Seattle Day 1

Seattle Day 1
October 6-7

We had such a wonderful family vacation to both Washington and Oregon.  We managed to log almost 2500 miles in our car with all three kids!  We had originally planned to visit Matt's sister Megan in Washington when our nephew David was baptized, but then they moved right before.  I still really wanted to go to Seattle so we decided to make a big trip of it.  We started in Seattle and then headed down to Oregon, first to Portland, and then to the Oregon coast. 
The girls loved Seattle more than I expected.  I thought it was something for me, but the whole family really enjoyed it.  We packed our first day with more than we should have, but since we only had two days, we wanted to get in as much as possible.  The kids were great all day, until the end when we were up in the Space Needle.  We had a few break downs and some arguments between the girls.  We might have gotten a few looks at our poorly behaved children!  We knew we had pushed it, but we were happy with all we were able to see.  Luckily Lucas continues to let us drag him around all day, miss his naps, and stay happy and cheerful anyway.

 The first day we left bright and early and drove all the way to Seattle.  It took over 14 hours with stops.  This first stop was a little out of the way, but Matt was really excited about it.  The water wasn't running too high though, so the falls were not at their finest.  This was in Idaho, Shoshone Falls.

 Driving into the city at night.  The girls started giggling and shouting out all the cool buildings and lights they were seeing along the way.  We stayed at a Quality Inn right by the Space Needle.  I had found a great deal online for it, and it turned out to be perfect for us.  They even upgraded us for free to a bigger room when they saw all three kids with us!

 We started our first day EARLY, since everyone was up anyway.  Thank you Lucas!  The hour time change along with the staying in the same room did not help for great baby sleeping!  We rode the monorail into downtown and walked over to Pike Place Market.  We walked through and watched them set up.  We were still pretty early, so we headed down to the water to Miner's Landing, but that wasn't open yet either.  We decided we would go to the aquarium to pass some time, and because our family always loves a good aquarium!

 Miners Landing

 Emilyn loved the tidepools.  She spent so long just exploring and touching the animals.  We even got a chance to feed seaweed to the anemones!

 Both girls loved all these cutouts and kept asking me to take their picture in them.

 Lucas was really alert and interested in everything we saw.  He took special interest in the sea lions.  Matt took him down after the presentation to see them a little closer.  They seemed to like him too!

 Lucas was pretty excited to watch the otters eat too!

 After the aquarium we went back down to Miners Landing.  I took the girls on the Ferris Wheel while Matt stayed with Lucas.  It was such an incredible view and perspective of the city, and we all loved it very much.

 There's Matt down there on his phone...he never looked up to wave to us!

 Matisyn and her maps!  She has a map thing!

 

 Emilyn and Matisyn with the Pike Place Market pig.

 Walking back up to the monorail.  We enjoyed some delicious cupcakes on our way.

 We went to the Pacific Science Center for the rest of the afternoon.  This is Matisyn's favorite kind of place since she loves science so much.  She was just soaking it all in.  It closed before we had enough time to explore it.  We were sad we didn't have more time because it had some amazing exhibits.  My favorite was the butterfly room where tons of butterflies and moths were flying around.  You had to turn around in a special room before you could leave so that they could check for butterflies trying to escape with you!  We also spent some time with the dinosaurs and an exhibit all about the body.

 Changing a diaper underneath the Space Needle  :)

 Lucas is pretty shocked and pleased with the view from the top of the Space Needle!

 It was cold and windy at the top, but we timed our visit perfectly (other than the kids' spiraling behavoir and exhaustion!), because we got to watch the sun set, and see the tower in the sunshine AND as the lights came on below at night.  We ate a quick snack bar kind of dinner inside and then walked a few loops around outside.  It was so beautiful!

Goodnight Seattle!  I think we were all so tired that night that we crashed at around 9:00!