My husband is officially a student...again. Well, actually, he is a resident. Resident sounds so much better than student, doesn't it? And isn't my resident so lucky to have a wife who makes him stand in front of the sign for a first day of school picture? Go Daddy Blake!
Now I know why people are so sleepless in Seattle! Blake planned the perfect getaway for our family before he started school. He spent countless hours on several days down at Barnes and Noble, not buying books, but sitting on the floor in the travel section copying ideas out of all the Seattle books. This is even the way he found our hotel. Who needs the internet anyway, right? 
Day 1: As we flew in Thursday morning, it was pouring rain. But Seattle decided to trick us and we had perfect weather the rest of our trip. After meeting Blake at the airport, (Blake left our house in SF one hour before his flight left in Oakland, and he still had to park the car and ride to the airport. I swear he is the luckiest person I know.) we checked in to our hotel right on Lake Union, then hit the town. We headed straight to the Seattle Center and the Seattle Children's Museum. The museum was fabulous and I think our favorite part was the little play Taco Time (yes, TACO TIME!) restaurant. Max made us tacos, filled our cups with soda, and took Blake's credit card to swipe and pay for our food. They even had a play area for Jack with lots of squishy things to crawl on. But after losing Max for about 15 minutes and having the entire museum staff running from room to room with their walkie-talkies, looking for the little boy with a buzzed head and Spiderman shirt, we considered the museum a success when all four of us left together. 
After quick naps, we went to free day at the Seattle Art Museum. We loved looking at all the art (our favorite piece was the decorated toilet), but we spent most of our time riding in the elevator and in the kid's area playing with the blocks, shapes, instruments, puzzles, dress-ups, and books. After the museum we walked up and down the famous harbor steps before settling on a yummy dinner at Subway.
Day 2: Today we headed straight for Pike Place Market. I guess we were too late to see any fish being thrown and all the tourists (including us) were too cheap to pay for some, so we settled for our fresh cherries and sugar snap peas. We ate our loot and roamed the market until the boys were either dead asleep or almost asleep then started the walk over to the ferries.
When we finally found the ferries, we rode one over to Bainbridge. It was pretty cool to see all the cars driving on and off the ferry. Plus, we caught the tail end of the island's 4th of July Parade and got to see a lot of All-Star baseball teams and fire engines. The view of Seattle were fabulous from the boat. Too bad we had to ask five different people to take a picture of all four of us. Seriously--how hard is it to get us AND the Space Needle? I mean, we successfully did it several times. Oh well, I love my festive, red, white, and blue family.
After naps we went and reserved our spots on Lake Union to watch the spectacular fireworks show. Max was ooing and ahhing at the display and Jack couldn't take his eyes off the bright lights. We loved the hearts, smiley faces, Saturns, cubes, and little squiggly fireworks. Fireworks sure are getting fancy.
Day 3: Saturday, with both boys finely dressed in their new Pike Place Market shirt, we headed over to the Seattle Center to ride the monorail to the shopping district. We picked up a lot of nice souveniors, but ended up spending most ofour time at Baby Gap. (I know, travel all the way to Seattle just for Baby Gap. But they were having a super sale.) We ended up down by the market to eat lunch at Etta's. Several people told us we should eat there because, apparently, it's famous. 
We don't know why it's famous or what it's famous for, but we ate there. Blake enjoyed some tastey halibut, I had french toast, and Max had noodles. The best thing we had was the strawberry lemonade. Maybe they're famous for that. Later that day we picked up a rental car and drove out to see the Seattle Locks. This is also the time of year that the salmon are migrating upstream to lay their eggs, so we also got to see all those salmon swimming for their lives. 
Then we went up to Kerry Park for more pictures of the Space Needles and the Seattle Skyline. The park also had a playground, so of course we climbed on the ladders and went down the slides. And you seriously can't beat the view!
Day 4: We woke up early to make sure we had enough time to hit the hotel's pool once while we were there. Then we hit the road up to Vancouver, B.C.--Jack's first international trip. 
We were a little nervous they wouldn't let Blake in since he didn't bring a birth certificate, but there was no problem. We checked into our hotel, an old apartment building converted to a hotel. The hotel didn't have an elevator, so Max was disappointed. But not as disappointed as Blake since he was the one who had to haul all our luggage up the stairs. And Blake even splurged for us on this vacation and when they asked if we wanted a 
shared or private bathroom, he said private. Thank you Blake! Our hotel was right by Stanley Park (kind of like Golden Gate Park) so we decided to check it out. First we went on a miniature train ride where we saw a moose (fake) and a raccoon (real). And that's not the only raccoon we saw. When we got off the train we saw a mama raccoon being followed by her two babies. Too bad there were signs all over warning people of rabies. 
