diving boards, work event, and a parade fail

another summer weekend is in the books! friday morning azalea had her last swimming lesson for the week (she has one more week). after her class on thursday, she kept asking me if she could go on the diving board and i thought she was just asking for the heck of it. well sure enough on friday i learned they let kids try out the diving board at the end of the week. they must have been giving her a heads up, so she thought she should ask me first :) she was so excited to do it and jumped without hesitation to her trusty teachers below. i was so proud of her! 

friday night we had our usual night in with the kids. we made grilled chicken tacos for dinner, gave them a bath, and relaxed the rest of the night. oh and we booked a trip home to minneapolis. the kids and i will be in town from august 1-15th and thatcher will be there with us the 9-15th. we haven't been home in 8 months, i can't wait! 

saturday morning we ventured to the bus stop to bus to the light rail station at the university then take the train to southern seattle to attend a work event for thatcher. if you don't know, he works in transit oriented development (basically real estate near transit corridors). there was a grand opening for a new affordable housing complex in the othello neighborhood. it was such a cool event. they had chinese and somali dancers performing, delicious food and ice cream, a rooftop playground for the kids to play on. we got to meet thatcher's new manager, which was fun too. 

after the event, we took the light rail back to the columbia city neighborhood. i hadn't been there yet, but i've always heard it's a cool area. and it was! 

we went to a fun toy store and grabbed some snacks at the grocery store before heading back to the university by train and then our neighborhood by bus. it was a long bus ride because there was a big event in ballard this weekend called "seafood fest" so streets were blocked off, etc. we had leftovers for dinner, the kids watched their shows and i was in bed before 9pm! ha!

sunday we had planned to go down to the locks in the morning to watched the centennial anniversary boat parade. shortly after we got there, we learned that only two boats would be coming through the locks, and the boat parade was happening a few miles away.  :( the event description was totally misleading. based on how many people were at the locks, it was obvious that we weren't the only people under that impression. the historic boats came through but we could barely see them, so we headed to an over look a few blocks away and got another glimpse with our friends vanessa, matt, and ewan before heading home. 

in the afternoon we took the kids to the park with their bikes. then thatcher and i traded off parenting breaks (it was one of those days) ;)  i grabbed some coffee at java bean, then headed down to seafood fest (where i got some roasted corn and no seafood - i love seafood but it was in between meals so the huge portions were not ideal). when i got back, thatcher took the bus to interbay to pick up his bike at the shop. we grilled dinner and hung out at home for the rest of the night. 

all we have on the calendar this week is 30 min swimming lessons...wish me luck keeping the kids entertained and peaceful towards each other! :/