Trip Recap to the Northwest - Part 1

A few weekends ago, we headed to Seattle area for a short trip.  We were very anxious about this trip because it was the first time we'd be traveling with both kids, by ourselves, with no family around to help.  The first daunting part was the airplane ride.  Tickets were really expensive so we opted for the two lap children and hoped for an empty seat on the plane for Evan.  Of course, every flight was overbooked so no empty seats which meant we were each holding a lap child and couldn't sit next to each other (only across the aisle from one another).  On the way out there, we had a late evening flight that was delayed almost 2 hours making it an even later flight.  We didn't arrive until about 1am PST!  Overall, the kids did well.  Caitlin slept both flights.  Evan watched a movie the first flight, then got pretty crabby for the first part of the 2nd flight before he finally fell asleep until we were landing. 

We made it to our hotel right by the airport and got to sleep about 2am.  We woke up late Friday morning and had breakfast and got our rental car.  We headed into downtown Seattle to check it out.  We went to Pike's Place which is the famous local market in Seattle.

We stopped by the fish booth to see them throw some fish.  Unfortunately, it wasn't quite like I pictured but we did actually see a few fish fly and Evan got to touch some of the fish.

We did some window shopping and then had lunch overlooking the water at Lowells.

After lunch, we saw the original Starbucks.

 And last we stopped by the 2nd germiest attraction in the world (or so some guy said)- the gum wall.

It was fun to walk around the market and enjoy a beautiful afternoon. By the time we were done with all that, it was time to drive to Olympia. We ran into horrible traffic but finally made it.

We went straight to my friend Sarah's house where we were staying that night. 

 I was so excited for this part of the trip as I got to see her and her husband Dave whom we haven't seen in awhile... but more importantly we got to meet Julian! 

He was born 4 days after Caitlin so I was thrilled to meet him in person.  He's adorable of course, and I know he and Caitlin will be BFFs :) 

We had a delicious dinner, caught up on our lives, and walked to a nearby park/playground.  The weather was gorgeous the entire trip - a little cool in the mornings/late evenings, but a welcome relief from the Texas heat.  Oh, and beautiful sunny days - totally not like the northwest I pictured and the one I'd read about in Twilight :)

That night after we got the kids to sleep, Bryce and I headed to a bar in Olympia to meet up with people attending the wedding we were going to (main reason for our trip).  It was great to socialize and catch  up with many people we hadn't seen in four years or more, especially sans kids. 

So, that was our first full day in Seattle.  Thanks Sarah and Dave for letting us stay with you!  We had a great time at your house and loved catching up and meeting Julian.  I'll post about the rest of our trip later.