Bellevue Botanical Garden and RC Cars

This weekend was much better than the last two. We all still weren’t feeling 100% but we were feeling much better than we have been! I got pink eye or some other eye infection last Thursday so that slowed us down just a bit. Chris was still feeling a little yucky and the kids had coughs and runny noses. Since we weren’t at 100% we didn’t want to over do it, but we were all ready to get out and do things!

Friday was so nice out we decided that evening to go on a small picnic. The other week I had time to kill before I needed to be somewhere. Not enough time to go home and unload kids, but it was too early to go to my appointment so I just decided to drive around Magnolia. I had read that driving on Magnolia Blvd. has really great views so I decided to do that. I love that drive! You get nice views of the city and the Sound. Its a nice drive that I can take after I pick up kids from preschool. (Its a little out of the way, but its worth it!) I noticed they have a parking area and benches all along the route, so that’s where I wanted to go on our picnic. (I meant to do it over spring break, but couldn’t since I was sick.) We made brownie cookies and made sandwiches. When Chris got home we loaded up and went on our picnic. The kids LOVED it, and so did we! We went on a small walk exploring near by. We found a staircase and went down. Then we went right back up. (It went down an alley that was a bit sketchy.) It was a lot of fun seeing what was so close to our house! After our picnic we took the kids to the park to play for awhile. I think Friday Picnics is something that will happen a lot now!

On Saturday we decided to stay fairly close to home and go into Bellevue. They have a botanical garden there that looked like fun. They have a small suspension bridge that you can cross and I thought the kids would like that. Before we left Chris and the kids had just finished painting the new body on the RC car that Chris has. They were all dying to drive it. We probably haven’t used it for about a year and its something the kids and Chris LOVE doing. The kids were really proud of their paint job as well. On the way to the Botanical Garden we stopped at Ella Bailey Park (its the closest park to our house and it has great views of the city.) and drove the race car for a bit. It was a lot of fun!

Bellevue is pretty close to our house about half hour so it was a quick drive. We decided to go over the new 520 floating bridge which was fun. You can still see the old bridge that they are starting to take down. I still am amazed at all the bridges and water we have here. I think its just fun to cross the bridges!

The botanical garden was packed when we got there. They were having a plant sale and I think that added to the amount of people there. We had to circle the parking lot several times before we found parking. What I love about this garden is that it is free. Its quite a large garden (I think we walked for about 1 1/2 miles throughout the garden.) and there are great paths to walk around. Once we got more into the garden the crowds thinned out. The kids loved to explore and look at the different plants. The kids loved the suspension bridge. It was nice to be out and enjoying the beauty of the garden! There was also some sort of race or running camp going on. It was fun seeing all the different runners running around on the trails as well.

We really did like the botanical garden. It was fairly similar to the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island. Not as impressive though. I would prefer going to the Bloedel Reserve. The botanical garden in Bellevue is easier to get to (no ferries.) and its free. So for the cost and ease of access its definitely worth going to. I bet we will go back.

After that we ate and decided to look at some houses that were for sale in different neighborhoods in and around Seattle. We ended up going fairly south and into West Seattle. Houses are so much cheaper there! (Still expensive!) We ended up going to Costco for a few things and for gas.

Sunday we only stayed at church for awhile. My eye was still yucky. Kids had gross noses and coughs. We finally renewed our temple recommends so we can go to Andrew’s wedding. After church we took the kids home for naps, then in the evening we went to Discovery Park. I had heard that there was a playground there, but I had never seen it. We decided that we would take the RC car there as well and try to find the playground. We were successful! It was great little area. Perfect to drive the RC car. The playground only has swings and a little zip line, but it was perfect for the kids. Ryan loved doing the zip line. (Lil was too scared to try, she is probably too young anyway.) They both loved driving, chasing, and being chased by the race car. Lilly also loved climbing on rocks and exploring. I am amazed at all the neat places that are around us! We were looking at pictures from Discovery Park and it looks like places we’ve camped in the mountains in Arizona. So different from what we are used to and we are loving it!

Monday was a warm day here. It reached the mid 80s. Our house got even more hot because we don’t have AC. Yesterday was a cool day. It was in the 70s and just about perfect. I opened the windows and it was a great temperature inside. In fact that evening it got fairly cold. Then today was fairly chilly. The high will be in the high 60s. We had to wear jackets on the way to school again. Looks like the next week will be the same trend. It will get warm and then cool again. I can handle that! I read today was supposed to get to be 101 in the Phoenix area. SO glad to not be there right now!  Its pushing a hundred there and we are wearing jackets here!

At the preschool there are these bushes that if you rub them then you’ll smell like lemon. (More like lemon cleaner, but its still fun.) Lilly is obsessed with them! She loves to rub them and smell her hands! When we were walking home from preschool yesterday she smelled her hands started pouting and wanted to go back because her hands didn’t smell like them anymore. At the botanical garden she would rub her hands on all the bushes. Chris thought she was crazy until I explained that she was looking for the lemon bush. I think we will look for one of those plants for her!

It was a great week for us. Everyone is on the mend and I think we will be 100% soon. Chris is feeling better and my eye is better. Kids seems to be doing OK. Still have coughs and runny noses a bit, but they aren’t getting worse. I am glad they didn’t catch my yucky eye!