House Tour - Family Room

Finally "finished" another room in my home, so I figured I would share with my blog followers since it was a relatively sunny fall Seattle day. I painted the one wall in the family room before we even hung the television (since I knew that once that baby was on the wall, I was never going to get a paintbrush behind it again!). Navy and cream/tan is the color palate - in case that isn't obvious. :)

Thank you Jeffrey, Christine, and Jason Hanna for foreshadowing the colors - Brock's PB chair matches perfectly!

The newest addition in the room is the dresser/console to the left of the fireplace. I had that "custom-made" from a local lady I found on etsy. The bottom drawers will hide more of Brock's toys. She repurposed an older dresser, made the top drawers into shelves, painted them blue and even finished around the handles with a stencil in the navy paint. I am so pleased how it turned out! It really wasn't that much at all.... and my original thoughts were "I could do this..." No... I don't think so!

My favorite thing in the room (besides the oh-so-comfy sectional from Ethan Allen) are the pelmet boxes I DID make! Yes, a pinterest thing, but I am VERY happy that I was able to complete them and very proud of how well they came out! Made from foam board, duct tape, batting, fabric and a whole bunch of staples. :)

The windows in my family room are 60" wide EACH and I know how expensive custom curtains can be..... These cost me a FRACTION of what they could have - and they match the lamp!! Did you notice?

Beautiful curtains for a beautiful view

I think Diesel and Oscar approve!

October in Seattle

WiggleWorks with Zoe

 The lovely Seattle rain is mostly back, so we're entertaining ourselves as best we can. Good thing Seattle residents understand this and have provided little ones with tons of indoor play possibilities!

Brock at preschool

When we do get the occasional sunny/non-rainy day, get outside quick!!

And we explore everything!!

Heritage Park

On Saturday, we ventured out to the Grand Opening of Bass Pro Shops in Tacoma. It is huge!! (It will definitely give Cabella's a run for their money!)

There's a humongous fireplace right as you walk in - I just wanted to cozy up in the rocking chair and relax! Yup, and that's a moose!

We had promised to show Brock the fish, so that's exactly where we headed first!

Catfish!

Then on to the Bear!

Brent made a beeline for his hunting paraphanalia...

"Hunting: A Proud Washington Tradition" :)

And finally, Brent spotted his Christmas present...

Too much fun out in the rain.... "Let's go home mom and get under our blankets!"
Sounds like a good idea to me!

Pumpkin Patch with the Kleins

Aunt Carol and Uncle Jeff were taking advantage of a business conference with a long weekend in Seattle/Tacoma, so of course they came to visit us! Everyone came to check out our new house for pizza on Friday night and then explored Woodinville's awesome pumpkin patches and wineries on Saturday.

Our first stop was at Dr. Maze's Farm on the Redmond/Woodinville border. Too bad it was a rainy morning so we didn't get to explore the farm for too long.

Uncle Jeff bought Brock a cute little white pumpkin and Brock carried it around with him all day! He loved it! Thank you!

After the pumpkin patch, the crew headed to some wineries while the Eason's made sure Brock was fed. While the Klein's toured Chateau Ste. Michelle (Washington State's oldest winery), we spent some time letting off steam with the geese.

A fun day with the Kleins - too bad I didn't get any pictures all together!

Back to the Zoo!

Seattle had some gorgeous weather last Monday, (mid 70's) for early October, so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and visit the Zoo! Now that school is back in session, it was nice to almost have the park to ourselves! Brock and I were able to get up close to a lot of the animals and spend as much time as we wanted watching them.

Yes, I see the picture of the monkey on the sign, but there's a REAL monkey behind you!

Brock loved watching the monkeys and would walk up to each exhibit making monkey sounds.

The otters were at the vet's, so they were not swimming around, but Brock gave the otter statues big hugs anyway. 

We liked seeing the elk that Daddy might see in November....

Brock definitely enjoyed the penguins too! They are really cool to watch swim.

One of the coolest things we got to watch were two gorillas interacting with each other. At first they were just sitting around, but then one got up and ran over to pick up a broccoli bunch.... which lead to them running back and forth in front of the glass - I'm sure showing some sort of dominating thing. Pretty cool they eat their veggies too - every mother there was pointing that out to their children!

And last picture of Brock doing his "modeling thing." Yeah..... he knows he's a cutie....

Issaquah Salmon Days 2014

We did the Issaquah Salmon Days a little differently this year - we went to the Parade!!

This was Brock's very first parade! We went with our friends - Abbey and Jason and their daughter Zoe!

I think Brock and Zoe were overstimulated! Brock LOVED all the trucks - I think he pointed out every wheel to me! Zoe liked all the pretty dresses on the queens and princesses from the various festivals around Washington (Apple Festival, Lavender Festival, etc). I don't think either of them liked the loud drums.

Zoe covering her ears

But we all loved Sasquatch!

Brock was really good - he sat in his stroller the whole time!

Finally the parade was over and we followed the hundreds of people to the festival grounds. After a tasty lunch of prime rib sandwich (thanks Brent for switching with me when I didn't like my meal - that's love right there), we headed to the bouncy houses to watch Brock and Zoe jump!

Zoe has the hang of the bouncy house.... Brock wasn't feeling it

 Umm.... Brock - you're supposed to jump in there! Not lay down and take a nap!!

After dodging through the crowds, we finally made it to the Salmon Hatchery to see the fish!

Zoe wants to be right with Brock!

A very fun day indeed and more fun spent with friends!