"A....B....Seattle!"

*If you're wondering about the title.....It is what it is because for a long time in the car on the way to Seattle Lucy was chanting that. And we don't know where she came up with it, but it was cute.  She made it into a little song: "A,   B,   SEATTLE!"  Since Seattle and the letter "C" start out sounding the same, she made up a little diddy and I wanted to remember it.*

So anyway- Seattle!  We were able to go visit this past week on Shawn's company's dime and it was so much fun!  A practically free vacation to a fun city is OK by me :)  We had delicious meals, a pool to splash around in, squeezed a little window shopping in, visited the Space Needle (which Lucy would say "lets go to Seattle- it's up in the sky!"), saw the sights, played in parks, fed giant Coi fish every day, visited the delicious smelling Cafes around Pike market (and saw them toss the ginormous fish 20 feet!), visited the original Starbucks, walked up steep hills and raced back down to hear the girls squeals of delight!, rode up and down in a lot of "Alligators" (elevators) and last but not least, Lucy got her ears pierced!  She's been asking to wear earrings for months now and I debated whether or not to pierce her ears at such a young age, after all, I had to wait until I was 8 years old....I would go back and forth but finally couldn't wait any longer for such a cute accessory to be added to her gorgeous face, and decided 3 years old would be the magic number.  Then Seattle happened and we thought, what the heck.  She'll be 3 soon enough and what a fun story to tell that she got her ears pierced on vacation!  She. looks. adorable.  Just when I thought she couldn't get any cuter, she did.  By a long shot, too!  Ill go a little more into detail later.

Anyway, our little family has been busy.  We went to Grandview, WA the week before for another tag-along with Shawn. It was a teeeeeny tiny town with nothing to do, but the girls still liked staying in a hotel and swimming around all day.  No chores or cooking for me is always a plus as well! It was the first time Piper used floaties!  She didn't like it at all at first, but once Shawn showed her that they keep her above water, she really enjoyed floating around like a little plump buoy :)  

We are becoming quite the little traveling band it seems!  Boise, Grandview and Seattle in 3 weeks.  Lucy has totally adapted to long car trips and has been SO good.... (let's just not talk about Piper). Shawn will be in Vermont next week and Oregon the week after that so us girls will stay home (thankfully- I've got way too much to catch up on after being gone nearly 3 weeks in a row) but I have a hunch we will get to go on trips with him a couple more times this Summer.

Here are some pictures of our hotel stay in Grandview and then our sight seeing trip in Seattle.

 This is what I walked into my room to find.  Totally random.  Totally hilarious.  She's faking it.

 On our way to Seattle!

 Space Needle!  I don't know why, but Piper could NOT walk up there!  It was SO funny.  She looked like a drunken sailor and just kept smacking into everyone.  She was swaying back and forth and laughing the whole time.  I think the altitude gave her vertigo :)

Lucy developed an obsession with fountains so every time we saw one we would let her throw pennies in them, and we hunted them down for her all week long.

Lucy in the sky with diamonds!

The hotel we stayed at was so nice!  The staff spoiled my girls.  They gave them fish food every single night to feed the big fish in the pond in their lobby, and candy, games and coloring books each day!  Anybody who treats my girls right is a friend to me!

We had one set back with Piper the first night.  She was up all night long screaming bloody murder and finally fell asleep on top of me at 4:30am (and then Lucy woke up at 6:30 am to start the day- needless to say, it was a long night/day for this Mama!).  I had to take P out to the car that night because we didn't want to wake guests, and I walked her up and down the halls and up and down the sidewalk outside of our hotel.  This picture is her after her nap, perfectly content and happy, brushing her teeth.  I am SO thankful she wasn't sick, or worse, had an ear infection (which was what I thought was the case).  I definitely said a prayer of thanks that day.... I was so worried the night before!

First picture is one of me and the girls walking around town :)  We had BEAUTIFUL weather!  It was in the high 70's and 80's all week!  The second one is me and the girls getting to see Kristin Sayeg!  I haven't seen her for 5 years! Yes- 5!  Way too long.  She lives in Seattle and met up with us for lunch.  We had a fun girls get-together.  Kristin is more gorgeous than ever and super successful.  Lucy thought she was a real Princess!  It was adorable and so good to catch up with her!  Back in High School her, Olga and I were joined at the hip our Senior year.  Good times :)

The girls and I found a park in Bellevue one day and they were in Heaven.  Bellevue is by far the prettiest part of Seattle.  It is just gorgeous and smells SO good from all the greenery and flowers everywhere!  It's where we went to lunch with Kristin and then Lu, Pi and I explored for a couple hours before picking Daddy up from work later.

SUSHI!!  Holy cow.  Heaven on a conveyor belt.  There is a conveyor belt full of sushi that rotates all around the restaurant and passes by each table and all you have to do is pick up the roll you want when it passes by and you never have to leave your table.  Whoever invented that is the smartest person ever.  Not to mention, a cool blue button on each table to press when you need a waiter to come by.  Everything is set up so I could sit back and relax with my soy sauce, wasabi and raw fish ;-)

Lucy couldn't stop admiring herself in the full-length mirror after she got her ears done :)

 Both girls blinked. Of course they did.

Take 2.  Much better.

More wishes and pennies :)

Lucy taught Piper how to throw pennies too.  Sweetest thing ever.

LUCY GOT HER EARS PIERCED!!!!!!!!!!

She was SO brave. It was sad for me to see her confused face after the lady poked her first ear.  She was wondering what happened. Then immediately they had to do the 2nd ear and after that one was done, she made the saddest face in the world.  She didn't understand what was going on (she wanted earrings but she wasn't aware it would hurt to get them put in) and she tried so hard to hold back her tears.  But as soon as the "medicine" was put on her little ears she was completely fine.  It was a quick 3 second heartache for me as her Mom, but she never actually shed a tear!  She hasn't complained about them hurting even once.  She LOVES the attention they're getting her because I can't stop telling her how gorgeous they are, and 3 times a day I have to spin them and drip the solution on them and she loves it when we do that :)

This was right after the first one was done.  It's her being so confused.  Poor baby!  I love her having them, but I hated the process!  She got them done on April 30th, 2014.

All done!

Candy makes everything better :)

Cutest little ears in the world! What's funny is that her and Pi have the exact same ears.  EXACT.
Back to the hotel for the one last night before we go home.
The very first Starbucks that was ever opened.
And Pikes Market Place.

Glad to be home.  We had the busiest. weekend. ever. catching up on life!  I came home to a mountain of mail, bills, dust, an overgrown lawn, load after load of laundry, an empty fridge and just....life!  Finally 2 weeks home to fully catch up on everything.

Soon it'll be Mother's Day, our Anniversary and Lucy's birthday!  May is always so busy for us!
Until Next Time.....