulder seams adjusted.

Then, all too soon, it was time to heard back to the airport. We had an outstanding pilot who invited the girls into the cockpit!

So cute!

Redmond, Part II

On Wednesday, Stace and Violet made crepes and banana sauce in the morning. Yum.

Cora went mushroom foraging - Aunt Patty has learned a lot about this ancient pastime, and has books on the subject.

Later, Stace and I went out shopping and had a date, while the girls stayed home to bake.

They baked pies for Thanksgiving, and mini pies for an afternoon treat.

Later Wednesday, Anna and Will came over for pizza night, along with Anna's mom, and later, Alison and Tyler.

We all had brought different types of hard cider, mostly Washington varieties since they are America's apple-growing state. Perfect for a taste test! Cheers!

The girls made s'mores over the fire, since it was too cold to make one outside.

And we all collaborated on a puzzle of Paris I'd picked up at Costco.

Done!

We then had a very late night, playing fun new-to-us games. It was so fun hanging out with my much-younger cousins and their spouses, and getting to know them in a new way, as adults. Cora and Violet LOVED hanging out with them, and especially loved getting to stay up until 1:30!

Redmond, Part I

Here we are Monday morning, all ready for our flight to Seattle, to spend the week with Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty!

Our flight was smooth and uneventful, a pleasant two hours, and we soon settled into our Redmond home-away-from-home. After Uncle Bill got off work, he and Stace and William saw the hit movie Ford v Ferrari.

They all loved it.

Uncle Bill took Tuesday off work, and after enjoying a lazy morning together at home, we all took Oakley to Marymoor Dog Park. It's huge, and a natural area where dogs can be off leash, enjoying the woods, a big river, and playing with each other.

The park leads to this walkway to Lake Sammamish.

We then went to get lunch at a fancy grocery store, with an amazing selection of hot and cold ready-made foods. The cheese selection is what drew Aunt Patty to take us, and here, Stace found a cheese advent calendar all the way from Ilchester!

After lunch, Patty took the girls home, and Stace, Bill and I did a little more shopping.

We went to Costco for wine for Thanksgiving, and I was thrilled to find a coffee machine in the food court. For $1.25, I got a large and delicious pumpkin spice latte! The value and quality from the machine reminded me of the lovely Costa Express machines in the UK, though this one was bigger drink.

Wish our Costco had this machine!

We then went to Value Village, a Goodwill-type resale store with fabulous finds and great brands, probably because we were in a rather upscale area. I found a bunch of books the girls love for a dollar each, and a pair of tall brown leather Clarks boots for Cora for less than $20. Total score!

When we got home, we had a great time playing a new game called Telestrations, a cross between the old game of telephone and Pictionary. You get a word on a card, and draw the word. The next person takes your drawing, guesses what it is, flips the page and writes that word. The following person draws that word, and it keeps alternating until the book comes back to the original person.

Sometimes, the final word/drawing is far off from the original, and it's very funny.

Like when the word was "dragon," and Uncle Bill drew this.

Stacey's guess?

Flaming Hot Chicken.

We all went to bed tired from laughter!

Melanie's Baby Shower!

 We had a fantastic time showering Melanie, who's now only a month or so away from delivering baby Eloise Iris.

This isn't everyone who attended - we didn't think of getting a group photo until some had left. What a great group of family and friends! It was lovely catching up with everyone.

 Melanie working in the wedding industry was an amazing gift for us all - one of her brides provided a Thai feast, a friend tended bar as a gift, and another company provided all the linens and tableware.

Planning began in the summer; we held the party at the HOA clubhouse where Cora's 6th grade party took place. We had a tiki theme, per the guest of honor's request.

We had a table set up for decorating onesies (for a contest) and writing cute or funny sayings on diapers, to entertain tired parents in the middle of the night.

Here's the welcome table, with the sign-in books. Melanie did the flowers, naturally.

 We had a lot of helpers setting up, and later cleaning up. Everything turned out beautiful!

We had silly games! And Melanie and Nick received so many lovely gifts.

Here I am with two of Melanie's dearest friends, Shannon and Mariana, and my mom, of course. Such a successful day! We can't wait to meet you, Ellie!

Tidbits

We had Violet's Parent-Teacher conference this week, and she's doing well. We really like her teacher, Mrs. Zamperin.

Stace was inspired to create his own math word problems. He is so silly.

Violet was off school on Friday to start her Thanksgiving break, so she made herself breakfast in bed. Cereal and milk, yogurt-covered almonds and grapes. Very well balanced.

Over the weekend, we went to Vasquez Rocks.

Cora and Vi went exploring, and she captured some shots on her own phone.

We were blessed to get close to what I think is a young red-tailed hawk.

From that close, Cora and Stace got some fabulous photos.

Beauty.

 We also got to go to the employee family party at Magic Mountain. Complimentary food and super short lines for the three rides that were staffed - can't beat that!