Seattle Family Vacation 2014

Over UEA weekend we went to Seattle.

For the most part, it was marvelous!

The entire time we had been planning this trip, we were anticipating that we would drive.  Two weeks before we were scheduled to go, Nick and I decided that flying would be better, so I booked some plane tickets.  It is the last time I will be able to buy only 4 tickets.  Cohen turns two in a few days, and won't be eligible to be a non-ticketed lap child anymore.

I was sad that we wouldn't be driving, because it meant that there'd be no stop in Boise, ID to visit with my dear friend, Lindsay.  But 2 hours on a plane is far more preferable to 12 hours in the car.

I cannot count how many pictures we have of our family in front of Pike's?! It never gets old.

Day 1:  With all of the last-minute changes I made to our mode of travel, I was having a hard-time finding affordable lodging.  Originally, I had booked us a 2 bedroom unit at the Residence Inn, In Bellevue.  But then I found out that the reason the rate was so cheap was because they were replacing the siding on the buildings, and there was going to be considerable: noise, dust, and fumes.  No thanks.

Against my better judgement, I booked us a room at a Springhill Suites in Renton.

The hotel itself, was fine.  I just prefer the area North of Seattle.

Oh, and the hotel was full, the weekend we stayed.  I booked us a room in an extra-large suite.  But they gave us a regular room.  My irritation with this, was compounded by the fact that Nick is Silver Status with Marriott.  We've logged enough stays to earn a little preferential treatment, I think.  Call me a snob.  I don't care.

So, after we arrived, we took the kids to Rainforest Cafe for dinner.  Nick managed to get a picture of Cohen's "mad" face:

Cohen's turning in to full-fledged a 2 year old.  Already, I'm longing for the days when my little boy was sweet.

Reagan particularly loved Rainforest Cafe.  It was one of the best dining experiences we've ever had.  It was OK for her to get up and walk around.  We sat near one of the fish tanks.  It was cool to see the animatronic gorilla's, and elephants.  The waterfall was cool too.

The price of the meal was ridiculous.  But if you can't splurge on vacation, then when can you?

We went back to the hotel, and Nick took the girls swimming.  I took Cohen with me to the store.  I intended to go to Safeway.  But when we got there the parking lot was full of police cars, with their lights flashing.  I decided to try Walmart instead.
It was no less scary.  And I felt like my dislike for the Renton area was beginning to be justified.
Inside Walmart, I had an Asian woman approach me.  She didn't speak English well, but she managed to convey to me that she wanted me to check the date on a bag of bread, to see if it had expired?  After I helped her, I had two more ladies showing me their groceries, wanting to know if anything was expired.
I didn't mind being helpful.
But it was weird.
And when Cohen and I left the store, it was dark.  It was fairly disconcerting to see: not one, but two! private security vehicles/golf carts patrolling the Walmart parking lot.
Needless to say, I never went back to that Walmart.

Day 2: We woke up.  Ate breakfast at the hotel.  And then drove to Eatonville, WA.  In researching activities, I found the Northwest Trek Wildlife Park.  I thought the kids would enjoy it.  I was right.
It was fantastic.  All of the animals there were either born in captivity, or suffered from an injury that made it impossible for them to return to the wild.
It was so cool to be able to get that close to them!
See?  Reagan played with this beaver for several minutes:

 This was the raccoon enclosure.  He was playful too.  Just not at the moment that I took the picture.

We went on a Friday morning.  And it wasn't busy at all.  The setting was really neat.  It felt like you were literally, running around in the forest.
We took their 55 minute tram-ride.  It was too long for the kids.  But it was awesome to be able to drive right up next to bighorn sheep, bison, and moose.

It was a bit pricey.  But I'd do it again, in a heartbeat.
Cohen fell asleep in the car, on our way back from NW Trek.
We decided to drive for as long as he slept.  I knew if we went back to the hotel, and tried to put him in a crib, he'd wake up.

We made it all of the way to Snoqualmie Falls.

We walked around at the falls for a while.  It was nice to stretch our legs. 

And... Here are some more pictures from NW Trek.  When blogger arranges things in the wrong order, it is too frustrating to try and re-arrange them.  So, here they are.  More pictures from NW Trek.

That night, there was more swimming at the hotel.  Of course.  And, it was really difficult; but we managed to find a decent place to eat in Renton.  We did take-out from a restaurant called BurgerTown.  Apparently, it's a burger joint owned by a Vietnamese couple.  And let me tell you!  They know how to do burgers.  They were good.  The onion rings were swoon-worthy!  They are the best onion rings I've ever tasted.  Bar none.

Day 3: We went to Pike Place Market.  It has to be one of the places I love most on the planet.  The first thing I did was stop at the Daily Dozen, for donuts.  Then, the kids wanted to take a ride on the pig:

We meandered through the market.  Stopping at all of our favorite places.  3 Girls Bakery, is the best bakery in Pike's.
Reagan and Elsa were fascinated by the statue guy.

We always park at the Seattle Art Museum.  It's the most affordable place to park, downtown, on the weekends.
Here are the kids in the underground parking structure.  It was a kodak moment.

