And the Walls Came Tumbling Down...

Well, not really the walls, but definitely the wallpaper. Before we left for Seattle (yes, my blogs are terribly out of order) we were determined to finish taking down the wallpaper. Being in my first trimester, I was less than motivated to work on anything at all, much less steamy, dripping walls of gluey mess. But it got done. By the way, we bought a steamer which worked great if anyone ever wants to borrow it. Cause there will never be wallpaper in this house again!

Pat was brave enough to come over one day to help out.
Living room partially done:
We debated whether to take down the wallpaper in our bedroom or not. I thought it was really cute and it was actually really nice wallpaper. But in the end, it had to go. What we thought was a blessing...the fact that it peeled right off the wall with no prep...turned out to be a much longer process as I still had to spray and scrape all the leftover glue off the walls. This took me a couple of weeks to finish much to Jay's anxious dismay. But again, it got done, and those walls are smooth perfect!
Lula was extremely helpful as always! It looks like she's laughing at us with an evil laugh, "Ha. Ha. You have to take down wallpaper while I eat snacks and get in your way. Ha!"
Next step: painting.

Lula Update

I am so far behind on house and Lula updates I'll never catch up! I'll have to make some quick and concise recaps...if that's even possible for me! So, to appease my grandmother, who I'm sure is dying to see some pictures of Lula, we'll start with the baby. Lula is now 17 months old and a little spitfire. She's still the sweetest, quietest, happiest baby around, but she's definitely starting to show a little more spunk and sass. She jabbers ALL the time and I can't wait to hear what she's actually saying in her head. She's a funny little girl and the only real issue we have with her is when it comes to eating. The child is unbelievably finicky and would rather starve than eat something new and different. This was a serious point of stress for a while and was causing my overly-emotional pregnant self some major tears and frustration. But thanks to some advice from a friend and tweaking that advice to make it work for us, I think we're going to survive! Yes...I know it's a lot of pictures, but like I said, I'm rather behind...and she's just so stinkin' cute!

Lula also LOVES to help us with whatever we're doing. She will be an excellent helper...someday...right now, it's just frustrating as we try to work on the house. She grabs paint brushes and screw drivers out of our hands. And if we happen to be sitting on the floor, will plop down right in the middle of our laps to see what's going on. We've sent her to Grandma's several times so that we could get major projects like painting finished without interruption. Here she is checking out some outlets that were sitting on the table too close to her high chair!.
In her sweet vintage top I bought her in Seattle. I know she's mine, but she's just too adorable!

So, I've never been a big fan of the bright, loud, tacky kids' toys, but what can you do? I asked for some advice to keep Lula busy at her age and this Fisher Price house came highly recommended. It received 5 out of 5 stars based on over 600 reviews. So we splurged...and she loves it! She also received a little train for free from a wonderful friend. It has lots of activities on it and she absolutely loves it too.
Lula loves to put on hats and sunglasses now. She found one of my hats and was running all over the house with it on...which is why the picture is blurry! I guess she thought she was modeling.
Into everything...
One of favorite features of our new house is the windows. We have two very tall windows, one in the living room and one in Lula's room. They're perfect for her short little self to look out. Mollie likes them too! Some day when Jay has a table saw and a little extra time again, I want him to make a window seat in Lula's room. She would absolutely love that!

Last Day in Seattle

I'm going to skip our last day in Seattle because...well...it's time to move on. No, changed my mind. I'll keep it short. I spent the morning at the Mukilteo beach on the Puget Sound, which is very small but beautiful. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, causing many locals to come out as well. I read for a while and then picked Jay up for lunch. We went back to the beach and ate. Then I dropped him back off for his meetings while I went back to the room to take a nap and read for the rest of the afternoon. It was so nice to just veg for a while.


When Jay was done for the day, we headed back into Seattle for the evening. We grabbed some yummy pizza in the University District then headed to University Village for more browsing. It's an upper scale outdoor shopping area near the university. It was really beautiful. We browsed through stores including Anthropologie...which I can never pass up. That store is so amazing. I just want to move in. Then we found this interesting Japanese dessert stand, Tokyo Sweets, that makes fresh crepes and fills them with ice cream and other goodness. We both got the lemon one which had creamy vanilla ice cream, fresh lemon zest, granulated sugar, and homemade whipped cream in a lemon-soaked crepe. It was delicious! We were exhausted after this and headed back to the hotel to pack and get ready for early morning flights...Jay headed to LA while I headed home. I was itching to see Lula though not looking forward to the humid weather!

