Goodbye Grandparents

We had one last meetup with Ernie's Nashville grandparents in Bellevue before they returned home.

 

Beach Boy

Ern likes to touch the mannequin at Bellevue Square, I assume to make sure that they don't come to life.

With our big France trip completed I went back to my fancy flights kitchen to cook up something new.

I'm usually able to ignore the Royce' siren call at the mall but this time I went for it.

Some green pins appeared on our map signifying that some flights had officially been booked.

I like these fun soda flavors but they never have them in diet. Oh well.

Ern's Tennessee grandparents joined us for a Beach Boys concert at Chateau Ste. Michelle. Beach Boys' 1965 "Barbara Ann" was one of Ernie's earliest and favorite songs. He was already able to make the song's repetitive "ba ba ba" sound so it seemed like a natural choice to introduce him to.

We had a LOT of rocking to do before we'd ever get to "Barbara Ann", though.

We had a lot of fun singing and dancing and clapping the night away. There was a lot of wine too, which was nice.

We had to leave before the show was over but we were rocking all the way back to the car.

Moldovan Hospitality

Ernie's Grandad and Nonni were in town visiting him today. Luckily I bought some fish snack in Moldova just in case I needed to entertain guests back home.

Nonni brought Ernie a bag of rocks from her garden. They were gratefully accepted and closely examined.

The Moldovan fish snack smelled so bad after I opened the bag that Lydia put it on the porch to air out.

I think a new house rule is that if you bring me a bag of rocks you gotta eat some Moldovan fish snack as your punishment.

We had dinner at DERU. Many food critics are saying the food there is derucious.

Home Again Home Again

We're back home after our France Olympic and Champagne adventure. Sharing war stories, inventorying our hauled treasures, and just enjoying being home in Kirkland.

I'm going to be honest, I grabbed this box of rose praline things at Méert in Lille, France because I thought the box looked cool.

Luckily the contents were also delicious.

I liberated this Air France champagne stopper from the lounge.

Ern has been busy checking out his favorite toys and parks and ensuring that they are all in good order. Swings at Juanita Beach Park? Check.

I think this may be the "where's our next trip destination?" face.

A Voyage to the World of Coke

Part of what made yesterday's lovely business class Air France flight possible was a bit of flexibility on destination on our part. We live in Seattle but the plane drop us off in Atlanta, Georgia. Close enough!

Ern likes to start off his adventures with a hotel breakfast nanner.

I'll admit I've been wanting to go to the World of Coca-Cola museum for a long time. I was not disappointed.

There was a guided intro thing and a video and then we were set loose upon the museum. There was a lot to do and see.

This was the vault where they pretend they keep the secret recipe. 

Space Coke!

I was most excited about the room with like 100s of soda taps with drinks from all over the world that you could try.

One of my favorite memories of today was Ernie clutching Lydia’s hand while he was tasting an especially delicious drink.

I fought a good fight trying to revive my murdered YouTube account.