Seattle vacation

Well we got back Saturday evening from our Seattle trip. Ben had some work classes in Seattle and we decided to tag along. It worked out well because it was grading period so Alicia didn't miss any school!

We had a great time. I had been so afraid of rain but it was just fine while we were there. Wednesday we left around 4 after Ben got home from work. We got to our hotel around 8:30. This hotel was NICE. I mean the kind of nice that made me feel a bit uncomfortable. Ben felt fine but he was wearing business clothes and leaving early. I on the other hand had kids I brought through the lobby with a stroller and sack lunches. :) There just were not that many kids in this hotel. But it was very nice! Our room was on the water. We looked out our windows and saw cruise ships dock right next door! This picture is from our window.

It was so fun to see all the boats and was just beautiful at night with all the city lights. Thursday morning we walked FOREVER to get to a bus that took us to the Woodland ZOO. We hadn't slept real well the night before so almost immediately after we got there Alicia was asking when we were going back for a nap! We only stayed about 1.5 hours before we left! Partly because I was bone cold and then the kids were just wiped out. It didn't feel too bad leaving because we got in free with our Portland Zoo membership. It is a very nice zoo and I would like to go back someday. They have a lot of room there, seems much bigger then our zoo. So we headed back to our hotel room and took a nice nap and when Ben got back from his classes and we headed out to the Mariners game. We took a bus there and the front desk failed to mention this bus stopped running at 7:00 pm. We did not find this out to later. Anyway the game was pretty much a bust. They lost 0-5. BUT there was a good fight that put some life back into the crowd for about 15 minutes.

The kids liked eating but I am not sure they will be asking for a baseball game soon. So we left at the 7th inning and headed to our bus stop, only to see that they don't actually run that late. So we hailed a cab. This was my first cab ride ever. It was so nice. We were back to our room within minutes and we were unsure why we hadn't taken a cab there. Friday morning I decided on another cab to take us to the Pacific Science Center. We got into this free as well from our OMSI membership! The kids had a great time here. The butterfly exhibit they have is AMAZING. I could have spent hours in there. When we got hungry we headed outside and ate the sack lunches I had packed. then we took a monorail to the Seattle shopping area and walked down to the aquarium. This was the first time I had to pay to get in to an attraction and I wasn't too happy. But Alicia really wanted to go. Now if you have never been to an aquarium or a zoo you may think this place was great. It is nice but the kids had JUST seen starfish at the Pacific Science Center and can see seals and sea lions at the zoo so I found it to be a waste of money. It costs $15.00 for adults and $10.00 for kids. I think it is a tad overpriced. It did have a large felt board with all kind off sea life that the kids really enjoyed. We then headed back to our room on the free 99 bus line. When Ben got back we went to dinner with his boss and his family at the Cheesecake Factory. YUMMY. Then we went back to our room for a good nights rest. Saturday we we to the Pikes Place Market with Ben. Got some treats for the road and were off by 11. I think the market was getting ready to be swamped for Mothers Day. Such beautiful tulips to buy a mother! I saw one daddy with his kids picking out a blueberry plant for mommy.

Overall it was a nice trip. We traveled by cab, bus and monorail so the kids loved that. We did a lot for free which was very nice. And our hotel was very lovely. The kids loved sleeping with us and I think that may have been Alicia's favorite part of the whole trip. Ethan really liked watching the boats and the planes that fly right overhead. I liked being away.

YES an IPOD!

I guess Alicia getting an ipod is strange to you guys! :) It cost $70.00 with shipping and engraving included in that at apple.com. It is tiny as it is a shuffle, not a full blown ipod. I do not have an ipod but I don't really listen to music. Alicia does. I thought about buying a discman but Ben thought to spend 30 dollars on an outdated gadget would be silly. I had to agree. This thing is so cute, we got it today. It got here in 2 days!!!

I cannot wait to put some books on this thing. I am not very good at technical stuff but I want to have them on there before she opens it. She will love it! And I may be borrowing it soon while I work out.

