Seattle Amusement Park

One of the kids' highlights from our trip was the Fun Forest Amusement Park in Seattle Center. It's right next to the Space Needle. Here's proof:



The kids favorite was the Tornado. Lots of spinning. You could hear Milena screaming, "Faster! Faster! Faster!"



Unfortunately, Grandma couldn't go on the ride, due to her cast.



See how sad she is?



Here is one group ready to fly and spin.



Eli's ready!



Grandpa knows how to make it spin.



Here is some action video!



Michelle is obviously greatly impressed by the ride.

Seattle Harbor Tour

Of course we took a harbor tour while in Seattle. They're fun!



This was our tour guide. We couldn't decide if he was more Topher Grace or Tobey Maguire, so we called him Tophey. Or Tober. Everyone knows that if it actually was Topher, I would be a gibbering idiot. But that's a different story for a different time.



More buildings.



There are lots of meaningful and interesting stories about each of these buildings. Feel free to make some up for yourself.

Random Photos from Seattle

A trip to a playground led to a geocaching walk on a trail, which led to berry eating.



A fish market? In Seattle? Who'd a thunk it!



"Someday, Eli, all this will be yours."

Ocean Fishing

Probably the highlight of our trip was going out from Westport to do bottom fishing on the Tequila Too. We left Seattle at 3:30 AM to drive to Westport, ate at a little diner in town, and got on the boat. It was a rocky ride to our fishing spots, with relatively choppy waters. My dad was thrilled, and thought he was on a roller coaster.



I thought I was going to enjoy it, too, but I got seasick. My kind father mocked me for it, saying that "real men don't get seasick". Thankfully Mom reminded us of a time when Dad was throwing up on a ferry boat. He had conveniently forgotten that. While I would have preferred to not be sick, I think it provided for a much better story for everybody else, so I am glad to provide that service.

Koleman absolutely loved it. We stopped at three or four spots and got 48 fish (rock cod, or rock bass, or rock bottom cod, or sea bass, or whatever you want to call them), which was well below the limit for 9 fisherpersons and two crew. When we got to the last spot, the captain told us to "drop your lines and pull them in as fast as possible!" He knew he had found the right spot. We caught 60 fish in 30 minutes. The bottom of the boat was filled with 6-8 pound fish. Very cool.



Here is Michelle stealing all the fish from my uncle Dennis. Michelle caught more fish than anybody else on the boat, naturally.

Mt. Rainier Waterfalls

More pictures from our trip to Mt. Rainier. Waterfalls!



More water!



Brave adventurers in front of a waterfall.



Cool looking dude in misty spray.



Eli basks in the mist.



Christine Falls.



It started to rain, but we don't care about no stinking rain!

Snowball fight in June

These pictures were required by law.



Somewhere there are pictures of me having a snowball fight on Mt. Rainier in the summer. I bet I have a parent or two who know where they are.



Action shot!



Poor grandpa is surrounded.

Picnic on Mt. Rainier

We were in Seattle. You probably knew that already. If not, now you do.

Our first day there we went up to Mt. Rainier. The weather looked good, and we didn't want to miss our chance (little did we know that we would have seven days of perfect weather). We had a beautiful drive partway up the mountain, and stopped at Paradise for a picnic lunch.



We had a huge selection of food for our picnic - sandwiches, chicken, beans, chips, water, soda, beer, fruits, vegies. It was a picnic with style.



Here are some cute kids.



Eli, Milena and Kelson saw the picture of Koleman crushing the Sears Tower, and they wanted to do the same thing. Perhaps they didn't get it exactly right, but it's the thought that counts.

Back From Seattle

... although a bit later than expected. Here's a picture of the van at a SuperAmerica in Shokapee.



A better view of the problem. Yes, it's 2 AM. Lovely.



I was able to finish putting on the spare tire just as the help from AAA came. He checked the bolts for me, which was nice.

The kids were absolutely excited about the delay.



The good news is that the trip was so fun that this was merely an interesting and funny way to end it. No tears were shed, very few curse words were uttered.

More pictures to come, especially to explain that white box which contains forty pounds of frozen seafood.

Swimming!

Seriously. They went swimming. It wasn't warm outside, and the pool was at 59 degrees. But all four of the kids were fully submerged in the pool at least once.



Yes, just scream. That is what I would have done. I was smart though, I didn't go in.



I'm pretty sure Koleman got wet after this.



Kelson was the last to get in. He did eventually go all the way in and swam a bit.



This isn't our house, of course. We're pool-sitting for the summer. I was doing some initial pool cleaning and the kids all said, "Can we swim?" I told them they could, but that it would be really, really cold. They didn't care.

Very Strange

I don't think I mentioned that when we were at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, we entered a very strange exhibit. I didn't see any signs explaining exactly what this was, but I assume it's part of a "History of Bondage" exposition. We left before finding out if it was a hands-on exhibit.