Christine

Grandpa’s 71st Birthday Celebration at the Space Needle

Grandpa and Grandma invited the Bush and Olbright families to the Space Needle for lunch to celebrate their 71st birthdays and wedding anniversary. Although it was a cloudy and rainy day, everyone had a great time.

The day started out with an elevator ride up to the Space Needle. Grandpa is afraid of heights so he wedged himself into a corner. The elevator operator said the elevator goes 10 miles per hour up to the height of the Space Needle. We had good views of the Pacific Science center and Seattle waterfront.

After ordering, the Grandparents opened their presents from the Olbrights and our girls. Katherine and Allison were very proud that they made and/or purchased their gifts with their own money. Katherine gave Grandpa a bird house and Grandma some bath stuff. Allison gave a bee candle holder that she picked out.

Lunch arrives and everyone digs in. The girls eat a good lunch as the dessert at the Space Needle is very special. For dessert, everyone got a Lunar Orbiter. A Lunar Orbiter is a two scope ice cream sundae on top of a bed of dry ice. The wait staff pours hot water onto the dry ice right before serving to make the dessert start smoking. It’s quite the special experience.

The Bush family had to leave at 1:30P as Steve had a Qi review at work that he couldn’t be late for. The Olbrights and the grandparents went upstairs to the observation deck to take in the rainy sights.

2012-06-22 Space Needle 812354-2186683-789-H.jpg

2012-06-22 Space Needle Photo 812354-2186683-789-H.jpg

Rosebud Training and Father’s Day Weekend Fun

Rosebud, Christine, and Katherine have started to attend weekly puppy school. All three are responding well to the training. As part of the class they have homework such as getting Rosebud to obey commands. The girls thought it would be fun to teach Rosebud how to jump through hoops. Sunday was Father’s Day. The girls decided we should take Rosebud for a walk to burn off some energy and get her some practice with her new harness. Along the way we met a local neighbor who has a Black Lab who is about Rosebud’s age. They had a good time with puppy play.

Tonight we’re having some friends over to celebrate Father’s Day with a backyard BBQ.

Saturday Memorial Day 2012 Fun

Memorial Day weekend 2012 at the BushChang household. Friday night started out with a family reading session. Katherine likes to read in bed and Rosebud likes to play/cuddle/chew on the bed. The big news is the girls convinced Mom and Dad to buy them Apple iPod Touches. The assertion was that if we bought them the device they would want to buy music and apps. They would “earn” the new music and applications by doing things like going to Violin, Piano, and/or Math lessons. Dad had to “set up” the iPods so this made for a late Friday night. Saturday we spent doing chores and recovering from a long week. The girls spent their “free” time playing with their new iPods. Mom and Dad set some ground rules. If they don’t respond immediately or put the device away when asked then the iPod will go away for a whole day. So far, so good.

Katherine spent most of Saturday working on her Pueblo Indian diorama. The first attempt that used Wheaties and honey didn’t turn out so well. The second attempt used modeling clay and wooden sticks to make things structurally sound. Katherine planned out the diorama based on book research. The diorama included a field, reservoir, one and two-story houses, and Pueblo Indians doing various things.

Saturday evening, the girls decided to make homemade pasta. Though a fun exercise, it’s a lot of work and a big mess. However, the results were quite tasty.

Amy’s 40th Birthday Party

Amy turned 40 this year. The extended family got together to celebrate Amy’s 40th at Grandma Dottie’s house. Kevin, Tyler, Katherine, and Allison all performed charades. Rosebud joined the fun, too.

Amy suggested that we leave yellow sticky notes around the house with a note for my parents. The kids had fun finding interesting places to hide the notes. Steve placed his on the ceiling. You get the idea.

For brunch, the adults had curry chicken salad, a family favorite, and the kids had pizza. We concluded with a 40th birthday game, actually 40th times two. It was good to catch up with the Bushes and Olbrights and talk about growing older together.

Mother’s Day 2012

On Sunday we celebrated Mother’s Day as a family. We started out the morning with breakfast in bed. Dad and the girls produced a smilie face breakfast plate for Christine. At 10A, we met Agnes at Din Tai Fung in Lincoln Square for Dim Sum. Afterwards the girls played arcade games to earn tickets.

In the afternoon, we attended a Seattle Storm pre-season game. On the way to the game, we passed a runner doing pull-ups using a bus stop overhang. We discussed whether or not any family members could do that. Allison exclaimed: “I could pull up my pants!” that many times. We all chuckled.

On the way to the game, Allison said, “Look, Raffi on the sign”. Christine and I said, “huh?”. Allison exclaimed again: “Over there, Raffi on the sign”. Finally, we connected the dots. Allison was talking about graffiti. The family had a good laugh.

Our season tickets seasons are new this year. We moved to center court, three rows back. The people around us are nice and we can see both sides of the court. The girls also love the “bottomless” popcorn though we’ve limited it to one bucket per half.

Allison’s Family Birthday Party

We celebrated Allison’s seventh birthday a couple of days earlier with the extended family. Allison’s original request was to just have the grandparents. She woke up Sunday morning wanting the Olbrights to attend as well. Luckily the Olbrights were free in the afternoon so we could all celebrate together. It was a beautiful, sunny day. We spent most of the afternoon outside enjoying the sun and playing in the backyard. Allison learned to catch baseballs with uncle Jason and cousin Tyler. Rosebud entertained everyone by chasing us around the backyard and vice versa. It turned out to be too windy to light and blow out the candles outdoors so we piled into the house to sing happy birthday to Allison and blow out the candles. Then we moved back outside to enjoy cake and ice cream. After opening presents, Allison decided to give a violin recital. She played several pieces from her past lessons to everyone’s enjoyment.

To conclude the evening, we got out the fire pit. Our marshmallows had expired long ago so we promised to roast marshmallows another time.