The Flat Stanley Project

For those of you who don't know who Flat Stanley is,  read here.

Our Flat Stanley arrived on an overnight express.  He had only a few days in Seattle, and sadly had to spend the first couple of days with us doing our usual routine (Soccer Practice, Soccer Practice, Homeowners Meeting, etc...).  He did get to go to the Zoo,  and we got a sunny late march afternoon on his last day in town,  so we hit up a few of Seattle's more famous sites.

Here he is at the first soccer practice of the Season.  Tyler and Zach have soccer practice roughly at the same time on Tuesday Evening,  so Soccer Practice is a family affiar.  Today Stanley joined Tyler's soccer practice.  When one says it rains a lot in the Pacific Northwest,  they are usually speaking of a fine drizzle that some how is able to hang in the air. Normally the rain doesn't fall on your head as much as it runs into you while you are walking around. Usually this means that the top of your head doesn't get any wetter than the rest of your body,  the bad news is that you normally get thoroughly soaked even though it is barely raining, and an Umbrella would do little to keep you dry,  unless you had one of these.

That being said, on this particular day, a couple of storm systems were ripping through Renton.  But as the saying goes in the Pacific Northwest, if you stopped playing soccer every time it rained, you would never play soccer.  So the practice continued.

Flat Stanley, coming from Missouri where intelligent people head indoors while it storms, was ill-equipped to handle the weather.   He lost an arm during soccer practice.  He wasn't sure if he wanted to go out with us anymore,  but the next day we convinced him to go on a field trip with Zach to the Zoo.

At the Zoo,  he met the bears.  Unfortunately he got a little to close to the bears and he was asked to leave the Zoo.  The trip was not going well,  and he had only one more day.  We decided to make this day special.  

After Zach's school, after because you have can't have your son skip school for the flat Stanley project,  we headed out across the water to the land known as Seattle. 

Here Flat Stanley is crossing the I-90 Floating bridge.  Yes that's right, we are on an 7 lane bridge made of concrete that floats. Its the second longest floating span in the US. (First longest is just north of this bridge on the same lake,  3rd longest is also in Washington on the Hood Canal)  To date WSDOT has accidentally sunk 2 of these 3 bridges while reconstructing them,  they are currently reconstructing the third one, so keep you fingers crossed that they don't sink this mistakenly sink this one.

Stanley seems unimpressed by this.  The coolest thing about this bridge though,  is that on a clear day you can see both Mt. Rainier and Mt. Baker.  Rainier is about 80 miles southeast of Seattle,  and Baker is about 80 miles north east of Seattle.  Sitting on a lake just a few feet above sea level,  that is a long way you can see.    

Those in Fremont think highly of themselves, "Center of the known Universe," but to be fair  its a pretty cool place.  One reason it is cool,  is because it has cool but non-floating bridges,  A world renowned guitar shop, and The Summer solstice fair.  Fremont is uniquely Seattle (read liberal),  so we thought this was a good place to start!

 The first bridge is the Fremont Bridge.  This bridge is one of four drawbridges in Seattle on the Lake Washington Ship Canal,  and because it has the lowest clearance, it has the most openings per day.  It was originally opened in 1917.  The Bridge connects Queen Anne and Fremont neighborhoods,  and Queen Anne is our next destination.  

The other bridge is the Aurora Bridge, or the George Washington Memorial Bridge.   At 167 feet above the ship canal,  this bridge didn't need to be drawbridge and towers over the ship canal at the entrance to lake union.  The bridge also holds the dubious record of being the second deadliest bridge in the US.  The other cool thing about this bridge is that a giant troll lives underneath it, eating a VW Bug.  

 Here is a bus stop in Fremont,  just up from the bridge. These people were waiting so long for the bus that they turned to stone (This can happen when Metro Buses get stuck in traffic).  They were headed to a birthday party for this guy.  I don't think they made it on time.

 

Next, we are headed to Kerry Park on Queen Anne.  This is the postcard spot from which to view downtown Seattle.  I had never been here before,  despite working just a little ways down the hill.  The views were awesome and today we had some pretty dynamic cloud cover with some sun breaks

Tyler and Edi were good sports on this trip.  Here they are playing at Kerry Park.  Although there are playgrounds about a 100ft below us,  we convinced them that playing on this sculpture was just as good!

They were cool with that.

Next up was the Seattle Waterfront and Red Robin,  which started in Seattle,  so it was a good place to go for dinner.  This Red Robin is on the pier,  so its is actually out on the water.   Seattle's Wheel is a recent addition and on a pier adjacent to Red Robin,  so it is a good place to stop and get some photos.



