The Zoo!

Here in Seattle they have one of the most amazing zoos(I think I use the word amazing way too much. sorry). It once again was something I told everyone that I really wanted to do while I was here. We waited till the last minute, but we did it. We got there at about 11 AM and didn't leave until 630 PM! We were there all day! But we had a great time and we saw just about everything they had there for us to see.

When we first got there, the penguins were the first thing to see. This one was swimming right by the glass and the boys just loved it!

Look at that huge snake! Ick!

The kids had the best time climbing on all of the statues around the zoo. Sometimes I think they liked that more then the real animals!

Lexi is so cute! I just loved her! By the end she wanted to hold my hand run run (from monsters) everywhere.

They even have a nice little petting zoo inside. It only had goats and donkeys, but the kids loved getting to touch them all.

I loved this guy. He was noisy and wanted to be done.

In the middle of our day, we went out to have lunch. They had a nice park next to the zoo that we ate at (you can eat in the zoo, but we didn't want to have to pack all of our stuff inside).

Isn't this neat! It sat there right by Landon for what seemed like ever. I don't know if he was sad or just tired, but he was so cute.

Landon was telling everyone that he wanted a safari hat. He's so funny. We don't ever have to argue when we go into a gift shop.... he always knows exactly what he wants.

Waiting for the Lions to walk by.......

....then he did! I felt like we were way too close to this guy. It freaked me out a little bit.

We had a really great time and I'm so glad we all went. I was glad that Jennie and Lexi could come with us also. We had a great time catching up and chatting.

After the Zoo we went out to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. Seriously, the best thing I've eaten since I've been home!

Oh how I've missed Seattle food!

Picnic Quest: Snoqualmie Falls

I did a few picnics while I was here in Washington my favorite was at Snoqualmie Falls. We drove up to walk around and have a little picnic. This time I didn't cook the food(and it felt so off! lol) but we did pick up some tasty stuff! We had fun walking around and looking at the falls. But, I have to say they weren't as amazing as they used to be...maybe because we went to Niagara not too long ago.

The Falls. They were very pretty and you could get some really nice views. They trails to walk down to them were closed off so that was a bummer. I'll have to go back when they open the trails again.

I loved the way it looked when the falls hit the river below.

Mom, Landon & I at the Falls.

Little getting ready for our picnic.

They had quite a few nice tables to choose from. I just wish they would have had some grass space also.

Picnic goods!

YUMMMMMM!

Mount St. Helens! 3/4!

I'd never been to Mt. St. Helens. Living so close, you sometimes never go see the things that most people think are amazing. I knew I wanted to. It was one of the "Quad" that I wanted to see. So while we were staying down with my Uncle, we took a day and went. We hiked for hours, saw all the sites, listened to a few talks, watched a movie, read everything in the discover center and even had a picnic! We had a great day and I'm so glad we got the chance to go.

For those that don't know. Mt. St. Helens is an active volcano here in Washington. It's one of the only really active ones around. Here is a little article from the website that I found.

At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted.



Shaken by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale, the north face of this tall symmetrical mountain collapsed in a massive rock debris avalanche. Nearly 230 square miles of forest was blown down or buried beneath volcanic deposits. At the same time a mushroom-shaped column of ash rose thousands of feet skyward and drifted downwind, turning day into night as dark, gray ash fell over eastern Washington and beyond. The eruption lasted 9 hours, but Mount St. Helens and the surrounding landscape were dramatically changed within moments.


In 1982, the President and Congress created the 110,000-acre National Volcanic Monument for research, recreation, and education. Inside the Monument, the environment is left to respond naturally to the disturbance.

The May 18, 1980 eruption was but one more event in the volcano's 50,000 year long eruptive history. During the 4,000 years preceding 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted enough lava, pumice and ash to build the entire mountain we see today. When you know what to look for you can find evidence of these eruptions all around the volcano. Look along exposed riverbanks for ancient mudflow deposits or along steep roadsides for the layers of ashy and pumice that drifted northeast of the volcano.

