Seattle Trip

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We were so grateful to be able to take a family trip together with Daddy longer than a few days. Ian has never taken more than 1 or 2 days off of work at a time, so we usually make weekend trips. We had Daddy with us Wednesday through Tuesday and it was a treat! In addition, we had that whole week to enjoy our friends in Seattle, Washington!

DJ, Anissa, Ethan and Addison were such a great hosts! The kids played pretty well together the whole time. Anissa had everything we needed there so our stay was completely comfortable. Other than Liam having WAY too much energy, we thoroughly enjoyed our time away from Utah. (We did have to get him under control a lot on this trip, but it's so hard for him to be tame when there are so many people to play jester for.)

We all went to the zoo on Friday and had a nice time roaming around in the 70 degree weather. We saw lots of animals, did a lot of walking and the kids got to go to a little petting zoo and see some goats. We hit the Carousel on the way out of the park (when it was getting close to lunch time and nap time). Ethan and Addy had a ball on the ride, but Liam was pretty uneasy about the whole thing. He said he wanted a baby horse (which didn't exist), so when I put him on a random horse he started crying like his life was over and I needed to rescue him. Close to the end of the ride he calmed down. Suffice it to say, we got in the car and Liam immediately konked out.

"On the way home" we found a yummy drive in. When we finally got back to home base, we ate the foods and then took naps... All of us... Even the kiddos that slept in the car for a bit.

That night DJ’s brothers came over for the signature family party meal of Raclette. We ate like crazy starving people and like Anissa said, "we had plenty of good laughing spells to help offset the calories." There was much pranking going on when someone would get up to load their fry pan with more goodies to cook. Marc found onions in his dessert dish and Anissa attempted to sabotage DJ's dessert with tons of salt. Sadly he pretended not to notice.

Josh had brought his game, Rock Band, and all the boys rocked out and had a blast. The few that didn't participate got a good laugh and would poke fun.

Saturday all the brothers went out to their parents' property for a day full of paintball war games. DJ and Ian left to go over to the Wheeler’s place about 10 am. Anissa and I kept the kids and took them to St. Edward State Park for about an hour. We then went back to home base for lunch and naps. After naps we took the kids to join the rest of the family for Dutch oven dinner. The kids couldn't get enough of the new playground set that was there. It made it easy for we adults to chatter away and get stuff ready for dinner.

The food was amazing. Dutch oven everything... chicken, ribs, cheesy potatoes and carrots, beans, corn bread and chocolate molten cake! After force feeding our children as much as we could, we let them go back and play. We ate awhile longer then the guys started becoming undressed... Oh boy the lovely paintball welts. After much shirtless prancing and posing, we were able to get them to get dressed again. It was such a fun time being with everyone! I love laughing like that!

Sunday was a lazy day. Ian and I took Liam for a drive and we ate at another drive-in for lunch. Triple X Burger is a place where Ian went often in his high school days. He had forgotten that the triple x burger was so massive. He couldn't eat the whole thing. Cracked me up.

We got back to home base and then Anissa and I were given permission to get out of the house on our own. It was nice to spend a couple hours away with no kids. That night, we enjoyed leftover raclette and grilled steaks for dinner.

Monday we went to the Pacific Science Center. I took a lot of photos of Liam having a blast! He just couldn't focus on one thing! His head was literally spinning (along with his body) on what to do next. While we were there, Liam had his first IMAX movie experience. It was a dam big movie about beavers! We were all thoroughly entertained. I certainly learned a lot about beavers that I hadn't known! The whole theater would laugh at times because of how quirky those animals are.

After visiting Pike Place Market, we met up with DJ and Anissa at Juanita Beach. Liam went straight for the water and didn't even glance at the great playground they had there. DJ and Ian helped the kids make sand castles... and Liam did his normal rounds of demolishing all sand creations! The kids played well together and it was a treat to enjoy the sun and blue skies for awhile.

After de-sanding children, we headed out to dinner at Claim Jumper. We had a huge corner booth kind of out of the way, so we didn’t have to worry about the kids bugging other people. The food was amazing and we all ate like kings!

That night after the kids were in bed, we watched the guys bowl on the Wii. This was pretty much the norm every night before hitting the hay at midnight. Wii, Scene It and then maybe a movie! So fun! (I have to note that I am way better at Wii tennis than the real thing!)

Tuesday was DJ's birthday. Anissa made some wonderful sour dough pancakes. We gave him his gift before he had to leave for work and then said our good-byes. We headed out before noon since Liam was a live wire. We wanted to get him strapped in the car and have a bit of sanity before heading to the airport. We drove around Ian's old stomping grounds and then stopped at Pine Lake for awhile. Liam had a great time!

We dropped the rental car off at 4pm and rode the fun shuttle bus to the airport. Liam loved it! Once we got checked in at the airport, we did a little shopping. Ian found Liam a great Lightning McQueen sticker book. That thing kept him entertained for quite a long time. Our flight wasn't until 7:30pm. Liam did well on the plane and the bumpy descent into SLC didn't even bother him. I, on the other hand, got nauseated for the first time on a plane. Ick!

Anyway, we got home at midnight and to bed by 1am (we were so surprised he didn't fall asleep in the car). Liam let let us sleep in until 9am... and we were grateful.

The End.

See Anissa's Report HERE.