Childrens Audio Books

So I decided about two weeks ago to look into books on CD for our upcoming trips. I thought I would try them out at home before we get in the van and expect them to occupy our kids for hours. At first Alicia said, "what is this? There are no pictures!" But I told her to use her imagination. So we listened to Geronimo Stilton books 4-6, all about mice on adventures, here in the house. Alicia loved it. I actually found this one to be a bit old for her though but she still thought it was funny. Next we tried Mrs. Piggle Wiggle and we listened to it when we went to see my dad on Saturday. Again Alicia loves it. I wish I could show you pictures of Alicia's face as she concentrates on the stories. So funny. I have another in the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series and a Boxcar Children audio for or our upcoming trip to Seattle. So for Alicia's kindergarten graduation in May we got her an engraved ipod shuffle so she can listen to the books without all of us having to as well. Ethan doesn't seem to care for them yet (read he doesn't have the attention span yet) so this way she can listen to her shuffle and he can rock to whatever mommy and daddy listen to. :)

Do any of you have any other books your kids enjoy to listen to? I cannot belive we hadn't done this yet. I need to get more as Alicia loves to come home from school and listen to them.

The WORST time of the year for women

Yes, it's that time of year --AGAIN. Swimsuit season. This doesn't usually bother me too much. I don't go swimming in public well, EVER so I just wear shorts and tanks BUT this summer we are planning on going to the Great Wolf Lodge in Washington. I will not go to this wonderous place and sit for an entire weekend. Thus the most hateful shopping that must happen. Thankfully there are a lot of options for those with a few stretch marks they would like to keep hidden. But in the meantime I am going to try and lose a little extra weight. This is also in line with my friend Amy's blog. I will drink no pop for 1 month and stay away from desserts. No snacks after 7:00 and more water. I also will excercise every day, different ways each day.

But really go check out Wolf Lodge. I cannot wait to take my kids! So we have a Seattle business/fun weekend trip planned in 2 weeks and now a waterpark trip planned in 5 weeks!! I love when tax season ends!

"OOPSY DAISY"

This morning I was organizing Ethan's legos with him. It felt like I had been doing this forever when I looked at the clock and flipped. I was supposed to be leaving to pick up Alicia. So we raced down there. We were waiting in our normal spot. I sit on the curb and Ethan runs around the grassy area. No parents were coming and it felt like I had been there forever! I got to thinking I may have not looked at the clock accurately! So I went to the van to check and yep, I was an hour early! Talk about embarrasing. The preschool teacher probably was wondering what I was doing as I helped her unpack the carseats from her van after their field trip. And one of the kindergartners parents went to the office and left. I am sure she was wondering what the heck I was doing! Ethan said "Oopsy Daisy" on the way home. That is a much nicer way to say what I was feeling.

YARDWORK

Now that tax season will slow back down we are starting to think about our yard. More specifically our backyard. Yes, our front yard needs attention too as it has been taken over my moss but that can be taken care of pretty quickly with some moss killer and grass seed. But our backyard will need a lot of work. We have not done a thing with it since we moved in. Well that isn't quite right as Ben did level out the yard with some fill dirt and put in an irrigation sytem but that is it! So this spring/summer we will put in some borders and flowers. We will make a little play area for the kids and work on our vegetable garden. We will put in grass and more flowers. I am so excited. Right now I am trying to figure out what flowery vines I want to put in and around our front fence. This is a picture of our bare fence.



I want to make it look like the front fence in Father of the Bride, when they decorate it for the wedding. There are some sites that help those in Oregon and Washington decided which flowers work best for our areas. Well I have asked them for some help but no responses yet. I will probably do a clematis or morning glory. I am stoked to be able to be creative and work on this project. Now I just need the weather to cooperate so I can get started!

Free Fun!

Last night we had a fun evening out. Ben had gotten an Olive Garden card from my parents and so we went out to eat. I always get the Tour of Italy so I can have enough to take home for lunch the next day. (Which I will be eating here in an hour or so --yummy!) Then after dinner we headed over to Toys R Us. Alicia gets a stamp every day at school if she is good. If she gets a full month of stamps Ben has told her we will get her a new toy. Well it is very hard for my talker to get a full months worth of those hard earned stamps. Usually she misses it by just one stamp! She completed a full month in October and then finally got one this March! So she was rewarded with a new toy at Toys R US. Ben also bought Ethan and him a new lego toy. :) And the best part was someone had given us a $40.00 visa gift card so the toys were free. (Alicia also got a $3.00 gift card from ToysRUs for her birthday. If you havne't already you should sign your kids up for the birthday club online!) So we had free dinner and had free toys and then when we got home Ben took Ethan swimming with the 6 month member pass his mother had gotten him. So all around fun evening all for free. Got to love these kind of nights. This morning I spent about an hour putting together his lego Mars Mission Transformer Fighter! It is pretty cool!

An addendum: Today is April 2 and Alicia did not get her stamp. So you can see how hard this is for her. :)