Seattle, I love you!

Pretty much every time Jake goes out of town, I wish one of my sisters could be shipped to me. Or I daydream about visiting them. And this time when Jake left for Kiev, I was especially achey for some sister time. And lucky for Marie, her place is the only realistic option. So the day before Jake left, I started brainstorming. Who could make the roadtrip with me so last minute?

When Marie suggested Tiff&Treena I was sold. They were the PERFECT roadtrip buddies: They're giggly, chatty, and adorable. I practically wanted to hire them to come with me. And I probably should have, cause for that week we spent together each of my children had their own personal nanny.

 It. Was. Bomb. (Thank you, Tiff&Treena!!)

We started our long trek on a Thursday afternoon and as soon as we were all in the car together, we wanted to bust open all our snacks. ROADTRIP!

When our hair got greasy. And our makeup smeared from exhaustion. And we ate a 10 lbs bag of peanut butter m&m's. And Annabelle spilled milkshake all.over.herself. And peed on the side of the road every ten minutes. And we still had 3 hours to go and felt so close, but then realized we still have  t h r e e hours to go. We just yelled out R O A D T R I P and that made it all better.

We stayed the night in Oregon on the way there (take note: that is a smart move ye Washington-bound road-trippers!) and got to Marie's Friday afternoon. And from then on life was bliss. Annabelle was in cousin heaven. Henry was maybe put down once the entire 5 days we were there. And we stayed up late and laughed. A lot. 

We went shopping, took the ferry into Seattle, ate yummy food and treats, jumped on the trampoline (I need one!!), went to the most beautiful beach, and just enjoyed being together. It was one of my favorite trips. I had to remind myself extra hard this time to bring my camera when we went out and about. Whenever I'm with Lu or Marie, I just let them take all the pictures and then I go home with none. I learned my lesson this trip ;) But only partially, cause I only have pictures from our day in Seattle and at the beach (which I'll save for another post).

I noticed that Liam is in 90% of all my pictures, and am therefore dubbing him most cooperative kid to take pictures of. He is such a little sweetheart! He let Annabelle love on him whenever she wanted to. And he adored little Henry and spent a good 30 minute of our ferry ride holding and kissing him. While we were in the car on our way to the ferry he rode in my car and sat in the same row as Henry. A couple minutes into our drive he perked up and said:"I'm pretty lucky, cause I get to sit right next to Henry!" Gasp. Can I keep you, little Liam?

We had lunch on the ferry, and the little toddlers ran free. (I'm certain we were a fun circus of crazies to watch.) Once we docked, we walked to Pike's Place and let the kids choose a pastry from the cutest bakery. Annabelle got a jumbo cinnamon roll, and ate the w h o l e thing. Henry slept most of the day, and we hiked up two San Francisco-like hills to get to some shopping, just to realize it was all for nothing.  Again, we probably looked pret-ty awesome pushing two double strollers full of a million children up a mountain. 

Workout: Check!

We found a playground in the middle of the city, bought some yummy hotdogs from a street vendor, and just sat for two hours while the kids played. It was just what we needed. :)

On our way back to the ferry we stopped at Ivar's and got fries to feed the seagulls. I now feel like a true seasoned Seattle-goer. Bring it on.

The girls each took turns getting their arms, face, and legs tickled by Aunt Tiffy on the way home. They both practically fell asleep in her arms and I'm fairly certain our day in Seattle would have been a throbbing headache, had we not had Tiff&Treena. (T h a n k  y o u!!)

It was a beautiful day.

I love Marie, and I love her babies. 

And I loved every second of being in Seattle.