seattle!

This is it.

Our big Summer trip.
We headed out to Seattle to visit my family and some friends...and just enjoy the great Northwest. We (and by "we", I really mean ME) took a ton of pictures, so for all the other great pics we took (and yes, they are GREAT!), take a look here!This is a grainy picture because I took it with my iPhone...and then edited it with my Instagram app.
It was a GORGEOUS day when I took this.
You probably can't tell because of the quality of the pic, but believe me.
It was beautiful!

Before take-off.
Did you know that Honolulu Airport has this fancy Asian-inspired garden near the International terminal?
Apparently they do!

And...we're off!
Kaden's very first flight. We were a bit worried about how he'd do, but turns out there was no need!
He flew beautifully!

At least, he did on the way there....coming home was a different story, but all in all...he did great!

The girls, as usual, enjoyed the flight.
Well...they enjoyed watching videos for 5 1/2 hours.
No complaints from this parent!

Jolee's sandwich.
That was BIGGER THAN HER HEAD!

At my parents house...before bed.
They occupied themselves with what else?
Popping bubble wrap.
hahahaha....you probably think I'm joking, right?
They did this EVERY NIGHT.

At Greenlake park.
We discovered a RED ladybug.
Here in Hawaii...we get a lot of blue ones...but haven't seen a red one in a long time!
I do believe Jolee would have enjoyed seeing it more had it chosen to land on someone ELSE's arm.

What are these called...?
Merry-go-rounds?
The girls loved this.

Kaden and me hanging out...with Mitch and the girls spinning on the merry-go-round thingy in the background.

After the merry-go-round (and some swinging and monkey bars...which are not pictured here, but on our photo site here) we fed the ducks.

Oh, and for those interested to know, ducks like tater tots.

Kaden meeting his uncle Makoto!

(His namesake)

All buckled in!

Even pandy.

The girls enjoying the outdoors in my parents back yard.
Notice the sweatshirts?
It was pretty cold.

Here we are at Edmonds Park.
I used to come here as a kid...of course, back then, the playground was much older and dilapidated, but it was still great seeing my girls playing at the same park I used to over 20 years ago!

Yikes, did I just age myself?

You probably can't tell...but Jolee is actually small kine freaking out here.
All the cracks in the wood and spaces between the stairs on the jungle gym was too "scary" for our little miss afraid-of-everything!

One of the major reasons we headed up there was for our girls to play with their cousins up there.
They have so many cousins here in Hawaii that they get to see often, but they LOVE their cousins up in Seattle and have been looking forward to playing with them for a long time!


And what do girls do after not seeing each other for over 8 months?
Silly bands.
Really...I can't think of a better, more fitting name for these ridiculous pieces of over-priced junk.

And then, there's their friends.
Here they are playing at the pool with my friend Rachel and her 2 girls Lucy and Alice!
I stayed dry on the side with Kaden while the girls splashed around in the kiddie pool area.
A BIG thanks to Rachel for actually going into the water and helping to watch Jolee who can't swim.
Because I was literally having mini anxiety attacks every time she veered away from the edge of the pool.

And my friend, Alannah and her husband, Ky...whom I haven't seen since HIGH SCHOOL!
You don't need to know how many years it's been...just that it has been a LONG time!
And I got to meet their 2 boys, including this cutie.
Their little Kelso is 2 months older than Kaden...but the same size.

And my friend, Miwa and her little guy, Gordon.
I forgot my camera so this phone pic will have to do.
Also edited with Instagram.

If you have an iPhone...I recommend downloading this app.
It's fun!
And addicting.

And of course, my good friend, Carrie.


And her fun kids.


After a yummy dinner, they introduced us to sin on a plate.
Otherwise known as "Fried Twinkies"
Kela didn't want the strawberry sauce on hers...but let me tell you-
It was sweet and pretty yummy both ways.

On our last day in Seattle, we headed out to the pier.
We started out by eating some lunch.
I ate Ivar's --of course!
Can't go to Seattle waterfront and NOT have some Ivar's clam chowder! Though for some reason Mitch and the girls ate Subway instead. SUBWAY! I don't get it...

The best part of lunch was feeding my left over fries to the seagulls.

Which were HUGE!
And NOT afraid of people.
AT ALL!

See? Here's one having a staring contest with Anna.
Yeah, we didn't stay long.

And despite having taken the girls to Seattle numerous times, they had NEVER ridden on a ferry boat!
I know, shame on us, right?
So we decided to remedy that on this, our final day in Seattle.
The weather was GORGEOUS! And perfect for a ferry ride!
Although, it was still pretty nippy out with the wind blowing and all.
But the girls LOVED it!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

We were there for one week...pretty short, but was actually the longest vacation we've had in quite a while!
And as I mentioned before, Kaden flew great on the way to Seattle...and then on our way home, we had to fly to Maui first before flying back home to Honolulu. He did wonderfully on the first leg of the trip, but on the short 20 minute flight from Maui to Honolulu, he had had enough of flying and let us (as well as the other 100 or so passengers) know just how tired he was of airplanes.


But despite that horrible ending to our trip, we had a blast and came home looking like this.
Which just goes to show that while flying for free has its benefits...it still doesn't change the fact that any travel with kids is never hassle-free.
But we just can't seem to stop!

Where shall we go next...?!