We ate our fill at Pike's, and purchased some t-shirts.  Because, despite how I feel deep inside, we are tourists in Seattle, no locals; these days.

Then, we decided to hop on the ferry.  I thought it would be fun to ride the ferry the opposite way, of usual.  I was wrong.

We drove to Edmonds, to take the ferry to Kingston.  We had to wait FOREVER.  The kids hated it.

But they liked the cold ferry ride:  (PS- every day we were in Seattle was overcast.  I told Nick that if we ever moved back, it would probably take me an entire year to get used to to the fog again). 

And: a random picture of the kids watching cheese being made at Beecher's, from earlier in the day when we were at Pike's.  I hate you blogger.

That night, our friends: the McDaniel's came over to our hotel.  We all went swimming.  I didn't get pictures!  Too bad.

Day 4:  My very best friend, Kris picked me up and we went to breakfast at The Barking Frog.  This gal never leads me astray when it comes to worthwhile food!  I had their Challah French Toast, and it was scrumptious!
It was so good to see her.  We talked, and laughed for hours.
Then, we met up with Nick, and the kids at St. Edward's park. 

You have to pay $10 to go to St. Edward's now.  I think that is so dumb!  The playground is cool.  But not THAT cool.  We may have to find a new place to go when we are in Seattle.

So, I never would have anticipated that "Angel Elsa" would have been the most difficult child, of our three, on this vacation.  That girl was hell on wheels!  There was a lot of tantrums, selective deafness, and running away; on her part!
Also, she went from never having any sort of bathroom "accident", to acting like she had forgotten that she was potty trained!  It was a nightmare.
At the park, she told me that she had wet her pants again.  But when I went to change her pants, I  discovered that it was WAY more than just pee-pee.  And, we'll leave it at that.

By this point, she had used up all of the clean underwear I had packed her.  I put her in a diaper.  And I told Nick that we needed to stop somewhere and buy her some more panties.
We figured we'd head over to University Village Mall, because, heaven knows, that I wasn't going anywhere near the Renton Walmart again... U-Village has always been a fun place.
I took Elsa in to the GAP, to get her underwear.
Holy pretentiousness!  A 6 pack of little-girl panties was $24!
Just when I thought I was going to have to take one for the team, and pay that much for undies.... I spied a 6 pack of boys underwear, on clearance for $5.97.  I bought them instead, and that is what Elsa wore for the rest of the trip.

In the afternoon, we ate lunch at Duke's Chowder house.  Everyone LOVED their meal.  Except for Reagan.  She insisted that she wanted Salmon!  We ordered it for her, and then she wouldn't eat it.  Nick was happy to finish it for her.
McCormick &; Schmick's has long-been our favorite place.  But they were purchased by a different company, and the food quality has declined.  The sadness we feel over this is inexplicable.
And that's the reason we ate at Duke's instead.  Their seafood is good.

We took the kids to the Ballard Lock's.  It's always a fun, and free thing to do.
I don't remember if we went swimming that night?  But chances are, that we did.

Day 5:  Our flight home wasn't until 6PM.  So, we went swimming in the morning, before we checked out of the hotel.
Then we took a trip to our old 'hood.  Lake Forest Park.  We went to the Lake Forest Park Town Center.  We had lunch at the Honey Bear Bakery.  The BLTA sandwich was just like I remembered it.  Delicious.
The kids played in the play area.  And I felt acute pangs of homesickness.  I wish we could have stayed.

On our way back to our car, we decided to stop in at a shop that was new to the Town Center.  The Chocolate Man.  The handmade chocolates were $1 apiece.  But they were a bite of true goodness.  I am still craving the strawberry lemonade truffle I sampled.  Add it to the list of places we will frequent on subsequent visits.

We finished things off by going to the Museum of Flight.  Since it was close to the airport.
I don't think the kids liked this, as much as they liked some of our other excursions.

When Elsa snuck under the ropes, and climbed in to the Lunar Rover we knew it was time to leave.  See?  I told you she was a little devil on this trip!

I was sad that there were several old friends we didn't have the chance to visit with, on this trip.
Next time.
Although, I'm not sure when next time will be?  We've been so lucky to be able to make it to Seattle at least once a year, since we moved.  But we already have 3 vacations planned for 2014, and Seattle is not one of them.  We may not make it back to the Emerald City for quite a while.
So, we made the best of it while we were there.

Pumpkin Patch

Oh, Blogger.  Every time I think there is no possible way you could become any more un-user-friendly...

Maybe things will get better when we get a new laptop at Christmastime.  Until then, I'll just continue to grit my teeth.

So, Halloween is not one of my favorite holidays.  In fact, I cannot understand all of the hype it gets?  I think it is dumb.  There.  I've said it.  I am sure a lot of my friends probably think I ought to be tarred and feathered for feeling that way.  Oh well.

I have been just as frustrated, only for a different reason.  People in Utah (and maybe in other places?) do Halloween overkill.  When I've been out driving, Reagan has asked me several times, about when we were going to decorate our yard for Halloween?  You know, since everyone else does it...

Let me tell you right now: we're not.

