Spokane

Ryan headed to his very first Administrator Conference in Spokane.  Technically Ryan is not a school administrator, and his admin internship does not start until August, but he was invited to go and he went.  He hitched a ride with two vice principals at the high school Saturday morning, sat in meetings all day, went out to dinner in downtown Spokane, and spent the night at the Davenport Hotel.  (We had pork and beans for dinner at home.)

Sunday morning the girls and I went to church, and we stayed for only two hours before heading home to get ready to go to Spokane.  I have to say, this was the first time Ryan had a night away that the girls didn't drive me nuts.  They were amazing and helpful.  (Finally a sign that they are growing up??)  I put Emma in the front seat next to me, the twins in the middle row, and Elizabeth had the entire back seat to herself.  Our drive to Spokane was even peaceful.  We finished up with the Fablehaven #4 audio book on this trip.  My kids adore audio books, and we listen to them a lot.  It works better than a movie on our long trips, probably because we only have one little dvd player that sits on the floor of the van.  

The girls and I arrived in time to hang out with Aunt Blair, Simon, and Charlotte at their apartment.  We had to wait on Ryan to be let into our hotel room, which was NOT at the Davenport Hotel.  We played with cousins, and Blair fed us dinner.  (I still can't believe they ate your curry, when they won't really eat mine.  No fair!)  At around 7, Ryan assured us he had checked into the hotel and had a key waiting for me at the front desk, so we headed over to our room.  

All was in order.  We just got lost trying to find our room.  The elevator near our parking spot did take us to the 5th floor, but not the 5th floor where our room was.  We had to go back down, and walk down a long hall before finding the elevator that took us to our 5th floor.  

Around 8:30 pm, we got to see Daddy!

Monday morning we headed to a splash park with Aunt Blair and her kids.  It was still a bit chilly, but the younger 3 were tough.

 Elizabeth found the wet sand box.

Emma never got down to her swim suit.  But she did spend a lot of time playing with Simon, for which Blair was thankful.  They don't make those slides quite the right size for mom bottoms.

The Red Lion hotel we were staying at was right across from Riverfront Park.  So later in the afternoon, we went for a walk.

 And the kids took a couple of rides on the carousel.  I only had my cell phone with me, so all we have is a blurry picture of the kids.

 Ryan had to rub it in, and took us down to the Davenport Hotel so we could see the fancy-ness he got to enjoy his first night in Spokane.  We all had oohs and aahs for the place.

Then I had to show off these pictures of the twins asleep on the floor of the hotel room.  They crack me up.

That's Annie's foot on Maddie's face.