Our First Week of Summer!

We spent the past week, the week between school changes for Jack and the transition week from surgery intern year to radiology residency for David, hosting David's brother, our sister-in-law, and our niece and nephew who traveled from the mind-numbing heat of Atlanta to chilly, rainy, and occasionally sunny Seattle! David's sister and her boyfriend also live in this area, so it was a wonderful reunion time of all 3 siblings. We had so much fun and created a lot of dear and silly memories, especially for the two- and three-year-old boy cousins! We spent lots of time hanging out in the backyard climbing trees, enjoying drinks, digging in the dirt, playing with balls, and eating meals. And, we had a morning art/craft project making a mess with cloud dough! 20120701-174338.jpg

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The older boys had a challenging, yet fun, golf outing at Chambers Bay, the site of the 2015 US Open. The course is immensely pretty, situated along the Puget Sound with views of the snow-capped Olympic Mountains. 20120701-201206.jpg

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We visited the top of the Space Needle, locate in Seattle Center adjacent to the new Chihuly Glass Museum (a glass tree can be seen in the background of the first photo below). It was both our visitors' and Jack's first time to the Needle and we were lucky to choose a stunningly clear day! We were awarded with unobstructed views of all of Seattle, Mt. Rainier, and the surrounding islands. 20120701-174633.jpg

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We enjoyed a long morning at Pike Place Market where we indulged in a delicious French pastry breakfast, meandered through the many market vendors where flowers and cherries, in particular, caught my eye, explored the fun underground stores, watched cheese being made at Beecher's, and then had a picnic lunch in the sun at Victor Steinbureck park.
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On their last day here, we went to the Wooden Boat Festival at the Center for Wooden Boats on Lake Union. It was such a fun festival with wooden boats to walk on and explore, a craft booth to make your own wooden boat to take home, yummy festival food, and small model sailboat races in the pond. Our dear friends, Amy, Phil, and Hanna joined us for the outing. 20120701-130250.jpg

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We even managed to get a cute group photo of us all at Kerry Park in Queen Anne, one of my most favorite spots in all of Seattle, and a great picture of the three cousins with their Aunt Laura. We were sad to see them go! 20120701-180227.jpg

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