On Monday, our fifth day of vacation and second full day in Seattle, we hit up one of my favorite places in the world: downtown Seattle.

The day started with breakfast of bagels and morning TV shows:

Then we loaded up the car, with John and John’s dad in the front and me and the kids in the back.

Our first stop was my favorite thing in Seattle, Public Market. John’s dad works near this place, so we were able to park in his office building’s garage for free and walk a couple blocks here. The last time we were in Seattle (about four years ago), it poured rain. Today was sunny and warmish.

I made sure we got our Daily Dozen donuts. There is maybe nothing better than a paper sack full of warm, yummy mini donuts.

Some of the sights:

Another favorite stopping point was the Confectional, a cheesecake shop.

Elizabeth drinking a tiny cup of warm sipping chocolate, which was really good and maybe even worth the $1.

We got some cheesecakes to take home.

For lunch John’s dad took us to one of his favorite lunchtime spots, which was a mixture of pizza/Italian and Mexican food. John and I laughed about it later, that out of all the world-class eating spots in downtown Seattle, this place was probably the worst. Definitely not the best food and we’re still not sure why John’s dad eats there every week. But OK.

After lunch we decided to buy tickets for the famous “Ride the Duck” tour. Lisa, our sister-in-law in Richland, said that her kids went to Seattle on a field trip and that the duck boat ride was the highlight of the trip. It’s an amphibious bus that goes on land and then into the water. John and his dad stood in line for tickets while I tried to keep the kids entertained.

It’s such a popular tour that we had to wait a few hours until the next tour became available. To fill the time we took the train from where we were to the Space Needle. There’s a children’s discovery museum there that we spent a couple hours at. Boy, the kids had fun!

We got the kids into an art session, which they all really liked. Each kid has their own style of artwork.

Our tour time was coming up quick, so we had to go, but we stopped for some ice cream first. This stand is outside the space needle and features homemade ice cream. We nearly missed our tour, but it was so good! Wesley’s cone was chocolate and dripping all over the place. The reason I don’t have pictures is I was too busy wiping him up all the time.

Getting ready for our tour.

One signature of the Ride-the-Duck tour is the drivers wear silly hats, many of them, throughout the tour. Carissa had a fun time giggling at our driver’s many silly hats. I didn’t get photos of them all. I think her favorite was when he put underwear on his head!

Lovely Seattle waterfront.

This is the aquarium we visited last time when Wes and Carissa were much younger.

This is new from the last time we were in Seattle. It’s like the London Eye.

Beautiful Carissa.

Wes fell asleep for a little while. But it couldn’t last long, because downtown Seattle is LOUD. I think it was sirens that woke him up.

Getting ready to enter the water as a boat. This was pretty cool!

Another boat near us:

Seattle. The water was beautiful, and busy. We saw lots of boats, both big and small, plus kayaks like this one.

There are tons of houseboats lining the Seattle harbor, including the famous one from “Sleepless in Seattle.” I thought I took a picture or video of it but I can’t find it. Only a certain number of houseboats are allowed at a given time, so they are prime property. The tour guide said they are coming up with crazy new designs, such as houseboats with basements, and windows in the basement.

We took the monorail back to where we were parked. It exits into a small shopping mall. As we passed a candy store I pointed out to John a whole wall of Hello Kitty stuff. He must have been feeling pretty generous, because he took her inside and let her pick out something to take home. She was a happy girl.

On Saturday night, our first night visiting John’s dad near Seattle, I sent John out for groceries (because I felt too tired). He and his dad went together and came back loaded up with frozen meals that would last us a lot longer than our scheduled three days. But they also brought me back some ice cream, so I wasn’t complaining.

Since it was Sunday we visited John’s dad’s ward in the morning and just relaxed in the afternoon. After dinner we met up with John’s dad for a boat ride around American Lake, which is next to their bed and breakfast. This was the kids’ first boat ride. They liked it, especially when John’s dad went fast! Elizabeth fell asleep.

On Saturday we left Richland and drove across Washington towards John’s dad’s place near Tacoma. We opted for a slightly longer but more scenic route through the Mr. Rainier National Park. I am so, so, so glad we did. It was just breathtaking. I drove the whole way (about 4 hours), and we didn’t stop. In retrospect, maybe we should have since it was so lovely, especially near Mt. Rainier, but I guess we’ll add it to our bucket list for the next time.

We honestly couldn’t get over the TREES. Beautiful, gorgeous, tall, green trees. EVERYWHERE.

