City Hike

It was a gorgeous weekend in Dallas.  We headed over to a local park, Erwin Park, which is about a 10 minute drive from our house.  I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how adventurous it was.  I mean it wasn’t a hike in Colorado, Seattle or Northern Minnesota; but it wasn’t walking on a side walk either!  The kiddos got their wiggles out and the one with the littlest legs refused to be carried the whole time.  We did about a 1.25 mile loop, hit up the swings than then headed on our way.  On the way out we stopped and looked at the cows that were happily grazing and nursing in the field.  On Sunday, I got all my seeds planted and we enjoyed some backyard time.  It is hard to think it is January when it is 70 degrees outside, but I am not going to complain!  If I have learned one thing it is that in Texas “winter” a 50 degree weather change is just around the corner!

House is on the market…

…and we sort of were kicked out!  Right now Seattle has a very hot real estate market.  Houses go on the market and typically fly off just as quickly as they go on.  We put our house on the market on Friday morning and by Friday night we had already had 14 realtors through the place. 

Our realtors said the best case scenario for them was for us to pack up and leave for the weekend. We thought about it but decided that it would be best for all of us, especially the kitties, if we returned home to some normalcy each night. 

So Saturday morning we packed ourselves up and headed out of town.  After a quick stop for some breakfast we headed East towards the mountains.  About an hour and a half into our trek we pulled off for a hike. 

Thomas and Stella loved running on the trails and expending their energy.  Elin “hiked” for a little bit the whole while singing “hikin’ hikin’” and then rode happily in the back pack. 

On our way back Thomas spotted a giant slug and we were all checking it out when I got stung by a hornet on my finger.  As I am telling Mike to get the kids and go, he was telling me “it was probably a black fly and I was over reacting” and I got stung a 2nd time on the back of my knee.  By then we are all away and trying to get the stingers out.  Boo hiss, those hurt, but I am glad it was me and not the kids or Mike who is allergic. 

After that excitement we were back on the way up to Crystal Mountain.  When we arrived we noticed it was the Brew Tour and thanks to weird Washington Laws we were not able to play along with the kids there.  We instead took the gondola up to the top of the mountain where we had a nice lunch, took in the amazing view and then headed back down the mountain. 

It was nice to end a long day away from home and after closing up shop we all enjoyed a good nights sleep.  Our realtors were very happy with the open houses and said they went through 60 fliers, nuts. 

Sunday we were back up and needed to be out of our house by 9 a.m.  At 8:58 people had already pulled up to come in the house and we were off to breakfast.  We then headed over to Kelsey Creek Farm to see the farm animals and get away.  Elin loved seeing the cows and happily “moo-ed” at them.  Thomas’ favorite was driving the Johne Deere Tractor.  After our fill of animals and the play ground we headed to grab lunch and pick up something at Mike’s office.  After some fun at Daddy’s office playing on the white board, Elin and Thomas playing with the strings of bead and me “pretending to be Mike working” we took off for our daily nap drive.  Both kids fell asleep so Mike and I drove the city for 2 hours waiting for nap time to be over.  We then went to the wading pool and we had passed our 2nd 8 hour day away from home!

It was hard to be away from home and the kids were very displeased with their car seats after 2 full days in and out.  Every time we tried to put Elin in she would scream “no no noooo.”  Our realtors felt very encouraged about the 2 days of showings and we were hopeful that they days would set us up in the right direction.  Stay tuned…