Seattle

 I wanted to post a few pictures of our time spent in Seattle. It was a whirlwind of a visit but my family enjoyed it. We are ever so grateful to Ilene and Richard for their hospitality and love. Here are some pictures and a few stories from our adventures.

This was around 5:30AM on our way out of Salt Lake City. Yes we travel early and and we made it to Seattle in one day. And no it was not as bad as I thought it would be. Our kids were relatively well behaved and the traveling was smooth.

We arrived in Seattle on a Saturday night. The next Sunday we spent most of our time loving my grandparents in Redmond. They are really getting older. Every moment with them is precious to me. The following day we went to Alki Beach.

The kids love to walk beaches. Jace however thought the beach was dirty and refused to walk on it asking for a cleaner beach. He really is his fathers son.

It was a bit nippy.

Sage and Ashton enjoyed finding treasures.

My father loves to pick up these white rocks while walking Alki beach. I decided to continue the tradition. If you can't have something, you might as well take part of it home with you.

We went a little further up the beach and found a bunch of tide pools with a ton of critters in them.

The crab is dead, otherwise I am not sure Ashton would want to hold it. Those things can pinch!

Sage found several clam shells that were still attached with other little critter residing inside. Unfortunately our tide pool excursion was cut short because Sage broke her flip flop and cut herself on some barnacles.  I got to pack her out on my back. Good thing she is little!

We ate our traditional Fish and Chips at Spud.

Curtis and I got the Halibut and Chips, Ashton got the Fried Clams and Chips, and Sage as usual got the Clam Chowder. Ryker munched off of all our meals and Jace slept through lunch. Jace was not feeling well. We liked Spud and would go there again. Thanks Ilene for the suggestion.

Back at Richard's and Ilene's the kids loved playing with Buffy.

Ryker snuck outside in his diaper to toss a ball to his puppy cousin.

The next day we headed off to Rainier National Park. It was a perfect day and we tried to see as much as we could in a short period of time. Did you know that Curtis climbed Mt. Rainier all the way to the peak when he was 18? Does that surprise anyone? I didn't think so. Over 15 years later he returns with a wife and 4 kids. Crazy how time changes things.

On our way we saw these neat motel rooms made out of box cars. Ryker LOVES trains and was excited to see them.

We went on the perfect day! The sky was clear and we could see for miles.

Entering the park.

One of the many falls in the park.

Family picture.

Mt Rainier. Isn't it pretty.

The little one.

The little bit bigger one.

The big ones.

Ryker learned what a waterfall was that day.

So pretty.

On our last day we just hung out with family. I unfortunately did not get a picture of Grams and Gramps this time around. The best part of Seattle is my family. I love my family.

Uncle Richard taught Jace how to water all his plants.