This zoo has the best habitats of any I've seen. I love how natural they look and how much space there is.
This would have been a better shot if the sun was out, but oh well...
There are even Salmon in the water! The display says that the depth of the pool makes it more challenging for the bears to catch the fish, and most times they have to work as a team.

Beautiful cat!
I just love this zoo!

Lexie practices the art of camouflage.

Flamingos...

Sneaky duck getting into the flamingo soup...hmm...

It's extremely difficult to get a decent shot of the city from the deck of the Space needle, especially at night. No tri-pod or even a spot to put the camera down, plenty of wind, obstacles, etc.

So these were the best I could do.
Bathroom sign at the Sci-fi museum.

Seattle Skyline from the harbor tour. On Saturday, we walked from the train station on the far left to the Space Needle.
We got to sit in the front of the monorail each time. The train gets up to 40 mph. It's quite fun!
Taking a corner on the monorail.
The side of the sci-fi/music museum.

clam, black tipped shark, and Lex and Jason at the Seattle Police Museum

New ears

Little angel gets earrings.

Yesterday was great!  Tracy and Sierra met us at Cedar Hills Crossing to go to Claire's.  Lex got her ears pierced.  She was such a little trooper.  Didn't even flinch.

This morning in the car on the way to daycare Lexie gave me the lowdown on Leprechauns.  She informed me that if you catch one you get to make one wish.  She then let me know that if she catches one, her wish is going to be that she can read.  Gotta love her!

Crazy sadness

Tiki, 15 1/2 year old magnificent cat is on to a better place. Lex visits his grave site every day, and generally takes the whole ordeal with much more stride than I do. I'm pretty sure the first time I had a animal companion loss was when I was in junior high. She is so much more resiliant.

Today Lex and I are dealing with two under the age of four, over 80 pound, dogs...who love to pummel each other. Our dog, Griffen, and Corky's, Chance. We're boarding her for a couple days while they go do the camping thing. Payback is that Next weekend-into-the-week, they will watch Griff while Lex and I Amtrak up to Seattle with Carrie and Jason.

It's a brilliantly NorthWest typical day, and we are enjoying the obligation to vegetate in non-public attire so as to appreciate lounging around. Lex is sprouting a cold, again. Thanks be to Jah that she handles them so well. I have been feeling remiss that I haven't blogged in a while and then came about a friends blog I hadn't realized existed. Before beginning my parusal, I decided to make a mediocare entry in this tribute.


Mareseatoatanddoeseatoatsandlittlelambseativeyouwouldeativytoowouldntyou.

Highlights of Newport

The scuba diver from the show was nice enough to poss with Lexie after the show at the underseas gardens.

Lexie at the beginning of the wax museum

Lexie and Johnny Depp??

Eeeeeee...

Inauguration and Investiture!

Yesterday Barack Obama was inaugurated at the 44th president!  Lexie watched the inauguration in Mrs. Jenkins kindergarten class.  She was pretty excited about it when I picked her up.  She wants to remember it to tell people when she grows up.  We talked about the huge bow on Aretha Franklin's head.  She talked about the thousands of people with their tiny flags.

Tonight is Lexie's Girl Scout Daisy Investiture.  We're are all so excited!  I'm going to try to videotape and photograph.  "On my honor, I will try, to serve God and my country, to help people at all times, and to live by the Girlscout Law."


We need to work on Lexie's sleep habits again.  We got so good for a while, but now she is getting tired at school again.  Got a call from teacher letting me know it's been happening again.  Poor girl just doesn't like going to sleep.

Some of Lexie's Daisy troop at the Satruday bowling.

penguin pajama day

I love the second Friday of the month!  One of my biggest joys is being room mom in Lexie's kindergarten class.  I sometimes get to do prep work for projects like tracing out giant mittens on colored construction paper or going down to the supply room and using the cutter to make 8"X 8" dark blue and 9"X9" white squares for a snowflake project.  I love hovering over the tables as they work on their work and answering questions and helping them out.  Last Friday was pajama day.  It was great at recess to watch four kindergarten classes of children running around the playground in pajamas.

This Friday is Maxwell's birthday party.  Lexie is pretty excited.  We are going Pokemon shopping later this week.

It looks like we may be having a Daisy Scout bowling this Saturday too.  That will be fun.  Lexie Daisy group finally got a troop number this week.  We've been waiting long enough, jeez.  They've earned two "petals" and their investiture ceremony will be at Shute Park library a week from tomorrow.  Gotta remember to charge the video camera batteries.  Scouts started selling girl scout cookies last Saturday.  As of this morning, she's sold 43 boxes!  Her goal is 50, I hope she makes it.

Tons of presents

Largest birthday party.

13 kids! Whew.

Losing Ms. Amy

Girls night out at the melting pot. What a blast. From left to right; Tonya, Kim, Me, and Amy.

Lexie's superbig birthday surprise.

Tiki is also taking over the house.

We already broke the stairway banister. Time to find the hot glue.

Christmas 2008

A sign of Tiki's advanced years. He didn't mind taking a little nap with Griffen.

Some of my favorite creatures.

Our "living" tree. Last minute decision. Can't wait to see how much it grows before next year.

Lexie "Wii" Keller. I love Endless Ocean and we both love Super Mario Party 8 and Meet the Robinsons.

Snow fun

Sonja brings me out some coffee. She is my neighbor, my friend, and Lexies' best friends mother.

Flying dog. My cats don't appreciate the snow much, but Griffen sure does.

Losing Ms. Amy

Friday night was a blast! Amy, Kim, Tonya and I went to the Melting Pot downtown. Ohhh it was wonderful. We were there from 7:30pm until sometime after 11:00pm. My favorites were the cheese fondue and the cookies and cream fondue. Even the house salad was terrific, and the company was the best. We laughed so hard tears rolled down my face. When I told Lexie where I had been, and with whom, she actually got a little jealous mad. I have pictures of that to post as well.

Birthday Party

Lexie's birthday party was a blast! she had 13 kids there! Some from pre-school, some from day care, some from kindergarten, some neighbors some from my work, and Lucas. It was so much fun! She got a lot of Polly Pocket stuff, which is perfect. Her reaction to her big present was perfect. I'll post pictures soon. Lucas spent the night, and the next day we all went out for Brunch at Reedville Cafe.

Lexie's investiture into Daisy Girl Scout is next Monday. I'm going to try to take video as well as pictures. Last night I went to a Girl Scout Council meeting with her troop leader, Michelle, to learn about cookie sales. We're excited about that too.

Christmas Teeth

Now Lexie can sing, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth." She lost her second bottom front tooth Saturday. I actually pulled it out, eeeeeewwweee! The first one came out when we were wrestle fighting. I elbowed it out. I felt awful, but she was just laughing!

Lexie loves her Daisy Girl Scouts soooo much. She got her vest on Sunday, slept in it and wore it all the next day, her birthday. Grammy came over in the morning to watch her, her normal Grammy-Lexie day fell on her birthday. We woke her up in the morning with a cupcake and the birthday song. Grammy took her shopping and she got two new pairs of shoes, an outfit, and a doll. She kept telling me all evening that she had the best day. She had her third girl scout meeting last night. We made Christmas decorations to give to the elderly when we go caroling at a retirement home in the next couple weeks.

We're looking forward to her b-day party this weekend.