I needed more berbere (ethiopian chili spice) and there is a wonderful market full of everything you could want. We bought several tubs of needed spices and cruised the street.

We decided to stop in Messob for lunch. The food was amazing. The sambussa was so flaky and the filling more savory than the recipe I use. Mine has cinnamon that makes it sweet but this was more peppers and onions kind of sweet.

They have coffee ceremonies that you can attend. The ceremonies are 2 hours long and since I was the only one in our family who would enjoy it we didn’t do it. I was very tempted to get a pot of coffee in a clay pot but again I really didn’t think I should be drinking a whole pot on my own.

After lunch we wandered around and looked in the shops. In one shop Paul started talking to the shop owner. She asked him the normal types of questions like, how old are you and what is your name. He felt very at ease with her and started talking to her about how he is from “Big Ethiopia.” She got a big kick out of how he called the street “Little Ethiopia” and where he was born “Big Ethiopia.” She told him she was from Big Ethiopia too.

Wonderful little area. Certainly worth going to anytime we are in the LA area!

We had lazy mornings, afternoons at the beach, strolls around town in the afternoon, and finished up our days with more relaxing at the cottage.

We didn’t get any professional photographs taken this year, but I took some of the kids that I really enjoy…

Seal Beach is certainly a place that will remain in our hearts for a long time.

She plays out in the ocean getting tossed by wave after wave until she can’t take it any more. Then she rushes up the beach and tosses herself onto the warm sand and covers her self in sand. Over and over the same routine occurs. She can’t seem to get enough of it.

When she isn’t playing in the ocean or laying in the sand she is digging her hands in the sand looking for mole crabs. She enjoys collecting them, name them, playing with them, and then setting them free.

This child can’t wait to get to the beach each day and whines a little when you drag her off in the afternoon. Certainly a beach baby, so much that she is already planning for next year!

Going out in the ocean with Daddy is her favorite thing to do. She likes to go with him best because he can stand farther out and help her when she tires.

She also enjoys digging for hours creating one things after another.

You will never catch Kimberly just laying in the sand with her body covered, she doesn’t like the feel of it, and honestly I don’t blame her.

Kimberly loves to collect shells. She could have a million already but she picks up a million more. She loves the different designs of each one.

She also loves the creatures we find at the ocean. She found this crab and got very attached to him. So much that she fussed for about 45 minutes when we had to release him and let him go back to the ocean.

She was so proud that she was able to go out farther in the ocean. No longer is she too afraid, she can safely swim out and ride the waves without constant fear that she will be sucked away. However, when I go out farther in the ocean she calls out, “Mom the ocean is carrying you away!” She truly is afraid that I would be carried off and she might never see me, so I move in closer to ease her fears. Generally she is so mature, but in those moments you can still see the little girl inside her.

Mimi loves digging and having her own time. When we go down to the beach she can finally have her alone time. You will often see her off by herself digging or playing in the sand.

Madeline wants to collect everything on the beach just like her sister. I have to limit them to a baggie full of shells otherwise our van would ride low with all the extra weight.

She wanted me to make her into a mermaid again this year.

See those hands, Madeline is eating skittles right out of those hands. If you are worried about the ones in the palm, don’t look at the fingers she is picking them up with to put in her hand. Doesn’t get much more “organic” than that.

He loves to dig, run and eat at the beach.

He loves the cheetos I packed and everyday he would ask for plenty of snacks and cheetos at the ocean. Unlike Mimi he liked his snacks better if someone would go and fetch a pail of water from the ocean so he can wash his hands off.

He enjoyed making sandcastles and breaking them down.

One day he was yawning because he had missed his nap. I told him to come rest and snuggle with me for a couple of minutes, knowing he would pass out immediately. That was the day we didn’t bring the umbrella down to the ocean so I had to hold him while he napped. Certainly not a bad thing. He doesn’t nap all that often any more and he certainly doesn’t want to snuggle that much so I just sat there soaking it up.

I think he had a good time even though he hip hip hoorayed when I said we were going home!

The kids and I made a sandcastle kingdom. Bill created a moat and barrier from the ocean, which actually worked very well.

