Visit From the Daines Family

After a few months of trying to nail down a weekend for a visit from our friends the Daines, we finally were able to get together for a long weekend just before Christmas.  We have known the Daines family for about 10 years now, although I feel like I have known them forever.  We met when both of our families were living in Charlotte, NC.  We moved to Wisconsin in 2007, and they moved to Beaverton, OR a couple years after that.  One of the things we were most excited about when we moved to WA this fall was the fact that we would be only a few hours away from them, so we were very anxious to finally get our families together.  We were not disappointed.  We had a blast all weekend long, laughing, playing games, going on little adventures. 

It started off really fun because we had not told our kids they were coming.  They arrived around 8:30 in the evening on Thursday.  They ding-dong-ditched us, leaving a plate of goodies with a tag that said, "From the Daines" on our front porch.  As the kids looked at it, a bit confused, they came up our front sidewalk. 

On Friday, we let our kids skip school so we could take the ferry to Seattle for some fun. 

One of our service projects over the holiday season was to put together some fun care package type gifts, one per child, wrap them up, and take them to Seattle to give to homeless people.  Every time we visit Seattle our children wish they could do something for every homeless person they see.  This gave them the opportunity to pick somebody and give them a fun gift.  (The care packages contained things like basic first aid care items, socks, a gift card to Subway, gum, candy, homemade goodies, hand sanitizer, etc.  They were packed in reusable plastic covered totes.)  Our first order of business when we got off the ferry that day was to deliver our gifts.  Julia already knew who she wanted to give her gift to, so she and Lincoln found the man at his usual spot and delivered his gift.  The next guy we gave one to absolutely made my holiday season.  He was sitting on the sidewalk and Julia (the only one of our children who was so into this that she was not at all shy about handing out the gifts) handed him the gift.  His eyes lit up and got really big as he said, "For ME?"  He grinned and shook the gift and just shone with excitement and genuine gratitude.  We didn't stay to watch him open it, but just those few seconds were enough to make a lasting impression on all of us. 

We distributed all the gifts as we walked up the waterfront.  We stopped at a picnic area next to the aquarium and ate our lunch.   We had such a perfect day to walk around Seattle.  The sun was shining and warm and our spirits were high. 

This street musician was set up on a corner near Pikes playing this tiny little piano.

We made the walk up to the Seattle Sheraton and went to the annual Gingerbread Village display there. 

We are excited to make this an annual tradition for our family.  The line was long (although I'm sure it would have been much worse on Saturday or Sunday),  but it moves pretty quickly. 

It was definitely worth it.  Such a fun FREE event.  We are always happy to add a free event to our traditions.

As we walked we also made stops at Pikes Place Market, and the gum wall. 

 There are always plenty of fun things to see just walking through Seattle.  We stopped for a few photo ops on our way back to the ferry terminal.

When you arrive in Seattle at the ferry terminal, you can walk along the waterfront, literally right next to the water.  But if you want to head into the city, you have to head uphill.  The streets are very steep leading up from the water and there are a few places where there are stairs for pedestrians leading up to the market.  This picture was taken on our way back down, almost to the bottom.

The sun was getting low by the time we got back to the waterfront.  It was, after all, the shortest day of the year.

Joe and Anita- keeping it spicy after all these years...

I had originally planned to do one post about their entire visit, but obviously  I'll have to break it up because we crammed so much fun into a few short days!

Rain-gutter Regatta

One of the fun perks of moving here is that Devon is now able to participate in Cub Scouts through the church.  It has been fun to see him get excited about getting his uniform and handbook and about belonging to an organization.  He had his first big event at the beginning of November, a rain gutter regatta.  He had started working on his boat back when we first got here, so he had been anticipating the event for close to two months by the time it actually took place.  I watched him race in his first heat- and win- before I had to run Kennedy to a friend's house.  The rest of the family stayed to watch.  Sadly, by the time I got back, the regatta was finished.  He had won two heats and lost two.  I wish I could say he was happy enough with that outcome, but that would be a lie.  He was grumpy about not winning the whole thing, wouldn't stick around for refreshments, and insisted that he didn't like Cub Scouts.  So what started as a fun event kind of took a sour turn.  He's a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to this sort of thing.  If he can't be the best, he doesn't want to do it.  I hope we can help him overcome this attitude and learn to just enjoy things for the fun of it.  Parenting is hard. 

