Blueberry Picking 2011

We love, love, LOVE fresh blueberries, and the act of picking them.  It is something the whole family likes doing, and we love sampling the different bushes and finding our favorite, and coming up with a good variety of blueberries between us!  We picked 18 lbs. this trip, which I enjoyed making muffins, a pie, freezing a lot, and of course, snacking on!  The muffins were the perfect first-day-of-school breakfast treat for the kids (that post is to come!!).

A Tourist In Our Own Town

...That sounds like the title of a book (probably is), but in fact, we had an awesome time today being "tourists" in Seattle. My friend, Kenna, and I, took our collective kids (8 in all) downtown, where we happily ate our way through Pike Place Market.  SOOO yummy, let me assure you!  We had a great time, every one of us, and I am so happy we got the chance to go check it out before the kids resume school next week (boo.).  I have only ever been to the market once, briefly, nearly 5 years ago, so I really remembered very little.  Kenna was much more familiar with the place, so she posed as our wonderful tour guide, and did a kick-but job, if I do say so myself.  I need to take her everywhere with me...she knows about all the good stuff!
Check it out:

We had just arrived.  Kenna and I hauled my stroller up several (felt like several dozen!) flights of stairs, and later discovered and easier way up:-) Look at our cute bunch!

"The Tourists" with the "Tour Guide" and fellow tourists! Someone asked Kenna and I if we were sisters.  No, but she's like my "sister away from sister". It was such a dull answer to tell people we were local when asked where we were from, that we contemplated telling them we were from somewhere else, just to make things interesting!

The famous fish market where they throw fish.  The kids liked this!

Oh Reagan....:-))

pierosky...Awesome! We also tried a French Pastry place, crepes restaurant, and this mini doughnut stand that was so good! Prior to hitting the market, we swung by a fortune cookie factory we wanted to try, and picked up a couple bags, one of flattened cookies, one of traditional fortune cookies.  They were so tasty, we couldn't stop eating them!

We found this area to eat our goodies! The kids loved the pieroskies. 

The view from where we sat outside.

The kids were narrowing in on something cool!

One of the highlights of the trip was this guy.  He was the bird man for sure, and he was giving out candy for the kids. They thought he rocked!

I liked him too, and he didn't seem like a complete wierdo, so I let the kids linger awhile and check him out!

Gross and neat in a gross sort of way...we hunted down this....drum roll for this thing found in a back alley.......I don't want to tell you, it might ruin your feelings about this colorful photo backdrop.  Okay, it is a gum wall.  Feel free to add to it, if you like!

Gum icicles.  Hmmm, I can feel the Christmas decorating ideas brewing already.  He-he-he

Friends:-))

Friends:-)) I look taller than Kenna, but I'm on a hill.  She shrank, or I grew.  It's all the gum we've been chewing.

"Don't you want to eat them? I had a cool dream that gum of every type and variety was at my disposal." Yummy!! (I'm so kidding, I just want that on the record). I think if you asked Kenna how many times I repeated the phrase, "just don't touch the wall" it would be a really high amount, even like a broken record.  I couldn't help it!!

Oh the possibilities.

Looking back at the market from the water.

See the Space Needle?