Morris Family in Mexico: Seattle Vacation

Last weekend we took a little family get-away to Seattle. With it being only three hours north of us, we felt that it would be a good vacation to have while Josh is still so young. It was a great trip filled with memories.

The first thing we did, and perhaps the boys' favorite, was a simple ferry ride over to Seattle. I had a hunch that all the kids would enjoy it. Josh especially loved it; there was a midway stop where he could sit on deck and watch cars load and unload onto the ferry--he was so excited about that!

Picnic lunch before boarding the ferry

The boys

It was raining the first day (a true Seattle experience), so while we waited out a storm, we road the "Great Wheel" on the waterfront. It's basically an enormous ferris wheel with gondola type carts. It was fun, but would have been better without huge storm clouds overhead.

I love Benji's smile

This picture gives a great view of Seth's black eye that he acquired at the neighbor's house a couple days before we left.

Oh a whim we stopped and let the boys ride the carousel. It was Josh's first ride. (Seth waving in picture)

The rain clouds cleared away and we headed to the Space Needle. Sam is pictured here outside of the armory where we ate dinner.

Benji was very patient in helping all the boys examine the city from the tower of the space needle.

Seattle is such a beautiful city!

Check out the rainbow!

Little rascal

Seth wanted a view from daddy's shoulders too.

Mommy and Josh

We really wish we would have known about this playground sooner. Unfortunately, it was about 9 o'clock as we passed it on our way to the car. We let the kids play for a bit, but they really could have spent hours there!

Joshy playing music at the park.

It was hard to believe that it was pouring rain earlier. It was a beautiful evening with a big moon next to the space needle.

Now begins the unfortunate part of the vacation: Josh had a really, really bad night of sleep. In fact so bad that he decided to stay awake almost all night: from 2:15 am...on...as in NEVER FELL BACK ASLEEP. What kid does that? Thankfully, Ben was a trooper and took the second shift (from 3-till sunrise). If it was me, I would have been a wreck. Ben, however, took it in stride and drove around the city with him. This is the view if you get to see the city wake up:

Beautiful, huh. Not sure it was worth it, though.

So, the second day, Ben and I were exhausted. We headed to the Museum of Flight, expecting Josh to fall asleep in the car or the stroller early on in the morning. Josh, however, is quite the strong-willed child and managed to stay awake until 1 in the afternoon--right before we were getting ready to leave the museum. Thankfully, he slept through the transfers from car to house and we got to take an afternoon nap with him! That allowed Ben to be rested up for the Mariner's Game with Seth and Sam that evening.

Seth's air force pilot face

Sam has perfected the camera smile

Josh loves driving things

This time flying a helicopter

One of the coolest things at the museum was the ability to tour several very unique jets. This is in front of a Boeing "Dreamliner". We also toured an air force one jet that Richard Nixon used!

The space gallery was really cool...but this was after lunch and we were exhausted. We'll have to return some day. The entire museum is amazing!

I don't have any pictures of one of my favorite memories with the big boys, but I wanted to write about it for remembrance sake. A couple weeks before leaving I finally implanted a chore system with Seth and Sam where they could earn small amounts ($.50 or $1) for specific chores. They therefore had around $15 to spend on souvenirs. It was very enjoyable for me to shop with them and help them with their purchases. I think that they really treasured the purchases because they had earned the money and I was happy to not have to shop alone!

This is the only picture from the baseball game because Ben's phone ran out of batteries. I love it, though, because of the joy in Seth's face. Apparently he was quite the super fan and loved cheering and wearing a rally cap during the game (which went to extra innings and due to missing the first bus, they didn't get home until 11:30 pm that night!) Ben said that the Mariner's game was one of his favorite memories because of the nostalgia of a Father taking his sons' to their first baseball game.

Day 3 we were planning on visiting Pike's Place Market downtown, but due to the advice of the owners of the home that we rented (we stayed in the downstairs apartment of a home in West Seattle via airbnb.com--a great experience!), we decided to forgo the touristy place and went to a local park and the beach instead. They were much more kid-friendly activities!

By this point I had thrown in the towel on getting a decent picture. The background sure is beautiful, though! We were awe-struck by the beauty of this area with all the surrounding water and mountains.

We bought the big boys shirts at the air museum and they just happened to wear matching shorts as well. It was so fun for me to see them looking so "twinish"