Benziger babes

The Benziger Family - Theo, Katie, Kim, Bob and Seth Grandma and Grandpa Benziger came to visit last week and Grandma and Grandpa Pastorius are arriving tomorrow. This is the fourth grandchild in the Benziger family but it's been a few years since Bob and Kim were able to spend time with such a little one so they were very excited to come visit us!  The weather was perfect again last week so we wandered around the city a little and ate lots of great food. Kim cooked up some wonderful meals and Bob made me breakfast everyday. We visited the Ballard locks and salmon ladder (Theo and my third trip in a week but each time just as fascinating as the time before); we ate seven dozen $0.75 oysters at Elliott's Oyster House on Pier 56, visited the Canlis glass studio and Olympic Sculpture garden , took a tour of the Wing Luke Museum in the International District, ate dim sum and sushi, and visited the very cool LeMay car museum . I read that the spices in foods you eat get

Seth went to Minnesota for the weekend to celebrate Art Errickson and Kate Bronson's wedding and so Theo and I had lots of quality time with various friends and family who came to help out! First, my Macalester friends and soccer teammates Annie Borton and Cara Goff came to visit for a few days from Portland and NYC, respectively. The last time we were together was in at my wedding in Costa Rica and before that was in the Peruvian Amazon (recall our blog entries: "Vamos a la selva" and "Four Blonds Take Peru" ). We had a great time visiting Ballard's Chittenden Locks and watching the King Salmon running in the fish ladder. They were also tagging some of the fish for research and watching these men with these HUGE 20+ pound fish was very entertaining!. We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting by the Puget Sound admiring the Olympic Mountains at Golden Gardens. Then my sister Anne and my mom flew into town as they knew that Seth would be away and I woul

Theo and I have been spending a lot of quality time together watching the London Olympics. I think we (or at least I) will be going through withdrawal this week now that they are over. Seventeen exhaustive days of watching the world's top athletes competing 24/7 in our living room - it was pretty awesome! My only complaint was that the time delay from Seattle to London was such that if I ever went online during the day to any news site or even facebook, I would inevitably find out the results of the key events from the evening which was soooo frustrating! Oh well. Theo and I watching track and field (and just about every other sport except for tae kwon do). "What do you mean the Olympics are over?!? NOOOOO!!!!" We did manage to make it outside almost everyday and go for a walk to Volunteer Park - a beautiful 50 acre park designed by the Olmstead brothers in early 1900 with a conservatory, water tower and art museum. The weather has been perfect - 75-80 degree