This was nearing our highest point in the Mt. Rainier National Park, where we could see Mt. Rainier (behind us) and we drove through a lot of clouds/fog.

It really was too beautiful for our camera to capture. And the air smelled so good and clean that I liked to drive with the window down, even though the temp (which had started around 75-80 degrees in Richland) was close to 50 degrees.

We really enjoyed the drive. If I hadn’t been driving I would have taken more pictures of all the quaint woodsy towns we passed through before we got to Mt. Rainier park. Again, maybe we can stop next time. Once we were out of the park we stopped at the first McDonald’s we saw to use the restroom and change Elizabeth’s diaper. We had some food with us for lunch but we got some french fries and hot fudge sundaes to share. (That was John’s idea; he knows how to make me smile.)

John’s dad owns a bed and breakfast in Lakewood called Thornewood Castle. They were nice enough to put us up in a 2-bedroom apartment adjoining the castle. Our view from our living room:

The last time we saw John’s dad, Wesley was about 3 and Carissa was a baby. This was his first time to meet Elizabeth. On Saturday afternoon, once we were settled, John’s dad got our kids life jackets and we all went to the lake to play.

Wes was happy as ever tossing rocks into the lake the whole time.

The rear view of the bed and breakfast. Our apartment is in the building just to the right of the castle.

John’s dad, Wayne.

John took Carissa and Elizabeth on rides on the boogie boards around the shallow parts of the lake. They loved it.

One of my favorite short videos of Elizabeth because it documents her enthusiasm for life and cookies:

Saturday night after we finished at the lake (and I got sunburned) John’s dad took us to one of our favorite places for dinner: Black Angus (which we haven’t been to in a long time since the one near us in Utah closed years ago). It was so nice to visit with Wayne, and Wes thoroughly enjoyed his ice cream dessert.

Our sunset:

And to give you an idea of its real serenity, a video:

I got access to the pictures John took on his tablet when we were on vacation in July:

I think the area by Twin Falls, ID is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to. And we only got to see it in such depth because we had a flat tire in the middle of nowhere in Idaho and had to spend the night.

Five pictures of the fire along the freeway before we hit Baker City, OR. Thankfully we got past it before they shut down the road so we could continue on our way. After a flat tire in Idaho I don’t think we could have handled another setback.

Realized I didn’t know where Elizabeth went, and found her behind a closed door. Sneaky girl sneaking around with my black waterproof mascara.

Wes is giving another talk in Primary (church) tomorrow. The topic is how the Proclamation to the World on the Family helps our family. Wes is a good reader and can read most of the words himself. Very proud of him!

I took Elizabeth our for errands today. She lasted through 2.5 stores before she didn’t last anymore.

Yesterday I took the kids to the mall (to visit the Halloween store for costume ideas) while our carpets were being cleaned (the sound scares Wes). We got sidetracked into the amazing toy store and came out with this new digger for Wes. He plays happily with it in our sandbox, which is starting to get too small for his 7-year-old body.

Carissa showed me this picture she drew of our family in her Hello Kitty scrapbook. I like the buttons on John’s shirt, the color of my coat, how tiny Elizabeth is, and the thought bubble above Carissa’s head that shows she’s dreaming of Hello Kitty.

Wes and Elizabeth both like blowing bubbles a lot.

On Friday in Richland, WA we started the day by taking our kids to the Park of Dreams in Kennewick. It’s right along the Columbia River. It was a really nice park, with lots of green space and a splash pad (which we didn’t let our kids play in).

After the playground we walked along the Columbia River and let Wes toss rocks in (his favorite thing) and the other kids dip their toes in. I was surprised by how clean and clear the Columbia River was. Beautiful, peaceful area.

We stopped and got lunch at a KFC in Pasco. For some reason we were all so hungry and the root beer float hit the spot. Next we went to the Ice Harbor Lock and Dam east of Pasco. We met up with John’s brother’s family as well as my old roommate Carrie and her little family. The actual lock and dam visitor’s center is run by the Army, which meant you couldn’t take in any recording devices or purses. So we have no photos to remember the time by, but we watched the salmon going upstream in their controlled environment. The kids liked that.

After dinner we visited Granny at her care center. The kids got root beer floats!

After the kids were in bed I got to go to the local grocery story by myself for milk, and I tried the local peanut butter chocolate ice cream. A nice treat. This was our only full-day in Richland. The next day we drove to Seattle to see John’s dad.