Cooler weather

We are getting into the swing of things after missing a full week of school. The kids had tons of make-up work otherwise I would have blogged about our trip sooner. Really content with the direction of my kids education right now. They are happy, healthy, and well adjusted. Aiden is doing well with pre-k, and Emi seems to love Tuesday school. Going full force with activities as usual. Zac is playing flag football and they won their first game 20-12. All the kids are in gymnastics on Wednesdays, and Angie and Tony are taking music lessons at Howard Payne. Angie is continuing with voice, and Tony is taking piano. Tony's teacher says that he has good natural rhythm. Lol. His whole world is a musical. Angie is in 4H this year, and she is doing the food and nutrition because they have a team event similar to Chopped or Iron Chef.

We left on Tuesday the 30th and spent the night in a hotel close to the airport. Our flight left at 7:50 in the morning. Mom and Pam had to hightail it home because Pam forgot her passport. They got back to the hotel in time to shower and head to the airport. It was funny because Pam kept telling everyone not to forget theirs, and she brought her fancy passport book, but not her passport. The kids did great on the plane. Aiden and Zac sat next to each other and played and giggled. Pam was super grumpy, but they weren't bad. We did separate them on the way home, and they both slept. Tony was terrified to fly, and I was seriously wondering if I was going to have to sedate him. He kept saying things like "I'd rather crash and burn up after I graduate from High school," and "if we make it to seattle" As we took off, he said "remember that time you tricked me into going on the roadrunner at fiesta texas? well, its like that only not as scary. I bet I've matured enough to try that ride again".

We got to Seattle about 10:30 in the morning, so we headed over to the Experience Music Project, EMP. This place is just cool. Brian was super excited because they had a battlestar gallactica exhibit. Brian and my mom used to have a date every Friday for sci fi Friday to watch it. The exhibit talked about how playing different music with the same scene invokes a different emotion. Since we had already paid for parking, and the Space needle was next door, we went up. Really, its not a big deal, and doesn't take very long, but my kids were super excited about it. After that we drove to Bellingham, Wa and stayed the night. The kids swam in the pool, then we bought a few groceries to take across the border, and went out to eat with John and Kristi. We went to some restaurant called Billy Mchales. The food was delicious. Angie wanted the seafood chowder. I normally am not a fan, but it was super tasty. It had salmon, scallops, shrimp, potatoes, and the ingredient that makes anything taste good....bacon.
The next morning we ate breakfast outside on the patio. Seriously, I could have sat there forever. It was in the 60's, there were birds, flowers and these big huge trees.

But, we had a border to cross. It wasn't far to the border at all. Less than half an hour. The peace arch is no longer there, but that border crossing is beautiful. We drove to tswassen and boarded the ferry. It was about an hour and a half to the island. John and Kristi were 2 cars behind us. We had reservations for the ferry, but they put us in an overflow line, and said that we might get on an earlier one. Well, we were the last car on. The ferry was literally pulling out before we even got out of the rented 12 passenger van, leaving our friends to catch the next one. The ferry really is a neat experience. its very comfortable and you can sit inside or outside. There are cafes, arcades, a play area for small kids etc.

We got the the island and the drive to Tofino was longer than we expected. The island is wild. Dense trees, mountains, lakes, streams...amazing. You really get the feel that maybe there are things yet to discover and explore. We stopped and walked around this place called cathedral grove. It was breathtaking walking around 800 year old Douglas fir trees. We drove onto our house we rented. It is definately the way to go. We had a hot tub, three bedrooms and 2 baths plus a full kitchen. Tofino is a tourist place, but they weren't overly friendly. Most places were cash only, but took American money.

Friday we went to our friends wedding on Chesterman beach. Brian and John went over early to hang out with Jack and Kristi and I walked around town and went to lunch. Everyone wore thin strapped dresses to the wedding. It was 60 degrees that day on the beach, I wore pants:) Kristi and I arrived to see John and Brian sweeping the beach and arranging chairs. It was nice even if I thought it was comical. There reception was at their rented house and it was nice. They had a brunch the next day and said we could bring the kids. We stayed maybe and hour and a half and then walked down to the tide pools and looked at starfish, anemones and hermit crabs etc. Then we went to some ladies house and bought fresh live dungeoness crabs. She killed them for us and removed the lungs. My kids were super curious about that and wanted to watch. I went outside at the first crunch. But we took them home and had a huge crab boil.

Sunday we went out on a boat and went whale watching. We saw an eagle, puffins, Stellar sea lions, which are the largest in the world. I'm talking massive. Then we saw a humpback and grey whales as well as a few harbor dolphins. The boat took us to the hot springs and we hiked through the forest maybe a mile and a half of boardwalk, lots of stairs. The hot springs were beautiful. THe hot water bubbled out of the rocks and mixed with the cold ocean water, plus the view! Well, may legs were jello walking back, and Emi was super tired but it was so worth it. On the way back we saw Orcas! Mommas and babies. One even breached for us! Not something they normally do in the wild, and they are transient, so they are only there every few weeks. Such a lucky day.

