Vacation 2012- Part 2

Part two - headed to Seattle! We were sad to leave GG & Gramps, but totally excited to visit Seattle and our good friends Beth & Jason and their kids, Alyssa and Brendan. The flight was uneventful, and all our luggage arrived just fine (thank goodness!). We got packed into the minivan when we arrived, and headed north to Seattle. Our plans got altered (our luck again!) when we were just 2 miles from our exit, when fire trucks and emergency vehicles passed us on the highway, and literally closed down the road about 50 cars in front of us. Needless to say, we were 3 adults and 4 children under the age of 5 (two of which had just been on an airplane for 2 hours!) and we get stuck on the highway FOR TWO HOURS! Luckily, GG had packed a huge bag of chocolate chip cookies, which held us through the delay. After all that, it was only a small oil leak from a truck - only 4 gallons - not the spill they were anticipating, I guess! Anyway, we made it to Seattle, got food and went potty (no accidents! Yeah!) and had just enough time to go up in the Space Needle, take a ton of pictures, and then Kris met up with Jason for a Mariner's game, while Beth and I took the kids for dinner and back to their home. We only made it home about 1 hour before the guys did! It was a lot of fun, but a looong day.
After some rest, we got to a slow start, but headed back to Seattle to see Pike's Place market. It was a little overwhelming with 4 kids, so after we ate lunch and took more pictures, we decided to head north to Ballard locks, where it was a little less crowded. The botanical gardens were also lush and perfect for taking pitures! Now we can say we saw salmon in Seattle!
BTW, I forgot to mention that the weather was GORGEOUS. The stewardess even said when we arrived at the airport that Seattle gets about 3 days of sunshine a year, and we just happened to get to experience it. The great weather lasted for all 5 days that we were there, and we also got to experience the hottest day of the year when it got up to 95 degrees. It was still tollerable, as the humidity was low and the best part was - no bugs!
The next few days we spent around the local area Beth and Jay live. We visited Olympia, and saw the low-tide in the bay, as well as the State Capital building. We also visited the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium (on the hottest day of the year!) It was a great little zoo with lots of animals, and hills too!
The kids really enjoyed each other and got along great. Alyssa could not get enough of Baby Max, and Karmann was in heaven with all the cool toys they had. Brenden and Karmann loved playing in the kiddie pool outside - too bad we live on complete opposite corners of the country!! It would be awesome if only we were neighbors down the street! Also in that time, Max turned 9 months, and finally got a tooth! He also advanced to pulling himself up to stand at the coffee table and couch!
After 5 days of traveling in the minivan together, we all got the loading and unloading of parents and kids down to a science! We will remember to have pleanty of stuff for the kids to play with in car, as well as juice, water, food, and pull-ups - just in case - next time we vacation together! Who knows...maybe we could tackle France in a few years!!!
Many thanks to Beth and Jay for a wonderful trip and experience!

Our flight home was the red-eye, which as our luck would have it, turned into a trip from you know where. Thank goodness the kids were angels and slept the whole time. But, to make a long story short, here's how it went: 10:30 pm (west coast time) arrived at airport and checked in. Flight was scheduled to leave at 12 am, but the airplane coming in did not arrive until 1215 am. Finally at 1:30 am we take off. We were in the very back row of the plane, and about half way through the trip the guy in front of our seat got sick all over the place - which caused such a commotion. We knew already we were going to miss the connection in Houston, so we didn't rush to get off the plane. Come to find out, our connection was that same plane. Luckily we had a different row of seats - and it wasn't the row in front of us! Due to the clean-up required, that flight too was delayed. We finally arrived in Orlando at 12:30 pm (East coast time) on Monday. Yes, that made it a 13 hour trip across country. Again, the kids were great! We were beat to a pulp. Overall, the trip was so great, that we hardly remember that part, but no wonder we only do it once in a long while!