(Halfway) Across the Bridge

Wednesday was the kids' half-birthday.  We commemorated the occasion by walking halfway across the Narrows Bridge.

The walking/biking lane is actually connected to the bike path that goes by our house, but we didn't feel like walking that far, so we parked by the War Memorial and walked from there. It was a sunny day (not too hot) and windy on the bridge, as I'm sure it always is. 





Looking south toward Days Island.



The half way point.



Picture with Mom!



Time to head back.



My view of Andy.  He kept trying to pull himself along on the bars. 
 


Looking over the fence--what's down there?



"If we even had a wheelbarrow, that would be something."



It's a long way back up that hill to the War Memorial.



"Take a picture of me, Mom!"



Lunch at El Sabor. Yum!

And now we have a seven-and-a-half-year-old and a three-and-a-half-year-old. What fun.

In which Helena engages in some fangirl flailing

I had something happen this week that turned out to be pretty exciting.  Iain MacKinnon (of Isle of Lewis, Scotland) wrote this fabulous "Rainbow Connection" parody for The Grimm Podcast.  As soon as I heard the song I thought, "This needs to be a video!"  I could just see the whole thing in my head, listening to it.  Now sometimes I get ideas that may take me months (or years) to implement, but every once in a while I get struck with something that I just have to do RIGHT NOW.  This was definitely one of those cases.  I started working on the video that night, in a frenzy of concentration, and had it all finished and uploaded by early afternoon the next day.

Response has been great and just so fun. We got a re-tweet from actor David Giuntoli (which gave me a bit of a deer-in-the-headlights moment), and he also made a nice comment on Iain's absolutely perfect Kermit voice).  And we got a mention from Akela Cooper (one of the writers on the show), who said "We all got a big kick out of this this in the writers room today."  The video got 1,000 views in less than two days.  I kept coming back and refreshing and squeaking in amazement. 

Of course the video is entirely peripheral to Iain's awesome song,  but it's just been fun to be involved with something like this that made a bit of a splash for a couple of days.  I was riding on an adrenaline high for a while there. 

When I finished the video I was in a hurry to share it, and after I got it uploaded I realized there's a stray frame that I missed.   Of course now it drives me nuts every time I watch it  (my Engineer Dad genes keep poking at me).  I must keep this in mind the next time I get over-excited about something.



I have to share these LEGO minifigs that I put together recently.  (Yep, I'm obsessed.)  Kate has been playing with them.  We had to explain--"This is Nick and Monroe.  Nick is a police detective, and Monroe is... ummm.... He's a clock maker."  (She's a little young to watch the show for a few years yet, I think!)

I also finished my review of Season One on Amazon.  50 more days till Season Two,  Oh, the torment.

The End of First Grade!

It's the last day of school! (Yes, our district got out pretty late. I think they added a week on because of the strike.)



Last year I got a picture of Kate coming out of school on the last day of Kindergarten, with her dragon costume on. I think she remembered this, as she has been wearing her dragon costume all week. I didn't try to replicate the picture this time, because it was raining, but I did get a shot of Kate coming into the house after Doug picked her up.



I also got a photo of Kate with her teacher, earlier this week. Awww! Kate has had a couple of great teachers in her school career thus far.  It takes a special kind of person, I think!

It's been a good year. We had a bit of a rocky time early on, but once she settled in it was great. She's done really well with her reading and math, and enjoyed some fun science lessons. When I asked her, "What was your favorite thing at school this year?" she said, "Oh, just about everything!"

Father's Day Fun

Father's Day was just as sunny as Mother's Day, but we didn't take these in the shade. Doesn't everyone look sunny? *squint*



This was Andy's first Father's Day in Primary, so he got to go up on the stand with the other kids to sing in Sacrament Meeting. He was pretty stage-struck, and didn't actually sing, but seemed to get a kick out of the experience.

Kate had a present for Dad that she made at school:



Yep, ice cream, Toys R Us, and playing Wii.  That's what Dad's all about. 

Happy Father's Day!

Kate's Owl

Kate made this cute little paper owl. She said she got the idea from Ramona the Brave. (I think she copied the design off the owls on her pajamas.) Fun!

Saturday Downtown

Kate made 100% of her A.R. (Accelerated Reader) goal, so we thought we should get her a little treat.  We made an outing downtown and went to Learning Sprout so she could pick out something.



Riding the Link is exciting! (And free!)



Chalk art.



At Learning Sprout.  Andy was having fun with this gear toy.



The last stop on the Link is in the area called the Theater District, so the stop has these theater seats. Notice the middle seat, which is permanently in the up position. It's not an actual seat--it's a referential seat. This is art.



After the Learning Sprout we stopped by the Children's Museum. Kate was there on a field trip recently and thought it was great fun. The rest of us hadn't seen their new facility, so we thought we'd check it out. It is a lot bigger, and there are lots of windows all around so the lighting is nice for taking pictures.




Andy spent most of the time in the water play area (and got a bit wet).







Kate at another Link stop (Union Station) on the way back.

We have our little downtown outing traditions--we always park in one of the parking garages across the street from Freighthouse Square, ride the link, and then have lunch at Freighthouse Square before going home. Kate gets fish and chips.

This was a nice day for it.  The weather was cool but clear, and Mama was pretty happy with the lighting, which is always a good thing.  Everyone had a fun time and Andy conked out in the car on the way home.