Washington is the best!

Can I just tell you how much I'm enjoying Washington?! So far, the weather has been not the greatest with mostly cloudy/55-60 degree days with the exception of a few marvelous sunny days. Although locals say this is really unusual for the summer and I'm going to take them at their word. Sorry its been a while since my last post. We have been busy little bees. PS: I've been working on this post since last Wednesday, but only now have a chance to post it...don't worry I made the appropriate updates. OK, let me tell you what we've been up to.

First, we've made numerous trips to Seattle for the furniture superstore, IKEA. Anyone ever been there? I think it is retail marketing at its best. First of all, its ginormous, probably the size of two Super Walmarts. You walk in and the whole front of the store is set up in a maze of different rooms of a house....kitchens, bedrooms, living rooms, offices, etc. Within each section they have decorated rooms. For instance, in the living room section they have a bunch of living rooms all decorated and set up. Then you look at each room, write down what item you want and where to get it and at the end of the maze is a warehouse with all the items in boxes ready for you to pick up. Pretty genius, eh? We bought a ton of Malone's furniture for really reasonable prices and we are putting it all together as we speak. Oh yes, part of the reason they can have such great prices is because you put it all together. Its been fun. Imagine me with power-tools! Here's a picture of the IKEA showroom.

Here's Malone, Cameron and her new IKEA highchair (only $25 and pretty sturdy!)

Then, we went downtown Seattle to the famous Pikes Place Market (been there twice already). Its the place where they throw the fish. Side note, anyone remember Real World Seattle where Steven slapped Irene as she drove off? For some reason I always remember that when I think of Pikes Place. Anyways, Pikes Place is this big farmer's market type of place with lots of fresh produce stands, fish stands, butcher shops, spice shops, fresh flowers everywhere and tons of little food carts, oh yeah, and the original Starbucks. It is awesome! If anyone wants to come and visit we will be sure to take you there. I bought some shrimp/prawns that were the biggest I've ever seen. Here's just a shell.

We had them the other night with Asparagus Risotto....So yummy! We bought some specialty sausages including some homemade South African Boerewors, our national sausage. Malone didn't think it was nearly as exciting, as she was fast asleep in her stroller the whole time.

Then we drove around downtown Seattle for a little. It is the most beautiful downtown I've ever seen. Its like Manhattan with lots of trees and much more hilly (I told Cameron to remind me never to drive my standard-shift Toyota in this hilly place). Here's a street performer hula-hooping, while playing harmonica, while playing guitar behind his back. Impressive.
Friday all of our belongings got delivered! Its amazing how I had forgotten how much stuff we have. Highlight- We actually slept in our own bed the last few nights. It was the first time in 4 months! We were excited!!!! Again, I'll post some more pictures once we get a bit more settled and there isn't boxes EVERYWHERE. Here's a picture of Michaelangelo painting our livingroom.

A few more random thoughts/things to tell you:

- I made some sweet potatoes tonight for Malone-- she loved them. No more bananas for now. The doc didn't like the fruit before veggie thing and her digestive track also didn't like it. Hence, veggies for now. Here's some pics.
- Love the house!
- Its Malone's 5 month birthday today. And to celebrate, she rolled over for the first, second, third and fourth time. She's a genuine rolling machine (back to front which is the hardest). She's pretty much awesome!
- Love the house!
- We're still trying to find a church. For the past 2 Sundays we visited a church called Soma Communities. It was really neat- meets downtown and is comprised of almost all young families. Interesting thing, their pastor/"elder" preaches a little but then they do discussion with the whole church. We were a bit nervous about the discussion because you always seem to have the one guy/gal who goes on and on about nothing relevant or makes really stupid remarks. But the congregation seemed to be really insightful, grounded and intelligent so it worked out well. I think we're still going to visit a few more churches, but found this one interesting.
- Love the house!
- Cameron got into the spirit of Washington coffee by buying a 5lb bag of Pikes Place Roast from Starbucks. Its huge!!!
-Malone is turning into the most beautiful little girl, see?
Its official that we have fallen in love with Washington....well, maybe not love, but we're definitely dating.