Washington Trip

Last week I flew by myself with all 4 kids up to Washington. I was super stressed about the flights but the kids did great and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. They were all so excited to fly and it was fun to watch their excitement. The older kids haven't flown since we moved to Arizona and Addie and Emery had never flown before. I had prepared very well and had a ton of new activities for them to do, a gazillion snacks and had my iphone/ipad/iTouch for the older kids to watch movies and play games on. 

 We were lucky that MS bought Emery her own seat so my hands were free to deal with the other kids if I needed to. She was a trooper and didn't mind flying at all.

I decided to fly into Portland since that is close to where my sister lives and she very, very graciously offered to watch all 4 kids so we could spend a few days getting things done in Seattle without them. My kids were thrilled with the arrangement since it meant more days with their cousins. Allen and I drove up to Seattle on Wednesday morning. We spend most of Wednesday looking at a few preschools for Addison. On Thursday morning we did a walk-thru of our new house. I LOOOOOOVE our new neighborhood and especially love that we are in a cul-de-sac with lots of kids around. I like the house a lot and we found out that the owners recently relocated to another state and are looking to sell their home this winter. It might work out perfectly for us if we decide we like the house enough to buy it. We also signed up for a gym membership, looked at another preschool and got our older kids signed up for swim team and sports.

That evening we headed into downtown Seattle to play. 

Some friends from here told us about a Cajun restaurant we wanted to try. Oh.my.word. This meal was easily one of the best I've ever eaten! We bought the 4 course meal and everything was incredible and I took a picture of every course (not all included here). Allen with the fried chicken jambalaya:

My crab and grapefruit salad:

We also had boar sausage with fontina cheese, crawfish beignets, gnocchi with deep fried arugula, shrimp gumbo, bananas foster and pear tart. After our meal and so stuffed it wasn't funny! The ambiance was incredible and we felt like we had stepped into old New Orleans. 

Friday morning we went to a session at the Seattle temple and met my cousin for lunch. We then went back into Seattle to watch Avengers in 3D Imax. It was a great movie and so fun to see it on a HUGE screen. One of the many perks with Allen's new job is $3 tickets to any movie. Sweet! After the movie we headed back down to Portland to be with the kids for a few days. It was a very full 3 days in Seattle but we got a lot done. I still haven't picked a preschool for Addison and I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that situation. PS in Seattle is VERY expensive (as in equivalent to a car payment every month expensive) so I'm still exploring my options.

My sister, her husband and two oldest kids left for Hawaii on Saturday morning so we had her younger 3 girls all day Saturday. We went to a nearby lake and let the kids play for a couple hours at the park and hiked around the lake. I almost can't believe I'm moving to such a gorgeous place! As Allen and I went out running in Seattle I was stunned at the beauty of the area. I'm sure we'll get used to it and know it comes at a price (rain!) but it took my breath away while I was there

 Learning to skip rocks:

 Cheesy baby! Please stop growing up!!

 This picture cracks me up as it was a wrestling dog pile on Allen. There is a reason he is the all time favorite uncle!

We took all 7 kids out to eat a couple different time and while the kids did great (for real!), we got TONS of looks from people trying to figure out how many kids we had and if they could all possibly be ours. It could be possible if we had two sets of twins (thank goodness we don't!)

 We flew home Sunday morning and the kids did great again on a very busy travel day. I'm so grateful my sister was so willing to help us out with the kids even though she was incredibly busy and stressed herself. It was so nice to spend a few days alone with Allen and get some things done for the move.

This is the big week! Our packers show up on Friday and then again on Tuesday. Our truck is loaded on Wednesday (next week). Thursday the cleaners come in and Friday is the last day of school. Busy couple of weeks coming up!