We followed the circle road to the next stop, Prospect Point. Max and Blake made the hike down while Jack and I hung out at the top. While Max and Blake were getting some good pictures, a couple little old Portugese ladies were begging me to hold Baby Jack. I let them and he loved grabbing their noses. We also went to three separate playgrounds, where the biggest winner was the swings. Max loves doing spider and we got going so high. 
They also had a pretty cool slide that looked like a big tongue. Ah, Canada. Our last stop was to the biggest collection of totem poles in North America. We were expecting to see tons and tons of totem poles, but there was really like eight. Max and Blake even picked out the same favorite. To end our day we walked along the water and enjoyed the beautiful view of the host city for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Day 5: For our one last activity in Vancouver we went to the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge. A Bridge wide enough for 2 people, 500 feet high. It was so scary. And it didn't help that we overheard a tour guide say there had been a fatality the day before. (We found out later that the accident involved the water below, not the actual bridge, but still!) Needless to say, we didn't stay there long and decided to hit the road back to Seattle. We stopped by the Seattle Temple, which was undergoing renovation, before returning the rental car and getting to the airport about 1.5 hours before our flight left, a little early for Blake, but it was nice to be able to have a little extra time. 
We loved Seattle. And if we were trying to look for a nice place to live, rather than narrow it down, we would definitely add Seattle to our list. Well, at least dry, sunny Seattle. 
It's no secret--We LOVE Utah! And Blake was nice enough to let us spend almost two weeks there. We always get to do so much and it goes by too quickly. Here's some of what we did--
We finally got to go down and see beautiful Bountiful Pond and take a little tour from the master canoer and trivia king himself, my dad. We got a very thorough history of the pond, surrounding flora, and local fauna while paddling around the water. Max was a very good paddler, only losing his paddle once and using the paddle to help Grandpa splash (or should I say soak) Uncle Andy. 
The whole family, minus Tony (where was Tony the entire time we were in Utah anyway?), met up at Kangaroo Zoo to see what all the fuss was from our trip there during the last visit. Boy did Kangaroo Zoo live up to its reputation and it sure was nice to have some other bodies help haul Max up the steep ladders. Jack was even big enough to get in on some of the action this time.
For Father's Day my dad got a special coupon for a Daddy-Daughter Date and he decided to cash in on it. I took him for a very special dinner at Del Taco (it was Taco Tuesday) and then to see Wall-E. We were going to get a treat after, but both of us were ready to go home. We're a good pair--two fuddiduddies. Right, dad? :)
We went down to Provo to visit Uncle Gage. We went to Rock Canyon Park to have a picnic and play on the playground. Max skipped out on most of the picnic, opting to splash in the puddles at the bottom of the steep hill instead, and then the playground was much, much, much too hot to play on. So, we headed over to campus so Gage and I could introduce the boys to BYU. I was happy Gage (the last BYUer until Caden 10 years from now) could be the one to help me show them around. After I explained to Max that this is where Mommy and Daddy went to school, he said, "Max go to BYU. Ride elevators." I guess he sees a lot of potential for elevators in all those tall buildings. Go Cougars! 
My dad had the fun idea of going over to the elementary school field to shoot off rockets. Since Max is a big fan of pushing buttons, he was appointed the official launch master. He did an excellent job of counting down to blast-off and then pushing the button. We only lost one rocket (I didn't run fast enough) and even made time to go play on the playground by the school. And thanks to Aunt Bri, Jack was sound asleep by the time we got home.
We had to take advantage of Grandma's Zoo Pass, especially now that the new carousel is open. Our first stop was the train, but then on to the fabulous carousel. We walked right on, but unfortunately Max wanted to ride on the giraffe and that was already occupied. So, we waited for the next ride and ran to make sure we got them. We caught the bird show and saw the elephants, tigers, penguins, monkeys, and camels. And on our way out, we rode the train one more time. 
And then, of course, there are the things I don't have pictures of--our daily lunch bunch, watching "The Chipmunk Adventure" (one of the best movies ever made), American Idol on the Wii, scrapbook shopping, Sunday dinner at Grandma's, playing with the Little People garage, and SYTYCD Party. We love being around family. Too bad we miss Daddy Blake so much. We leave early, early, EARLY tomorrow morning to meet him in Seattle. It will be a sweet reunion. Thank you family for the perfect 2 weeks!
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