The only reason my front porch has pumpkins is because we went to a pumpkin patch on a field trip with Elsa's preschool.  The pumpkins were free.

I have no intention of carving them.

As I've done in years past, I will pull out my electric jack-o-lanterns, and put them on my porch.

I'm not a total spoil-sport.  I do pass out candy.

And I let me kids get dressed up.

So, about Elsa's field-trip, that I mentioned:

We went to Pack's pumpkin patch.

This marks the 3rd year that we've been there.

It's great for the pre-school age set.

 Is there anyone that makes better faces than Elsa?  I don't think so!

Nick hauled Cohen and Elsa around in the cart, while we searched the pumpkin patch for pumpkins.

 Elsa had a great time playing with her pre-school friends, and running around the hay-bale maze.

 Oh yeah, so back to Elsa's array of "faces"...  That child has and endless supply.  When we were in Seattle she was playing with my camera, doing "selfies".  She took nearly 200 of them.  Aren't they beauties?:

I love that girl.  She's hilarious.

Accomplishments.

Does life ever slow down?  The week before Reagan started school, I was imagining that I'd have so much more time on my hands, and I was planning to paint the interior of several rooms in our house.  Pipe dreams.  That is all they are.

We have had a lot going on around our house.

For starters, Nick took another position within the Walgreen's corporation; and (trumpets blaring!) he no longer has to work on Sundays!

That is HUGE! I don't know any pharmacist that always has Sunday's off.

He isn't working at the Bountiful Walgreen's store anymore.

They've transferred him to the (new, and improved) store in South Ogden.  If you're in that neck of the woods, stop by, and check his store out.  It is so modern, and beautiful!

Feel free to laugh at the next piece of information.  Nick did.  But I feel like it's pretty cool:  I've used Yelp (the online review website) to check out restaurants, hotels, really any business I was curious about; prior to going there, for years.  Anyway, back in April I decided I might as well start adding my own two-cents, so I set up a profile, and typed up my own reviews.  Before long, Yelp contacted me and asked me to be a "Yelp Elite".  Basically, this means that I do enough reviews, that they are pretty well received, so I get a snazzy little title, and Yelp status.

I also get invited to Yelp events.  Any time I get to check out restaurants, hotels, etc... for free, I'm going to call it a good thing.

I think its an accomplishment that I didn't immediately put our house up for sale, when I woke up one morning in Mid-October, to snow:

Stupid Utah, and it's stupid snow.

Also, some of you may recall that I've started jogging.  Prior to the most recent "stint", I hadn't been too physically active.  I ran a 5K back in 2006.
And really, my mentality was that I thought it was dumb to pay for a gym membership, and that I didn't like running enough to pay money to do it!  I had no interest in running races.
Then, the cute young gal that I Visit Teach told me that her boyfriend had cancer.  She was putting together a fundraiser to help raise money for him.  The fundraiser was going to consist of a lunch, some kids activities, and a 5K race.
For that cause, I could pony up some cash.
So, I signed up for the 5k.
So, did a few other girls from my neighborhood:

The morning of the 5K was cold!  It wasn't a very serious race, after all, it was for charity.  I started off the race at the very back of the group.  I put in my earbuds, and just figured I'd give it my best shot.  I had to wade through a lot of Mom's with running strollers, but once I made my way out of the congestion I really started to cruise.  I wasn't a top finisher.  But I ran the 3.25 mile course in just under 28 minutes.

And the strangest thing was that I REALLY liked it.

The first thing I did, when I got home was look up a website that listed all of the races in UT.  I was surprised that I was so eager to run another race.  There were a few that interested me, but I haven't been able to find one that works well with my schedule.  I am going to do a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning.  That should be fun.

My kids have performed quite an accomplishment.  It's definitely not good, but it's worth mentioning... They cracked the iPad screen, yet again.  Yes, we are on our 4th iPad in one year.  When we took it to the Apple Store this time... they had to get manager approval, before they could fix it.  I guess breaking it that many times is excessive. ha ha.  I'm grateful for the apple care plan.

After the Apple Store, we had dinner in the food court at City Creek.  We love that place!

This picture doesn't really have anything to do with, well... anything.  It was just funny that my nephew, Braedon, trapped himself underneath Elsa's chair, at my parents house.

Fall LDS General Conference 2013

For the Sunday morning session of General Conference this year, we decided to take a long drive.  It made it possible for Nick and I to hear the talks.
We ended up driving from Fruit Heights to Lambs Canyon.  The snowstorm earlier this week took a lot of the leaves off of the trees.
I was slightly disappointed to find that most of the leaves that were on the ground were the red ones.  I may be a BYU fan, but red is my favorite color.  Odd, I know.

Even without the red leaves, the scenery was still beautiful.

We made it to the top of Lambs Canyon, just as President Monson finished his talk.

We let the kids get out of the car, and we did some exploring:

Nick took the girls up a trail.  I stayed behind with Cohen, and we watched the chipmunks.

It was a gorgeous day!  And we had a fantastic time.  Despite my best efforts, all three of the kids ended up covered in mud.  Fortunately, I took this picture before they were all mucky.

I think we may have to make this a Conference Weekend tradition.