It's Sunny, It's Cloudy, It's Sunny...

And so our weekend went. It was a virtual flip flop of weather...fabulous one day, not so much the next. Make up your mind already Mother Nature.

Thursday dawned gorgeous with clear skies. A much too beautiful of a day to stay home. I took Lena out of school a few minutes early and off to Seattle we went. We were en route to the aquarium and dinner with Daddy.

In the immortal words of Dr. McDreamy, "I have a thing for ferry boats."...
A big ol' wall o' fish...

A big ol' sphere o' jellyfish...

Annika fleeing from the potential attack of the octopus...

What is that bright light bathing my child...

Posing with Lucille...

Friday was even warmer...like 75 degrees warmer. Jason was off in the afternoon. While the kids were in school we hopped on our bikes and headed downtown (about 5 miles). We had a beverage outside at a coffee shop, chilled on the grass by the water, picked up Annika in the bike trailer, and pedaled home (up a HUGE hill...good thing I wasn't pulling that not-so-little girl!). Then it was off to a restaurant where we ate outdoors. OUTDOORS! Summer must definitely be here, right?

Wrong. Saturday dawned gray and rainy:(. That doesn't stop us hearty Pacific Northwesterners, though. We decided we would have our first backyard cookout of the season. Jason lit up the fire pit during a break in the storm...then it started to rain. He made a makeshift tent over the coals and dashed back and forth from the pit to the house with our food. The rain did let up long enough for marshmallow roasting so wasn't a total loss.

Marshmallow roasting PNW style...

Oh the yummy goodness of the smore (I'll have my smores without the cracker and marshmallow, please)...

The rain put the fire out so Annika was forced to eat her marshmallow untoasted. That half-dazed look in her eyes just might be the early onset of a sugar coma...

Sunday came and what was that in the sky? Was it a bird? A plane? It was the SUN!!!! Lena is crazy for bike riding so loaded up the truck and took off for a local park. We bought a tag-along (those nifty little bikes for kids that hook onto the back of the adult bike) and we road about 3 miles...Lena's little legs pumping the whole time. We had another (rain free) cookout that night and more marshmallows...yum yum!

Lena ready to ride. Let's go, let's go...

Posing with the new tag-along. Annika said, "I love this tag-along. Thank you for buying it for me!" Whatever keeps you happy, sweetie...

Maybe, just maybe, summer is around the corner. Maybe she is just a really shy kid that keeps hiding her head in her mom's skirt. In case you were wondering...today is cloudy!

On a side note...swine flu just might be a blessing in our house. Annika does not like to wash her hands. For the last couple of years I had to wipe her hiney because she refused to wash her hands and I didn't have the energy to fight her. However, she has started wiping herself and now when she doesn't want to wash, I just say "swine flu" and away she goes. When she doesn't want to wash before meals, I just say "swine flu" and she stomps off to the bathroom. When she doesn't want to wash after school, I just say "swine flu" and she lathers up (you see the pattern here?). Granted she probably isn't going to contract swine flu from her own hiney or from the toys in our house, but what she doesn't know won't hurt her. *insert evil sounding mother laugh here*