Blakeslee Family Vacation, Part 1

Blakeslee Family Vacation

July 20-27, 2013

We try and get together with my family every summer.  For the last 6 or so years, we've gone somewhere different every year.  Most of the places we've gone have been in the Idaho/Utah area.  For the first time, vacation came to us in Seattle.  There is plenty to do here and we were happy to not have the 12+ hour trip to our vacation destination for once.

The numbers were few this year for our get together.  My parents, younger sister and her husband and my older sister's boy Carter were the only ones who were able to come.  We had looked forward to this all summer!

The gang arrived Saturday evening.  Mitch and cousin/buddy Carter wasted no time playing together.  Carter brought his Ninja Turtle weapons/knives and the boys played with them as often as they could all week long.  (The weapons were often confiscated when they got too wild with them.)  Wild or not, it was really funny to watch them "fight."

The boys were thrilled to ride to church and attend Primary together.  Carter was pretty excited to introduce himself in Primary as a visitor of Mitchell.

After church, Papa put together a coloring contest for all of the grandkids.  He had told my kids about this a few weeks earlier, and they had been looking forward to it all month long.  Papa helped everyone pick out one page from a brand new "Monster's Inc. 2" coloring book and explained the rules.

Carter, who does not love to color, started and finished as fast as he could.  My kids were very serious and methodical about their colorings.

After everyone was finished, (including Papa, who colored one too), Papa judged the colorings and assigned prizes to each one.  When he'd made his decisions, he gathered all the kids and told them their award (best use of color, neatest, etc) and gave them each a prize.  They were each allowed to pick out a box of candy and were each awarded 4 one dollar bills.  Papa told them he would take them to the dollar store later in the week to spend their money.

The best prizes for young kids.  They were so, so thrilled.

After dinner, Grandma gave a lesson for Family Home Evening on missionaries and missionary work.

She had some great videos on missionaries to show the kids on her iPad.  They were inthralled.

After FHE, it was time for dessert!  I mixed up homemade ice cream and gave my dad the job of freezing it (keeping an eye on it).  His job growing up was to freeze and take care of the homemade ice cream.  It was delicious!

Monday, July 22nd was our first day out and about.  It was our "downtown Seattle" day.  Our first stop was the Pacific Science Center- a favorite of ours.  One of the most kid friendly things in all of Seattle to do indoors.  The science center is right next to the Space Needle, so we grabbed a quick photo before heading in.

Not sure what dad's face is all about, but Lexi loved being his buddy!

In the PSC, they have a little insect section.  That day they had live cockroaches to pet and hold.  Lexi was very brave and went right in for the touch.

Then wanted to hold it.  (Yuck!)

Much cuter to sit on a fake bug than hold one!

The butterfly exhibit was a crowd pleaser, as always.  Carter pointing to one, as you're not allowed to touch them unless they land on you.

One landed on Cath.  Ben was apparently very shocked about that. :)

Isn't my sister gorgeous?

A butterfly landed on George, too (his right shoulder).

Grandma showing off her flexibility skills!

The funniest part of the day was when Ben found this mirror to play with.  He started in on the hilarious illusion that, no handed, you could sit down and move your legs any which way.  It was so funny.

George took a turn too

The funniest was the double act of father and son.  Mitch loved this game.

After we'd had our fill of the Science Center, we rode the Monorail and headed over to Pike's Market to walk around.

I haven't ridden the Monorail in 10 years (we rode it once right after we were married).  The kids loved it!  I was bummed it wasn't air conditioned.  It was only a few minute ride, but it sure was hot and stuffy.

We found this "tin man" as we were heading into the market.  He really looked like he was entirely made out of tin- even standing right next to him.  It was all just paint.

Had to get the kids' picture on the pig in front of the fish market.

We also went to the famous gum wall- my first visit.  Pretty gross, really, but funny.  Chloe and I added our contributions to the wall.

Right next to the gum wall, Catherine found the "PDA Offices" and all the couples tried their hand at some PDA.

We hiked down to walk along the piers after that.  The "Great Seattle Wheel" is fairly new to Seattle.  Instead of paying the hefty ticket price to ride (it would have been over $40 for my family to ride), we got pictures in front of it instead.  It would make for a gorgeous ride, being right on the sound and giving a great view of Seattle.  Someday.

 We ate dinner at our favorite restaurant on the piers that serves fantastic fish and chips.  The name has changed since the last time we were here, but the fish was still good (and this is coming from the girl that doesn't like seafood.  Deep fried cod/halibut is about all I'll do in the sea food department).

We headed home around 7:00 p.m. after a FULL day of walking around Seattle.  We were exhausted (and I even had swollen feet and ankles to show for it), but we had a great day.  The kids behaved amazingly, too.