Here are just a few of the pictures from the day.

This was at one of the centers we stopped at along the way to look at the view.

Funny story- Landon was sitting on this and fell of the side. At some point he reached up and grabbed the antler and held on, feet danging off the ground. Then he picked up his binoculars and had a little look into the bushes....while still hanging there! My dad and cousin were laughing so hard. only my kid would hang on just for the view.

Landon thought it was so neat that we were looking at a real live Volcano!

The view. Isn't it amazing!! It blew that whole side right off! See the ground in front? It used to be a massive Forest. The trees were covered in over 300 feet of ash! Then pumice rock was packed on top when the blast happened. It's crazy how things are so different.

Sean, Me and my Uncle Jim hiking on the trails. I got sooo much sun that day....my face is now peeling because of it!

Us in front of the Mountain(Volcano).

After we hiked around the trails, we drove down to one of the many lakes that was made by the blast. It was so beautiful down there. It's amazing how thins can change and form the land around you and it will never be the same.

My favorite picture from the day. Taken at the lake. The sun was setting and it just looked so beautiful. You can also see Mt. St. Helens on the left side.

I'm so glad we went. It was so neat to see everything and learn what happened. I recommend it to anyone who was thinking about making the drive up. It really is worth it.

Seaside. 2/4.

Technically Seaside is in Oregon not in Washington......so I will post Washington ocean pictures later just to prove all 4 are in fact in Washington but this is just to show that I did all 4 on my trip.

We went down to stay with my uncle and cousin for a few days. While we were there we went to Mt. St. Helens and Seaside Oregon. I haven't been to Seaside in years and was so excited to get to go again and even more so, to get to bring Landon down there.

They have a really great beach that stretches for miles with this powdery white sand. We walked around and I let Landon play in the water (I brought him a few changes of clothes because I figured he would get soaked...and he did). Landon and Sean ran in the water and jumped over waves for almost an hour before we decided to go walk around the strip. Landon had a blast and I'm so glad we took him down there. It's so different then the beaches we have in CT.

Landon before he got to the water.

Landon & Sean heading into the waves. Landon ended up getting hit by a pretty big one and getting soaked!

Me & Landon. After he got wet.

Once we got Landon changed Sean, Lan and I went to the little aquarium. It was a little hole in the wall, but you got to feed the seals!  They were so funny! They would do tricks to get you to feed them. One would slap it's side, one would rock back and forth on its belly on a rock in the tank, our favorite would jump up and clap its fins together...then there was a bully seal, he would splash you if you didn't feed him quick enough! He got us pretty good a few times! They also had a decent sized octopus that was in an open tank. I swear the thing could have come flying out at any moment if it wanted to.

Throwing fish!

Smiling real quick before getting splashed!

Our favorite...the clapper!

Watching the bully splash other people.

Octopus! Open tank! CRAZY!

Girls Trip! Forks, WA.

I like Twilight. I'm not a super obsessed fan, but I loved the books and the movies are pretty good. While I was here I knew I wanted to take a trip out to Forks just to do it. And say I've done it. I wanted to do it right. I wanted to stay in a B&B and I wanted to do the Twilight tour. So we did.

Sunday morning my momma, my MIL and I all got in the car and headed over. We knew it was going to take us at least 5 hours to get there so we packed everything we would need. We had blankets, pillows, snacks, books and music.

The best part of the drive were the ferry ride and the view on the peninsula. It's so beautiful out there. Everything is so green. 

My momma & I on the ferry.

In the car driving. It was a little chilly, but the air smelt so good I couldn't keep my window up.

We got to Forks at about 4 in the afternoon. Our B&B was the most amazing place I have ever stayed (A post for a different day...maybe tomorrow. Too many pictures to add on here.). We got settled in our suite and headed out for our tour.

