Seattle 2010

Poor Israel's stuck way in the back. Our car is the perfect size for five people and a huge cargo area for everyone's gear. Six is a little tighter when we have to put one seat back in. (But I actually think Israel like having the back to himself most of the time.)

So we loaded everyone up--on sort of a last minute trip-- and headed to Seattle. We kept trying to figure out how to do some sort of a family vacation this year and every single time we had a possibility for a time/ place and tried to work the details we'd discover that we are way too busy. We never seem to have much down time in the summer. (One of the reasons it's taken me two weeks to even get the photos off my camera.) Also, we are broke. It's amazing how much going anywhere with six people costs, no matter how frugal you try to be. So we settled for a long weekend trip to Seattle.

And the Yankees were in town. My boys don't always dress like this. Okay, maybe they do.

So we drove all the way to a real city. We saw cool things; did fun sorts of stuff:

saw some Yankees up close & in person (even some of their favorite Yankees!)

wandered around down on the Pier...ate yummy food at Ivars, checked out the kids' favorite shops

enjoyed all the water built into Seattle's streets and sidewalks

checked out all the treasures at Pike's Market (and sampled a few...)

spent an afternoon exploring the Science Center...

And this is what I discovered: next time we should just drive to Spokane, find a hotel with a pool and head to Chuck E. Cheese. To really make it an awesome trip for everyone, we'd probably have to stop at Cabella's, too. Israel's most exciting part of the trip may have been the Cabella's sighting on the way back and we didn't even stop. Poor kid.

A hotel with a bed or two for bouncing. (Not necessarily for sleeping. It was much more fun to build beds in the closet and under the desk. )

A trip to Chuck E. Cheese: a little pizza & a handful of tokens and they're happy for hours. Israel thought he might be a little too old for this place. He thought some of the stuff was okay, but he wasn't as excited about it as the younger kids. I agreed with him that he might be right, but the "too old" thing was probably only a phase.  I pointed out all the mid 20 & 30-year-old guys with their mounds of tickets (in fact the bulk of the crowd cashing them in). Once you have kids, I guess its okay to enjoy the kid games again.

Zoran spent a lot of time at the ball ones. Imagine that.

Lex liked any that involved driving. Luckily there were a lot of rides in this category.

And after Pizza and games, they need a pool.

And that really is about their favorite part. (Not really Dev's favorite part, but he still seems pretty happy.)

Dev and Israel "stretching." Zoran was confused why no one was actually stretching (except him) when Dev said he needed to pull over and stretch his legs. Stretching is a new thing for Zoran. He just learned about it at basketball camp. At first it was much too slow and boring for him and stole time from him he could have been using to play basketball. Then Dev explained why it was important and how all athletes stretch. It's not so bad anymore.

If we only drive 2-3 hours it would be a much easier trip. We'd also need fewer breaks for stretching. If Missoula would just build a Chuck E Cheese the trip could be even easier.

Okay, now on to sort through photos and actually post some highlights from some of what we did.