Road Trip!

A few weeks ago, we packed our bags, loaded up the car, and hit the road.  This is our first trip just the four of us and the farthes Isla has been!  I was nervous and excited.  We got up "early" (0700ish) in hopes to hit the around 0800.  Well, you know how that goes...0830 rolled around and we were finally moving.  We hit the bank for some cash and then headed for coffee.  It was then that I realized I had left my phone at home and we had to turn around!  We hit I90 at 0930...oh well!

Despite my fears, the kids did remarkable well in the car.  Miles asked, about 30 times, "are we there yet?"  It must be something you're born with!  We stopped at one rest stop, then not again till Ellensburg.  We ate lunch in the car, but hit up McDonald's for a snack and to let the kids run around.  The weather was ok for driving...random cloudbursts with downpours, but otherwise mostly sunny.

It poured right before we got to Ellensburg, so the toys were a bit wet.  We had to change Isla's pants when we got back to the car!

They enjoyed eating french fries and nuggets (they split a happy meal) and stretching their legs.  Then we got back into the car and headed to North Bend for a bit of shopping.  We arrived around 2:30.  We stayed for two hours...big mistake!  When we left, we knew we were going to hit rush hour.  It took us 2 hours and a slight detour to get to our hotel in Kirkland...woops!  During this portion of the ride, Miles proclaimed that, "I hate this car.  I don't want to sit a minute longer.  I hate sitting!  My bummy hurts!  I hate this car!"  It made me laugh :).  Other than that, both kids were great.  Isla slept all of 10min, but there were no major melt downs or tantrums.  They read books and talked to each other.

Afer arriving in Kirkland, we had dinner and headed back to our tiny hotel room.  It was a bit of a disastor.  Our King "mini" suite sure was mini!  Miles slept on the couch instead of the pull out bed because if you pulled the bed out, you had to climb over it to get to the bathroom!  Insane.  Also, with the bed out, there was no room for the pack n play for Isla...not that it mattered.  The first night, we all four ended up in the king bed by 9:30!

The next morning, we headed south to Renton for an Ikea run.  We hadn't planned on hitting up Ikea, so we didn't bring money for shopping and also didn't have room in the ol' Forester for anything.  We did purchase a new "sparky" dog, as Miles gave his old one to Auntie Annie for her birthday one year.  Sparky came in handy!  We met Tim and Heidi and the girls at Ikea.  Somehow I managed to not get any pictues of them or Ikea...apparently I was slacking!  We wandered around and daydreamnt about having an Ikea near home...

Then we hit up the only (or one of the only) Popeye's Chicken places this end of the country.  Ben loves thie place!

After Renton, we went back north to Seattle for a trip to the science center.  The day was decent...partly sunny with some scattered sprinkles.

Miles is holding his new Batman that we purchased at the outlet malls for a non-outlet price!  He loves it and carried it everywhere all week!

We also admired the Chahuli glass garden from outside the fence.  That yellow "flower" is made from glass!!!  Beautiful.  The exhibit was a bit spendy, and not something the kids would have appriciated (not to mention that we would be paranoid taking toddlers/little kids in there!)...so we snapped this picture and moved along :).

I have about 300 picures from the science center, so that it coming in it's own post.  Our trip got off to a great start!