It was a fun thing to do. Once built the kids went around the beach looking for things to decorate their houses with.

At the end of the day all that really mattered to Paul was that he could finally go around and smash all the sand castle parts!

I was trying to find good rates on the internet. I was planning to take the kids on my own, but when I was telling Steph about it she told me that if I could wait another week she could take time off and join me. Having another adult along sounded like a good idea so I looked for the week after 4th of July.

I found an awesome deal on priceline.com for the Marriott on Coronado Island. Such a gorgeous resort, or maybe it was just the fact that they had flamingos (my favorite animal) and ducks on the premises that made me love it more. Each time you drove in or out of the parking garage you saw them. The kids loved to walk over and see them. We even saw some little ducklings. Unfortunately, we never had a lot to feed them, but they were still very friendly.

Annie loved the hotel because they had different fruit water in the lobby. She especially loved the pineapple water and begged to go down and get some any time we left our room.

When we drove over we had to stop a lot of times for the kids and Steph to take bathroom breaks. When we stopped at the Sentinel rest stop we saw a stranded pelican. He was just standing there near the vending machines. I wondered how he got that far from an ocean and how long he would make it. Steph wouldn’t carry him on her lap to the ocean so we had to leave him behind.

Once we checked into our hotel we headed over to Sea World. First stop was the Pets Rule show followed by a trip to Wild Arctic. We hung out for several hours and decided to go back to the hotel to get a good nights rest because we were planning to watch the summer night shows the following night.

We went to shows and saw animals. The kids were very good about holding on to Steph’s or my hand and there was only one time where Annie got “lost”. Annie is very impulsive so if she sees something too interesting she veers off. When we were walking she stopped and got left about 20 feet behind us. She panicked and started crying. Thankfully Steph noticed right away that she was not with us and we stopped to look for her. (I just re-read that sentence and it made it sound like I was calm, I wasn’t! I was screaming her name and panicking myself!) We found her and she ran over and held onto my entire arm for dear life for about an hour. We reviewed the procedure if she were ever lost and couldn’t find us. Unfortunately this wasn’t the first time we have had this talk; thankfully she knew exactly what to do.

We went back to the hotel for nap time and the kids took a rest while I took a soak in the HUGE tub. The tub was so deep and the water was so nice an hot. This soak was one of my favorite parts of the trip, I am glad I found a way to work it in.

The Summer night shows at Sea World were wonderful. I had told the kids at nap time that Daddy wasn’t with us so if they fell asleep they would have to walk out of the park because I couldn’t carry them. They all did a great job staying up late and remaining in good spirits.

I was most nervous about taking Paul on the trip. As I have mentioned before he can be a pain in the rear when he wants to be and walking around a theme park is one of the times when he pulls this behavior out. In previous trips this year he has just sat down and refused to walk any further. During those times I would generally look at Bill and he would pick the boy up and carry him for a while. Without Bill I would have to figure out a different way to deal with this and I was sure that with the heat and the crowds my patience wouldn’t be all that great.

Paul has matured so much since our previous trips. He only had two times where he sat down at Sea World and only one time that he laid down on the floor. This is a HUGE improvement from before. He even watched the show much more intently than he had before. I was very proud of his behavior. I know I say it a lot, but I am so glad he is almost done with being three. Four can’t come soon enough for my taste. While he will grow and mature so much this year that he will barely be a little boy, I welcome the growth.

On our last day in San Diego we decided to take some time in the morning to swim in the pool at the hotel. The kids had a fun time swimming around. The water was super warm, I think they heat it, so I just sat on the deck watching the kids swim.

We caught the shows at Sea World that we had missed the other days. The kids had been trying to get soaked all trip. Finally their chance came when we sat in the 4th row of the dolphin show. That show the pilot whale were out and we were SOAKED to the bone. While they all had been wanting it so much I think the reality of the freezing cold water mixed with the saltiness and combined with the fact that it is so much water made them wish they hadn’t wanted to be in the soak zone.

We said good-bye to Shamu and went to Chick-fil-a for dinner. We didn’t know it before we got there but it was Cow Appreciation Day and if we had been dressed like a cow we would have gotten our meals for free. I had to pay for our food. (Yes, they are in their jammies. It is a 6 hour drive and they fell asleep about 2 hours into it.)