Dolls Gone Wild

We began questioning Lula's parenting skills when, after watching a movie, Jay and I turned to find one of Lula's dolls passed out on the front doorstep of her play house completely naked and in a drunken milk coma. Lula has left her dolls unattended for the night so she can enjoy the pleasures of Grandma's house. Meanwhile we're left to tend to Lula's duties and take care of her responsibilities. Since the doll is currently intoxicated and unresponsive, we will wait until morning to provide discipline and guidance. We can only hope that we are training Lula better than she is training her dolls.

Monday in Seattle

(By the way, not all of the pictures on these Seattle posts were taken by me...just in case!)

Monday morning began Jay's work week, but I was determined to make every second count. So waking early we ate breakfast and headed out to hit Nordstrom's Rack when it opened at 9am. It was a major disappointment. I didn't try anything on. I don't really like the "garage sale" vibe in stores like this. I just don't enjoy picking through crumbs to find a piece of bread. So we didn't stay long.

Instead we headed back towards the market. I scoped out some shops I wanted to look in after Jay had been picked up, and we went back to Le Panier. Le Panier is just a small little cafe that sells coffee, sandwiches, and pastry, but oh my! It was still early. So we settled on some pastries. Jay got a croissont almondine and I got a vanilla eclair and a chocolate macaron. All I can say is I thought I was in heaven. I've never tasted anything so good in all my life. Everything was absolute perfection. Usually I'm not a big croissont fan...they're often dry and crumbly...but not this one. It was oh so buttery and sliced open to be filled very subtly with an almond filling. Nothing was overdone or too sweet, even the eclair. I felt sensual taking each bite and I savored every moment. The textures of the macaron were amazing. Crispy and light on the outside with just the right amount of rich, velvety chocolate in the middle. Need I say more? If you go to Seattle, you must get some pastry at Le Panier. But go early!
After our little indulgence, we went to the market so Jay could get lunch before leaving. A little backwards. Oh well! Unfortunately Jay likes a good sausage and we'd seen a German place the day before that sold only sausages. So we headed back and that's what he had for lunch while I played Angry Birds on my phone!

Then his coworker came to get him and I was on my own for the afternoon. I looked through several shops, just enjoying browsing. There was an amazing antique market nearby. They had great stuff, but again, nothing I could take home with me on a plane except a couple scraps of fabric.

After browsing for a while, it was time to eat again. Since I was in the same area, it seemed quite obvious to go back to Le Panier! I had brought my book with me that morning knowing I'd have some alone time, and arriving past the normal lunch crowd, I was able to find a little table where I enjoyed a Mocha, vanilla macaron, and Swiss Puff Pastry. Again, all delightful. I was looking forward to a croissont, but they were all gone! Thus the reason for arriving early!

After this I headed back to the car and met Jay in another shopping district in the University area. There was a clothing exchange I wanted to check out. It ended up being pretty amazing with lots of good brands for great prices. Alas, with my swelling belly, most of it did not fit! But it was fun looking around anyway. I found Lula a cute little vintage top and a couple of things for myself.

Then we headed to Mukilteo. Mukil...what? Exactly! This was the tiny town (population: 18,000 people) where Jay's conference was to be held. It's about 40 minutes north of Seattle. We went to our hotel, settled in, and then headed back south to another small coastal town where a restaurant had been recommended. We were a bit nervous upon entering as the decor boasted an 80s style that hadn't been updated in a while. However, we were pleasantly surprised with the rich gourmet flavors and freshness of the seafood. The view was beautiful and it was a pleasant experience. To top off the wonderful food, it was the height of peach season. So their boasted dessert was sort of a peach cobbler. It was huge and delicious and we didn't even get close to finishing it all! And that was our Monday in Seattle...and Mukilteo!

Sunday in Seattle

Sunday morning we woke up early, but not too early, and had a very nice breakfast complimentary of our "executive" status...perks of Jay traveling so frequently. Then, since none of the stores were open so early on Sunday, we went to the Seattle Aquarium situated on the wharf. We decided to take the car this time! There were a surprising number of people out for a Sunday morning, but I guess in big cities Sundays are pretty much like Saturdays.