We started right in town and took off to see all of the sites. Here are most of the sites we stopped at.

Charlies car. (You can see our B&B in the background. lol)

Bella's truck.

Hospital where Dr. Cullen works.

The Cullen house how it was described in the book not the movie. (This was our B&B)

The Swan's house.

The Black's house.

The High Schools sign.

We also went over to the LaPush side, but I will put those picture in a different post also. I took quite a few and this post is long enough already. lol.

Science Center!

Growing up near Seattle, we went to the Science Center quite a bit. It was something we did for field trips quite often in grade school. I was so excited when I saw that they had one here!

So when we went on our breakfast picnic we knew that after we were going to head to the science center to spend the afternoon. I have to say that I was a little disappointed. They didn't have much for younger kids to do and it cost A LOT to get it. Landon did have a good time and the things he could do were a lot of fun. The water place on the first floor was a hit and we could have stayed there all day.

I'm glad we went. I would have always wondered if we didn't.

I'm really excited to take Landon to the Seattle one this summer!

Aquarium & a picnic!

While on spring break last week we tried to stay very busy! That weekend we didn't have the best weather so we couldn't really play outside, so since Hannah & Emily were going to head over to the Aquarium so we decided to tag along. We had the best time! We had a lot of fun hanging out with them so much over break it was amazing!

Pictures from top left-

• Landon watching the Beluga Whales. They were so graceful in their tank. I could have watched them forever.
• Landon with the penguins. This little guy stayed right next to the glass the whole time! It was so cute and Landon loved it!
• Landon's favorite part was getting to pet the sharks. He loved it and could have stayed there forever.
• Petting the shark!
• The nemo tank. It had a little eel looking thing that kept popping out and spitting sand, we stood there and laughed for quite some time.
• (I Think this is my new favorite picture of Landon). We went to the picnic area after to eat our lunch. The picnic area isn't amazing, but it works. They had about 10 tables to pick from.

I hope everyone is doing great! We have been super busy and I hope to put quite a few pictures and such up within the next week or so!

This is a fun place to picnic before you go in(or after you get done) they have a few picnic tables set out and while it's not the most amazing place to picnic it is nice that you have the choice to eat outside.

Birthday Dinner!

Every year on Landon's Birthday we let him pick where he wants to eat. This is the 4th year that he has picked The Rainforest Cafe. We love eating there! It's expensive (and about an hour away) so we don't go unless it's for something special.

If you visit my blog regularly (or know us in person) you know how much we love going to eat there. It's so much fun and we always have a great time.

Every time we go we also take him to the Disney store and let him pick out one thing. It can be anything he wants. So far he has picked really cool toys each time. It's so fun to follow him around the store and just let him be. Once he has looked at everything twice he picks what he wants.


Huge butterfly on the tree right above our table. It's wings moved which made it even cooler! lol.

My boys. I always try to get good pictures of them wherever we go to send with Justin when he leaves....and I love having tons of them together for Landon to look at when his Daddy is gone.

Every time we go Landon wants this drink. It's a huge slushie and it comes with a toy in the bottom. He also always wants to massive volcano brownie for dessert.

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We had the most amazing time last night. It's always so special to me to go out as a family and letting Landon decide makes it even better. These are the things that I hold so close when Justin is gone. We make the most of the time we have together so the time apart isn't so bad.

Eagles Game!

For part of Justin's Christmas gifts I bought him tickets to an Eagles Game. Last time we went to one it was about 2 years ago. So this weekend we headed to PA. It was a long 4 hour drive (the drive home turned into a 8 hour drive!) but it was worth it.

The boys walking to the game. November 2009.
The boys walking to the game. November 2007.
Landon cheering for the Eagles! We got lucky with the weather this time. Last time it was cold and raining and Landon and I ended up in the car for the 2nd half.

My boys!
We had really good seats! We got lucky and I picked the right end zone!

They won! For a while I didn't think they were going to be able to turn it around but they did!