Being the scout-parent greenie I am, I can only say that in the picture below, Devon is receiving an advancement of some sort. ;)

Blowing his little heart out.

House Tour Continued

Yesterday I shared the main living areas of the house.  Today I'll show you the bathrooms and family room.

 

Standing in front of the fireplace looking the opposite direction of the kitchen, you see this hallway.  The door you see where the hall turns is the master bedroom.  At the end of the hallway is the office, and across from the master is the guest room.  Closer to the living room end of the hall on the left is the main floor bathroom.  Sadly, it is also the master bathroom.  Other than the lack of a garage, this is probably my biggest complaint about this house.  But it's really not a big deal.  The master bath also being the guest bath is much better than the kids' bathroom doubling as a guest bath like at our last house. 

 

And here it is.  I like all the tile and the decent size walk in shower.  There is a pocket door to the right (just before the striped towel that's hanging) which leads to the master bedroom closet.

Lots of mirrors and storage has been great.

Back to the stairs now.  On the landing is this cute dutch door that leads out to additional deck space.

This is a view looking up from the basement. 

This is from the doorway to the family room.We left all of our cheapo, craigslist bookshelves behind, so we were very excited about all the built in shelves here!

 Down that hallway are a couple bedrooms and another full bath.  From where I was standing when I took this picture, if you turn left, there is another bedroom.

I think I'd like to put a narrow table and a couple chairs back here.  Not sure about that yet.  I have done absolutely nothing to organize or decorate these shelves yet.  All we did was pull books out of boxes and cram them on here.

I love the huge windows (again).  In this picture below, you can see the little hallway and little bit of the pink curtains on Julia's room.

 

And lastly, for today, the downstairs bathroom.  This bathroom has some interesting features, like the terra cotta tile and the mosaic tile on the counter, the dresser style storage, and the bit of natural light.  But if I owned this house I think I would gut this bathroom and start over.  The tub is a pain- I hate that style of sliding doors, I'd much rather have a curtain, the toilet seems to always leak somewhere, and that mosaic and terra cotta tile is not fun to clean.

 I have to say, though, that all that storage is nice with 5 kids sharing this bathroom.

 

Next tour will be the yard.  And one of these days, I'll share the bedrooms.

 

Our New Home

Making a major move across country can be very difficult, just ask my 13 year old daughter.  But moving to a place as beautiful as Bainbridge Island makes it just a little bit easier.  I want to take my camera with me everywhere I go snapping pictures.  I love being surrounded by water and mountains.  I love having quick and easy access to Seattle, then coming home to this quiet island.  I love that our rental house is at the end of a dirt road, surrounded by trees.  I have been promising my sister a photo tour of the house and today is the day. 

Let's start at the front door. 

 

I love the entry of this house.  The full glass door and full length windows are fantastic.  Most houses here in the northwest are built to maximize the light, since there is very little of it through the long rainy season.  This house is no exception.  But what I also like about the entry is that even though there are lots of windows, you can't see into the main living area.

 

As you walk in the door and look to the left, this is what you see. 

 

 

 

The doorway to the right leads to the kitchen, the stairs lead down to the basement.  Standing over by the stairs and looking back toward the door, you see a super cute boy!  The coat closet is there to the right, and to the left is the living room.









Looking back at the view out the front windows.

 

So, let's go to the left, through to the kitchen.

From the doorway:

Stepping in and looking to the left.  I love the big window over the sink.  Thanks to it, and two skylights, the kitchen is very bright.

I also love the vaulted ceiling in the main living area.

This is looking back at the kitchen from the end of the dining area.

 

And looking at the dining area.  It isn't huge, but it is big enough for our large table.  You can see the sliding glass door that leads out to the deck.  And again, the big windows.

 

And looking back at the kitchen.

And looking toward the living room.  Notice the continuation of the windows.

 

Standing at the end of the dining area looking into the living room.  I love the hardwood floors and the wood ceiling.  To the right, where my rustic door is leaning, leads back around to the front door.

 

I also love the fireplace here.  It has been a long time since we've had a fireplace, and although I love a woodburning one, the convenience of propane is nice too. 

This picture gives a good idea of how the whole main floor flows in a circle.

 

So I think this post is plenty long enough.  More to come another day.  We were thoroughly prepared to be crammed in a small space while we were renting, so we have been so pleased to be in this larger home.