Category Archives: Seattle
Cherry Blossoms and Tulips
Seattle Public Library
Snow Day
Christmas Advent Video
Christmas is my favorite time of year and I love all of the different advent activities to do to make the whole month of December feel festive. For some reason Advent seems to be one of those things that most people just do with kids, but I love finding ways to celebrate my favorite holiday. 🙂 I designed some advent magnets for my scrabble quote board that I love and it was a very meaningful Christmas this year as we tried to find ways to serve to “Light the World.” I have found that it can be a little difficult to find advent activities for every day that are for adults so if you are like me and looking for inspiration here is a list of the activities we did this year.
Dec 1 – Ward Relief Society Christmas Dinner, the perfect start to the month, hearing about how to make Christ the center of Christmas and “Let Him In”
Dec 2 – Bellevue Festival of the Nativities, this is one of my favorites every year, since I collect nativities from around the world I love seeing hundreds from all over as well as the Christ room beautifully depicting the life of Christ
Dec 3 – Girls Christmas Craft Night
Dec 4 – Hang ornaments on the tree and watch the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional
Dec 5 – Build Christmas Lego’s, it also snowed all this week which was so beautiful, I have really missed the Utah snow
Why Fall is my Favorite Season
I go through phases. Sometimes I call it Fall. And other times Autumn. I really love the word Autumn, but Fall comes so much more easily. Autumn is one of those words to me. When I say it, it feels a bit presumptuous, like when someone is trying to seem smarter than they really are. I find that I am not brave enough to use it all of the time, even though I love it so much. And then I think how weird it is that I think you have be brave to use a word. Or that I love a word. But there it is. And whether I call it Fall or Autumn, I love this season so much.
I love the changing colors of the leaves, the gradual merging of green to yellow to orange to red. How the colors make the trees glow in the sun. The leaves laying on piles at the base of the trees, occasionally floating up and around you in a small wind or with the passing of a car. Or as we discovered last year, being fiercely swept away by the howling Snoqualmie gusts, nothing small about it. Vu recently discovered that my type of person has a name. Leaf Peeper. And the lucky souls that have fulfilled their own life long ambition of enjoying New England in the fall contribute to 3 billion dollars in tourist revenue annually. Hopefully soon I will be among the contributor’s. It’s on the bucket list. The list that only seems to grown, and never diminish, despite the items that get check marked.
I love sitting on the couch with a book and a blanket, listening to the sound of the rain falling. And now enjoying the fireplace as well.
I love hearing the crunching of leaves under my feet. Although I don’t get that much anymore, thanks to my beautiful rain. I was able to enjoy it this Fall though, and for 3 days I was happy that it wasn’t raining.
Summer Hikes
This summer Rachel and I tried to go on as many hikes as we could. We would go on the Saturdays that Vu was in class, but we only ended up going about once a month. There are a lot of hikes in the area that we have never done and have wanted to. This was actually a really nice summer this year in Washington. Sometimes a little bit too nice for me… I don’t enjoy the heat. At all. And yes I know that our heat is nothing in comparison to most other places, but that was a huge reason why I moved here. However, it was nice to be able to enjoy it and be outside.
In April we started with Tiger Mountain. It was pretty, but the whole thing looked the same. An incline with moss covered trees.
Skagit Valley Tulip Festival
A couple of weeks ago Rachel and I went to the Tulip Festival in Skagit Valley. We went on Saturday and decided we were not going to do that again. It was a beautiful, perfect sunny Washington day, so of course everyone else decided they also wanted to go to see the tulips. The traffic was terrible. But the tulips were beautiful. We had a really good time and hopefully will make it an annual tradition. Vu went with me last year and once was definitely enough for him. It’s a good thing I have a twin sister to go with me.
Becky Jael 