Seattle!

The kids and I went to Seattle from Wednesday until Saturday. We had a blast!

It was fun seeing all the old spots again. We planned to ride the ferry (at left) but didn't get around to it.



The first evening we were there, Alisa and I walked over to Kerry Park which has a fantastic view of the downtown skyline.








Alisa and me enjoying our walk.









The moon was rising, to the left of the Space Needle. On the right side Mount Rainier was visible. Most of the snow has melted by this point in the summer.






Alisa and Paul have a lovely house in Queen Anne, a nice Seattle neighborhood.







The next morning, Douglas and Liam were poking around in the yard. Liam planted some corn and he was enjoying watching new leaves grow.






Douglas on the way down to Pike Place Market.








Thursday morning we went to the Seattle Aquarium downtown.

Douglas and Duncan playing around at the Aquarium...






Duncan (who will be 8 next month) is very tall!








We had lunch at the Aquarium.








Downtown at Westlake Center they have a fountain where the water cascades in sheets and the kids ran between them and got quite wet. It was around 90 degrees so the water was a welcome relief.





Owen being goofy...








After the aquarium we rode the monorail.







The monorail ends at Seattle Center where there is an immense fountain. The kids (minus Douglas, who doesn't like getting wet) got still more soaked.







Duncan and Owen had lots of fun running in the water.








Liam also played in the fountain.








Owen is in the lower right hand corner of this picture, dripping wet.







Seattle Center is where the Space Needle is located.









Douglas was happy to have gotten a stuffed animal otter at the Aquarium.






A snuggly moment.








That night we went out to dinner with Beth, then stopped at a cupcake place and walked over to her house. Jay was out of town so we didn't get to see him.






Those were some good cupcakes!








The next morning the boys and I went to Gasworks Park while Alisa and her kids went to visit her mother, who had just had back surgery.





Gasworks Park has a lot of cool old machinery you are not supposed to climb on, but they did anyway.









There are some steep hills at the park which the kids ran up and down.




Gasworks is on Lake Union and there are lots of views of the water, downtown and boats.

That afternoon all four kids were thrilled because we took them to see Star Wars: the Clone Wars.






The next morning Douglas and Liam were having fun telling silly stories during breakfast.






Then we went to the beach at Golden Gardens in Ballard.

Liam had fun chasing a bird.







Alisa and three of the boys on the beach








Douglas liked digging in the sand.







Owen and Duncan built a cool sand castle. Duncan is great at building. Maybe he'll be an engineer some day.







We came back to their house and Alisa turned on the sprinkler. Liam had fun putting up his umbrella in the shower.






Finally it was time to come home. Here are the kids waiting in the Seattle airport for our plane.

We had lots of fun. Thanks Alisa and Paul for hosting us!