The Adventures of Jadon and Kalina: Uncle Art Summer 2014

School ended on Wednesday, June 18. Our first summer guest, Uncle Art, arrived on Friday, June 20. Kalina was still not feeling great. She survived running a few errands and going to the airport, thanks in part to using oxygen throughout the day.

Uncle Art arrived in time for Friday night pizza night. Jadon and Kalina are always happy to see him and this time was no exception.

Jadon and Kalina decided they were going to show Uncle Art all the “kid” movies we have that he had not seen. While Andy ran the Seattle Rock and Roll Half Marathon Saturday morning, we entertained Uncle Art with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. While Kalina and I went to an afternoon birthday party, Jadon and Andy took Uncle Art to see How to Train Your Dragon 2 at the theater. The boys enjoyed the movie and the girls enjoyed the party. Kalina also lost her sixth tooth this day.

Kalina woke Sunday morning and declared she was feeling 100%. Yeah! We took a ferry to Bainbridge Island late in the morning. We ate lunch at The Madison Diner and then went to the Bloedel Reserve. What a beautiful place! We took a nice walk through the park. We did a little wandering around the island (and managed to find ice cream and a book store) before heading home. The feature movie for the evening was Despicable Me.

Our first adventure Monday morning was the zoo. The weather was beautiful and we saw lots of animals. We ate lunch there and then went to see the Freemont Troll. Uncle Art did a little shopping at REI and then we went to the waterfront downtown. Jadon and Kalina and Uncle Art convinced me to ride The Great Wheel – a big Ferris wheel. Ferris wheels make me a little nervous but I survived. The view was spectacular so I am glad they talked me into doing it. Then we met Andy at Pacific Place for dinner. After dinner we saw a Drum Corps show in the theater. I don’t know how Kalina managed to sleep through most of it. Jadon was impressed with the percussion players. We had a long, fun, day.

On Tuesday we headed south and went to the Washington State History Museum. After spending the morning there, we went to Gig Harbor for lunch. We got home about mid-afternoon. Jadon got a drum lesson from Uncle Art while Kalina and I played and made dinner.

On Wednesday morning Uncle Art attended the Rotary Club for Lake Forest Park meeting (since he was missing a meeting at home). After the meeting we went to the aquarium. The best part of our visit there was a new river otter who wanted to play with Kalina (and eventually Jadon). She was standing by the glass watching him and he would swim right up to her and do silly things. Jadon joined Kalina near the end and he “played” with them both. What a special interaction! We spent the afternoon at home. Uncle Art did a little yard work. We did a puzzle we got at the aquarium and we watched Despicable Me 2.

Thursday we took a nice drive up the scenic Washington coast to Bellingham. We drove along Chuckanut Drive and enjoyed the scenery. We stopped to take lots of pictures. We went to a bookstore and had lunch and went for a walk along the water.

Uncle Art gave Jadon a bell lesson on Friday morning. We took a walk to the park and had lots of fun. Then we went to the store so Uncle Art could get a few last things for the rest of his journey. We had lunch at Duke’s, Uncle Art’s favorite chowder place here. Our plan to walk around Green Lake was fouled due to rain. One last movie – How to Train Your Dragon, after pizza night.

I took Uncle Art to the airport early Saturday morning. He had two more weeks of adventures in Alaska before returning home.

Somewhere in there we also watched The LEGO Movie, I just don’t recall when. We got Uncle Art all up to date on kid movies. J We had a fun, busy, enjoyable week with him!