Driving home I was thinking how nice the trip was. How the kids really rose to the occasion and how we had a good time. I was thinking about how the kids and I should plan more little trips. When I arrived home Bill had missed us so much that he said next time he was going to take time to come along. Funny how we were both thinking of the same thing but in different ways.

We had a great time at the park. It was very laid back and we had fun. While the kids were checking out the beluga whale I snapped this picture.

Once home I compared it to this picture from years ago. Wow how our family has grown.

The kids had been begging and begging to go in the soak zone. We decided to appease them twice and each time we remained dry. Someone must have been looking out for Bill and I because we weren’t excited to get splashed. Though I will have to say that the shows are nice from closer.

One night we went over to Coronado Island for dinner and hung out by the water. The kids enjoyed running and playing in the grass.

It was a great trip. The best part was that it was short and we go to get away but not be gone so long that we went back to school/work as soon as we returned. We were able to have some down time and relax during spring break too.

So far I have already booked three days in San Diego over spring break and a week in Seal Beach in the summer. We are going to Family Camp for Girl Scouts this summer for a long weekend. I also want to drive up to Utah to visit a good friend and explore along the way which will probably work out too. We will also have to fit a summer trip to Sea World in there somewhere to see the summer night shows.

When I told my Mother about my goals at the beginning of the year she laughed when I told her we weren’t going to take vacations, and only focus on the house. Guess she knows me too well.

I try, I really do, but then the travel sites and “book now” buttons mock me. I have tried to resist every trip or sale notice that would take me far from home. That has to be a win on some level. So this summer the trips we take will not lead us too far from home and hopefully that will help this wandering spirit be able to setting in for another school year come fall.

We left Thursday morning and drove over. We arrived mid-afternoon and checked into our hotel. After getting jackets we were off to Sea World.

We watched the dolphin show first and then wandered around the park. It was getting really cold and the sun was going down. We wanted to see one of the Christmas themed shows and so we toughed it out through the chill and went to the Shamu Christmas show. It was very cold, but a great show. Glad we made time to see it.

We went back to the hotel, got some rest and woke up bright and early to get ready for the next full day at Sea World. The first thing the kids spotted was the Shamu Slugbug.

We couldn’t help but get a picture under the big Christmas tree. It was decorated with fish, shells and coral.

The first exhibit we went to was the ray petting. The kids were excited to pet the rays. Paul was curious but too afraid to touch one. The rays were excited this morning and even jumped up a couple of times and surprised the girls.

We went over to the dolphin petting area and found out that it was almost feeding time. We had to pay for each member of the family but were able to have the Girls feed the dolphins for Bill and Paul.

After feeding the dolphins we walked around a bit until it was time to go to the Pet’s Rule show, Christmas Tale. Annie, Kimberly and Mimi had been begging to sit in the soak zone at one of the shows. Since it was so cold this visit we did not allow them to. At the Pet show we gave them the opportunity to sit a couple rows ahead of us and sit in the soak zone. They were so proud of themselves. It was the first time we had let them go off on their own a little and be independent.

There were several trees around the park and the kids got a picture of Bill and I in front of this one.

We told the kids that during the day they would be able to get one treat. Annie chose the smoothie. She had been waiting a while to find the place to get a smoothie when we finally found it. Later in the day Mimi and Kimmie would have some dippin’ dots for their snack.

One of the main reasons we bought the kids the Sea World passes was because Paul had never been. The Girls LOVED Sea World when they were little. Sadly, Paul didn’t love everything. He did like the Arctic Adventure and Shamu, but otherwise he wasn’t impressed. He would often crouch down and refuse to walk further. I decide that I wanted to capture this on film. He must have not liked that since this was the last time he did it.

Just as we were heading into Shamu stadium Paul fell asleep. He woke up half way through the show and watched his favorite animal.

Annie wanted to take pictures of Shamu. I let her take some during the show. She took a grand total of 42 shots and was so excited each time she captured Shamu on the camera. It was so cute to watch her. Here is one of her shots.

