Seattle centre

Sometimes it's the unexpected things that are the most fun.

We went to the Seattle Centre to see the Space Needle. My friend Ethan sent me a postcard from there a while ago, so i wanted to see it for myself.

Dad really wanted to take my photo with the postcard but first of all there was a tree that really needed climbing




I did finally relent and let dad take his shot!


But the unexpected fun was the incredible fountain. There were speakers around the side of the bowl playing classical music, and the fountain kind of danced in time to the music. When the music was loud the fountain shot huge jets of water into the sky, with just gentle trickles when it was quiet. This was really funny when the music suddenly went loud, and all the kids that were standing too close got REALLY wet.



Ollie kept a very safe distance from the water.


After all that excitement it was definitely time to head back to the hotel. We had a swimming pool we needed to investigate!

Big breakfast and Smith Tower

I could not believe my eyes when we went downstairs for breakfast this morning. There was a lady eating two chocolate doughnuts for breakfast. TWO!! Mom wouldn't let me have that, although she did sneak one (or maybe more than one...) into her bag for me to have later.

There was cooked breakfast and cereal and porridge and muffins and bagels and toast and fruit and yoghurt and juice and everything i've ever eaten for breakfast.
Dad cooked himself a waffle which looks pretty yummy doesn't it?
Mom did try and take a photo of out first and second breakfasts but we ate it too quickly. I did anyway....but you might notice mom brought her mug with her from home so she could have a decent sized cup of tea.

Anyway....once we'd eaten enough to burst we set out exploring. Dad and I went up the Smith Tower. It was so cool!
Once we got outside we were really high up, and we could see for miles. You can just see the Space Needle in the distance. That's where we're headed next.

Sopwiths in Seattle

Friday was mom's birthday, and she had the best birthday EVER!

Instead of going to school on Friday morning we all got in to the car and drove to America. It was a LONG way. We had to wait at the border crossing for hours and hours, and when we got there Ollie's passport had expired. Oops. Fortunately mom had his birth certificate with her, so we were all allowed to carry on with our trip.

We'd had such a long wait that everyone was super-hungry so we stopped at Red Robin in Bellingham for mom's birthday lunch. Somehow they knew it was mom's birthday, and all the staff came and sang to her. I'm not sure she appreciated it all that much, although the ice-cream sundae they presented her with made up for at least some of the embarrassment. Red Robin doesn't have a play place, so after we'd finished lunch we sneaked into McDonalds across the street to play there for a while before we had to get back in the car.




It was almost 4pm by the time we finally got to our hotel, the Residence Inn on Lake Union. Mom got a great deal on priceline which made her happy. Dad was pleased we had a suite so he didn't have to share with me. Ollie and i loved running along the corridors and the ginormous breakfasts, but more of that tomorrow.


We stopped at the hotel long enough for mom to have a cup of tea and a birthday cupcake, and then we headed out to the childrens' museum at the Factoria Mall in Bellevue. Maybe i'll let Ollie tell you about that! oliversopwith.blogspot.com

late night visitor

i've had a wobbly front tooth for a long time now...ever since i crashed head first into a railing last summer. the dentist was a bit worried it might all get a bit yucky, but other than a rather wonky gap between my teeth there was no problem except a wobble.

mr crisp had a 'lost tooth' chart for the kindergarten kids last term, and lots of my classmates had teeth fall out before christmas...but not me...i STILL just had a wobbly tooth......

but yesterday at teatime there was something really crunchy about my toast! i opened my mouth and found i was trying to eat my own tooth. that's GROSS!

Mom helped me clean it up, and we put it under my pillow in a little red envelope. When i went to sleep, i put my arm under my pillow to make a little space for the tooth fairy to get in. Good job she's so small and not frightened of tigers.

Next thing i knew, it was 5.30am and Ollie was screaming. He'd fallen out of bed, but managed to get his leg stuck in the process, so he was dangling from his bed upside down. Mom came in and rescued him, but by that point i was wide awake.

I looked under my pillow and found a super-shiny dollar coin AND a lego race car that glows in the dark. I was far too excited to go back to sleep so i got up really quietly and went and made my lego car in the kitchen. Of course after doing that much construction work i was pretty hungry, so then i made myself some breakfast before turning on the TV. I'm getting pretty self-sufficient in the mornings these days.

still - i can't wait for my next tooth to fall out. i think i'm going to get three presents next time.