The morning was so wonderfully chilly. I loved bundling up for the first time in months. We made our way into the building and navigated through throngs of kids and parents, most who had member passes. The aquarium was definitely focused towards kids, but we had fun just strolling through all the displays and looking at the amazing underwater creatures. The otters were fun to watch as they swam on their backs with fish on their chest and ate while gliding through the water. It was pretty hilarious. We stuck around through the octopus feeding, which was really amazing. The creature had been sitting there half dead all morning until they wafted a fish under its nose. Then it came alive, changed from white to red almost instantly, and stretched out to get that fish!

And by that time I was hungry again. We had driven through the famous Pike Place Market on our way to the wharf, and I wanted to go back. So we walked up to the market and again just browsed through all the stalls and shops. There were people everywhere! Apparently the market is open all week, but Sundays are the busiest. There are shops and stalls in an inside area with several floors of shops below, and then there is an outside area with booths and permanent shops.

It was among the permanent shops that we found some gems. Le Panier was the most wonderful French pastry shop I've ever come across. I just stepped in to see what they had, but I'll talk more about that place tomorrow. On the hunt for lunch, we also came across Beecher's where they make their own cheese right there for all to see. Then they mix it into the most delicious mac and cheese you'll ever put in your mouth. Divinity. We placed ourselves at the end of a ridiculously long line to get a taste and enjoyed our little cups of heaven while watching the workers stir cheese curds (which apparently contain 25 g of fat per cube!) in a large silver tub.
After our cheesy lunch, we walked to a coffee shop (it's true that there's literally one on every corner)and took a little break from the crowds. Then we decided to take our car back to the hotel and go on foot to the shops in the downtown area. Jay dealt with insurance claims (the hotel valet put a huge dent in the side of our rental :)) while I went up to the room to rest for a minute.

Then we headed back out and hit some normal, but favorite shops very quickly before their early Sunday closing times. Hungry again :) we searched for a dinner place and settled on Blue C Sushi which is a chain. It's a sushi bar where they have the conveyor belt that brings dishes around and you grab what you want. It was good, but they didn't really have any specialty sushis.

After that, we went to a movie theater to catch a flick, but the one we wanted to see wasn't showing for another couple of hours. So we returned to the hotel and ordered one on TV. I prefer to watch movies in bed anyway! And thus concludes our busy, but very nice Sunday in Seattle.

Saturday in Seattle

After arriving in Seattle Saturday afternoon around 1 and picking up our rental car, we headed into town. I had already scoped out the major shopping districts online (there are about 7) and was ready with instructions. I wanted to hit the Fremont shopping district first. This area was sort of labeled the Bohemian district with funky music, vintage, and clothing stores. I was hoping to find some quaint boutiques with lower prices, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. However, there were plenty of unique stores to browse through and we had fun just looking around and enjoying the amazing weather. I did stumble upon some brands that I fell in love with and will be looking out for online, but that will come later!

I did find a great little $5 t-shirt at this awesome vintage/antique store. I found a lot more too, but traveling by plane puts a damper on buying furniture!
Of course it wasn't long before I became hungry and our parking meter was about to expire anyway, so we headed towards our hotel. Our hotel was older, but very nice and we were placed on the executive floor situated high above the downtown area. Here was the view from one of our windows.
After freshening up, we decided to walk down to the wharf and find something to eat. Thinking it was just a short walk to the water since our hotel was on 6th Street with the numbers going down towards the water, we headed off on foot. As we made our way down the hill (see picture below), we realized that at some point we would have to climb back up the hill to get to the hotel! I immediately started worrying about this situation! I told Jay he might have to go get the car while I hung out on the pier.
It was such a gorgeous night though, deliciously chilly, that the walk down was lovely. We walked along the wharf for a while amongst throngs of people. Jay couldn't remember where he'd eaten before and called a coworker to find out while we cringed at the lines waiting outside some of the more popular restaurants. Apparently there was a football game that evening. So people were out in full force. Finally we made it to Ivar's on pier 54 and were pleased to find the wait was only 5 minutes. This restaurant was a little nicer than the others and so wasn't catering to the pre-game crowd.

We were quickly seated and then enjoyed a meal of fish and chips, scallops, and a crab and goat cheese dip. Everything was wonderful and hit the spot.
And then it was time to climb back up the mountain! People who live in Seattle must be in excellent shape! I know I would be if I lived there just from walking around. It nearly killed me to get back to the hotel. We stopped at every block so I could catch my breath. (Hey! Give me a break! I'm pregnant...not just out of shape!)

Having woken early, traveled all day, and then walked around for hours, and considering the two-hour time difference, we were exhausted. So we watched TV for a few minutes in hopes of making it to 9pm so we wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night wide awake! And then we called it a night.