Seattle...

Oh Seattle! Such a fun adventure!!! :)

Me, my sister and my mom along with our kids packed up and headed out to Seattle for the weekend. Kayla was in town visiting for just one week at the end of August, and we were doing our annual back to school shopping with grandma, so she came along! Along the way we picked up my brother in Quincy and then met up with his wife and kids who were already in the Seattle area visiting her family. It was quite the trip and so so so much fun!

The ride over, as you can imagine with a jam packed car with 4 kids and 4 adults, was quite entertaining. Kayla stole my phone and took some photos from her perspective in the car:
She was right smack dab in the middle of it all!

Back center, Grandma:
{The lucky one in the worst seat in the car! Sorry Gramms!}

Taylor and the DVD player:

Tucker and the Kindle:

Kenzie to her side with the i-phone:

(Thank goodness for technology!!!) :)

And this handsome devil to her other side:

Allen was my co-pilot:

And yours truly navigating the whole bunch!

It was especially fun when we had Jackson screaming and Kenzie having a melt down! :) Add to that the fact that we were in bumper to bumper backed up traffic on the freeway and what should have been a 4.5 hour drive turned into an 8 hour drive, we were all so very happy when we finally reached Seattle!

Finally getting to the hotel, Taylor felt pretty cool with her own backpack!

Kelli and the kids had beat us to the hotel since we were stuck in traffic for so long, and it was a fun reunion with the cousins! Kenzie went straight for the phone and I kid you not, had that thing to her ear the whole time!

Jackson thought Uncle Allen was pretty darn cool!!!

And he even got a bath from Aunt Kayla! He sure is a spoiled man!

Cartoons in the morning...

And some awesome bed head going on!

This little girl is so dang funny!!! I was so happy that she actually seemed to like me this time! She was my little girlfriend! :)

One of the reasons for the trip is because we had wanted to take the kids to the Science Center. It is right by the space needle, and we were going to take all the kids up, but not one of them wanted to! So we decided rather than traumatize them and waste the money, we'd wait for another time.

It was a beautiful Seattle day so it was fun just walking around downtown.

There is a dinosaur exhibit in this museum, and this dinosaur loving boy and his dinosaur loving cousin were in heaven!

The butterfly garden:

One of the rules is to not actively chase the butterfly's but if one lands on you, then it's totally OK. Tucker was pretty stoked when one landed on him!

This girl desperately wanted one...

He was the only one to have one land on him, and then a second one landed on him! He was the butterfly whisperer! :)

Playing with the creatures in the tide pools...

Dance Party...

We had a great time at the museum! The kids loved it. It was just the right size. Our initial plan was to take the kids to Pike street for dinner that night, but we were all pretty beat. So, we just headed back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit, and took a little swim before dinner:

This is how Jackson and I enjoyed the pool:

Getting ready for bed:

Kenzie on her phone again:

Slumber party time!!!

But not until after a dance party AND an ice cream party!!!

The next morning we headed out of Seattle and stopped at the North Ben Outlets on our way home. 

The shopping wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was pretty quick and easy and pretty painless.

Two cute girls:

I think she somehow wet her pants, and was walking like a penguin until we had the chance to stop and change her...

This girl is so so so funny! I just love her! Her personality is totally starting to come out and I just love it!

We had to break up the drive on the way home with some ice-cream!

And here is our selfie picture going 75 mph on the freeway! It felt good to almost be home! Though we had a wonderful time, it was nice to relax a bit after a long and hectic few days!

I'm so glad we all got to go together! It was a great end to our summer to be with family and just enjoying each other and having a good time! Kudos to Allen for being patient with 4 women and 7 children! :)