Pike's Market is the home of the famous flying fish;  but the truly amazing part of the market is the colorful flowers, fruits, and vegetables that flow through the market each day.  Sadly for Stanley by time we got to the market it was closed,  so we took a picture next to the sign and moved on!

There is a lot more to see and do in Seattle,  but Sadly Stanley ran out of time.  The next morning he was over nighted back to Missouri. 

GOOOOOOOOOAL!

Saturday's are for Soccer.   In the fall we were lucky in that Zach and Tyler's games were played nearly consecutively. With Tyler's Academy starting in the second half of Zach's game Shannon wasn't able to watch much of Zach's games,  the families' total time at the soccer fields was held to a minimum.

This Season the schedule is not so compact,  let it be sufficient to say that one Ellis could be at the soccer fields for 4-5 hours each Saturday.

Edi and I will spend a large about of time at the playground,  she loves slides and climbing.  Which is great,  because she could slide down and climb back up (usually by herself) all day.  Here she wanted to sit and spin, but it didn't spin by itself.  The look on her face is one of impatience, waiting for me to spin her while I snapped the photo.  However,  she didn't like the spinning and shortly after this we were headed back to the slide.

We still don't keep score.  I am actually OK with this,  I really want Zach to focus on doing the right things,  and less on simply winning.  He does need to pass more,  but sometimes it is just easier for him to score himself.  Today his team was down 2-Nil before Zach even get's into the game (on offence).  His coach has an impossibly complex algorithm for determining who plays and when they play;  this systems really gets thrown off when someone unexpectedly doesn't make it to the game, like today.

Regardless, when Zach finally gets in (late in the first half),  he spends the first minute or two working the ball up the field,  passing and the like.  Then a light bulb goes off,  I think Zach realizes that he can operate at a slightly faster speed than most of the others on the field (maybe this was coach's strategy,  to use his fresh legs to our advantage.)     In the next 8 minutes (separated by the briefest of half-times) Zach will score 6 goals.  This reign of terror also included two assists so it wasn't as though he is a complete ball hog.  To be even fairer to Zach,  his ability to challenge the other team for the ball is second to none,  so most of his goals come from stellar defense.

Even though Tyler likely didn't know what is brother had done on the adjacent field,  Tyler today would not be outdone.  Since he learned to walk,  I have warned Zach that Tyler may get better than him at many things.  Tyler likes to practice and he can be very thoughtful in his actions.  According to Geoffrey Colvin in Talent is Overrated this is an important ability.  However,  up until today,  Tyler's interest in soccer had been less than intense (he is only 4!).  He basically enjoyed soccer because his best friend Rhett is on the team,  and they get to sit in cool chairs on the sideline.   Today though Tyler scored three goals.  He was connected most of the game,  and having a blast running around out there.  As he develops his skills in dribbling and kicking,  he seems to be enjoying the sport more and more.

Here is one last picture of my little girl enjoying the playground.

The Party Planner

The February/March time frame is a time of celebration in the Ellis' household.  Starting with Shannon's birthday,  followed all too quickly by Valentine's day and then Jeff's birthday, then finally  my birthday a couple of weeks later.

Tyler had decided he likes cake.  One Sunday,  which happened to be Jeff's birthday (or at least his celebration at our house) on the way home from church Tyler announced his love for all things cake.

• cupcakes
• pancakes
• cupcakes
• cake

Shortly after arriving home;  he demanded that we eat dinner;  figuring he was hungry,  and it wasn't to far advanced of the normal dinner time we obliged.  After dinner Tyler helped clear the table (a rare occurrence).  Once the table was clean,  he gathered the presents and declared that now was the time to open the presents.

He subtly,  and sometimes not so subtly ensured that Jeff always had an un-opened present either nearby or in hand.  Too much discussion about an opened present was met with a kind but firm request to continue opening presents.

After presents Tyler asked to set the table,  he asked for plates,  and gathered up forks.  He then passed out the plates and the forks to each person.  He found candles, which he put on the cake and handed Shannon a lighter.  He then found the official birthday hats and distributed them.   If it were possible for a three year old to lead music,  he would have;  he settled for starting us off on our rendition of Happy Birthday Uncle Jeff.

As soon as the song was over he went to each individual and asked them for their hats back,  stacked them up and handed them back to Shannon.   He then climbed into his chair,  picked up is fork and spoon,  and politely asked for his cake.