weekend recap: hiking and dinner in bellevue, the locks, family time

finally getting to my weekend recap! let's just say this past weekend felt more like april than june weather-wise. we got some sun thankfully, but the temps were only in the 60's. it is warming up again, so that's exciting. i see a direct correlation between nice weather and nice momming. i'm not kidding ;)

we only had one thing planned going into the weekend. i've been thinking about how busy our weekends used to be in minneapolis in the summer. since we have less of a social network here, we end up just hanging out as a family most weekends. it has forced us to slow down a bit, which is probably good :) friday night we grilled dinner (we've been grilling like 75% of our dinners lately and i love it!!) and then hung out with the kids before bed.

saturday we hung out at home for most of the morning, then took a quick trip to the library. after lunch, we headed to the city of bellevue to a nature area to do a kid-friendly hike with thatcher's coworker karen, her husband and 6 year old daughter. it was our first time there and it was beautiful. we hiked to coal creek falls (2.5 miles round trip). my kind of hike! haha. the kids did pretty well, but they had their moments of whining too ;) it was fun to spend time with their family again. azalea and kiara are pretty cute together!

 it was nearly 5pm when we finished and we hadn't planned anything for dinner so we decided to check out bellevue square mall which is in the downtown. bellevue is a very affluent suburb of seattle and the mall was really fancy! we actually felt a little out of place there because we don't drive a jaguar or wear designer clothes. ha! we grabbed some pizza at pagliacci and then wandered into a candy store after for a little dessert. they had every kind of candy you could imagine - most of it was sold by weight. we let the kids pick out whatever they wanted. ashford got gummy bears and azalea got a little chocolate bear (i think it was a truffle of some sort). delish! we went home with happy, full bellies! the kids watched some tv when we got home, then it was off to bed!

sunday morning thatcher went to a coffee shop to get a little work done (he was at a training all day thursday and friday) and i took the kids to a nearby elementary school playground to burn off some energy. it was only 53 degrees out that morning. we came home and had lunch and then i went to a coffee shop to get a little work done of my own, followed by a trip to the grocery store. it was gorgeously sunny when i got back, so we decided to take a trip down to the locks (something we rarely do anymore compared to when we first moved here!). we brought a frisbee and threw it in the open grass and the kids thought it was the greatest thing ever! 

it was packed at the locks - tourist season is in full swing in seattle. it's still a little strange to me to live in a city that is so touristy! we grilled dinner again and then it was time for baths and off to bed for the kids.

this coming weekend we are taking a 2 night trip to the coast of washington. we are so excited as this is an area we have not explored yet (it takes 4 hours to get there!). i can't wait to share pictures when we return!