Day 3 (& 4): Seattle wrap up

 Day 3 started out with a walk to the nearby Green Lake. 

 Clark posed by some old school Super Sonics logos that he was pretty excited to see.  Look guys.  If there ever was a severely underused pose, it would be this one.  This pose hasn't been used since cheer camp back in '99.  Let's bring it back.  And I was excited about anything that had to do with the Sonics.

 We all cheered and did the wave, led by Cass.  (Yes, we do pretty much anything Cass tells us to do.)

Love these people.

 Next came the kite competition.  Divided back into our teams, we had about 40 minutes to create a kite.  We (well, most of us) worked hard pretending we knew something about how to make a flyable kite.  We thought ours looked pretty good...but it maybe didn't end up being the most aerodynamic kite...

We sure had a great time flying (trying to fly) our kites at Gas Works Park.  We had a great view and plenty to laugh at!  If you wondered, the handsome guy in the middle of this picture flying that kite is me.  Our team didn't win the scavenger hunt the day previously, but there is no doubt that we built the best kite.  This picture is very beautiful and looks like the poster of an award winning movie.  If this picture were a movie poster, the movie would be called:
 A boy and his Kite: and his 5 friends.

If you look closely at the montage above, you can see a lot of neat techniques being used in kite flying.  These techniques have been used for at least the last 1500 years dating back to the Mulan times of China.

No trip to Seattle would be complete without a picture with the Troll.  One of the unique things about Seattle is how artistic the city is.  A local sculptor was paid by the city to build this troll.  It's obviously big, lives underneath a large freeway bridge and has a hubcap for an eyeball.  The hubcap came from that real-sized volkswagon bug that the troll is smashing with his left hand.

For lunch we split up and Cass, Hil and I stayed in the Fremont area where we checked out fun shops, ate tasty burgers and delicious cake. 

  Next we took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island.  We ferried over to Bainbridge island to look around and buy some ice cream.  The island really just had an ice cream shop and a bunch of law and real estate offices.  Was the trip to bainbridge island worth it.  Tough call.  Amy enjoyed ice cream, while I got some leads on hiring a guy to litigate my neighbors.  That bottom right picture may look like Amy and I are re-enacting Titanic, but I'm actually performing a basic Heimlich maneuver.  Amy was choking on the piece of bubble gum from her ice cream she ate.

         There we enjoyed the most AMAZING ice cream.  My mouth still waters each time I think of that peppermint and Mexican chocolate ice cream.  Mmmmmmm.  Amy thinks about this ice cream all of the time apparently.  It is why I have to keep a few extra paper towels in my pocket at all times and why I have forced Amy to go to bed with a bib on.

Fun continued back at the house with green outfits, lighted dancing gloves, yoga moves from Ash and Clark, and more fun.  That green wig I am wearing is a wig I bought in order to hopefully appear in some of Stephen Groo's award winning films as an elf.  If you don't know about Stephen Groo's films, please go to utahwolfproduction.com and expect to be there for about 3 hours.

The Queens O' Green.

 The night still had one more surprise.  We made everyone put on blindfolds, endure a bit of cold, and become a little anxious before seeing this...

...night view of Seattle from Kerry Park.  Pretty stunning, eh?

As our weekend was wrapping up, we got sentimental and watched a slideshow of ALL the many, many pictures taken.  I went to bed feeling tired and content, so happy to have such fantastic friends.

The next morning after church we walked around campus to enjoy the many blossoming trees.  These cherry blossoms line the commons area of campus at the University of Washington.  Pretty neat campus, especially for a public university.

After awards and door prizes and the crowning of King and Queen Green (congrats Jon & Bon!), it was time to say good bye.  It was another Green Party that will go down in history.  Thanks to Cass for all her hard work and planning and thanks to all our friends for making the effort to be there.  Already looking forward to Green Party 2013.  Long live green!

Day 2: Celebrating sunny skies

 With all our crew together, we spent the next two days packing in all the fun Seattle has to offer.  Not all of the fun.  We didn't make it to a Seattle Mariners game.  I'm not bitter.  This is Clark bee tee dubs.

 Before we hit the city, everyone surprised us with a baby shower / game show.  Basically, Cassie, the host, presented the parents-to-be with a question.  After we each gave our answers, the audience got to decide whose answer they liked better, voting for either mommy or daddy.  It was very fun and sweet.  I'm not going to say who won, but essentially Amy's answers were all about punishing the child, while I was more inclined to talk it out and use the poor behaviors scenarioed as opportunities to teach.  Parenting will be so awesome.  I can't wait to teach my kids about how their mom's punishments aren't really mean, but necessary.  I have first-hand knowledge of this principle.

 Then it was time to head downtown. . . 

We enjoyed a walk by the Space Needle and were presented with our first challenge at the fountain.  (We each were trying to earn brain, heart and courage points as we vied for the title of King / Queen Green).  Cass offered a bravery point to each person who touched the fountain.

