What a great weekend!

I got to spend last weekend with Jennifer and her family, and it was WONDERFUL! Here's the recap:

We met Friday late morning in Seattle and started with lunch at Ivar's. It was, of course, so yummy, and the kids had a great time sharing their lunch with the seagulls, much to the chagrin of Jenn.

We had to make a quick stop by Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe on our way to our next destination which was the Seattle Aquarium. It's right on the waterfront, just 5 blocks from the ferry dock. Becca got scared by the giant shark hanging up but loved the touch tank, Tyler couldn't pick what he wanted to see most and ran around constantly, and Rachel just wanted to do whatever her cousins were doing! Personally, I liked the arch of jellyfish myself. That and watching Ethan's excitement when he saw Dori!

Next we hiked up to Westlake in hopes of taking the monorail, but alas, it was still broken down. We did take a quick walk through the fountain where those who did it got drenched! Becca thought getting wet was hilarious, Emily didn't like it at all, and the rest of us were damp for the rest of the day!

Then we hopped a bus and headed off to the Seattle Center. The plan was to go to the Pacific Science Center, but we got there later than we'd hoped, and the line to get in was obnoxiously long, so we decided to play around on the rides there in the Center. My kids all loved the frog hopper ride the best. We sent Kate, Megan, Emily and Rachel up in the ferris wheel all by themselves! Then after some cotton candy to give the kids a sugar high, we trekked all the way back down to the ferry dock! We just barely missed the bus that would have taken us most the way, so we walked it.

We grabbed food to go (McDonalds for the kids, Ivar's again for the adults) and took it on the ferry to head home. Scott hadn't been on a ferry in about 20 years, and my kids had never been on one, so it was a real treat for everyone.

Once off the ferry it was back to the lake house. The kids watched a movie and ate popcorn. Or that's what they were supposed to be doing. In reality they played and jumped around. All 5 girls shared a room, and I'm amazed they got as much sleep as they did! Once kids were in bed, the grown ups got to play games. I don't think Jenn will be going out to buy Dread Pirate any time soon. Then Scott killed us at Scattergories! It was a fun, but late night.

Everyone but Jenn got a bit of a slow start Saturday morning. She was up bright and early with Ethan. What a ball of energy that kid is! We hung around the house, built fun stuff with Lego's (you should have seen Kelly's space needle and Eiffel tower!), fed the ducks, ate pink champagne cake (so yum!), walked to Star Valley for candy, went to Tony's Pizza for lunch, took naps, played more games, watched TV, had a late dinner, and finally left Jenn's family in peace a little after 9:00 that night. Amazingly my kids stayed awake the whole way home, They couldn't stop talking about all their favorite things about the weekend. But as soon as they were in their beds, they crashed hard and fast.

It was a wonderful, perfect weekend. It was so great to be able to have that kind of time with Jennifer and her family. At least for me and my family, it could not have been any better. Even though Tyler still can't remember Soren's name (he just calls him his buddy), my kids had a really wonderful time playing with and getting to know their cousins. I loved having so much time with Jenn! We never get that. I just can't say enough about how awesome our weekend was!! Thanks Jenn for letting us be a part of your trip!

(I've tried three times to add pictures to this post, but as is becoming all too common, they're not uploading!)