Our big trip this summer was to Seattle to visit the Ball family. Sadly, we were the last ones in the family to make the trek, and we've been missing out. Because Mel is the hostess with the mostess, and because Seattle is so awesome, this ended up being one of our favorite vacations ever. The kids only liked Hawaii better, but this was a close second. I think it was the perfect amount of fun and relaxation, with the added bonus of being able to spend time with family. And I have to put this on here just to give Jake a hard time, but he was NOT excited about this trip. I don't know why, but I basically had to force him to go. And now he's still talking about what a great trip it was. All time favorite trip for him I think. I hate to say I told you so, but, well, I did tell him...
Anyway, I'm going to have to do this in two posts because there's way to much to throw in one. First of all, we used points to fly and get a rental. Not driving for hours was amazing. We're spoiled by all the points Jake gets for the business. We didn't get to the Ball's until like 10:30, but they were nice and stayed awake for us. The boys immediately showed us the backyard. Such a great backyard. Doing the rope swing for the first time in the dark is extra exciting.
Thursday wasn't super warm (which felt so stinking good) so we went into Seattle. Loved Seattle, hated the traffic. I could never do that every day. Anyway, we went straight to Pikes Market. So awesome, and so so many people. We got there at lunch time, turns out that's a busy time to go. But we still loved it. We ate delicious donuts, fish, pastries, fruit, and the girls got some necklaces. We also stopped by the famous gum wall. Cool and nasty all at the same time. I always thought it was a little spot on a wall, but no. It's like a whole alley filled with nasty gum. Mel and Ethan were brave and added to the gum wall. I couldn't bring myself to do it. Then we headed to a water taxi that took us across the bay. Loved it. It dropped us off right at a delicious Hawaiian food place where we had amazing tacos and shaved ice. Once we got back to the car we went to the base of the space needle and an awesome park. So much better than Utah parks, especially Midway parks. Then I practiced my aggressive driving skills to get us back to Mel's.
On Friday we headed to Mount Rainier National Park. I'm so glad we went there! It was amazingly beautiful. Although I may never be forgiven for forgetting our good camera. But I did remember all of the lunches, water bottles, jackets, etc.... We started out at the Grove of the Patriarchs. It was full of tall redwood trees. My kids loved climbing on them and it reminded me that I've got to figure out how to get my family to the redwoods. We ended the day with a beautiful hike. The girls and I made it three miles, the boys did a six mile loop that took them across glaciers and up into the clouds around Rainier. They loved it and are already planning a summit trip.
Enjoy a major overload of pictures from only the first two days of our trip:)
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| How Sage sits on the airport shuttle |
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| Rope swing! |
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| Standing on the big rock, which is labeled just in case you can't tell |
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| Beautiful Seattle! (Sage was freezing cold all day) |
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| Delicious Hawaiian food |
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| Awesome park! |
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| Space needle! |
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| Hot tub fun! |
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| Tree slide! |
