Catching up.

It always amazes me how quickly time flies. I get on here in what seems like a couple of days and it turns out to have been a couple of weeks.

We had a great trip to Seattle for Halloween. We got in late on Fri, the 30th and stayed with my sister. After a leisurely morning, we headed to the Tacoma zoo, with my sister and her 2 God children (my niece and nephew's, brother and sister who's mom died last spring). Ashley loved the animals and Bug loved running around and playing with DJ and Aji. We hung out there until around 4 then headed home for a quick dinner and to get everybody ready for trick or treating. We ended up getting up to the neighborhood after 6:30 (we have gone to the same neighborhood, every year for about 8 years). We met up with my friend Tonia and her girls and slowly made our way around the neighborhood. I had Ashley in a stroller so she could keep up with all the big kids. We ended up with 10 kids in all between the ages of 14 down to Ashley at 2. They all ended up with plenty of candy, including quite a few full sized candy bars. Anissa ended up heading out with her kids about 20 minutes before we did, I tried to find a house we used to go to that had a mini haunted house set up, with snacks and cider for the kids, but they must not be doing it anymore since we couldn't find them. Afterwards we stopped at Taco Time for a quick bite to eat, then headed back to Anissa's and got the kids to bed.

In the morning I took the kids to Picture People to get their photos done, we got photos of each of the kids in their Halloween costumes and then a coupe together and then switched them into their Christmas outfits and took individuals and a couple of them together again. We ended up with a really cute individual picture of Ashley in her costume and Bug in his Xmas outfit, then 1 cute of them in their costumes, and 2 in their Xmas clothes. I will have to scan them is and put them on here to show you.

While we waited for the pics, we had some lunch and the kids played on the play structure at the mall. Then we went and dropped off some clothes for Donald (Bug's older brother), unfortunately we didn't get to see him. So the kids played at a really neat park in Tacoma, I wished I had pictures of the play equipment, it looked like something that monkeys would play on, the kids had a blast. Then we went and picked up Anissa, so she could drive us to our condo in Seattle and stopped at the Cheesecake Factory along the way for dinner, yum.

We got things settled in the condo around 8 and got Ashley off to bed and Bug and I watched Kung Fu Panda. Ashley ended up with the bedroom to herself, as Bug and I shared the Murphy bed in the living room.

On Mon we walked down to Westlake center and took the monorail down to the Seattle Center and spent the afternoon at the Children's Museum, the kids got to make paper mache pumpkins (which I forgot to take with us, bummer). They had a really fun exhibit from Sesame Street about the body and the kids spent most of their time in there. Although Bug did spend time in the construction room and built a desk and chair, while Ashley handed him screws and wing nuts (she called them Mickey's) and then put on a show for a whole group of adults that he dragged into the Theatre. Ashley had a great time painting in the art area and checking out the animals on the mountain.

After, the Children's Museum I discovered that they had "The Body" exhibit over by Westlake, so I dragged the kids through that. If you have never heard of this, it is fascinating. They take real live bodies and dissect and preserve them in different ways to show you all the different structures, muscles and organs of the body. The kids did really good, Bug had a device to listen to and payed attention to about 2/3 of the exhibit before finding and buying a grossology book in the gift shop. Ashley just followed us around, telling us she was "hungwy" asking for her cereal, (you're not aloud to eat at the exhibit), asking if it was time to go, "few mo' minutes?" And checking out a few of the displays. I would love to have spent a couple hours there, but was happy for the time that the kids allowed me.

After that we headed back to the condo and had dinner then got Ashley ready for bed, she went out like a light and Bug and I watched a movie together, then he laid down on the Murphy bed and I watched "Bride Wars," very cute.

In the morning we relaxed and got things repacked, then my sister came to bring us back the car, she kept it for us since parking in downtown is astronomical. Then we headed over to Bellevue and checked out their Children's Museum, which we had never been to before. It was very nice, it had a real Semi truck that the kids could crawl around and pretend to drive. A large water play area, where Ashley got completely soaked, (I ended up running next door and buying her an outfit at the Carter's store). A really neat tree house area, and an air tube area, that you put scarves in and see where they will blow out at.

Next we headed to North Bend and had lunch and did a little shopping. I got some cute shirts and Halloween clothes at Gymboree and found some pants that finally fit Ashley at the Children's Place, plus we grabbed a snack at Rocky Mountain chocolate and new Sketchers for Bug from the Sketcher outlet. We finally headed home around 3:30, stopped for dinner in Ritzville and got home right around 8:00. Just in time to get the kids bundled off to bed.

It was a really relaxing trip, mainly because we didn't see anybody while we were over there. It was nice to have our schedule to ourselves, but is a shame we won't have a chance to see the family and Donald until March when we head over for our 1st trip for next year.

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