seattle – megan&andrew http://blog.solanis.net Thu, 25 Feb 2021 06:00:18 +0000 en hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.6.14 Preparing to Depart http://blog.solanis.net/2019/03/preparing-to-depart/ Tue, 26 Mar 2019 04:59:00 +0000 http://blog.solanis.net/?p=6385 Read More]]> This part of the process was fun and difficult. We squeezed in lots of friend time and worked on boxing up the entire house while still living in it. The boys have been doing very well with our plan to move. Aiden made a paper chain to count the days before they’re flight. We visited our cats who now live with our friends Chris and McKai. They were so thoughtful and bought the boys little kitties that resembled ours to take to Indiana.

We had an art date with our friend Nina in her garage studio. She is so very talented and we have a few of her paintings. She also teaches kids’ art classes in the summer at Country Village and Aiden was old enough to attend this past summer.

We did our usual roam around Redmond town center, riding escalators and buying snacks.

We were able to coordinate another Team Awesome gathering with almost everyone from our team but Laura who had move to California. This was a great group of people that I started my career with (and became parents together) and we couldn’t have had a better Team Awesome leader.

We never missed an opportunity for bubble tea and milk powder buns (for me it was usually a corn and ham bun or red bean mochi).

We hung out with our neighbor Arshan, and Ishrat made a beautiful and delicious going away dinner for us. She is a wonderful cook and we spent many mornings having tea together on the weekdays.

We spent a lot of free time with Connor and Genevieve who were a few houses up the street from us. Moving away from them was a little easier because they would be moving only a couple months after us to the Chicago area, and we were excited to be within driving distance of each other. Aiden and Connor both love chai tea and are always building train tracks together. Oliver and Genevieve are great little friends who love each other.

We played at the park and slumber partied with Tom and Emily. Several of our other friends came to hangout throughout the day. We had a lazy morning with bagel breakfast sandwiches, coffee, and The Lion King. We had one more dinner with them before the kids left. The picture was full of smiles and then afterwards it was nothing but tears, tears, tears. It hurt my heart to leave these two (three).

I squeezed in several working coffee dates with Hanako when we could find time. We almost never take picture of ourselves but manage to take many pictures of our coffee and snacks. We usually required a work break to run through Ben Franklin for some craft inspriation.

We had a lot of boxes piled up, Andrew and the boys hopped on a plane to leave them in Indiana with our parents where they had a fun-filled week of grandparent and cousin time, and I kept on packing.

]]> Framily Campout http://blog.solanis.net/2018/09/framily-campout/ Tue, 04 Sep 2018 03:10:00 +0000 http://blog.solanis.net/?p=6202 Read More]]> We drove about 45 minutes from our house to camp with friends for the weekend. We had a great time but we all made an executive decision to bail on the second night because it was really cold at night and none of us came fully prepared for that. We hiked the twin falls trail and the kids and dogs were all well behaved. Our campsite was right across from the river so we could spend time hanging and throwing rocks (like us adults love to do).

]]> Celebrating Susannah http://blog.solanis.net/2018/07/celebrating-susannah/ Tue, 31 Jul 2018 02:32:33 +0000 http://blog.solanis.net/?p=6070 Read More]]> We spent the weekend at a cabin near Crystal Mountain for Susannah’s bachelorette weekend. We explored, rode the gondolas to the top of Crystal for lunch, relaxed, laughed, and enjoyed our time together.

]]> Extra Birthday Shenanigans http://blog.solanis.net/2017/10/extra-birthday-shenanigans/ Wed, 25 Oct 2017 05:24:48 +0000 http://blog.solanis.net/?p=5214 Read More]]> Aside from Aiden’s party, we had a few other little birthday activities.

My parents got him tickets for a train ride (dragon costume optional).

We opened presents from family at home.

We played at Tom and Emily’s where they were kind enough to share their birthday celebration with him.

We took him out to birthday dinner at a Red Robin where he got mac and cheese, corn dogs, and a birthday dessert (but didn’t want them to sing to him).

]]> “Call It Magic” http://blog.solanis.net/2017/09/call-it-magic/ Tue, 26 Sep 2017 06:08:59 +0000 http://blog.solanis.net/?p=5168 Read More]]> We went to Coldplay. It was amazing.

  

Andrew WILL BE forced to go next time.

A few of my favorites (mostly for my own memory)…

]]> Outside, All The Time http://blog.solanis.net/2017/06/outside-all-time/ Mon, 12 Jun 2017 07:48:00 +0000 http://blog.solanis.net/2017/06/outside-all-time/ It seems like we’ve been outside constantly.
We met up with Tom and Emily at Maple Leaf Park before going back to their place for dinner.