We had a fun time. It was super cold and we decided that we had had enough of braving it through the cold. We left the park after the Clyde and Seymore show and went back to the hotel. When we woke up this morning we headed back to Phoenix. It may not be much warmer here, (in fact it isn’t) but at least we can all hang out in our house instead of walking around an amusement park and getting wet.

I know we will have many more adventures to Sea World this year. Hopefully Paul will become more interested in the park. I know the Girls will keep me to my promise of letting them sit in the soak zone at the Shamu show in the summer.

We left Wednesday night and set out on our journey to Miami. Thankfully both Bill and I are good at sleeping on airplanes. We arrived in Miami and caught our shuttle to the port. After waiting in a very long line we arrived on the boat. Once on the boat we were in a line to get our photo with Jillian Michaels. She is a very personable woman and it is easy to see why people trust her so implicitly.

After our photo we checked out our room and explored the ship. It was a nice room with just enough space for us.

On the ship they had some friendly competition going on. Each person was assigned to a team color. The initial rally when we set sail was a very exciting event. Here we are hearing Jillian yell for the first time of many on the cruise.

There were so many different people on board from so many different walks of life. There were the fitness fanatics: they were so over the top! They worked out every moment they could and loved the fact that the ship only had healthy food on it.

Another group of people were the fans of Jillian—I am guessing if there were a category for us we would have fallen into this one. People who had seen her on tv and wanted to meet her and have an experience with her.

The last group were the morbidly obese people. They were really looking to Jillian to save their lives and help them get on the right path. I hope that this cruise did that for them. They had made the first step by coming on the cruise—so that shows initiative.

We went to bed after a comedy show that night and awoke to the beauty of Great Stirrup Cay. This is a private island owned by Norweigan Cruise Line. It was BEAUTIFUL!!! Seriously the water was so crisp, so clear and such a gorgeous color of blue. Loved it.

We took the tender over to the island and were enjoying the warm water of the Atlantic in no time.

We had planned to have a shore excursion to go on a Waverunner tour. This tour was amazing. It was Bill’s first time on a Waverunner and he had a hard time getting used to driving it. Eventually he figured it out and we were cruising along happily. Once we were far out by another island in the Berry Island chain our guide dove down and picked up a sea cucumber, a conch shell and a Bahaman Star fish for us to check out.

We had a nice lunch on the island and swam in the ocean. The fish were swimming all around us. They were so beautiful. Such a great experience. As I was floating in the ocean looking out at the horizon with my toes poking out of the water I was amazed at the beauty and splendor of this little island. We decided to head back to the boat—just in time to miss most of the storm!

We washed the very salty sea water off and enjoyed the rest of our evening on the ship. Unfortunately we did not look through all our paperwork when they gave it to us and we missed out on a VIP meeting with Jillian and the other trainers. Not a huge deal and they did make it up to us by giving us all of Jillian’s books, which was great since the book I brought on the trip was horrible.

On Saturday we woke up to Nassau. We went ashore and decided to take a horse carriage ride around the city. Our guide was well versed and had lived on the Island his whole life. The tour was nice and gave us a feel for the city.

Naussau the port is like most other tourist trap kind of towns: there isn’t a whole lot to do besides shop and wonder how a town with this much tourism is this run down. The people are fairly unfriendly, which was surprising to me. We wandered around and found a Christmas ornament for our tree. Then went back to relax and wait for our snorkeling trip.

We took a boat ride out near Paradise Island to do our snorkeling. Unfortunately it was partially overcast so the water wasn’t as crisp as it had been at the Cay. The tour guide fed the fish chum and they all came over quickly. It was quite the experience having such beautiful fish swimming all around you. The coral and sea life were amazing. I would love to do this again sometime, although the salty sea water was so intense that it was making me feel nauseous. Number 5 has now been crossed off my 50 by 50 list. I can’t wait to one day take the kids. I know that they would have loved doing this. Of course, I would have been a nervous wreck with them floating around in the ocean.

Saturday night was our workout with Jillian night, so we got back to the boat and got ready for our beating. The workouts were done on the pool deack and I took this picture of the group before us working out. When we worked out we were on the second level from the stage.

