Trip to Seattle

On August 10, we woke the kids up at 5 am with a surprise trip to Seattle. Maisey's birthday was August 12 and she had a major birthday surprise waiting for her up north! We took her to the American Girl Doll Store to pick out a doll for her birthday and some outfits to go with it. That girl was in HEA-VEN!!!!!! Read more about that here.

But here is the rest of our trip:

After we finished in the A.G. store, we found Daddy and the other kids in the Disney store. The worker saw that it was Maisey's birthday and gave her a crown and a button to wear. This girl felt pretty special.

We left the mall and headed toward downtown Seattle.

First stop: Space Needle. We didn't go to the top because I didn't think the kids would really get it or appreciate it, so we looked at it from down below.

What they do appreciate is a good ride. I love their faces!

We bought Shaun tickets to go on the ride so he could sit by Gage. But the lady made him sit way on the other side to "even things out." It looked pretty silly to see a grown man riding the kiddie ride! 

After the Space Needle area we headed to the water front for our birthday tradition of Red Robin.

This was our view from our table.

The birthday song!

After dinner we headed to the hotel to swim!

On Saturday morning, we were meeting my Uncle Jim and his family for breakfast, but not until 10 am. How do you keep kids quiet and busy in a hotel room for 3 hours?

iPad

and secret hide-outs with snacks.

I don't have any pictures at breakfast. It wasn't a super kid-friendly restaurant, Miley pretty much cried the whole time, and Gage peed his pants. I ended up out in the van with both of them! But it was fun to hear all about Jim and his family's expereince in London at the Olympics. They had just gotten back from their trip like two days before we came.

Based on our breakfast experiences, I should have known that the car ride home wasn't going to go well. It took us almost six hours to get home from a normally three hour trip. Lots of crying, lots of stopping, and lots of traffic. Oh well!