Japan and the Christmas season has not been the only things keeping us busy since the beginning of November. There has been a slew of things:
End of soccer: At the very beginning of November, Reese’s team capped off an amazing fall soccer season with a solid win against their friendly opponents, the other TOPS and Montlake team. After the win, we headed over the short distance to Powell Barnet Park for some glorious November sunshine, hot cocoa and Top Pot donuts and I handed out certificates to each of the girls. They essentially had an undefeated season and I was super proud of all of them.
Halloween: Second year in a row for a rain-soaked Halloween here in Seattle. Fortunately, it was warm but it rained a ton. We frantically changed and headed to Brooke’s school for pick-up and to head out with her class to start, managed to grab some clear ponchos that a friendly neighbor had left out for people, and were able to see several friends throughout the night and brought home a boatload of candy. We have learned over the past two years that Nerds and M&Ms packaging does not hold up well in the wet weather. Someone should let those candy companies know.
Disney on Ice: I took Brooke to Disney on Ice, something I had done with Reese at about the same age, and it was so much fun again. This was again thanks to a mystery shop and free and again back up at the Everett Angle of the Winds Arena. This time there were seven mini performances done for a variety of movies: Frozen, Tangled, Moana, Lion King, Little Mermaid, Wish, and Aladdin. Brooke and I had a great time during the show and got pizza and our nails done before the show.
Wild Waves: While Brooke and I were at the Disney on Ice, Bryan took Reese and Luis and Eliana and Lucas to Wild Waves for the day. They managed to luck out with dry, nice weather and no lines. Towards the end of the night, they started to put on their Fright Night scenes. They stayed a long time and had great fun and then got Red Robin before getting back to Seattle.
NYC trip: My engineering department headed to NYC for the second year in the row for our end of year trip and site visit. This year we stayed right in the Theater District and could walk or ride the subway everywhere, which was nice logistically. This was also the first time that I was seeing most everyone in my company since being promoted. We had three great team dinners, took a sightseeing cruise, got passes to go see another landmark so I went to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, which was great, and then had our site visit of the Hudson Yards project. Everything went swimmingly until my return trip home, which ended up as a saga and I ended up having to get the last hotel room near Newark and fly back early the next morning.
Vaccines and trampoline park: We all got our vaccines done on the same day and decided to again treat the girls for getting theirs by going to a trampoline park. We headed up to Montlake Terrace’s new Sky Zone to spend a few hours there which was totally packed. Girls still had a good time but I wouldn’t return to that one again. After that we went to Tom’s Watch Bar to have dinner and catch the first half of the Georgia vs. Texas game.
Dinner at Polly’s: I hadn’t seen Polly in literally forever and they have recently bought a new house. We had invited them over for dinner but couldn’t make it down here so we drove up to them and had dinner at their house. The girls loved playing with Niko and Hugo so much they have since requested going back there. They also were able to loan us a Japanese phrase book and some Japanese cash to get us started for our trip.
Hair appointment, dentist appointment, eye appointment: This past month we have had an eye appointment for Reese, dentist appointments for both of them and a hair cut appointment for Brooke. Getting all of those appointments in always adds a lot on the calendar. All went well enough though.
Conferences: We had conferences for both girls right before we left for Japan. Our conference for Reese’s teacher, Ms. M, was insightful and inspiring and we truly believe Reese is in good hands and has made a lot of progress in reading and excelling in math. Brooke’s conference went very well and we got to look at a lot of pictures of her doing things. They don’t believe Brooke is silly though which was shocking to both of us.
Brooke’s Stone Soup: The Friday before Thanksgiving, Brooke’s class rode the bus to Miller Community Center and fed the families the soup that they made, with bread and cookies, and did some songs for us to showcase the Stone Soup they had been reading and learning about community. It was a nice day so the kids got to play together at the playground before and after the celebration and Reese even got to come to the even to support her sister.
Mini Nutcracker: As a family this year we attended a difference version of the Nutcracker than we are used to. DASS Dance puts on a miniature version of the show with more contemporary dance and costumes and at a 45-minute duration for younger kids with shorter attention spans. They had some hot drinks and sweet treats before the show and the girls really seemed to enjoy this production, held at Seattle Central.
Rosalie’s meet: To get Reese some exposure to gymnastics meets and to support her friend Rosalie, we went to the Star A gymnastics meet at the Burien gym. Reese was totally focused on the meet and Brooke was off playing with Reid. It was good insight into what the meets are like, just scaled way down from Reese’s future meets.
Reese’s meet: Reese’s first meet was really just a practice meet where they are critiqued and scored by judges individually but not competing against the other teams. Reese was so excited for this meet and her friend Mira came with her mom to cheer her on, which made Reese’s day. They were supposed to start at 5:30 pm on a Sunday but it ended up starting at more like 6:30 pm so it was a late night. You couldn’t tell from Reese though because she was full of energy. She did so well and appeared so confident out there. She started with her floor routine, which I was the most nervous about, and then went to vault, bars (her strongest) and finished with beam. She was on cloud nine on the drive back from Tacoma. As a family, we got a very early dinner at the Wooden City tavern in downtown Tacoma before heading to the Tacoma Convention Center for the meet.
Brooke’s bday party: With us in Japan over her birthday and being a December birthday, we didn’t have much planning for Brooke’s b-day party this year and decided to do the same thing we did for Reese for this. We headed to Playdate, paid for everyone’s admission, got some pizzas and snacks, and brought cupcakes and goodie bags. Reese got to bring Georgie and Clara and Brooke probably had nine friends there. She hung mostly with her besties, Madison and Halle, and had a great sweaty time.
Madison’s bday party: Madison turned four right before our trip but we were able to attend her birthday party at Arena Sports inflatable zone. Reese came with too and we brought Lottie for her. Brooke had a great time and it was a good time for them to get some energy out on a rainy Sunday evening.
Cookie Exchange: Brooke’s school had another event just on Friday at the Miller Community Center again. This time we did a cookie exchange and the girls had helped me make the peppermint chocolate cookies we love so much for the exchange. We have a full cookie box now which makes me so happy. They sang a couple of songs and had a hot cocoa bar and the cookies out plus some crafts to do at the table. Reese was again happy to come along and enjoy in the festivities.
Seahawks vs Rams: Bryan got out for the last Seahawks home game of the season for Thursday Night Football against the Rams this week. It was a crazy game. We started off brilliant and then quickly fell behind. The people next to me left when we were down by 16. Next thing you know we start to catch up, getting two two-point conversions in regular time and then again at the end of overtime to win the game by a point. So crazy and so, so fun! We rode the scooter over to Bait Shop for our third annual date night there during their Christmas light show and I swear it gets better and better. It doesn’t hurt that the bar itself is so fun and their food and cocktails are really good!
—
Chelsea
