A good morning!
The the click of the door, pitter-patter of feet, and the day is starting. Barry woke up at a fresh 6am and came to cuddle roll around on the bed. He’s pretty good about playing independently but he does need a reminder with a half-life of about 5 minutes. Both Stevie and I stayed up late, so with Blippi as the request, we acquiesced.
Luca had joined Barry and with a coffee in hand, I joined them on the couch. We casually watched the show and ended up practicing our goose calls for some reason. I remarked to myself how nice it was to just relax with the kids. During the weekdays, so much of our time, is just asking them to get ready, to eat their food, or get ready for bed.
After some time goofing we went to play “block game”, Minecraft. I sit both the kids on my lap and let them direct the character. I find it’s a great game to explore and explain concepts like planting, constructing, and way finding.
Artist at Play
With the morning wrapping up, Blippi had visited a park called Artist at Play. So we decided to drive down and explore. The weather was turning out to be great, and we lucked out finding a free parking spot right by the park. 
The park was very cool. It has two LARGE slides elevated nearly two stories above the ground. The only way to access the slides is either through a vertical climbing tube or a large rope net. Luca and Barry both took to the vertical climbing tube, while they struggled with the rope net. It wasn’t so much the climbing as it was the large transition up to the platform. So in both cases, I ended up climbing up and pushing their feet up onto the walkway. 
The Monorail
We’ve taken the light rail down to Seattle but neither the kids or I have rode on the Monorail. So we walked over and got ourselves a couple of tickets. The kids had a lot of fun. 
When we got off the monorail in Westgate, we started walking towards the Taphouse. There was a woman who was getting arrested and Luca asked why. We said that she probably stole something from the stores. She seemed orderly enough and we were in a mall area but who knows.
We had a good meal at Taphouse but I always forget how large their portions are. On our way back to the monorail we stopped at a candy shop and bought an assortment of goodies. Luca had wanted a unicorn toy that had candy inside of it, but we told her no, as she was already getting candy and it was a little extra. We purchased the candy and started heading up to the monorail. As we were about to get on, Luca had a look of panic on her face as she held out the unicorn toy. I think she realized she had walked out of the store without us paying for it, so she remembered back to the lady getting arrested and probably thought the police were about to take her away. Stevie took Luca back down to the candy shop to return the toy, while Barry and I hung out at a nearby food court. I like to think that she didn’t take it on purpose and the sudden look of realization from her makes us think it was an honest mistake. A good lesson regardless.
We took the return trip back on the Monorail and spent another round at the playground. Stevie even got a chance to go down one of the slides, Woo! All-in-all it was a good expedition and one of those days you spend with the kids thinking, “wow they’re growing up fast”. It’s nice to start hitting the point where they can be little humans, make jokes, and play independently.