I am not going to even pretend that I am in good shape, I’m not. The workout was grueling. Add in the fact that she got pissed off at someone in our workout group and you have us working out for a full 90 minutes, instead of the 60 it was supposed to be. If anyone has ever done her 30 day shred video, imagine that for 90 minutes instead of 20. I did not get any pictures of us actually working out, (sorry Patty I know you were looking forward to that) but I got some video of her before we got started and some pictures before and after.

I have been getting asked questions by everyone since I have been home. The #1 question has been: Is she really that mean? Yes and no. Honestly, I see her as a very passionate woman. Anger/mean is a very passionate emotion. She cares so deeply and she really does want to help. I think that this sort of treatment is what worked for her and she works from that. She certainly is that mean and, by the way, she is far more explicit in person. She throws foul language around like crazy. She means what she says and she doesn’t piss around. I find that quite admirable. Is it mean just to be mean? No, I don’t think so, at least that was not my impression.

#2 question: Is she really that short? Yes, if you look at the picture of her with us you will see that she is very close in height to me. I was wearing heels and she was in flip flops in the picture.

#3 question: Was the workout tough? Yes, yes, yes. Seriously, did you expect something else. It was very tough. Easily the hardest workout I have ever been through. Of course, I don’t work out on a daily basis but it wasn’t easy. There were fitness nuts who were getting their buns kicked too.

#4 question: Did you learn anything? Of course I did. Everyone learns things from every experience they have. Did I have some great epiphany from the workout? No, but I did begin to see how really strong I am. After the workout we did a 3 minute meditation. During that minute she was talking about what we had come through and how strong each of us was. It was then that I really realized how resilient I am. I have been through a lot of crap. Infertility, miscarriage after miscarriage, health issues with my children, death of my father and yet through all of them I am tough. I have weathered some pretty strong storms and through all the adversity I am still here, maybe even stronger. It isn’t that they didn’t affect me, each one did, but it is what I did with what happened to me that has made all the difference.

After the workout we stumbled to the hall to listen to Jillian give questions and answers. Some of the questions were just people wanting to tell their story and some were genuine questions. It was neat to see her interacting with people on such personal levels. As I said before she really is passionate about her message.

We went to sleep that night with sore muscles and slept like logs.

When we arrived we went to our room to get settled. The room was HOT! We called down to the front desk and they said they would send up an engineer. We waited a half hour, which felt like a couple hours, and there was no engineer. I called back down to the desk and they told me they were having cooling issues and would we like to be upgraded. Of course we did.

The new room was twice the size and had a balcony overlooking the pool, best of all it was ICE COLD. We decided that we wanted to have dinner at Frank & Albert’s, made reservations and decided to just relax for the afternoon. Just relax, no kids asking us for things, nobody calling us needing anything, nothing. Just us relaxing. At first it felt so foreign and then it came back to me.

I had been reading the book Women Food and God since the beginning of summer. I was only about 1/3 of the way through it. I closed the book at 11 pm after having finished reading it completely! It was wonderful to be able to read the book! It is a great read, one I will write more about in another post. 2/3 of a book done in one day, I cannot remember the last time I did that. I would have to say when I was on bedrest with Annie was the last time I sat down and read a book cover to cover.

Bill and I talked a little about how weird it was to have all this free time. (By the way it was only about 20 hours, but when you haven’t had free time in a long time 20 hours feels like an eternity.) We wondered in amazement what we used to do when all our days were like this.

Dinner was amazing. We sat, talked and ate at a slow pace. It was nice. After dinner we took a stroll around the resort and went back to the room to watch a movie on cable, since we don’t have that at home either. (Which after having cable for only 20 hours I know why we don’t there is so much crap on there!)

It was a great getaway. We had a very enjoyable time. The kids loved their time with Grammy and I think Grammy liked it too. We are blessed to have such a great woman in our life. Grammy always takes good care of all of us. Thanks Mom for taking the time. I love you!

On Wednesday of this week we drove up to Silver Creek, Arizona. It is about a 3.5 hour drive from our home. My cousin was up there with her kids and she asked if we wanted to come along for a day. I thought that sounded like fun so we packed up and went.

