Summer 2010

We can't believe that it is already September. We have now been in Seattle for almost 4 months. It's so hard to believe that a year ago, Amber was offered a new job in Seattle and we were trying to decide whether we should move to Seattle or not. Although it was hard to leave San Diego, we made that decision and now we're here. It has been a great, although fast paced, summer. It rained for most of June and everyone kept telling us that July 5 is always the turning point of the year in Seattle. That's a little hard to believe. I mean, how can a specific date be used to predict exactly when the sun is going to come out??? But sure enough, on July 4 it was at least just cloudy and not rainy, and on July 5, the sun came out and it didn't rain for almost 2 whole months!

We have had a great time exploring our neighborhood around Greenlake. We have taken long walks around the lake with Chiara and Maggie. We have played in the neighborhood wading pool - although we know it will be much more fun next year when Chiara can actually play in the water all by herself. We have made a point to go to Bottega Italiana a couple times a week - it's a gelato and coffee shop owned by the brother of a friend and we are in LOVE with it. It brings us back to Italy!!! It is so nice to live in a neighborhood where you can walk to restaurants and coffee shops and a big park. We missed that in our last house in San Diego. The only risk is that we are going to get spoiled living here and not want to leave!  We'll have to win the lottery or something to afford to buy a house in this neighborhood!

All is going well with work. Dave has stayed working for Booz, Allen and Hamilton in downtown Seattle. He's making headway into the Business Intelligence sector and gearing up for a year long certificate course at the University of Washington. Amber is loving working for NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center. She just got back from her first trip to Alaska. She went with Chiara and Dave's mom Barb and they had a great time. Barb watched Chiara while Amber was in meetings and they had a great time walking around Anchorage and Dutch Harbor. It was definitely an experience! Especially in Dutch Harbor where there are probably only 5 trees on the entire island - they all get blown down by the fierce winter winds and cant' grow very well. Chiara was the best traveller there could have ever been. A feat when you consider that no airplane can leave for or from Dutch Harbor without being at least 4 hours late! We had a lot of waiting in airports and flying on small puddle jumper planes. But we all managed to arrive and the trip was great.

Now we foray into the end of summer with the inevitable massive birthday weekend. We both turn 33 this weekend and have lots of celebrations planned! Amber's birthday will be filled with a boat ride on the lakes. Dave's birthday will be spent going out to breakfast and having a barbque. And bumpershoot is this weekend! Perhaps we'll take in some of the music scene...