The BELATED Seattle Post

Yeah, yeah. I know. I've been back from our trip from Washington for nearly two weeks and I still haven't done a post about it. Until now, that is. Here's what we did in a nutshell.

First, you must know that we drove. With two children, one of whom wasn't even a year old at the time. Thank goodness for portable DVD players and friends who loan them to you, is all I can say. John and I expected the worst possible drive EVER. But ya know what? It really wasn't. The kids even did this part of the time (please notice Faith's face. She was sticky from head to toe because we kept passing treats back to keep her happy:

The first stop on our 10 hour drive was to visit my Dad and Step-mom in Kennewick. My Dad basically had it calculated to the minute of when we would walk through the door. I think they were anxious for our arrival. But definitely not as anxious as we were to get there. When we walked in the door, we had a beautiful sit-down dinner waiting for us and wonderful accommodations. It was my first time seeing their Kennewick home and it was really lovely. I didn't want to leave. And it made me feel like a kid again getting pampered and taken care of with meals cooked for me the whole time. I wonder if that's what it feels like to be famous?

I just learned that the store WINCO stands for Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Oregon. Oh, how I wish there was a 'U' in there somewhere. It's my favorite place. Ever. And ya know what they have there? ROCK CANDY!!!!! I haven't had rock candy since I was a kid. Did you know that rock candy has the very essential ingredient of chocolate??

I'm craving it as we speak. You should know that I consumed about a pound and afterwards my stomach protruded like a 5 month pregnant woman. It's not a vacation unless you eat yourself sick, I say.

The candy is pictured below. It looks like beautiful polished rocks. That is until you bit them and see the delicious chocolate center!

The next day, my Dad had taken off work to spend some time with us. First we went to a great park right on the Colombia River shoreline, then to lunch and then off to Sacajawea State Park.

My Dad and Faith at the Park. Yes. Those are chips we are feeding my baby.

Bette, My Dad and Levi at the park.

Shoreline of the Colombia River

John and Levi put their feet into the Colombia River.

The next morning we were off to Puyallup where we stayed for three nights. The very first thing I saw when we started driving were the beautiful rhododendrons. They were EVERYWHERE!! I immediately wanted to come home and plant some. That is until I found out they don't do so well here.

John served his LDS Mission in the Puyallup area of Washington. Below is a picture of just one of the places John lived. Believe me when I say the picture doesn't do it justice. We thought we were going to get shot. Seriously.

The following morning we were off to BEAUTIFUL SEATTLE!!!

We took the ferry from Bainbridge Island on the Olympic Peninsula. It was so much fun!! It was FREEZING COLD most of the time we were in Washington. But I honestly didn't care.

Faith thought it was fun to crawl around in the disgusting ferry. That kid has never been so dirty as when she was on this trip.

Here's John and Levi on the outside deck of the ferry.

Anyone who knows me probably knows that one of the things I was MOST excited to do on the trip would be the FOOD. I seriously had dreams about it before we left. As soon as we got off the ferry, my dreams all came true when we went to Ivar's restaurant. It's right off the pier and we got this great window seat where got to see the waterfront fire boats and a cute sea lion that kept dipping in and out of the water. Levi and Faith were in HEAVEN.

I'm dreaming again about the food. Namely the crab dip appetizer we had. OH. MY. GOSH. It was delectable.

Levi, John and Faith at our seat. Faith loved the clam chowder.

After lunch we were off to see the Space Needle. I tried not to barf as we took the ride to the top. It felt like we were going to fall off. And my mind thought up all these horrible scenarios of how far the drop would be. You don't realize how high up you are until you hop on the elevator and start moving.

I never knew how afraid of heights I was until I was at the top. Holding Faith near the edge really freaked me out. And when Levi was trying to climb up the wall a little to see out, I freaked everyone out that was up there when I yelled for him to get down.

There was a lady at the top that took our picture. Then we wanted one from another angle and we asked her again. She said to us, "you guys don't get out much, do you?" It was sort of funny and sort of rude all at the same time. OH, and sort of true.

Here's Levi freaking me out at the top of the Space Needle.

After our fun experience at the Space Needle, we were off to Pike's Market. It was one of my favorite things about the entire trip. They have these HUGE bouquets of flowers that are only like 10 bucks. It's amazing. John kept offering to buy me some, but I didn't know what I would do with them. Oh, and all the produce!! If I lived close to that market, I would be there every single day.

Here's Levi just outside of the market next to the grungiest of the grunge band. See that person on the right? It's a girl. For serious. Zoom in on the picture and check out Levi's face. Oh, and while you're at it, check out the band and the man-chick.

You haven't experienced Pike's Market unless you see the guys throwing the fish. Too bad I didn't get an actual picture of a fish in the air. You'll just have to imagine it.

On our way out, I decided to buy a ring. It's a gorgeous purple jade. They didn't have my size so I decided to get the size bigger and have it re-sized when I got home. I wore it out of the market. I had to go to the bathroom at the grossest McDonald's EVER. What happened, you ask? Let me tell you. My ring slipped off my finger and into the black hole of the McDonald's toilet. I stood there for a second deciding what to do. I had just bought it not 15 minutes earlier. The bathroom was crowded with tons of people. People who could probably see through the tiny cracks of the stall. I did what anyone should have done to save their precious treasure and dove in to the toilet, pants still around my ankles and retrieved my purple ring. I wonder if anyone saw me through the cracks.

Don't worry. I washed my hands four times. But once I told John the story, he decided he didn't want to hold my hand anymore. RUDE!

One of the other reasons (besides our own selfish ones) for going to Seattle was to attend the wedding of our nephew on John's side. Nate and Kate (isn't that cute) got married in the Seattle temple. The grounds were so beautiful!

Later that evening was the reception. The funniest thing happened there. While the bride was dancing with her father, Levi decided he would like to dance too. He sought out a girl (twice his size) and asked her to dance. He was very serious. She said yes and he put his arms around her and danced back and forth, back and forth perfectly to the song. He kept looking at Kate's Dad and following every move he made. He'd put both hands up on her shoulders, then he'd clasp his right hand in her left while his left hand on her shoulder, then back to both hands on her shoulders. We were all DYING!!!!!! We didn't capture the moment until he chose to dance with her a second time. Nothing was like the first!!!! The whole place was roaring with laughter.

The clincher was when the song was over and he thanked her and then puckered up for a kiss. The girl shrugged her shoulders, bent down and gave him one smack dab on the lips. When the song was over, Levi literally had a LINE of little girls (at least 5) waiting to be next to dance with him. They were all giddy an blushing. It's going to be one of those moments that's talked about for years. That Levi is such a ham!

Here's Levi and the lucky lady

Footage of the dancing. I SO SO SO SO BADLY wish I had footage of the original dance. This is still cute, but still...

The next day, we were back off to Kennewick to break up the driving time. Once again, my Dad and Bette had a lovely dinner waiting for us. It felt like home and we just relaxed and enjoyed ourselves. We also got to see the Colombia River Washington Temple. It was beautiful. It even had little wild bunnies just hopping around the grounds.

We got a good night's sleep and prepared for the long drive home. The kids did well again. We were so lucky!!! Levi finally got his happymeal that he'd been begging for since the trip started.

This trip went without a hitch! I already want to go back desperately!! Family vacations are so much fun. They really put things into perspective. It took a while to function normally once we got home. Which explains why this post took me so long to get to.

If you read this far, you're either family or a true fan. Thank-You!!!