Family Fun

Joel's suggestions for Saturday family time:

Go swimming at a fun swimming pool
Do Olympic stuff downtown, like play hockey
Go skiing
Go camping
Ride our bikes on an island, or at the beach or in the woods
Visit parks and playgrounds
Go to Dennys for pancakes
Go to Ikea
Go to the beach when it's sunny
Go hiking somewhere or for a walk in the woods


Today we were planning to visit the art gallery downtown and see some olympic stuff there, but the line up to get in was far too long. We played a little bit of hockey in Robson Square instead, before retiring to starbucks to recover from the exertion. It's not nice being sick. But hey...we managed to do something on my list :)

not such a great spring break :(

mom had made great plans for spring break, but things just kept going wrong!

First of all we were going to go to the Sunshine Coast, because we love it there....but the weather forecast was for rain and snow instead of all the lovely sunshine we've been having. Not really beach weather even for us hardy canadian types.

Plan B was to head up to Whistler....all that lovely snow.....but we weren't allowed to stay in our friend's accommodation because of restrictions due to the paralympics.

Plan C was to head down to Seattle for a few days and check the place out....but by the time we were on to organizing plan C Ollie was sick, mom was sick, I was sick....

and we're still sick......

and now Spring Break is over :(

spring break skiing with dad

cold temperatures, fresh snow, sun shining.....dad and i headed up mount seymour this morning. no photos...dad forgot the camera, or maybe he was too busy trying to keep up with me :)

but i did practice my parallel turns, skied down a flight of stairs and grinded across a table..

not to mention loving skiing twice down a black run that made dad a bit nervous.

maybe we'll go back again tomorrow with the camera?

the longest bike ride ever - 10km

Despite an "earlier than mom and dad would like" start to Spring Break, when Ollie and I both got up at 6.15am feeling sick, we went ahead as a family to explore Barnston Island.

Barnston Island is in the middle of the Fraser River, and is largely made up of farmland. I thought maybe it should be called animal island, dad thought it was smelly island, and mom made the more probable suggestion of barns-on island. Anyway, i was a bit confused as to how we were going to cycle around an island when there's no bridge to get there, but it turns out there's a little ferry you can use to cross the river.




The island was great for riding bikes as it's really flat, and there weren't many cars at all. Ollie had a little nap in the trailer (thanks dad) before climbing on to the back of mom's bike to see the view. He missed seeing the great laundry drying spot, but was awake in time for the donkeys, sheep, cows and llama...or maybe it was an alpaca? There were cranberry fields, too and a herb farm.



Best of all, mom packed an awesome picnic and even included some toys for us to dig on the beach.

All in all, it was the best day out....we're not going to mention how far we drove to find a regular toilet because i wouldn't use the pit toilet on the island, nor how hard it was to find a playground in Surrey. We ended up in our favourite park in Richmond though which was a great outcome, but a long drive on a sunny afternoon!

star of the week

It seems skipping school is the way to go! This week my teacher nominated me as 'star of the week'. I had to stand up in assembly this morning when my name was read out, and everyone clapped. Unfortunately mom missed it, so i don't have a photo to show you, but she did take some photos at lunchtime in the playground.




My class loves their scooters! I don't have one, but Peter likes to ride my bike so we swap most days and race around the yard. I don't really enjoy recess when the big kids are out, but we finish before them at lunchtime so we get a good chance to play then. I've mastered the level monkey bars, but i still can't quite manage the ones that go up and down on various levels. Ollie's getting pretty confident with the climbing frames, too

wow - mom CAN actually ski

Poor mom tripped at the ice rink waaaay back in October on my birthday.

After several visits to the hospital, the doctor and the physiotherapist she's still waiting for an MRI scan to see what she actually did to her knee when she fell, but in the meantime today she was finally brave enough to try skiing for the first time this season.

Several things needed to be organized to make this happen, including changing the date of my parent-teacher interview at school, finding someone to pick up Ollie from preschool and play with him for a while, dad sorting out some work stuff...and of course the weather had to co-operate too.

So here we are - photographic evidence that i have the BEST parents. Sunshine, the mountain virtually to ourselves, our first picnic in the new car (mom remembered the hot chocolate).....and all on a school day :)

I was a bit worried at first that mom was just going to ski around in a circle, as she didn't seem to be turning very well on her bad knee, but after a couple of runs she seemed to get the hang of it. I discovered today that i actually only need one ski at a time as i skied across the slope with one foot in the air. Parallel turns, here i come!