Pike Place Market: My Mecca

Yes, it's true. The other day Brett mentioned that he may want to live in Seattle when we are done with school, so I started doing some research. First of all, I found out that the University of Washington has the number 4 program in the nation for what Brett wants to do, which is awesome. After I found that out I started looking for some more information about the city itself. I started with weather, and it turns out that the average temperature in June and July is 75 degrees. 75! That is so amazing. But the best was yet to come. I found Pike Place Market. Brace yourself.

I love food and I love to cook, so naturally Farmer's Markets and exotic and fresh ingredients are some of my favorite things. I could not believe how amazing this market is! They have all kinds of produce, meats, and anything else you could possibly imagine needing. They have a whole store dedicated to spices, and another completely for products made from blueberries.
They also have a ton of pastry shops (including French and Russian), more than 50 restaurants, and a ton of other kinds of shops of random stuff (not food). I am so excited to take a trip out there so that I can go to this market.
I am sure that Brett will be horrified when we go, because he hates shopping for long periods of time, and I have an inkling that this place could take a whole day for me. I don't think I have ever heard of a place as cool as this before as far as food goes. I can't wait to delve in and see what I find! It may be a while yet, but I'm sold on the idea of Seattle.

My friend Noelle is currently having fun in Costa Rica, but since she grew up in Seattle, maybe she'll be able to tell me a little bit more about it (as well as the city itself)!

The Amazing Bernini

I was putting Kennedy to sleep last night and I started to tell her about all of the wonderful things that I want her to see, places I want her to go, and all the great art that I love. I decided to post a blog about an art master. I thought about doing Van Gogh, but he is so popular that many people already know much of his art. I might do one about him later, but today I'm going to talk about Bernini, who some people may not know as much about.

Bernini is fantastically talented. Out of the arts, even though I enjoy them all, I have always particularly appreciated the difficulty of sculpting, especially out of something like marble. How is it possible for someone to take a chisel and create a beautiful work of art that is almost flawless? One wrong move and your whole block of marble has been wasted. Bernini is one of the masters of marble. His mastery of the technique is nothing short of miraculous. Look at this sculpture titled Apollo and Daphne. He has actually chosen to depict the moment where she is turning into a tree. Her leg has already become part of the trunk and her fingers and hair are turning into leaves. He also did his own version of David, and other than Michelangelo's David, it is by far the most beautiful that I know of.

Bernini is famous for his Counter-Reformation sculpture St. Theresa in Ecstasy. I have been wanting to find this sculpture in the small church outside of Rome since I first saw a picture of it in 9th grade. It is so incredibly beautiful. It is based on a story of a nun who felt an almost inappropriate elation during a vision of an angel who pierced her heart with an arrow. Bernini included as much emotion in this sculpture as was possible. He even put a window into the side of the building that is invisible when looking at the sculpture straight on so that it would have an ethereal glow. Absolutely beautiful.

I am sure that I have probably bored you to death with this post, but I think that Bernini is worthy of a post. He is an incredible artist with as much talent as any of them, but outside of art and humanities students I would wager that not many are familiar with him. Please learn more about him and his work at St. Peter's Basilica (better known as the Vatican). To entice you to do so, I am going to leave you with a detail from his sculpture The Rape of Proserpina. Look at the detail where his hand indents her skin. I am amazed every single time I see it.

Then Comes Kitty in a Baby Carriage

Before Kennedy came along, Lucy had free reign of our apartment and attention.  Naturally, when we started moving in the baby stuff, Lucy assumed that they were new toys for her.  She was constantly jumping in the crib, sniffing the bouncer, and playing with the musical toys.  We had to start closing the door to Kennedy's room so that when she finally did arrive Lucy wouldn't think that it was ok to sleep with her.  We did break her of that habit, but she has developed a new one.  This is now her likely nap place.

She is constantly curled up in the stroller and it is now dripping with cat fur.  She sleeps in it whether it is open or folded up (like it is in these pictures).  She is acting just like the big sister that she is: anything that is for the baby was hers first, and she's going to use it.

Do You Doubt My Daughter's Cuteness?

I am planning on going shopping next weekend.  Not for me, of course.  I still don't fit into normal stuff.  Instead I will be shopping ahead for Kennedy for next summer, which, admittedly, is just as fun.  I went to the mall on Saturday to preview what was in the stores I want to hit when I was stopped by a lady in a white shirt.  I assumed that it was one of the ladies from those kiosks wanting me to try some lotion or something.  I was annoyed, until she told me what she wanted.  She was from Kiddie Kandids, the kid photography place across the way.  She told me that they were having a promotion where they would to a mini sitting and then give me a free 5x7 and a coupon for 30% off any of their packages if we come back in in the next month.  I had seen pictures that my friend Taylor had gotten done there of her twins, and they were precious, so I decided to try it out.  Kennedy was so cooperative and happy that the photographer went ahead and did an entire sitting with 6 poses even though it was only supposed to be 2-3.  They turned out so cute that I had to stop myself from buying a full package before Brett had even seen the pictures.  They only just came up online, so he still hasn't seen them, but you can be sure that his heart will melt like mine did when I saw them.

We can never seem to catch her huge smile on film.  The delay on our camera kills us, and we can never seem to get it right.  The photographer knew what she was doing and captured this great smile.

This one was entered into a company-wide portrait contest.  First prize is a trip to Disney World!  Don't worry.  We aren't delusional parents who believe that there is no way that we couldn't win, but you have to admit that she's cute.

I definitely recommend Kiddie Kandids in University Mall.  I am so happy that I took them up on their offer!

Here Come the Banana Splits!

These pictures are kind of old, as this party happened about a week before Kennedy was born (hence my extremely puffy face) and way before Boston was born, but since it was so close to the baby I wasn't able to blog about it.  For Brett's birthday, his mom bought him banana split dishes and all of the stuff needed to make the ultimate banana split.  (We still have ice cream in our freezer.)  So, since the dishes were much too big for a single banana split, we invited the Waddoups over so we could make a dessert per couple.  Can you guess which one belongs to the 9 months pregnant lady?

Obviously mine has tons of whipped cream and cherries.  We had a great time!  We watched a movie while enjoying our dessert too.  Here are Kim and Nate ogling their ice cream that they weren't allowed to eat until we took pictures.

Here we are with our huge dessert.  Brett is sporting his mouth full of whipped cream and I am sporting my pregnancy chubbiness.  We are going to have to do this again now that we both have babies!  (Don't worry, I will get pictures of Boston up here soon.)

By the way, I don't know if anyone but Blake will understand the reference in my title.  You can get more information on the Banana Splits here.  Also, please enjoy a video of the intro to the show.  Does anybody remember this show?