The kids are always up for an adventure. We hit some rain while in Heber, AZ and the temperature dropped to 59 and I took a photo with my phone and sent it along to Bill, who wasn’t able to come on the trip. He was amazed that it was that cold up there, I was too!

When we arrived we headed down to the creek for some fun!

Once we arrived the kids all took turns riding around in the rafts. Kimberly, Annie and Charis had such fun playing in the raft.

Paul didn’t want to be in the water at all so he hung out on the shore and played around.

Madeline never enjoys being on an unsteady surface so she spent the majority of her time on the shore as well. She kept working at it and finally she climbed to the top of the big rock. She had seen the bigger kids do it and was sure she could too.

That rock may not look so tall in that photo but when you see us all standing beside it you can tell that it is pretty tall.

Later in the afternoon we had to head back up to the cabin because some storms were rolling in. Once at the cabin the kids snacked like we hadn’t fed them in days.

The little kids hung out coloring while the older kids wandered off to do various activities. After the storms broke the kids went out to run around and play. It was the first time that Annie and Kimberly have really been able to go off and play with the big kids without Bill or I supervising them. It was neat to experience that new role.

The kids had caught a crawdad down in the creek and Annie enjoyed watching it. She and Scott spent a lot of time watching it and playing with it. Thankfully neither got clawed by it.

I didn’t get a picture of the two fearless crazy Mothers but I did get one of all the nine wonderful kids.

We got up and headed down to the Top Pot for our coffee and donuts. They kids enjoyed the walk and fresh air. The coffee was just as good today and so was the donut.

We had to stop by the Starbucks on the way back to pick up a cup for our friends. I am sure if Alex were here he too would have enjoyed the Top Pot more than Starbucks.

After our adventure we went back to the hotel to pack up and give Paul a nap. We had our last viewing of Nickelodeon and Food Network while he slept and Bill loaded up the van.

We decided to head down to the Miner’s Landing which was the place the Alaskan Gold rush began to see if we could find some authentic regional food. We were not let down. We enjoyed clam chowder, muscles and clams, sourdough bread and the most delicious grilled sockeye salmon. The kids ate buttered noodles and tried some of the seafood. Kimberly enjoyed the salmon, Annie thought the clams tasted like the ocean, Mimi enjoyed the salmon and tried a muscle but wasn’t too excited by either.

We rushed off from there and went to get sourdough bread to bring home, a Seattle Christmas ornament to remember our vacation. It was finally time to head back to the airport and our “actual home,” as the kids kept calling it.

Our adventure at the airport was complicated by the fact that there were no skycaps at the car rental return. That required Bill and I to get 5 suitcases, 4 carseats, 5 backpacks, 1 very heavy bag filled with fiestaware, 1 stroller and 4 kids to the baggage check, not an easy task. We looked like a traveling circus.

The wait was pretty easy and Paul liked wandering around before the flight. The kids hung out and were getting very anxious to be back in Phoenix. They had missed the pets and family. Here we are at the airport, all that stuff is ours. We certainly had our hands full!

When we walked down there there was a slight drizzle. On our way home it was a downright downpour. We forgot to bring our backpack which had all our umbrellas in it so we were getting soaked. It was fun and crazy. The kids enjoyed it immensely.

When we got back to the hotel we decided to go swimming for a bit. I had to include a pic of Paul in his first bathing suit! What a cutie!

We had fun but needed to leave to go back and get showered before we left for the zoo. We were meeting friends who live up here for the day. Of course, we planned to go on our only fully outside adventure on this day and it rained cats and dogs. I couldn’t help but laugh at the situation.

We met our friends as we entered the zoo. It was wonderful to finally meet her. I have been online friends with her for years but now we were face to face. She has a delightful family and we enjoyed our day with them. Here is a picture of my friend and I walking with Paul.

Mimi loves monkeys and had to kiss and hug this “statchio.”

The sun peeked in a bit and we enjoyed ourselves before rain poured down again. The Woodland Park Zoo is really nice. They have a wonderful gorilla exhibit and a great rainforest walkthrough.

The Girls really enjoyed running about and getting dirty. I even caught this hippo opening his mouth to yawn.

