Papa visits Seattle

Brock wearing his Mickey Mouse sweater his Great-Grandmother (my Dad's Mother) made

 My dad came to visit us for a few days after Christmas. It worked out perfectly for him to come at this time and still celebrate a bit of the holiday with us.

We opened some presents that he brought with him, but most importantly my Dad and Brent worked together to put together the new kitchen helper/tower - his big present from Papa! One of Brock's favorite things to do is run over to the kitchen chair and yell "Help, Help!" because he wants me to pull it over so he can stand up on it and help Mommy. The Learning Tower allows him to safely climb up and stand on a platform with a railing at counter height - to either help me with preparing snacks/meal or to have a meal himself or to do some coloring at the counter. He loves being this high and seeing what I'm doing! Thank you Papa!

Brock & Brent walking around the Clam Lights at Coulon Park (walking on a pier out on Lake Washington)

Even though both Brock and I were still recuperating from our cold, we managed to get out and do some things.

Enjoying "Celebration Lane" at Bellevue Mall - music and snow falling from the buildings!

On Monday morning we headed in to Seattle to check out this new Starbucks Roastery. In case you haven't heard about it, you can read more information here. Very nice and new and the food was pretty good - although about 15% more expensive than a typical Starbucks!

Behind Brock are the big coffee roasters

Brock says "You better not take my cinnamon bun!"

Papa showing off his Starbucks Roastery mug

Small hot cocoa mug for Brock - he LOVES his hot cocoa

We had originally talked about doing the Roastery for lunch and so very glad we changed it to breakfast - this was the line at 10:45am when we were leaving - wrapped around the building!!

But of course we had fun just hanging out at the house too!

My Dad left out on the red eye right as Brock was heading up to bed. Sure enough, the next morning Brock went running in to "Papa's room" yelling his name. Papa? Papa?  Sorry Brock, Papa went home to North Carolina. Sad, but sweet to see him (and Oscar!!!) miss him so!