"This was the best vacation ever!!" were the rave reviews of ten children in the Houston household. Mom and Dad agree wholeheartedly! Abby didn't know what a vacation was. She asked me, "mom, are you going on vacation too?" I then explained to her that vacation was family days over and over again, every day for two weeks!! She liked that idea!! The vacation actually ended up being a "stay"cation which meant mom got to sleep in her own bed each and every night.....a definite positive for a seven month pregnant mama!! So, what did we end up doing on this stay cation? Wellllll.... we started out resting. Yep, we were LAZY for the first couple of days. We slept in, watched videos, and just did nothing! Then, began the adventures. First, we went to the Mariners baseball game against the Rays. They won 8-2 with 4 home runs!! Very exciting! The next day was spent preparing for our outings...this means getting groceries so we could pack lunches and snacks, and getting laundry done so we could have clothes to wear. :-)
 |
| Go Mariners!! |
 |
| Peek a boo! |
We ended up getting Seattle city passes for our adventures. You may wonder what are city passes, and what do they include? Well, many cities have them, and they include a great deal for getting to experience several "attractions" for one low price. In Seattle, city pass includes: a one hour Argosy cruise around Elliot Bay, a trip to the aquarium, two trips up the Space needle (both trips to be done in a 24 hr. time period), the Pacific Science Center with IMAX included, the EMP (science fiction and music) museum, and your choice of a trip to Woodland Park Zoo or Boeing Museum of Flight. The price? $59 for ages 13 & up, and $39 for ages 4 -12. Three and under are free. This makes it 1/2 the price of going to each individual place!!!! We figured that people fly here from all over the world to visit and experience Seattle but we rarely ever do! We very much enjoyed going to these different places, I was excited to see the little ones' reactions at the zoo as they had never been to a zoo before!!! My husband had a most wonderful plan to keep us from wearing out too fast. This was to go out one day and rest the next, this helped me to have energy for the next adventure and kept the little ones from burn out so we didn't have the grumpies coming out!
 |
| Beautiful Seattle |
 |
| 21 children out on the Puget Sound! |
 |
| Go, Michael, go!! |
 |
| Very much in love! |
 |
| Climbing at the zoo, pretending to be monkeys? |
 |
| Zeke loves fish!!! |
 |
| The carousel, a reward for good attitudes! |
 |
| Having fun learning about bugs! |
 |
| The Pacific Science Center |
 |
| Notice the butterfly on Nathanael's hat. |
 |
| Up in the Space Needle |
 |
| So handsome! |
 |
| Just chillin' |
 |
| Great shot!! |
Other things that we did were kayaking and speed boating on the Puget Sound, BBQ ing, going to parks, and spending time with some friends. Final comments from the peanut gallery were, "I sure do wish vacation could last another week!" Well, something for them to look forward to again in the future! ;-)