Who knew how handy those rain ponchos were going to be on such a sunny day!   Note that not all our friends chose to earn a bravery point.  We did have quite the influence on all the kiddos that were at the fountain that day.  I am sure their moms were grateful...

 The Girls:  Mel, Hil, Amy, Cass, Bon, Becca, Ash, Tara, Jen
Our next adventure was the Duck Tour:

The Duck Tour is a guaranteed good time if you are with your friends.  We enjoyed seeing lots of the city, laughing at our tour guides silly jokes (and Clark's really funny/slightly inappropriate one), and watching him put the moves on Cass.   A good time all around.

 After the Duck Tour we headed down to Pike's Market and the Waterfront for the rest of the afternoon.

 The rooftop was lined with daffodils.  So pretty!

The salmon chowder we had for lunch was amazing!

Then came our next challenge.  We were divided into teams (lions, tigers, and bears, of course) and put to the task of accomplishing as many challenges/scavenger hunt items as possible in just 30 minutes.  Team Tiger had two pregnant ladies on its team but that didn't stop us from running throughout the city and taking pictures with random strangers!  Sometimes I underestimate the competitive nature of my wife.  I did this time.  Her team beat us by one picture, although it was a fun photo scavenger hunt and I thought our team did really well. 

I'm proud to say that the Tigers came in #1.  Sorry, Clark.  Apology certainly not accepted.

 The infamous Gum Wall.  Yes, we added to it (rather hesitantly)...

...but we weren't nearly as artistic or as thoughtful of this Duke fan.

 The waterfront.

Once back at the house we got cozy in the darling green pants that Bonnie made for all the girls.

They are so comfortable.  I would wear them all the time if I could.

The rest of the night we spent hanging out, showing off our talents, and of course, writing some outstanding original poetry.

We would like to thank C for teaching us all about bear scat (needs no further explanation) and other words we can no longer pronounce.

And to think, all this happened on Friday.  We still had Saturday and Sunday ahead of us!

Day 1: The Pre-Party

 Clark (Whose comments are in green) and I arrived in Seattle late Wednesday night.  The rest of the crew arrived throughout the day on Thursday (mostly at night) which gave us an extra day to do some extra sight-seeing, friend-seeing and yummy eating.  We met up that morning with Clark's former co-worker, Holly, for a tasty breakfast at Portage Bay Café. 

 On our walk home we snapped a shot by the "graffiti-with-no-consequences" building.

 With Mel & Justin in tow, we stalked Kurt Cobain's former house and bench.  It's a rather tall bench... Apparently this is the bench where Kurt Cobain sat and considered his life before taking it in his garage just a few yards away.  It was his birthday and fans had come by the bench and left birthday presents for Kurt including a skeleton in a coffin type PEZ dispenser.  I'm a big Kurt Cobain fan, so this was a fun time.

 Enjoyed a lovely (and chilly) view of one of the many waterfronts in the area.  Can't recall the name of this particular one.   

 Found Bruce Lee's grave site.  We did find Bruce Lee's grave site.  We were looking for it.  It's not like we were walking through a cemetery and stumbled upon it.  This is Amy and I doing some martial arts maneuvers in his honor.  We are not showing off out best sailor impersonations. 

 The first Thursday of the month is free museum day in Seattle, so we dropped in the Asian Art museum where Cass entertained us with a puppet show.  This picture is actually me performing ventriloquism on Cassie while she's doing ventrioloquism on that puppet.  It's a puppet inside a puppet.  Basically like a real life MC Escher painting.

 Pretty grounds. 

 Lunch at the Volunteer Park Café.

 My hot chocolate stayed beautiful the whole time I drank it. 

 Later we headed to the EMP (Experience Music Project) / Science Fiction Museum.  The talented Cassie Rae designed this exhibit!

 Becca and Brian arrived and met us at the museum where we enjoyed some live music.  I love this because this is where Clark first got to feel little Baby Schmutz moving around.  It was a sweet moment.  Baby must have liked the music.  There is something really weird about feeling your baby move around.  I think it has been my favorite moment from potential fatherhood thus far.  And I don't think there was any correlation from the music to the baby moving.  He moves when he feels like it...which always seems to be when I'm not around.

 The EMP guitar tower.  Actually not just a guitar tower, but a sculpture made of several different instruments.  There were some keytars and accordians in there.

 More fun at Cassie's house.   I told Cassie that this wall of animal masks reminded me of every scary movie I had ever seen.  Don't I look scary?  I'm the guy with the pig mask on, if you couldn't tell.

 C & Clark dressed as the goat and the pig.  Such funny boys.  When you wear these masks, you have no peripheral vision.  Which reminds me of a funny story involving my friend Dan, a man dressed as a banana and a hammer.  If you ever are hanging out with me, remind me to tell you that one.

By nightfall we had all of us (sans Ashlee) together from across the country.  Makes me smile just to look at this picture.