Grandparents in Town!

Adam's parents were in town all last week! We hadn't seen them since our trip to Florida last June, so it was a very happy reunion.

The week before, Claire and I both caught a twenty-four hour stomach bug. A few days passed puke-free, so we thought Adam managed to evade it. But, of course, he got sick on Friday, practically as their flight was boarding. They stayed at a hotel near the airport that evening, while I frantically cleaned the house and washed everything in sight.

We had originally planned a trip to Bainbridge Island for Saturday, but instead we just picked them up from the airport and had a low-key day at home, followed by Mass and watching the Super Bowl on Sunday. The girls warmed up to their grandparents right away!

On Monday, we went to the girls' music class and had lunch at one of our favorite local restaurants, The Tipsy Cow. We also invited a couple friends over to celebrate Candlemas with crêpes, a tradition we learned while studying abroad in Provence.

On Tuesday, we ran a couple errands and had lunch at Adam's work. On Wednesday, we ventured into Seattle to check out the Chihuly Museum.

It's all about the glass sculptures of a local artist, Dale Chihuly. It only takes about thirty minutes to walk through, so Claire and Maggie didn't mind sitting in the stroller and taking in all the brightly-colored displays.

There's also a garden with more sculptures surrounding the museum, which they were very happy to explore. It's at the base of the Space Needle in the Seattle Center complex.

 

We had lunch at the Armory, a food court of sorts in the complex. We ate at the Skillet Counter. It started as a food truck and has since expanded to three restaurant locations.

That evening we gave his parents an early birthday present of tickets to a Cirque du Soleil show performing in a city park five minutes from our house. It was a cold, rainy night so we felt bad that we were forcing them out the door, but thankfully they had a fantastic time.

On Thursday, we went to the Bellevue Square mall to play and meet Adam for lunch at Din Tai Fung. It's a dumpling chain all over Asia (including in my parents' building in Shanghai!) with just a couple U.S. locations in Seattle and Los Angeles. The last time we went, with my family, we got a babysitter and it turns out that was a smart decision. The only thing our apparently very white kids would try were the red bean buns for dessert.

That evening, Adam's parents watched Claire and Maggie while we snuck off to see The Imitation Game. We both loved Benedict Cumberbatch's performance, although I don't know if it could top Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking in the Theory of Everything. (My parents brought a copy from China when the visited over Christmas. I'm so glad I was watching in the privacy of my own living room because I was just bawling at the end of that one.)

Adam took the day off work on Friday. We had big plans to hit up Pike Place Market. It was drizzling in our town, but as we crossed the bridge over Lake Washington it started raining harder and harder, so we changed plans and headed to the Seattle Public Library instead.

It is the craziest building! All glass, with these eerie lime green escalators. And I didn't even get any pictures of the floor of meeting rooms that's painted bright red and supposedly modeled after the human heart.

We hung out in the children's section for a while. In our county library branch, the kid's section is filled with computers on tiny tables, which drives me crazy because that's all the kids want to do. But here, they just had a puppet theater and plenty of puzzles.

We had lunch at Tom Douglass' Serious Pie and grabbed some treats from his Dahlia Bakery for dessert. We all tried different things and all couldn't stop raving, but I'm pretty sure my chocolate truffle cookie had to be the best.

That evening, we got a babysitter so that the four of us could go out. We went to Le Pichet, a French bistro downtown we discovered on our hotel stay over Christmas. It was just as delicious the second time! I'm still kicking myself for leaving my take-out box on the table.

It had finally stopped raining and turned into a clear, not too cold evening, so on a whim we decided to ride the Great Wheel.

Adam's mom is pretty afraid of heights, but she was a good sport.

I think she maybe even enjoyed herself a little bit?

Well, we sure did.

On Saturday, their last day here, we had planned to hike Snoqualmie Falls and have brunch at the Salish Lodge. It was just too rainy and muddy to make that happen, so we headed to University Village to do some shopping at the Land of Nod for a certain almost-three-year-old's birthday. We picked out some sheets for her toddler bed and tested out this piano. (A little piano has been her most frequent birthday gift request lately.)

 

They left for Houston on Sunday morning. We had a great time and can't wait to see them again soon. They were so good with the girls and so helpful. Adam's dad installed a ceiling fan in the nursery and attached lights to the fans in our other bedrooms. They found a fish market that sold crawfish and bought some for Adam's favorite meal. The list goes on and on. We were all sad to see them go, but I'm pretty sure they were ready to see the sun again!