Seattle Trip

The girls and I are apparently distracting when Ryan is trying to do his homework.  We are on the home stretch with just a few more weeks of this madness to go.  To give Ryan time to just work on stuff without feeling guilty for ignoring us, or have us interrupt him all the time, I took my girls to Seattle for a couple of days.  My mom came too.

We walked around the Seattle temple.  It was good to stretch our legs for a bit before going to my grandma's house, and it's always good to visit the temple.

 We spent the afternoon and evening at my grandma's house.  When it was time for bed, the girls all decided they were going to crowd into the living room with me, instead of spreading out.  So, not only was I sharing the oh-so-comfortable hide-a-bed, but I had to hope I didn't need to get out of bed in the middle of the night because I was going to trip over someone.  I guess I like the fact the girls like and need me, but sheesh.  I woke up a couple of times crowded to the edge of the bed, and once because Emma elbowed me in the ribs.  Ryan says it's good for me to have a taste of my own medicine.  (He says I crowd him, or some such nonsense.)

(I was super silly and forgot to get a picture of the girls and their grandma and great-grandma this trip.)

Our first stop on our Seattle day was at a Top Pot donut shop.  Those donuts are gooooooood.  

Then I plugged in the "address" for the Fremont Troll (there is no address anywhere online) in the GPS, and away we went.  We found the troll, and then had to drive around a while trying to find a parking spot.  And then, I had to parallel park.  {insert crying sounds}  I could parallel park my tiny Geo Metro back in the day, but I've had to parallel park my van about twice, and I am no good at all.

Anyway.

Moving on.

 The girls posed with the Troll.  Elizabeth has the most interesting poses.

 Then I had to get in on the fun.  I am usually pretty boring when it comes to taking pictures, so I decided to mix things up.

The kids thought I was funny, and had to try to pick the troll's nose too.

 Then we drove down to Pike's Place Market.  While I am not worried about losing the girls from them wandering away anymore, they still aren't quite ready for a day of looking at a bunch of "stuff" at Pike's Place.  We wandered for a little while, and then they were done.

The Gum Wall was interesting though.  We brought our own gum to add to the gross-ness.

The girls decided they wanted to get their treat/souvenir from Target that was across the street.  Nice, girls.  We drive all the way to Seattle and you want to go to Target.  Ah well.

Then I had to drive out of Seattle.  That is just terrifying to this small-town girl.  I can do the freeway all right, but one way streets, traffic lights on the sides of the street, steep, narrow streets with lights at every block...  And no idea where I'm going.  But I survived, and the van escaped unscathed.