phil's visit vol II

and here are the rest of the happenings from phil's visit:

 we went to pike place with phil. this time we got fish and chips at jack's fish spot. Yum.

 phil took pictures of miss isla.

 this was at discovery park. this is a must see if you are in seattle. it is a beautiful park. it would be great to bring bikes and ride around to the different parts of the park. i think that is what we do when we go with bry.

 the lighthouse at discovery park

 

we collected shells, driftwood and rocks from the beach.

adventures that were not photographed, but are worth a visit if you are planning on coming this way.

idylwood beach

samammish farmers market (this is where our new house will be, so we drove past it for phil to check out.)

phil's visit Vol I

my brother phil came out to visit us last week. phil is getting married next week-wahoo! he thought it would be fun to have a single adventure before he tied the knot. the joke was on him, however, because what he ended up with was a family vacation. this vacation consisted of naps, grocery shopping, the library, the playground and an earlier bedtime.

we did get a little fun accomplished. we went to the king tut exhibit and the pacific science center. we even got to hit up the IMAX movie about pharaohs. when i was little i was super into archeology and i LOVED reading anything about king tut that i could get my hands on, so this was a dream come true for me in some ways.

 awe.

 she's in a real space shuttle...no, wait, it's a fake one for you to take pictures in.

 say cheese.

  

isla was really happy playing with this 3d bug puzzle toy until it started coming apart.

 BUGS

 we got to go in a butterfly house. there were so many butterflies. it was beautiful, also stressful, because isla almost trampled 3.

 butterflies eating

   and this is proof that i still fall for some of bryan's shinanigans. this picture was taken when i though i had a butterfly on my head. thanks bry.

 phil in the middle area of the science center.

AND NOW FOR THE KING TUT PHOTO DUMP:

 mother and baby sculpture

 casket

 this mask was on one of the mummies buried with king tut. i can't remember whose though...

 all the jewelry was breathtaking.

 this mini boat was in the tomb to take tut into the next life.

solid gold sandles baby! these were on king tut's feet along with the gold finger and toe covers

i took about 200 more pictures, but i decided to be somewhat selective. also, we totally thought we were going to get to see king tut himself. NO, there is no king tut in this exhibition. there are a lot of really amazing things that were buried with him.

the EMP and seattle center

we made our way to the seattle center in hopes of going to the king tut exhibit at the pacific science center. the tickets were sold out to king tut, so we explored the area a bit and decided to check out the EMP. this is a museum about music, science fiction and pop culture. it is a completely radical building and the exhibits were so cool. they had a lot of interactive exhibits that penelope got into and bryan and i really liked the nirvana: taking punk to the masses exhibit.

we got to see a few Filipino bands play in the seattle center, then bryan and penelope got wet in the water feature. it was ridiculously cold, so i did not endorse this activity.

 we decided to park at the westlake center and take the monorail to the seattle center. it was fun to ride through downtown seattle. it also saved us money on parking.

 "yeah, but how did they land the ship up there?" asked penelope.

 the EMP

 this musical instrument sculpture actually plays music...it is amazing.

 penelope getting sucked into...

 THIS.

 the water feature mentioned above.

they started out innocently watching

and that wasn't good enough.

 isla was smart and didn't take part in the drenching.

i guess she didn't get that wet.

snoqualmie falls and a children's museum

on the second weekend we were here we drove up to snoqualmie falls, try to say that 5 times fast...or just once. this is a really impressive waterfall with a lot of hiking, biking and walking trails, unfortunatly all of them we closed. we did get to view the fall from a couple of viewpoints and it was well worth the 30 min drive. we had a picnic there and enjoyed (sort of) a light misting from the fall. also, we ate ice cream and that is always worth mentioning.

after the falls we went to the snoqualmie railroad museum this was super fun for us all. bryan and i really liked checking out the vintage trains, penelope really liked getting on the trains and isla really liked the rocks.

i'm going to be honest with you, i can't remember when we went to the children's museum. it is important for me to blog right after an event or i will most likely not remember any of it. i did, however, take pictures and that reminded me that it DID happen. this is kidsquest in bellevue. we are hoping to get to the seattle children's museum this month and the one i like best will probably be frequented by this sparks family. i am trying to figure out good indoor activities for the littles. penelope and isla LOVED kidsquest and i think bryan was almost as entertained as the girls.

these little guys almost came home with us...penelope definitely bonded with them. little miss p would not leave the baby section, because they could not leave the baby section. there were tears involved.