The Double A's come to visit!!!

Ben and I had our second visitors ever - My sister, Amy, and her husband, Aaron, came out to see us from May 8-12th. We had 4 full days of beauty, bargains, and a baby bump. Amy is about 7 months pregnant and looking great (really just looks like she has a ball up her shirt:) I am so anxious to meet the new little girl that's inside of her. We even got to hear her heart beat one night! I would put the picture of her up using the heart monitor, but I'm pretty sure she made me promise not to use it on the blog before I even snapped the photo.

Friday we started out strong with a big breakfast and then on to the Seattle Aquarium. We had a lot of fun watching the scuba diver's feed the fish - the whole while Aaron was wishing he could be the diver. We followed it up with a stroll through Pike's Place Market. Since there are so many hills in Seattle and especially by the market, Ben and Aaron had to use this random chair on the side of a building to rest on before continuing the steep walk up the hill. For dinner we got some pizza at a local pie joint called MAD PIZZA. There were some problems with the ice machine, but the hippie man fixed it with a huge knife and the pizza was good, so no complaints
here.


Saturday Aaron whipped us up some homemade french toast with apple cinnamon bread - superb! Ben and I will be trying to imitate that recipe very soon. Then we headed off to Snoqualmie Falls. The falls are gorgeous and 100 feet taller than Niagara Falls.
Aaron gazing into the mist. Those falls created quiet the wind and mist!
The 4 of us by the falls...


We had a lovely picnic by the falls with all the standard fare and Ketchup chips which are pure deliciousness and only available in Canada!
After the falls we headed to Gas Works Park - right across the lake from our apartment. It was a great day so we just soaked up some sun and watched the sail boats pass by. Amy & the baby were hoping to get some fish and chips for dinner so after Gas Works we went to Alki beach. A cute little waterfront area complete with a "cruising strip". Good thing we were in Ben's car so we could look cool. We found some tasty dinner and sat right by the water.

Sunday - Mother's Day we of course had to skype our mother - luckily our webcam had arrived the day before.


Here is a picture of Amy with her Mother's Day gift from me. A bib that's stylish and earth friendly from the Green Festival.








We had a tasty breakfast at the Southlake grill and contemplated stem cell research. Afterwords we went to my favorite market in Fremont. It's more of a flea market but there are always neat things being sold and tasty treats. Aaron got a new hat, Amy some new earrings, and I bought some soap. Plus we saw a little pup there that perhaps could be a future member of our family - a maltise yorkie poo!
We attempted to go on a Wooden boat ride after the market but apparently this is in high demand and you need to sign up hours in advance. So we headed back down to Pike's Place for some veggies to grill and had a feast on the rooftop deck. We had burger's (veggie for me), brats, salad, and veggies.

On the last day, Monday, we had big plans to go to Discovery Park and walk around and explore the beach, but it ended up raining on our parade...so we only saw the park briefly and decided to do lunch and a movie instead.








We had lunch in the International District and met one of Aaron's grade school friends. The restaurant had great ambiance, but the food wasn't the greatest. For the movie we headed to the University District and saw State of Play which we all liked.
To top off the whole weekend we went to Mr.Spot's Chai house in Ballard for some tea, snacks, and cards only to find Lutefisk! A terrible band that drove everyone out of the tea house. I'm not sure what you would call their music....banging drums, playing the guitar like you think you're good but have no clue how to play, while yelling nonsense into the microphone. If this is the new wave, count me out! On the up side, I did beat them all at dutch blitz (my new fav card game). We had a wonderful time playing hosts for the double A's and hope they can come back out soon!

P.S. Be aware if you ever go to Snoqualmie falls that there are only 20 dogs allowed at a time. If you're number 21, you gotta go!

Bye for now!