someone forgot to tell seattle...

that winter is supposed to be over! Whatever happened to Spring?!

Mitch had his bi-annual training up in Seattle, so we all decided to tag along!

Despite having to fly on separate flights (Mitch took Kela while I flew later that day with Anna and Jolee), the trip was short and super cold, but packed with lots of good fun!

The weekend before our arrival, it apparently snowed! In March! For Seattle, this definitely counts for an abnormally "white" winter season!

And despite being tired from all the travel and jet-lag, the girls wanted to savor every opportunity to play in the snow. This was the day we arrived. The snow wasn't the best for snowman-making...but it was fun nonetheless!
Oh, and even though I kept telling Anna that it wasn't snowing, she still kept opening her mouth to try and "catch" snowflakes with her tongue...

Here we are with my brother Makoto's girls. They too, have three little girls that Kela and Anna absolutely adore. Plus, they could open a daycare center with all the toys they have! For girls only, of course! They have it all: My Little Pony, Barbie, Dora, Princess-everything, you name it, they probably got it!
They even have a trampoline, which despite the frigid temperature, they wanted to jump on. See the white stuff in the corner of the picture?
Yup, that's ice and snow.
Apparently it wasn't enough to deter them from having a good time!


Like I said before, the weather was FREEZING! So instead of hitting a park, we went to an indoor playground nearby instead.

We only stayed for about a half-hour, but that was plenty of time for the girls to run around and burn off some energy.

Nap time afterwards was L-O-V-E-L-Y! :)

One of the things I love about visiting Seattle is all the good friends we have with little kids of their own! It's a two-fer! I get to enjoy chatting with friends while the kiddies run around and enjoy each other as well!

On this day, the sun came out and the weather was beautiful!

Still chilly, but warm enough to frolic in the yard!

My good friend, Rachel, now has two little girls. Little Lucy showed Anna and Kela her "pot of soup" (which was ICE cold, by the way!) as well as the cute goats they are housing for the winter in their back yard!

Needless to say, my girls didn't want to leave!

It was so funny...Anna kept picking up pine cones and calling them "coconuts."

You can take the Girl out of the Islands, but you can't take the Island out of the Girl...

We had planned to visit the Children's Museum, but due to some miscalculations on my part, we were too late...I'm still quite bummed about that...

BUT, instead, we got to visit the Downtown Seattle Waterfront district. It's always so lively and fun down there. That's when I REALLY feel like we've experienced Seattle! But, boy, was it COLD!

Taking a walk around the pier. Brrr!

I never knew, but there's a huge carousel right on the pier (indoors, of course!) Since our girls didn't quite measure up to their height requirements, both Mitch and I had to stand next to the girls. I stood with Kela, while carrying Jolee in the carrier.

(*sigh*)

I think I'm getting old. I used to LOVE roller coasters and amusement park rides and such. But lately, I can hardly ride in the back seat of a car without getting a little queasy. This carousel ride was bit more than my poor stomach could handle. I was glad it was a short one!

Ugh, I feel so old just writing that!
Anyhoo--

Next time, we're definitely going to the Seattle Aquarium. We only walked around the outside this time.

All in all, we were in Seattle for a short five days. And Mitch spent most of the time up at Boeing for his training while I played and played with the girls. Despite all the freezing cold weather, it was definitely a fun, fun little trip.