A Visit for Valentine’s

It’s only been a few days since our guests left but it seems like it has already been forever. We were lucky enough to have Grandma and Papa Miller come stay with us for a few nights to visit baby girl and do a few fun things around town. Overall, Reese was in a pleasant and sweet mood for her grandparents and Bryan and I were able to do a few things for ourselves at the same time.

Bryan picked his parents up from the airport last Wednesday night and met Reese and I at home with Thai food carryout for dinner. We caught up with one another and Reese enjoyed her first show and tell with her grandparents before going to bed.

Thursday and Friday Reese got to spend the whole day with her grandparents while Bryan and I worked as usual. Both days she was a sweet baby girl with her parents away and didn’t give her grandparents too much trouble. She enjoyed a lot of books, puzzles and Sesame Street and a few walks outside and to Plum Tree Park.

On Thursday night the four of us decided on an impromptu dinner at Palisade’s in Elliott Bay for their early prix-fixe three course meal, in lieu of no Guest Chef Night at FareStart. While us adults actually managed to have a three course dinner with a toddler at the table, including steelhead for all of us, crab bisques, delicious bread, and bread pudding and chocolate torte for dessert, Reese roamed the restaurant mainly interested in the live steelhead in their indoor pond. However, she did enjoy bites of the steelhead and of course the chocolate torte (chocolate is a new word!).

Friday was Valentine’s Day and work was as usual, plus a staff meeting at my office. I brought home a whole pizza from our staff meeting to have for an easy dinner and a movie night, along with a bottle of vino, while Bryan outdid me and brought home flowers for both me and his mom and a balloon for his girl Reese. I was all about a low key night in and honestly was not feeling up to getting dressed and going out for the night.

Thankful for the weekend and some time off at home with the Millers. Saturday started off per usual, Bryan made us banana pancakes and then was off to men’s group. Once he was home we all set out for toddler gym. Reese was pretty tired for the gym but still managed to spend an hour jumping from car to car, refusing to let anyone else go down the slide, and did go down the hotwheels car ramp a few times. Bryan and I were able to get in a quick workout and then got dressed up to go out for the night while the grandparents watched Reese. We had a delicious dinner at Shaker + Spear downtown before heading to our third play of the season at the Seattle Rep. This play, about two brothers, was in part a comedy and was enjoyed by us both.

Sunday was adventure day. We all attended church, which was a fantastic service, and then set forth for Poulsbo for the afternoon. We had an itchin’ for Tizley’s family platter and haven’t had since Lori visited over a year ago. Surely Reese would nap in the car on the hour plus drive to Poulsbo. Nope. The rain held off for the afternoon and was actually a pleasant afternoon to walk around town. We had one nap-protesting toddler with us though so she was a bit of a handful in the restaurant, at least once her bites of pretzel were gone. Bryan and I took shifts eating but it was delicious and per usual, the platter was finished without a problem. We browsed a few of the shops and went on a quick walk with Reese to a little kids park on the waterfront, in hopes to get her to take a nap, but no such luck on this afternoon. Surely she would nap on the drive back to the ferry. Nope. The ferry ride was enjoyable and the girl was having a blast but was all over the place. We got back in the car for the short drive home (at 5 pm) and she fell asleep. Go figure. She spent the next hour sleeping in her car seat in her bedroom.

Monday, being the one random holiday that I get off for work, was a day off for me and Bryan took the day off as well. I enjoyed my morning at home and then went to a Bodypump class up north late morning before dropping the Jeep off to get serviced. I returned home and Bryan got a run in in the sunshine. We cleaned up and packed up the car and set out to Seward Park to walk but that just turned into playground time for Reese which she thoroughly enjoyed. We had one last dinner with Lon and Trish before dropping them off at the airport and it was a good one. We wanted to check out the new seltzery by the Ethan Stowell team, located in SoDo, knowing that we love his food and they have a kids play area. Both did not dissappoint. Reese got to play in the kids area, stopping only for a short time to eat some fries, and the adults had a delicious dinner well priced off of the happy hour menu of amazing fish and chips, salad, burgers and dill fries, shishito pepper with aioli, chowder and grilled green beans. It was all delicious and I left stuffed. I’d definitely go back, the place was packed with families of small children.

It was nice to have the grandparents in town for some time and Reese definitely enjoyed her Grandma and Papa. They did a great job taking care of her while they were here and Bryan and I thoroughly enjoyed our one night out.

Chelsea