evan, lindsay, nina, elena and esther

We LOVE these pictures that our friend Maddy took this week of Nina. Go to her blog and check them out. Isn't she amazingly talented?

She created the set herself, in their studio apartment in ballard. I was a little worried that NIna would exercise her little baby girl agency and sabotage the photoshoot. But Nina had fun and it worked out great!

This picture is from an article in the NY Times called "Making a Home In a Pyramid" DANG click this link it is AMAZING. It's about a family that lives 462 feet above the ground in Smith tower. (note the chihuly installation in their living room)

What a whimsical place to live, in the peak of Smith Tower. According to my grandma, Smith tower was once the tallest building in Seattle, back when she grandma lived here in the 50s. Actually it was the tallest building on the west coast. Now it is shadowed by much taller buildings. My grandma told me this as we passed by it the other day while visiting Evan for lunch.

Evan and I are happily situated in my parent's basement apartment in Kenmore. We lived here right after Nina was born almost two years ago. I never thought we'd be back! Sometimes I wander Craigs list for 'the perfect' apartment/rental home. I never imagined a place like a home on top of a tower!

For now we are here. The girls and I wander upstairs to visit grandma & grandpa, (Nina confidently says "Russ!" these days, my dad's first name) great-grandma Fay and her caretaker Becky, my dad's secretary Julie, and now my cousin Rosalie, every single day. It's nice! Nina tromps around the yard and plays in the swing set I played in when I was younger. We visit Horizon View & Logboom parks, the same parks I played in when I was younger.

We are saving money here and meeting some financial goals. What a great blessing for us. But it won't last forever. Soon we'll be off on our own, maybe in 4 or 5 months down the road. Some neighborhoods we're thinking of finding a place -- Central district/madrona, Phinney Ridge, or West Seattle. Or maybe we can find another pyramid in a tower to live in!

Now for the lunch tales:

In the two months that we've been here I've attempted bringing the girls with me downtown to lunch with Evan three times.

Trip #1: The first time I got towed. Evan hadn't received his first paycheck and we were completely broke. Nina and I's food was in the towed car. Lucky for us, Evan's dad works downtown came and saved. He got us a snack and bus fare to get to the car, Evan, I, two girls, stroller and all. This was all after Nina destroyed a book in a little book shop and I had no money to pay for it. (she dumped water on the ground while I was feeding Elena and then wiped it up with the book) Evan came back the day he was paid and bought it.

Trip #2: The second time we visited Evan for lunch we had a trailer in tow. Downtown. I was heading back to Kenmore from Tacoma and as I passed Seattle I thought "what the heck let's see what parking we can find. If we don't find any, we'll get back on the freeway and go home." We found good parking on 1st ave a few blocks from Evan's work. The exhileration of that triumph wore off when I returned to the car and discovered that I'd left the lights on, that the battery was dead. But within five minutes I had waved a friendly man down who gave the car a jump.

Trip #3: The third time was a breeze! We hooked up for lunch at Uwajimaya after I had picked up Rosalie at the airport. I think I might be exhausting all possible stressful scenarios, and fate is more on our side. Here's crossing my fingers, because I really enjoy being downtown.

*we're growing her bangs out. Poor girl she won't keep clips in

**pretending to sleep with her mouth wide open as usual

Nina and Elena's newest friend -- Nina was born two months after he left on his mission. Elena was born two months before he returned.

Our long lost brother

Faithful missionary from the San Bernadino mission

We're so happy that Kyle is back! We're grateful for his example of service and love and for the effect it's had, and I know will continue to have on our family.



The Ninanater trying on Kyle's hat (a new hobby of hers, hat modeling. More in an upcoming post)





Us meeting him at the airport. Dangit! I just realized Gordie was taking the picture. No gordie in picture :( He was there too!



Remember Kyle's snowboarding apparel company, Epoch that he started with his friends? His good friend Trevor made matching epoch tshirts for the occasion, even one for Nina and one for little Elena!



A picture taken of him in the mission home. Probably contemplating his return to 'normal' life.



Another picture taken of him with one of his companions in ca



Commenting on his newly rediscovered habitat Kyle said, "Washington has never been greener!" That may or may not be true. Western Wa is always pretty green. We can relate to that feeling, being recently moved-backies ourselves. We are also enjoying the fresh smells and rains and the hilly greenery.



Even these dogs were rejoicing to see Kyle again.

We spent the following weekend with the whole family at Grandad MacDonald's house on the family property near Mt Rainier on the Cowlitz River. We spent hte two days listening to General Conference.



Elena's first impression of Kyle.



Haha and her second impression. She said something like, "woo!! gerble gerble googa"

A couple of other random pictures of the girls in recent days:






(last two taken today)