there's no place like home...

well, we're back in the windy city after just a little under a week in seattle...it turned out to be the vacation of a series of unfortunate events...but in light of all that's going on, i'm gonna count my blessings and be thankful that we had a home to come back to...

cadence was as excited as mommy and daddy as we drove to the airport...just look at them teeth! scary, eh? imagine having to see THAT latch onto your nipple!

we had a lovely flight...cadence did great with lots of playing and minimal fussing...boy, was i relieved! the landing in seattle was beautiful, with the mountains and the sound illuminated by beautiful sunset light...couldn't have asked for a prettier landing!

after a little confusion with the car rental due to a lack of what we considered appropriate car seatage, we made it to charles and ali's house in the beacon hill neighborhood of seattle (note to self: always take our own car seat...it's worth the bulk)...it was probably 2am chicago time when we got to bed...

we got rained out of bumbershoot on sunday while waiting in line to see son volt...cadence started losing it, so we didn't wait it out...we were soaked and freezing anyway and wouldn't have enjoyed the show i'm sure...oh well...and then we lost our tickets for monday, so we didn't get to see the decemberists or iggy pop either...

at least i got to see damien jurado and his band on the big screen outside the packed out EMP sky church...that was as close as we got to seeing anyone we'd actually planned on seeing at bumbershoot aka bummershit...

but we had happy times too! staying with charles and ali was lovely...ali can cook, ya know! she inspired me to do more in the kitchen once i got home...haven't started on that yet, but i'll get to it one of these days...i'm gonna make me some biscuits and gravy, damn it!

anywho, here are some highlights:

family photo at waterfall park

and with charles and ali...

pixie and squido, charles and ali's cats...cadence LOVED them!

charles and teddy snuggle together...these brothers love each other very much! now ain't that sweet?

at bumbershoot...before the deluge began...

clapping during bumbershoot with auntie ali

uncle charles shows cadence the beach at discovery park...don't he look good with a baby?

cadence's first ferry ride...we took the ferry from west seattle to vashon island to visit our friend ian moore and his family...ian's youngest son levi was turning three, so we got to go to his birthday party...it was a lovely, peaceful time after the craziness we'd experienced at bumbershoot...

cadence was pretty sick by tuesday, probably because of the cold soaking she got at bumbershoot...she slept a lot in the car after that...sometimes in the middle of eating a cheerio...

it was great spending time with charles and ali...cadence totally loved them...she went right into ali's arms the moment we walked into their house...and she loved playing with uncle charles's curly hair! and the kitty cats pixie and squido provided numerous reasons for her to squeal and gurgle and make a number of other cute sounds...

if you wanna see all the photos, here they are on my flickr account...