Memorial Day Weekend Part 1

Friday after school we loaded up the car and headed for Seattle/Tacoma for the weekend. Ironically, the last family trip out there was when I was pregnant with Anders at this same time of year. Our trip in was not too bad and Brian and I even turned and looked at each other at one point and were thinking that quite surprised. No meltdowns, no fighting, little whining. We arrived at our hotel, better than we expected since we chose blindly, and unloaded. The kids of course were typical kids and immediately took to jumping on the beds. I do not normally condone jumping on beds, but for some reason it seems ok in a hotel room. I remember being giddy with excitement when I was a kid and we stayed at a hotel. Anders then melted our hearts when he crawled into bed beside Shane. Brian and I just looked at each other heartbroken knowing that he looked so stinkin' cute curled up under the covers, but we fully intended for him to sleep in the portable crib. We gave him a while in the bed and then moved him. Still too worried that he will roll out of the bed without rails.

Saturday morning we got up and headed for Tacoma to visit my cousin TJ, his wife Samara, and their new baby Cayden. I should mention their dog Neela of course, since she is who our kids spent the most time with at their house. They live in a beautiful area near the water, and we visited there for a while before heading to the wild animal park, Northwest Trek. Seeing TJ is wonderful and difficult at the same time. TJ is one of my cousins closest in age and we spent a good portion of our childhood breaks together. I was also immediately flooded with memories of Alex upon being around him, but it was nice, comforting to be with someone who has so many of the same childhood memories that I do. Seeing TJ happy and with his new family was wonderful as well. He deserves it as he has served 3 deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan and is ready for some normal family life time.

After seeing TJ, Myann said, "You remind me of an old friend. His name was Alex." Such a mature sounding statement from such a little girl. I later explained to her that TJ was both mine and Alex's cousin and they do look a lot a like.

TJ was explaining that their house was 120 years old and Shane responded, "Yeah, I can see that." Seriously, where do these statements come from? In TJ and Samara's defense, you can not tell it is 120 years old, as it has been beautifully redone. In my ignorance, I can not believe this neighborhood was around 120 years ago. I thought the west side was still the "Wild West" and void of any neighborhoods.

We then all headed to Trek, which was not busy. The weather held out for us, and we did not get the rain they were predicting. We saw caribou, bison, deer, bears, cougars, wolves, and coyotes. At the very end was a park employee holding small turtles, which had Myann and Shane captivated. Later that evening, Brian asked Shane what his favorite animal was and Shane said, "The turtles, they were just so cute." Not the response you would expect given the impressive animals we saw. Brian thought, well shoot we could saved the $50 and taken you to a pet store in that case.

My crazy kids

Can't recall why, but Anders tackled Shane.  I guess the wild animals got to them. TJ was quite impressed with Anders' wrestling skills.

TJ and Samara with Cayden

Yummy ice cream

After the park, we headed back to Tacoma for dinner at a brewery. Awesome food and the kids did reasonably well after their 50 minute power naps in the car on the way their. TJ became Myann's object of attention and was glued to him most of the day. Watch out if you are Myann's mark because she will love on you until it hurts, literally. The kids were all too happy to pour affection on Cayden when she was awake. I can see what we are in store for with our new baby. Anders gave her lots of kisses and did well holding her. Myann wanted to hold her too. She was a sweet baby and slept for a better part of the day.

Beautiful girl

My kids were a bit smitten.

Even Anders wanted to hold her.

Monumental news for us, that evening as the kids were in bed for the night, I snuck out to Trader Joe's, because I lucked out in our hotel being 3 minutes away from one. While I was gone, of course, while I was gone, Anders told Daddy he had to pee. Brian was skeptical but thought what the heck. Anders has never volunteered to go before and when he has agreed to go, he never has (except one time at preschool). So Brian put him on the potty and ouila! Anders peed. Brian texted me at the store and I was pretty thrilled. But thought seriously, the kid won't pee for me. Brian's theory is that putting him in the bed with Shane made him feel like a big boy and he wanted to prove it by peeing in the potty.