There's No Place Like Home: Sleepless in Seattle-Part One

**Warning: my posts have become really long--and this one is no exception!**

I know that the "sleepless in Seattle" saying has been overused ever since the movie came out, what, a decade ago?, but it describes our vacation for a couple of reasons, which will be clear once you read the post.

Back in Feb. we asked the girls their choices for vacation this summer and they replied in unison: "See our Seattle cousins!!" So we found a great deal on NON-STOP (this is very important when traveling to the coast!) tickets and we were off. Our nephew, Andrew, was going to be baptized while we were there, which made it even better! And to top it off, Grandma and Grandpa and Wendy and family would be there, too!

I have to write a little our flight to WA. I always always always (have I emphasized that enough?) come prepared with food for the kids to eat for meals whenever we fly. But this time I thought that instead of lugging food around we could just buy our lunch on the plane. Since it was Midwest, we knew they would have cookies onboard and surely that would tide us over during the 3 1/2 hours it would take us to get there?? Our seats were towards the back of the plane and about 2 rows in front of us we heard the words, "we are out of food, sorry." You're kidding, right? For the first time, we've relied on the airlines for our food and now they don't have any and our kids are complaining that they are hungry and we can't buy any because we're 35,000 feet in the air! The only thing that saved us from whining, hungry kids were the snack bags of nutter butters and cheezits that we bought to tide Abbie over in the airport when she started complaining of hunger at 11 a.m. The lesson here: always bring your own food!

I have to say that I love that my kids have cousins their ages! They were inseperable and stayed up until the wee hours of the morning from the first night we got there. We stayed at Lind and Cressida's (thanks for everything!!) so the girls could share beds. One night we could hear Kiersten and Brynn up until at least midnight (and this from a child who normally goes to bed around 8 p.m.). They could not have been happier during this trip. And we had a blast, too, with Chris' siblings and spouses and nieces and nephews!

Thurs. morning I watched Cressida with a group of her cloggers, which included Kathryn. Talk about a good time--I wish I lived there so I could join in!

In the afternoon, we took the kids swimming to the same pool where Chris used to go when he was little. Here are Abbie and Callen.

Kiersten and Brynn.

Kathryn with the boys--Andrew and Blaine.

Erynn and Megan took turns watching Analise.

On Friday morning, Chris and I did a session at the temple, which was only few minutes from Lind and Cressida's. Let's just say that this was one of the highlights of the trip for the two of us.

In the afternoon, Lind and Cressida took us to Lake Sammamish to enjoy their boat. Chris' parents arrived the night before so they were there, too as well as J and Kathryn and their boys. While one group went out in the boat, Chris and J took Abbie and Analise swimming in the lake.

Which one is J and which is Chris?

Erynn and Megan. BTW, Eynn rocks for convincing Abbie that she could go behind the boat. She talked her all the way through it and Abbie had a great time.

Cousins on the boat.

Grandma getting Analise ready to ride with Lind taking a break from driving.

Ready to go!

Abbie, Blaine and Callen building in the sand.

Going to the lake was one of our favorite parts of the trip! Just ask the girls. Chris and I have decided that from now on we're going to live on mac and cheese and save all of our money so that someday when he retires (not sure if that actually happens with docs) we can live on Lake Sammamish. Aaah, pipe dreams are beautiful things!

Wendy and family arrived Friday night. We were dressed and ready to go to Andrew's baptism, when we got a call from J. Chris' dad had collapsed. It was horrible. To make a long story short, he was rushed to the hospital, put in the ICU, he was going septic and had blood in his lungs. As I write this post, the docs don't know what exactly he has except ARDS (a non-specific term for something got in your lungs and made you really sick). He is doing much better this week. But for the remainder of our time there, Chris spent part of his time at the hospital with J and his mom who stayed at the hospital most of the days. And it was awful not knowing what was going to happen and not being able to do anything. It made for a very restless trip.

In the afternoon we decided to take the kids out and try to get our minds off what was going on.

Here are A, B & C. I love this. These three were born a month apart. Abbie, then Blaine and then Callen, so we call them A, B & C. They had so much fun playing together.

We went with everyone to Pike Place Market. You can find anything and everything at Pike Place. For $15 you can buy the most gorgeous flower arrangements. Here, The kids were sitting on a pig in front of the famous stand where fish are thrown. If you go to Pike Place don't go on a Saturday, though. It was so crowded we could barely walk around and keep track of everyone.

We walked along the pier. Here's Coryn with Blaine and Analise.

Abbie and Callen on the pier in front of Puget Sound.

At one end of the pier is Ivars. For those who don't know, Ivars is a landmark eatery. You can buy the best fish and chips there. I'm not a big fish fan, but these are super yummy. After you eat, you can--actually, you are expected to--feed your french fries to the seagulls. One of the girls asked if she could feed her fried fish to the seagulls. I said I didn't know. Wait a minute--these gulls are eating fried french fries! It's not like fried fish is going to clog their arteries after all of the fries they consume. This tells you, too, that this is such a landmark place that the enviromentalists haven't stopped people from giving their fries to the birds.