babyblog

Let's go fly a kite

The last few weekends with G doing nothing in the way of DIY have been really great. We've been ensuring we all hae some excellent 'family time' and having alot of fun doing it. This weekend was no exception.

Typically, after being in the high 70's all week, it decided to be miserable and cloudy all weekend. Despite this we decided to check out 'Alki Beach', which is on Puget Sound in West Seattle. It's one of the summer hot spots, apparently, so we thought we'd have a drive and check it out, maybe getting some fish & chips for lunch. It was indeed very pretty with a fantastic view of the Seattle skyline and as it had stopped raining we decided to stop and have a play on the beach. Popped into a local shop and bought the kids a couple of cheap kites to fly and they had an absolute blast. Well, Dylan did. Harry was more interested in throwing stones into the sea (which later developed into a stone fetish which involved picking them up and throwing them at anything and everything including and not limited to the car, a restaurant window, and passers by).

The kite flying was great fun though - so much so that after a brief Fish & Chip lunch (British? Don't bother) we drove to the nearest Kite Shop where G inevitably had to spend an arm and a leg and buy a super duper stunt kite. We then drove down to 60 Acres, a park very close to our house, where you can fly all kinds of things - including kites - in some great winds as it's a valley with a bit of a wind tunnel going through the center.

We spent a good hour or two there - Harry running wildly and happily through the fields, Dylan flying his kite with determination and glee, and me flying G's while demanding he pick it up and launch it for me every time I crashed it (often!).

We returned to the field on Sunday morning as the winds were high and had another couple of hours of fun before Harry's nap time. During this fun G managed to spiral spin his new expensive kite and hit the ground with such impact that it broke. After nap time we drove back to the shop to get it fixed :o) and picked me up yet another kite because I wanted one of my own (just a cheap diamond but with 2 strings so that I can do pretty loops!). Upon returning to the field unfortunately the wind dropped so I haven't been able to fly it yet! But what a great fun family activity. All enjoyed it - even little H who has a tiny kite of his own but mostly loves being outside and having space to run around.

As an aside, Saturday night was also fun. We have a couple of new friends who are so nice and have a similar take on life to us that we feel like we've known them forever! We went to dinner and then to see Mission Impossible 3, had a great time :-)