Science Center

After Ikea and lunch, we hit up the Pacific Science Center.  I was so excited to take the kids, espeically Miles!

I was so afraid Miles was going to fall in the water!  He liked looking at the dinosaurs.

We first walked quickly through the dinosaur exhibit.  Miles didn't like the sounds or moving dinos.  We progressed into the exhibit about space.  He loved the space shuttle!

The lighting was really really poor, so please forgive the quality of these.

Isla joined him and enjoyed sitting in the seat as copilot.

Then we went to the play area with all the hands on things for kids.

I remember a bubble exhibit when I was a kid, but they don't have that anymore.

Again, Isla the copilot!

The wheel he's turning made a helicopter blade go around.

Then the kids made some music in the music room.  All kinds of things to bang on!

Isla always enjoys climbing and sliding.

And she's subjected to role of copilot yet again:

He's helping her put her buckle on...such a good big brother.  Someday she'll push him out of the drivers seat!

They also have some sea creatures you can touch.  Miles enojoyed it.  Isla wouln't put her hands in the water.

But, she was happy to look!

Miles loved digging these marbles with the digger.  He did really well.

Isla especially loved all the wacky mirrors.

This rope is to pull up a 250kg weight on the end of a lever.  You can slide the rope along the lever to make it easier or harder to lift.  Miles liked swinging from it :).

The kids had a lot of fun in this room with zippers, weights, textures, mirrors, etc.  It was fun to watch them explore.  Then we went back near the beginning to the bugs!

By this point, Isla was back in her stroller, so we skipped the butterfly room.  There are no strollers aloud :(.  I knew if we took her back out, that getting her back in would be torture and we'd be fighting a meltdown.

When we went back through to the start, Miles changed his mind about the dinosaurs, so we checked them out, too.

Back outside, there are some water toys, squirters, etc.  Miles enjoyed spraying things, like a good fireman!

Then Ben and Miles did the human hamster water wheel!

Watch Miles' feet in these two pictures.  First he started with his feet up high to help get it going...

Then:

Ben would get it going too fast and miles would end up on his belly!  He thought it was fun :).

We had a great day at the science center.  It was everything I imagined it would be :).  Miles kept asking if we were going to go back!

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!

Memorial Day Weekend

I know I'm about a month late on this post, but better late than never, right?  This past Memorial Day weekend, we headed up to the cabin for some fun at the lake.  Oh how I'm looking forward to many fun relaxing weekends at the lake this summer.  The kids and Ben went up with Grandma Sara on Friday afternoon and I crossed my fingers that I could get the night off work and head up early Saturday morning.  Unfortunately, I ended up working until about 3am, but that gave me enough time to get some sleep and get up around 8 to head north and not waste the day!

The kids both had a great time playing with Grandma S.

Miss Isla LOVES reading books! 

And I relaxed a bit and enjoyed the view. 

Saturday was very very windy with one storm that passed through, but the other days were decent.

Ben and I enjoyed a night by the fire pit making s'mores as usual.

On Sunday, Tom and Sara had to run to town.  We hung around the cabin and had a nice picnic lunch.  Miles is back to full force fireman mode.  Occasionally Batman surfaces, but he loves being a fireman because of access to the hose in the summer! 

The hose, and water squirters! 

We roasted hot dogs and ate melons and a nice fresh salad.

And I had a little photo shoot with Miss Isla.

Before leaving Monday, we headed down to the water.

Miles was very excited to go fishing!

We didn't actually go out in the boat.  Miles just climbed in to fish a bit.  However, Tom and Ben headed out a couple times and got several fish on Sunday night.

Miss Isla loved putting her feet into the water.  It was soo cold that I couldn't even get mine all the way in!  I think she would have gone for a swim if I had let her.

Once again, we had a lovely holiday weekend relaxing at the cabin and enjoying our surroundings!