Monday we drove back to Seattle. As we were leaving we saw a bear and some otters swimming on the lake. It took us the whole day to get there. We stayed at the Comfort Suites in Tukwila and it was lovely. We had two queens, a king and a sleeper sofa. Plenty of room, and mom, dad and pam had their own room. They had a really nice indoor pool, good breakfast, and they had an afternoon snack from 5-7, salad, fruit, wings, and muffins. There is so much to do in Seattle, but we got to see the aquarium. Highlight for me, the kids got to ask a diver questions and Aiden asked her how an anemone eats. She said "here I'll show you," and she fed it a fish! It slurped it right in. They had several touch tanks which was cool. We had a delicious lunch at the waterfront and walked around some. There are lots of people there and my anxiety was building, so we didn't get to see Pikes market. Another time we will have to see them throw the fish. But, we went to the museum of flight. Man, this is a must. We didn't get to see nearly half of it. I should have alloted more time. They have Johnson's Airforce one, a concorde, and countless other planes. They have a space exhibit, a full WW1, WW2 exhibit, and a control tower.

Our week zipped by. This was a huge vacation for us that required alot of thought and planning. We now know that we can do it. Next big vacation will have to be someplace tropical, but I can't tell you what a blessing it was to escape the heat for a little while.

Fiesta Texas

I may get pictures on here later, I may not. I like to use disposable cameras for trips like this. That way I'm not worried about the camera getting lost, dropped, wet etc. I worked Monday and mom took the older kids down Monday night and stayed at the Holiday inn since she had a free night stay to use. BRian and I came down Tuesday with the babies.

Our plan was to get up about 7 and leave by 8 so we'd be there shortly before after opening. WEll, I was exhausted from working and driving home, so we got up around 8:30 and were on the road about 9:30. SO, we got there around noon. WE waited to meet up with the gang, so Brian and I rode the teacups with Aiden and Emi. The kids had a blast, but those rides make Brian ill. Give him a big ole roller coaster and he's fine, but anything that goes round and round and he is green as a gourd. I later had to ride the carousel without him. THankfully Pam was there to help with the little ones.

SO, we met mom and the kids for lunch. They were super pumped. They had most of the kiddie rides 2-3 times each. Then, Angie tricks me into getting into the front seat of the log ride with her and we were soaked. I wish I would have thought to put on my water shoes. The kids rode some more rides, Aiden was too short for most of them, but we did get him on the gully washer which he loved. WE took the bigger kids on the roadrunner express. I thought it would be like the runaway mine train but it ended up being a bigger roller coaster. TOny was crying and he said he felt tricked.

Then we headed to the water park. THis was a bit stressful for me. Emi was completely fearless and so was Aiden. Next year will be better. SO, the bigger kids rode some slides with Pam and Brian and mom and I worked hard at trying to keep up with the babies. It was neat to see the looney toons characters. Zach had to give everyone we ran into a huge hug.

THey were so sad to leave. Mom rushed them over to the ferris wheel because Zachy really wanted to ride it and apparently there were several more kid rides over there. They were exhausted though.

And everyone crashed in the car except Emi, who took a 30 minute power nap and then was awake the rest of the time. She has traveled in the car the least of my kiddos and does the worst. Its not horrible, but its not great either.

Back from the Beach

So, we are back. I'll try to get some pictures on here later in the week. I got a couple of good ones. We left after Brian got off work on monday, so it was after 5. That got us to Port A around midnight, and Emi and Aiden were up until after three. Not sure if we will leave like that again, or if it is just because they are so young--we'll see. But, after that rough night, the rest of the trip was much better. We played on the beach the first day just Brian the kids and I. The kids buried us in sand, and Zach kept exfoliating me, and i for the first time in my life, burnt part of my butt cheeks. That night we caught crabs on the beach, and we found two live starfish. One was missing most of its legs and in the process of making new ones. The next day we took the kids to the Marine institute. This was free and there isn't much there, but of course, Tony loved it.

We watched a video on sponges (yawn) and All the kids except Tony took a nap in the AC. Then we played in the water some more. The next day we took the kids to the State Aquarium and Zach was dying to pet the sting rays. The tank was super crowded with people and everytime one would get close to Zach a big kid would dive in front of him and touch it before he could. SO, we left to look at other things and came back. I got Zach in the perfect spot for his height and he could have stayed there all day. Emi LOVED the shark tank and she kept getting down and running toward it after we left that area. She picked an alligator of all things from the gift shop, and it has been everywhere with her.

My mom wanted to take the kids to the beach one more time before we left, so she got them up at 7. Angie and Zach ended up being the only two to go. Tony was in the worst mood and went back to bed. Brian and I were cracking up. We left Port A about 1 and stopped at the childrens museum in san antonio to break the day up a bit. The kids got to run around a bit for a couple of hours before we continued our trip home.

We went to eat at Landrys in Corpus using our garage sale money, and I have to say the food was fabulous. I this giant seafood kabob with shrimp and scallops, tilapia and veggies and some of Brian's bananas foster crepe for dessert. Today is a lazy day.