Explorers

Lilly and I have been hanging out at my dad's place for the past few days. I miss my house! I don't have any chores or tinkering to keep me busy during the day! Yesterday I decided to go exploring with Lilly. My dad lives in Issaquah, a small city outside of Seattle. It's a gorgeous, "rich" part of town, with a cute Main Street. I always love towns with cute Main Streets and lots of stores. I decided to pack up Lilly and walk up and down Main Street. My little navigator helped me from getting lost.

Also down the street from my dad's house is a fish hatchery. On our way to Main Street, I meandered into the hatchery, because my dad said that they have a bunch of baby trout right now. It was a quick in-and-out visit, since I couldn't see anything in the tanks. There were fish, I just couldn't see them from my angle...While wandering the street, Lilly and I stopped for lunch at a tiny, hidden teriyaki/sushi place. I'm a sucker for teriyaki chicken. While I waited for my lunch to cook, I gave Lilly a crash course on using chopsticks. I got my food to go, and headed back home. The walk wasn't all that long, but the hill leading up to my dad's place was pretty brutal. I'd say I earned my lunch. On a side note, I've been in Seattle for a week, and we haven't had one single day of rain. It's been very Utah-esque

Today was a bit more exciting. My dad was able to work from home, giving us time to finally start decorating. We ran to Target, where my dad let me loose. I wanted to keep it cheap for him, so I didn't go totally wild, but I did get him some cute stuff. First on the list was curtains. My dad is on the same decorating team as Ryan, and firmly believes that just buying one curtain panel, instead of two, for a single window is okay. Do you realize how sad this world would be if we left the decorating up to men like Ryan and my dad? Sheesh! Ha! I kid. We got curtains and rods enough for 6 windows, a lamp for his bedroom, and a bunch of frames and shelves. It felt a little bit like a shopping spree. I'm sure Ryan's glad I got it out of my system on someone else's dime, rather than ours. 

We got home, and while dad took a nap (spending money makes me tired, too), I started putting up our new finds. The curtains were a breeze, minus some ironing, but it was the large floating shelf that made me furious. I love the floating shelves from Target, but literally 100% of the time, I embark on an epic battle with them while putting them up. Seriously, I was about ready to just start using the shelf as a baseball bat, smashing it into the wall. I had to take a breather before I killed someone. Dad was up from his nap for round two of shelf hanging, and we had literally just said "okay, that's it, this stupid shelf is going back to the store!" right as we were finally able to get it to work. Ugh, I hope it's a long time before I have to hang another one. Despite being covered in sweat, and on the verge of an angry outburst, the room looks 10 times better. I hung a huge mirror that my dad already had, put up a bunch of decorative frames, and hung up some pictures we had laying around. What a difference some decorating makes! He's already told me that when he moves into his condo (whenever that will be), he'll have me back up to decorate the place.

Last little bit of random info. Issaquah is SO weird when it comes to shopping. It's a law, only in Issaquah, that stores are not allowed to use plastic bags for checking out. It's paper only, and you have to pay for each bag. And Heaven forbid you go to a store with handleless paper bags. I hate it!! We'll have to invest in some reusable shopping bags one of these days...

Walking into the store with "bampa"

The loot

I didn't get a before picture, so I'll try to explain. The larger couch was on the wall where the mirror is. The mirror wasn't there. The little couch was where the TV now is, and the TV was off in la-la land, in front of a built-in bookcase. Basically it looked terrible. 

We put down a rug, moved the couches and TV, hung curtains, and put the shelf above the TV. I had my favorite picture from this trip printed for the frame above the TV. ...Dad and Lilly enjoyed a huge bowl of popcorn together. Suffice it to say, I get to vacuum tomorrow....

I would have bought this in a heartbeat if we were in Utah. If there was a way for me to get this home,  it would be mine. Dangit! And it's from a store that we don't have in Utah. I'll just have to settle for daily ogling of this picture. 

Almost there, Lilly...

Out on our adventure.

And for my mushy moment...I got this text from my dad, and it brought instant tears to my eyes. My dad and I don't often have heart-to-hearts, so it was really sweet to get this text.