Washington Trip

Since the kids were born, I've been keeping journals for them. I tried to write in funny things that they say or just write about developmental milestones, or letters to give them advice that I think will help them when they're older. Well, awhile ago, I decided to move their journals into online blogs that I can add photos to and print off into blog books periodically. Those blogs are completely private and I'm the only one with access to them. But since I've been neglecting this blog in favor of recording more on the kids' blogs, I thought I'd just start pasting some of their entries in here so I can still stay connected with all my blogging friends. So, just to warn you-- some of my blog posts from here on out may begin with Dear Porter or Dear Lucy. If you see that, I guess you'll just know it's a stolen post from their journal blogs!

Here's our Thanksgiving trip recap:

Dear Porter,

For Thanksgiving this year we went to Washington. I was so excited to take you to the state where I grew up. For weeks leading up to our trip, I told you that we were going to visit the beach where I grew up. Soon you started telling me about when you go to my beach and how you're going to grow up big while you're there. I realized that you thought the beach had magically made me grow up. So funny!

Also, we often talked about going to Seattle. I didn't realize until right before our trip that you thought we were going to see Attle. I found out the misunderstanding when you asked one day who Attle was and when we were going to see him. Throughout the whole trip, you still referred to this person named Attle whenever we mentioned Seattle. Oh, how I love the way you teach me to look at things in new ways!

We had a very busy schedule while we were there. First, we started with an 11 hour drive that we split into two days. Grandma and Grandpa Nye originally planned this trip on their own, but very graciously let us ride along with them. You were so great during the drive-- except the time you peed your pants in your carseat on the drive back to Utah. I guess you didn't realize you had to go!

We spent our first full day in Washington visiting the island where Mommy "grew up." We visited my favorite beaches and drove by my old house and went to church at the Camano Island Ward and visited some of the people who have known Mommy since she was a little girl.

That day, we had dinner with the Morrill family in Snohomish. I used to babysit the Morrill boys when I was younger and now they are all so grown up! It made me worry about how fast you'll grow up too.

The next day we went to the Seattle Aquarium. You learned how to say sea anemone, which I think is the cutest thing in the world! You also got to touch sea stars, watch the octopus get fed, and watch a scuba diver teach you about the fish in the Pacific Northwest waters.

My favorite day was when we took a ferry to Bainbridge Island.

While there, we visited the Bloedel Reserve. We did a two-mile walk around the beautiful gardens and grounds of the Bloedel property. You found leaves there that were bigger than your head! You called them your treasures and I had to take a photo of them before I could convince you to leave them.

On Wednesday, we visited the Microsoft campus where Uncle Jeff works. There were so many cool things there-- I think Mommy had more fun than anyone with their FaceCake makeup station!

For Thanksgiving, we went to Marysville to spend the day with Dallan & Chelsea. They made the yummiest food and you had so much fun playing with Tanner and Claire.

We went to Seattle the next day. We started out at the Space Needle. You even got to visit with Santa at the top of the Needle.

Next, we went to Pike Place Market.

And we made a quick, disgusting stop at the Gum Wall to take some photos.

We stayed one more night in our hotel. You cried when we had to leave it.

On Saturday, we stopped to see Snoqualmie Falls before heading out on the first leg of our journey back home to Utah.

We were sad to leave behind our cousins and Aunts & Uncles who live there. But we had so much fun! And don't worry- I'll do all I can to make sure we make more trips back to Mommy's favorite state as often as possible!