Because of the weather it was not very crowded at all and the kids were able to wander a lot more freely. They relished the chance! For days and days we had been having to require them to hold onto us or stay very close.

After the downpour at the zoo we all decided we had had enough fun. Amy and Jarrod knew of a local chocolate shop. We decided to head over there and get some treats. Unfortunately there was a bad accident on the way and it took much longer than anticipated. The Boehm’s Candy store was delightful.

So many yummy things to enjoy. We bought the kids some treats and got some for ourselves as well.

We were all pretty hungry so we decided to go to Ihop and get some dinner. We had a nice time chatting with our friends and eating.

Then it was back to our hotel to watch some more Nickelodeon before we depart the next day. The kids have really enjoyed the cable tv but it has reinforced my reasons for why we don’t have it at home. I don’t know what they will do tomorrow night with no tv while in bed.

Later we headed out to get lunch and go to the Science Museum. The museum was a lot of fun and we enjoyed playing tic tac toe with a robot.

Kimberly’s favorite thing was the dinosaur exhibit.

Mimi loved shooting the water guns to spin the wheels.

Annie loved the butterfly house.

It was a very neat place to be. There were hundreds of butterflies fluttering around you, and lots of different species.

They had a hatchery where the butterflies were born and then they went out in the butterfly house.

We watched a IMAX movie in 3D. Given the kids previous experience with this they were very worried that it would scare them. We assured them that bugs would not drop from the ceiling and scare them. There were some parts that startled them a little but nothing too big. It was a nice movie and we all enjoyed it although we could have done without the very strong eco overtones.

We hung out and played for a while in the play center. The kids really enjoyed the downtime and it was nice to have a place for them to run about.

The dinosaur exhibit was next and while it was neat it is not all that great compared to the one in Mesa, AZ.

After the space needle we went to Pike Place for lunch and shopping. Because of parking restrictions and our good sense to not want to pay twenty plus dollars to park our car in a spot for a couple of hours, Bill dropped us off and went to park the car in a spot that would have been a hike for the walking kids.

We started our noshing lunch at a hot dog stand. The kids were ravenous but I didn’t want them to just eat hot dogs so we go one kosher dog to share. We then went next door and got a grilled cheese for the kids. They were not as hit to the panini style grilled cheese sandwiches that seem to be the norm up here as they are to griddle ones at home but again, they were so hungry they gobbled it up.

After that we went to the first Starbucks and got some hot cocoa and coffee. Both were good and helped us to stay warm in the chilly air. We decided to try one more street food from Piroshky, Piroshky! The cheese and onion roll was delicious as was Bill’s ham spinach and cheese piroshky.

We strolled for a while looking through the vendors in Pike Place Market until we found a fruit vendor. The kids had been so hungry for fruit and veggies that we got them some bananas, strawberries, and some dried fruit logs for Bill. They loved them and ate them all in record time. We enjoyed watching the fisherman and got some delicious smoked salmon to enjoy when home.

We also saw some of the most amazing flowers. Here is a rainbow rose! It was amazing and I am not sure how they do it. It was a real rose but rainbow colored. A picture is all we got though since paying $9.50 for one rose falls under the radar to use good sense.

Our final destination was Kitchen Basics for some fiestaware. I scored some beautiful things that I will cherish for some time. I even bought a pie plate, now I just have to learn how to make a pie crust and we will be in business. The Girls each picked out a special item to bring back as well. Annie got a pink A&D cup, Kimmie a plum A&D cup, and Mimi got a sunflower yellow tumbler. We were all happy with our purchases.

*pic not from this day

Daddy and Paul headed off to get the car and we ate some of the most delicious Washington apple slices while we waited.

We went back to the hotel and went to get dinner on foot. We brought sushi up to our room for Mom and Dad and McDonald’s for the kids. Everyone enjoyed the meal. The sushi was so fresh and tender.

After dinner it was back to the space needle. The sunset was gorgeous from the top.

It was pretty cold at this point so we stayed a short time.

We finally went back to our hotel room for the night to get some needed rest.

The discount on the airfare, coupled with the fact that Seattle is a great place to visit helped us make up our mind quickly. So this spring break we will be headed off to the rainy city.