This year’s rendezvous to Washington and beyond started Wednesday, Aug. 1 @ noon, and went through Monday, Aug 6…about noon. ;)
First of all, no trip would be complete without Mason barfing. Everywhere. I’ll spare you the picture and detail, but here’s a picture of the pretty place it happened.
We spent the night at Cousin June and Log’s house. Mason loves his cousins. And June is very patient with her younger cousin.
The drive between the tri-cities area and Seattle is absolutely gorgeous! I took some pictures…but we were going 65 mph and our windows were dirty, so you don’t really get the full effect…
Once in Seattle, we went straight to Lyd’s house. Morgan had flown on the airplane the day before with my parents. I thought he’d be overjoyed to see me, but he didn’t really care all that much. sniff. First order of business was taking all the rug-rats outside for a little walk. There is a beautiful little trail with flowers all along next to Lyd’s apartment. Mason tried repeatedly to give his little vampire cousin presents, but she wanted nothing to do with them.
And that night was a BBQ at my “other sister’s” house-Diana! She and Travis were our hosts for the weekend!
The next day was full of new adventures. One of which included trying to find parking so we could take the train into Seattle. aaaggh! Oh well. It’s fun to try and learn new things.
We went to the King Tut display (I’ll have to get pictures from my dad later. I didn’t think we could take pics so didn’t bring my camera into that particular exhibit). We saw people dressed up and played in the science/kids museum:
There was a beautiful butterfly display:
We went to the rock n’ roll museum. The head dress is from Avatar.
Saw a mariachi band and did some running around.
And then of course there was the space needle. Very cool!
We had dinner in a little food court there by the sites and then did a little more sight-seeing there in the square. There was a glass garden, and giant balls.
We then headed back home on the train.
This next picture just shows how Mason spent his time when we weren’t out sight seeing. Yep, he’s in a baby toy…
The next day was Saturday. We drove to Seattle this time instead of taking the public transportation. Call us not earth friendly, but it saved us a lot of time. hee hee. First was a boat ride around Elliott Bay. It was beautiful! The sun was out and there was a cool breeze and a lot to see. We even got the rare privilege of seeing a sea lion just out basking in the sun! Apparently they are usually gone by this time in the summer. Sorry there are so many pictures, but I just thought it was all so interesting and pretty. And so many things that I don’t get to see out here in Utah. Like the dead jelly fish pictured below…and the tugboat…and the pirate sail boat. haha! And the big, faint, mountain seen below and in another picture above is Mt. Rainier.
We caught some lunch afterwards on the pier, and then walked a block down to the Seattle Aquarium. I loved it! I love aquariums! And I spent waaaayyyy too much time trying to get a good picture of the seals and sea otters. What did I think was going to happen? There were people everywhere and the animals were behind glass…but still I tried. And tried. And tried…
We went back to Lyd’s house and started helping with dinner and preparing for the whole reason we had come up: Ethan’s blessing! Ethan is the newest member of the Day/Winterholler clan. They had his blessing at their apartment with close family and friends. It was beautiful. And then Rob and the boys and I went swimming in our clothes. Hmm. (oh, most of the following pics are my dad’s).
Unfortunately (because something bad must happen every time we go to Seattle), Paige was sick, and so Lyd had to stay home with her that day. I felt like I hadn’t gotten to see her the entire weekend, so I made Sav, Diana, and Lyd have a girls’ night with me. At 10:30 at night… haha! First stop was McDonalds for hot food and diet coke. I jumped out of the car in the drive-through to take this picture.
Then it was off to the Cheesecake Factory.
Then we came home to feast. It was a bit of a drive to Cheesecake, and I loved it. Diana and Lyd shared of their adventures growing up. You see, they have been best friends for years. I love their friendship and have always wished for one like it. Maybe some day…
And as is custom, all must things must come to an end. So Sunday morning we said good-bye and started our drive back home (well, Mason, Rob and I did). We stopped by the other cousins again and their beautiful house and pond! Then continued on to Boise where we stayed the night in a hotel. That was a GOOD CHOICE! It was so nice to get a full night’s sleep! We got home Monday about noon. I dropped off Mason at a friend’s (thank you Janel!) and then continued on to Salt Lake to pick up Morgan from the airport.
It was awesome. We kicked Seattle’s butt. Thank you everyone for the fun time! PS. If you ever go to Seattle they have a Seattle City Deal where you can go to all the attractions we did for 1/3 the price. Google it.
