last week of camps, new car, anacortes

another week of summer down! thankfully by tuesday of last week, azalea was feeling better, so she got to attend her karate camp at the community center for the last 3 days. ashford went to golden gardens camp from monday to thursday, which means i got two (count them two) mornings to myself last week. a whole 2.5 hours each morning ;)

azalea loved her camp and got up to speed pretty quickly on what she missed. ashford enjoyed his camp too, but unfortunately they had to spend the entire week inside because of the poor air quality from wildfires. this is starting to be our new normal for august in seattle, it's really a shame since august is typically one of the nicest months of the year here. 

since azalea was feeling better tuesday night, the kids and i went out for dinner at "giddy up burgers" for the first time. 

thatcher was meeting up with some friends from minnesota who were in town. after dinner, he met us at the ballard community center for their summer tuesday night community get together. there was a bouncy house and my kids loooove any excuse to go in a bouncy house. they normally have the bouncy house outside, but they set it up in the gym because of the poor air quality. we knew lots of families who were there, and the kids had a blast getting their energy out. 

wednesday afternoon, i took the kids to the magnolia library for the first time. with all the smoke, they know families are looking for indoor activities to do with their kids, so they set up a special room with board games and other fun stuff - it was a big hit. we managed to kill a couple hours there. they especially loved these straw connector things:

 

thursday night i got to go to a movie with my friend chrissy who recently moved back to seattle. we saw "crazy rich asians" and it was really cute. now i need to read the book. i only go to a (grown up) movie in the theater once every 1-2 years these days, so it was a treat. 

friday afternoon the kids and i went to a playdate at a party room of the apartment building where one of ashford's preschool buddies lives. we went there once before and it is such a nice space. a couple other moms and kids from preschool were there too, so it was nice to catch up with them. unfortunately two of them are off to kindergarten this year and the other one is switching preschools, but we hope to still stay in touch with them. 

saturday was a big day for us! we had an appointment to test drive subarus at the dealer in our neighborhood. our hyundai elantra hit 10 years this summer and that is about the time that we usually think about getting a new car. thatcher has been dreaming of having something with 4 wheel drive for trips to the mountains (and i figure it would be nice to have whenever we move back to minnesota and live in snow again). we narrowed it down to the forester and the outback and went to go check them out. we took the kids along and popped their carseats in the back and the sales lady also joined us for the rides. we fell in love with the forester and began the buying process right when we got back. we ended up being at the dealer for 3 hours (which was about 2 hours too long for the kids - ha), but we are now the proud owners of this beauty: 

we've never owned an SUV before and are amazed at how much fancier 2018 cars feel than 2008 cars, in general. we are really excited about the extra space and the upgrade. our first outing was to go downtown to meet up with one of thatcher's old coworkers, eric and his wife elise who were in town. we walked through pike place market, got some treats, and then walked to belltown to get coffee. it was really nice to catch up with them. if it feels like we see a lot of people who are randomly in town, it's because as it turns out, a lot of people come to seattle on vacation :) lucky for us! 

sunday morning we were itching to take our new ride somewhere a bit farther. so we decided on a day trip to anacortes. it's about 1.5 hours north of seattle and it's a beautiful spot, right on the water. we've been there a couple times before. we stopped in mount vernon on the way for a snack.

 then we went straight to our favorite restaurant "secret cove", which has really nice views. 

after lunch we went to cap sante park, which had amazing cliffs overlooking the water. the pictures make it look way more dangerous than it was. we were no where close to the actual drop offs ;) it was super windy there!

nice smile, ashford

after that we went to washington park and let the kids play on the playground and throw some rocks at the beach. 

then we headed back to seattle (which took way longer than the way there, due to traffic). it was a fun day. mostly...you know there was also a lot of sibling spats, whining, and stressed parenting. the usual. ha. 

here we go into our last week(s) of summer vacation. only one (and a half) more for azalea and two more for ashford. i'm ready for school to start and to get back to some routine, but i will try to embrace this time as much as i can because the kids are growing up so quickly and i know life won't be like this forever. i feel so lucky to get to spend so much time with them .