Slip n’ Slide at Rambo and Axel’s house, followed by grilling and s’mores.
Oli’s climbing skills surprised us, he went right up after Aiden at the neighborhood playground.
Splashing in the fountains at Redmond Town Center.
They played in the sandbox without parental interference, just happily played together. I spied from the kitchen. It was lovely.
Aiden used gems to skip nap time and go to Grasslawn park with me. He did a lot of climbing. Then sat down in the middle of the park and admitted to being very tired.
Flowers and a jar of ants…
Messy babies have to eat their ice cream in the driveway.
Eating dinner on the new deck, so that when the boys are done after 2 minutes we can continue with our dinner in peace while they play on the swing.
We made pinecone bird feeders to hang on the trees outside. This project was inspired by the perfect pinecones we found outside city hall when we went to get our passports (and I forgot the checkbook so Andrew ran home while we played around outside, thanks Andrew).
]]> Kellye & Aaren Come to Play http://blog.solanis.net/2017/06/kellye-aaren-come-to-play/ Mon, 05 Jun 2017 07:50:00 +0000 http://blog.solanis.net/2017/06/kellye-aaren-come-to-play/ Kellye and Aaron made their way to Seattle for a visit!
We went up the Columbia Tower,
had beer at Fremont Brewery,
took selfies at Gas Works Park,
and played board games at Mox Boarding House. Not to mention all the board games we played at the house too. It was great to be able to play with more than 2 of us.
Kellye and I ran around the Market and downtown while Aaron headed to a Mariners game (and made so many new friends).
 
We also hiked Rattlesnake Ledge, where Aaron checked in on the Cubs (to Kellye’s disappointment), and then stopped at Snoqualmie Falls on our way home.
]]> Little Friend Fun http://blog.solanis.net/2017/05/little-friend-fun/ Sun, 28 May 2017 06:41:00 +0000 http://blog.solanis.net/2017/05/little-friend-fun/ We helped Graham’s parents celebrate the survival of their first year of parenthood.

We met up with Harper and Blakely to play at a park.


I went to daycare for a mother’s day tea party. I had cookies and tea with Aiden and Karis, then read books with Oliver and Ella (followed by chasing and falling).

AND, we celebrated Will’s birthday with a pizza party while they were back in town for a quick visit.

Snack time with Rambo and Axel…

We played at the Giggle Jungle one afternoon and ran into one of Aiden’s school friends, Caleb.

Aiden’s neighborhood friend Ben came over to play while his parents had a garage sale.  Oliver practiced driving, but it didn’t go well.
And I absolutely love this bulletin board they made at Day Care.
]]> Museum of Flight http://blog.solanis.net/2017/02/museum-of-flight/ Mon, 13 Feb 2017 07:51:00 +0000 http://blog.solanis.net/2017/02/museum-of-flight/ Tom and Emily swept Aiden and Oliver away for the day. They went to the Museum of Flight and out for dinner while Andrew and I enjoyed the house to ourselves and went out to dinner alone. They are so awesome and Aiden felt to special!
]]> New Year, New Fireplace http://blog.solanis.net/2017/02/new-year-new-fireplace/ Wed, 08 Feb 2017 06:21:00 +0000 http://blog.solanis.net/2017/02/new-year-new-fireplace/ We began ripping out our current fireplace right after the New Year. It took us roughly a month to complete.
It was wood burning and we never used it. We were planning to get a gas insert. But after doing all the demo work, we had the pros come measure for the insert. Once they were able to look into the walls, we learned that the fireplace wasn’t structural. We could remove the whole thing and get an entirely new fireplace. The perk to this is we could get a larger fireplace (for the same amount of money). I also pulled of part off the mantle that was running along the back wall, so I took this excuse to repaint the whole room (too ambitious? maybe).
We had gas run to the where the new fireplace would be and I built drawers for underneath the hearth. 
We added framing for the built-in entertainment unit that would replace the wood storage box.
The installer put in the new fireplace and hooked up the gas. Since they were doing framing for the fireplace, we also had them add the cement board for tiling (it’s one our least favorite things to do). 
I built drawer fronts. Andrew worked on wiring for the entertainment system.
We waited to decide on a hearth until after the fireplace was installed. We wanted to have perfectly accurate measurements and know exactly how much space we’d have under the silver framing. Conveniently Andrew and I both had Martin Luther King Jr. Day off, but daycare was open. We used that entire day to go from stone yard to stone yard hoping to find remnants that might work for our space. We saw very little we liked, even when we did find remnants long enough. However, the very last place we visited happened to have one full sheet of marble that they were selling at remnant price because it was the last of a lot. Plus they could install within 2 weeks, unlike most the other places.
I painted and installed the drawer fronts before the hearth was installed.
The hearth arrived! They struggled to get it in our front door and up the stairs, but eventually made it. One installer spent a lot of time measuring, going up and down, and shaking his head at the staircase before bringing the piece inside.
Next, we needed to decide on tile. I probably brought home 8 options, and we narrowed it down to each of our favorites. Andrew’s pick was the right option (horizontal) and I preferred the left. I agreed to pick the right option if we laid it vertically.
Andrew and I build in the box and shelves. The shelves can slide in and out, and there’s a 4 inch gap in the back for running wires. Andrew’s done a lot of behind the scenes work here to discreetly connect speakers, receiver, projector, internet, and all the gaming systems. 
Ana came over to take the boys out for the afternoon and we tiled in about 4 hours. 
I was able to grout the next day while everyone was at work/daycare.
The final piece was adding doors to the entertainment stuff.
Voila!
Here’s the before photo.
]]>