property driveway and minnesota friends in town

it's been another whirlwind week here, and my (mostly) extroverted self loves it. last monday ashford went to karate. tuesday evening we had kay and fritz over for a mom and kid play date/happy hour. wednesday morning i met kay at school to help her sort and organize the 'spirit wear' order that came in for school families. and thatcher got back in town that night. 

in property news, we officially have a driveway now! these pictures were sent by our builder the middle of last week. i can't wait to go up there and see it. 

our friends liz and max arrived from minnesota last thursday. the other half of their family (joe and lux) stayed home with the pets, but hopefully we'll get them out here someday. it was liz and max's first time in seattle ever! we were so excited to show them around. max is in 7th grade like azalea, but towers over her. their flight arrived at 8:30am which meant we got the whole day on thursday. thatcher was at work and the kids were at school, so liz & max and i set out for brunch in ballard. we went to 'portage bay cafe', which they loved. then we walked over to the locks. i told them sometimes there are seals there and sure enough there were 4-5 of them playing in the water, which was so fun to see. max could have stayed and watched them all day! 

then we walked around the business district of ballard before picking up ashford from school. after azalea and thatcher got home, we made dinner and relaxed for the evening. except for the kids who liz convinced should wash the dishes after dinner. she's my hero! 

friday was veteran's day (observed) so thatcher and the kids were both off. in the morning we set out for the olympic sculpture park and pike place market. it was a bit cold and windy by the waterfront, but we survived. 

we had lunch at 'the athenian' in pike place market, which is always a fun spot. 

on our drive back to ballard, we stopped at kerry park to see the view of the skyline. 

we were discussing christmas movies that morning and learned that neither liz nor max has ever seen elf, so i said we must watch it. while drinking hot chocolate, of course. so we did, and it was fabulous. then i took them to goodwill because they love doing that. we made dinner at home again that night and cozied up since it gets dark by 5pm now. 

saturday morning we took liz and max to watch ashford at karate because they both have black belts in tae kwon do and were so excited to see ashford in action. we had lunch at home and then took a walk to 'venture coffee'. 

then ashford and i stayed home while thatcher took everyone else to pioneer square, the international district, and his office. that night liz and i went to 'stoneburner' for dinner. it's one of my favorite spots. it was delicious as always. thatcher took the kids to 'mod pizza.' then we all hung out together for the rest of the night. 

sunday morning we made a big breakfast, per usual. and by 11am it was time to take them to the airport :( then azalea had a soccer game in the afternoon (they won 1-0! it was their last regular season game before the city tournament). ashford had arlo over in the afternoon. we wound down from the weekend sunday night. 

things are actually slowing down a bit now, believe it or not!