Overnighter

This past weekend we headed to Seattle with the older two boys for a little relaxation, shopping and fun. We knew Liam would have much more fun with his grandparents than with us so he was left behind on his own little vacation! We stayed at one of our favorite hotels, the Hilton Garden Inn in Mukilteo. It's clean, affordable and right beside the Boeing airfields so plenty of cool planes to watch as well. Actually, when I booked the hotel online I found a great managers special that included two free breakfasts in their restaurant. What a great surprise when we checked out to find that it was $20 less than the online price and we got all four breakfasts for free! Love it.

Even though this picture is blurry I just had to post it...makes me laugh. Keith and Nate had lots of fun jumping into the pool in various poses.

Chad watched forlornly from the hot tub. He is a bit timid around water and even though the deep end was only four feet he wasn't having any part of jumping in. Courage finally found him and by the second time we went swimming he had started jumping in and thoroughly enjoying himself. He told me later he had wished he had jumped in earlier to I could have take his picture too!

The hot tub was an interseting experience. Once the jets were on the water bubbled so forcefully it was coming right up out of the tub! It wasn't very warm either so we were able to sit in there for a long time. We swam before and after dinner and had the pool to ourselves both times.

For dinner that night we headed to one of our favorite places, Ivar's. We love their seafood and the restaurant sits right on the water. The view of the ferry coming and going to Whidbey Island at days end was beautiful.

I never liked clam chowder until I tried theirs a few years back. This is heaven in a bowl. Yum!

Chad loves his salmon and made a nice healthy choice off of the kids menu. A great plate of salmon with yummy mashed potatoes and green beans. I almost wished I would have ordered it! The rest of us enjoyed fish & chips.

After dinner we had just enough time to walk over to the water to watch the sunset. It was warm with no breeze. A beautiful evening.

Even though we were all stuffed, Keith convinced us that we needed ice cream cones. For $1.89 each we got these massive cones and could barely finish them. Really....we were certainly overfed that night!

The next morning we headed to downtown Seattle. We parked at Seattle Centre (near the Space Needle) and took the monorail into the downtown core. The kids certainly enjoyed it!

It's a very short ride...probably a mile long...but it's all about the experience!

We found some great deals at the downtown clothing stores which was great but meant having to lug bags around Seattle as we walked to and fro. We all took turns lugging the bags around. I guess if we were smart we would have saved the shopping until the end of our time in downtown! Too eager, were we.

This big tin pig sold pulled pork sandwiches and the like. A definite photo op!

We just love walking around Seattle. It's a city where there is lots to see. We especially enjoyed the guys throwing the fish at the public market.

We enjoyed walking around at the pier. The sea air was salty and fresh and the sun warm on our shoulders. Ahhh....it was a perfect day!

We found the famous gum wall in Post Alley. A sickeningly sweet smelling area that you can leave your mark on!

By 2pm we were really more than ready for lunch. We already knew that we would be hitting the Cheesecake Factory. Because of the time we were seated immediately which was great because the last time we were there it was an hour wait.

Keith and I shared this plate of fish tacos. Keith had two and I had one. The one I had was not good...the fish was dry and fishy tasting. One of Keith's wasn't that great either but he said that one of them was very good. Oh well. We could have complained but didn't really feel like it.

I was able to get past the fish tacos because I just knew dessert would not be a disappointment! Keith and I shared and he generously let me do the choosing. I think he was a tad disappointed I didn't chose something with chocolate but he did give me the freedom to get what I wanted :) I chose a pineapple upside down cheesecake. It was lovely...very good!

We also made the boys share a piece. It took them the whole meal to come to a compromise and finally selected the white chocolate truffle with raspberry. They were very happy with their choice!

We then took the monorail back to Seattle Centre with the hopes of letting the kids run around in the wonderful spray fountain. We were very sad to find that it was closed and undergoing maintenance when we arrived. Boooooooooooooo!

So we just headed back north. We wanted to avoid rush hour and Keith needed to return some shoes at the outlets. We also made a very special stop at the electronics store to pick up the boys long awaited DS system. They have been saving up their money for a very long time to get this. I made them write up a contract before it was purchased which stated who owned it, where it would be kept, how long they would play it each day and what would happen if they fought over it.

This is a happy boy with his new toy.

We picked up Liam and found him to be very excited to see us. He was an absolute gem for Keith's parents and they said they'd love to have him again. Sweet! We will definitely take them up on that offer sometime soon!