Over Labor Day weekend, we headed up to one of our very favorite spots. Solitude! Grandpa Brent graciously rents out a condo for all 3 of our families and we get to hang out together for 3 whole days! Saturday, we went down into town and played around a bit.
Ellyse is still young enough to play store. This makes me happy!
Couldn't get miss E out of the kitchen.
Cool green screen TV activity.
A cool computer that takes your picture and you can pretend to be whatever you want to be.
Mama has never been more proud of her little girl than this. ;)
Just a video of me watching my girlies play.
Family 'Sammwhich' Train!
I love to see Ellyse be a great babysitter.
We had such an amazing time together, as usual. Other fun highlights were the fire alarm going off on the morning we were suppose to leave at 10AM and so we got to stay a few hours longer due to the inconvenience. GAME NIGHT! Always a hit in my mind. Seeing a moose on the mountainside. Oh, and we got to hear all about Tessa's adventures in her darling little head. Just take a listen.
On the way to get a friend to take her to lunch for her birthday, I saw a very bad car accident at the intersection of 1050 and Riverdale Road off to the left. I went through the intersection as the light was green. I was looking at the accident and ironically thinking "that suuuckkkss" and then BAM! I ran into the back of the explorer you see below. The explorer then kissed the car in front of it. I guess traffic had stopped and I didn't. Until it was to late. Luckily, no one was seriously injured!! Thankfully!!
My poor minivan baby.
I NEVER thought I'd miss a minivan. But I do. I really, really do.
The air bag did deploy and left me with this beaut of a burn. Again, very thankful to not have had any other injuries!!
Warning: the next pic is somewhat graphic.
I am so grateful for insurance and let me tell you that this accident showed me how grateful I am to have moved from State Farm insurance to Travelers!!! There are not enough exclamation points for that expression. The 1st business day after the accident, I got a call back from the claim adjuster. I received a call from our agent to make sure we were okay. I also got a call from the guy who was assessing the damage! Everyone was on top of their game that day and I couldn't help but tell them how much their great customer service was appreciated! The assessor even offered to grab a little thing that was left in the van and deliver it himself!
The accident brought with it confusion, guilt, an a whole array of emotions along with it. Not to mention how it has turned our lives upside down for the past 3 weeks. Getting the claim all taken care of and a generous check within a week and 1/2 of the accident was a treat! If you are looking for a new insurance company that is reliable and fair, Travelers is for you. Also, Bret Weston was and has been fantastic to work with. He even sent us a little Sorry-for-your-accident consolation gift.
If you don't remember the hell we went through with the last accident, here's a little refresher course.
There are 3 parts to the saga. You will find the links for part 2 and 3 at the bottom of the 1st post.
Cute neighborhood kids that just moved into the neighborhood during the spring/summer. It's been so long since Allie has had girls her age in the neighborhood it is as if we hit the jackpot! Also, it's so very strange to see Allie be the tallest of the group.
This year's baseball trip was to Seattle. It was a 12 hour travel day on a Thursday which wasn't NEARLY as bad as I expected. We all had great conversations and Gracie had hours of TV fun catching up on all her favorite DVDs.
I should warn you, this post is excruciatingly long. I should probably explain a little bit of 'my why' for blogging. Blogging to me is a way to keep precious memories alive to me, my family, and hopefully generations to come. I do this also as a way to preserve photo's so I don't have to print them off and scrapbook them. My point is, if you're not into long blog posts, sorry Charlie. If you are, then you have a treat in front of you my friend.
Went running early Thursday morning as we knew we'd be sitting for hours on end. This picture does not do those beautiful mountains justice!
A Vineyard!! A new experience for me to see.
Because I touched something wrong, all the pictures came onto the blog not in chronological order. I'll have to label the days backwards to help you out.
Sunday afternoon. Headed back to Boise. I grabbed this photo of these army tanks. We saw so many army tanks up around Seattle. If I'm not mistaken, I believe that there is a training base close to Seattle. That theory would be supported by all the army forces we saw.
