Calender confusion

Is it true? Can it be? Is it really July ALREADY?! Where did June go? It feels as tho it just started and we had so much to do... and here I go waking up and it's already July!!! Is anyone else feeling  this summer flying by? I guess this is a good time to reflect on what we did in June, enjoy the memories and move on to another month full of fun and family!! :)

On one of the few sunny days we've had, we went exploring in the "big city"....

... and realized why we like living in the country! lol I'm so glad we had family in that wanted to see the sites because I don't know if we would have explored like this if they hadn't been here! Altho we enjoyed seeing something new, we realized it's just not our scene...

So we found a slower pace adventure....

and had THE MOST AMAZING meal I think I've ever had!!

And decided that this is the best way to see the big city....

from a distance! lol

No really, we did have fun exploring and even got to find THE COOLEST little toy store... the girls were in heaven and I must admit, I found it to be pure bliss too! :) As we were fighting our way thru traffic to get to the market, I spotted this sign...

.... and just knew we had to make it back to that little store!! While we waited to meet back up with our family, the girls and I snuck off ...

And proceeded to just giggle our way thru the store, yes... me included! lol The toys in that store were exactly the kind of things I want my girls to play with. Well made and open ended for the most part. This display just wowed us all and we just had to add some of this food to our toy kitchen! (As if we didn't already have enough!) Plan Toys is one of my very favorite but until now I've only gotten to see their toys online! Seeing quality toys was such a kick!

When all was said and done, we came away with a small bag of treasured wooden fruit, some watercolor pencils and an adorable eraser for our new chalk board! If you ever find yourself in downtown Seattle, this little store is a true gem....and probably the closest thing to Mr Magorium's that you are ever going to find!! And if you don't know who Mr Magorium is... go... right now... follow the link to Amazon and buy it!!! It is one of the best movies I have EVER seen!! Really... it's a must!!! :)

I have been hearing about Pikes Market for who knows how long and couldn't wait to see them throwing the fish (why? I'm not really sure, it just seemed cool!)

It was cool to see once, but man was that place packed!! After walking thru all that mess of people I was SOO ready to retreat back to the car!! lol That is... until I saw this....

I tried to get the whole front of the store in the picture but was having trouble with crowds etc. This little joy of a store is known as Market Spice and for me... made it worth the walk thru that mass insanity of people crowded into the market! lol The girls and hubby seemed to enjoy it just as much as I did! We got to look thru all the tea pots and coffee goodness and then we hit the motherload! The girls were just giddy at the wall of gallon + jars full of teas~ Oh how I wish I had taken a picture of that!! Really, it was just a little bit of heaven and a much needed calm after all those people! Did I mention there were alot of people in the market that day? lol Yeah, I think we fit in to the country life just fine! ;) So... after much deciding, we came away with a brown bag full of a sampling of teas and a few fun new spices to try too. Hubby picked out "Gunpowder"  ( go figure) and was disappointed... however the girls and I picked out "Raspberry splash" and "Blue berry delight" that were really yummy! I even got a special tea called "Seattle Surpise" in hopes of taking part of another fun summer swap coming up ( more on that later). And our favorite of all was the "Princess Grey"... it was SOO good and a new favorite in our house! I'll be ordering it in bulk this winter! :) And you can too!!!

Wow! I knew we were busy in July but holy cow were we busy!! All of the exploring in this post came from just one bunch of family visiting!! lol A week later we got another round of family in and the week after that we got more!! lol... I think I'm going to have to break this down into another post before you lose all interest in reading more! :)

At least now I know why the month is a blur... July isn't looking much better....my calender is a mess of activities and rescheduling already but I wouldn't have it any other way!

How is your summer going?