Sunday afternoon. Everyone else was at a baseball game. I headed to a museum named after the creator, Chuhily. Chuhily Gardens actually. The shear amount of photo's I took at that place will show you how amazing this place was. Keep in mind that most colorful things you see in these phots are made of glass.
Off we go..
The garden museum is right below the space needle.
Yes. That tower is all glass.
OH! Guess what else was happening that weekend in Seattle? The air show. In this photo, you can see the cloud trails from the Thunderbirds flying overhead. Have I ever mentioned how much I love air shows or planes or helicopters?
I loved the tall glass terrarium showcasing the glass and the space needle as well.
Chandeliers
This display was simply fabulous!!!
Glass fat lady. hee hee
Chuhily had a serious obsession with the sea and the creatures that live in it.
Saturday evening. Another baseball game for them meant I needed to find another activity for me. I decided to go to the Seattle temple. I looked online to make sure that it wasn't closed for cleaning. I called ahead to see if I could rent clothing. All points checked out. I dropped off the baseballites and headed to the temple. I look forward to seeing these temples around the country as part of the baseball trips each year. I pulled into the temple parking lot around 5:55PM took some photos and entered the temple only to see a sign that said we will be closing at 6 tonight for those wishing to attend the regional conference. I was sooo bummed! I went around the grounds took some photo's and then headed to a mall to eat and see a movie.
Saturday afternoon. The space needle and surrounding museums.
Elevator ride up the space needle.
Sea Plane taking off and landing. Another thing I'd never seen before.
This lake is the one that Sleepless in Seattle was filmed by.
Downtown Seattle.
We went to a pop culture/music museum thing that day as well. It wasn't my fave but Jason enjoyed it.
Crazy bra's
These are submissions for a "wearable fashion show"
Michael Jackson's outfit in Thriller.
Tower of guitars.
Curt Cobain's guitar
Panel used in Young Frankenstein. They had a basement display dedicated to horror films. It was right up Jason's alley. He enjoyed it a lot.
Friday evening. Baseball game for them, wandering the city for me. This cool unusual shop was a favorite of mine! These are mummified humans found without knowing how they died.
I had to find my way back to the Space needle and our car and on the way, I came across some cool buildings.
A night view of the space needle.
Friday afternoon. Seattle Aquarium and a Harbor Tour.
International shipping pod. Each one of those pods is the size of a train box. There is only one person per crane in charge of loading and unloading the entire ship. Each pod is allotted only about 1 minute to get off and on the ship. Time is literally money. Sitting there each day costs the businesses 40K a day. This ship, if put up on it's end would dwarf the space needle.
I couldn't see the screen well and also couldn't figure out why the photo wouldn't take. Then I looked back and saw I'd switched the cameras to my angle. Hee hee.
Seattle Aquarium
I found Nemo!
A lady was calling people over to see this eel. I guess it only comes out of his cave 1 or 2 times a day to scratch it's back and to eat. We caught it scratching.
Crazy large Octopus!
Ocotpus
The absolute highlight was the sea and river otters. So cute!!
Pike's Place Public Market. Way cool!!
So so so many people!
The traditional throwing of the fish.
They TOTALLY got me!!
Friday morning. The beautiful Harbor. A fighter ship was docked and you could go on it for free but we didn't get the chance.
Our first couple views of the space needle from the car. Gracie was so excited! She was so polite the whole trip and kept thanking her dad for bringing her on the trip. She was so cute.
Thursday evening.
Our stop at a diner on the way there. We stood around the table for like 10 minutes not wanting to sit down as we'd sat for nearly 10 hours already. I don't think the other diners enjoyed us towering over them.
After seeing not much of anything for so long. It was a relief to see this beautiful mountain range.
Finally arrived at Danny's house. It was amazing with a breathtaking view!!
Thursday afternoon. Gracie at lunch in Boise.
Fantastic trip and if you made it to the end of reading this...get back to work.
