Living in the City

Moving day came all too soon and the tow truck came to pick up our cars.  

We were lucky to be able to fly to Washington.  For two weeks our home was a two bedroom apartment on the 3rd floor in the middle of downtown Seattle!  I thought I would dislike the entire experience.  Instead, it turned out to be one of the most memorable two weeks of my married life.  First of all, we happened to be straight across from a construction site where they were tearing down a building.  It was extremely loud during the day, but it kept the kids occupied.  They were just fascinated by huge pieces of concrete falling to the ground.  Even my wild toddler stood still for 5-10 minutes to watch.

My little Kaitlyn can get into a lot of trouble when she wants to.  She colored all over the high chair in the apartment and seemed quite happy with herself.

And that's the place we stayed in Seattle.

Oh, I can't forget this picture that Jackson took at the apartment.  His favorite squeaky ducky that just about drove us all crazy because its so high pitched and he doesn't it constantly.

We lived a couple blocks from the space needle and Seattle center.  It was fabulous.  Everyday we walked there and explored the grounds.  Here is a really big sculpture that the kids were playing by.

We would usually have a snack after naps at the food court (I would bring snacks) because they had these cute little chairs the kids loved to sit in.

Madison was especially obsessed and wouldn't sit in one spot.  She would just carry them all around the place.

In the middle of the food court we could look down and see this:

I quickly found out that it was the children't museum and everyday from 4-5 PM ( the last hour they are open) anyone could come in and donate any dollar amount.  We went for that hour every day we were there and the kids had a blast!  They could go for an "outdoor hike" up the mountain, drive or boat through different countries,

 
 
Go shopping, eat at a Mexican restaurant,
 
Sleep in a Japanese bedroom,
 

read stories in a "princess" chair, build just like "bob the builder", ride on humongous bugs,
 
dress up, paint, and mold clay!
 

We even went outside when it was raining (you just have to do it in Seattle!)  I thought the kids looked so cute in their raincoats.  Good thing it was fairly warm so they could just wear their flip flops.

After reading a recent article about how the mom should be in the picture, I decided I don't take enough pictures with my kids.  So there you go.

We went to the Seattle Aquarium and Jackson had to have his picture taken by this seal. Gotta love the fake smile.

I tried many times to get all three kids to look at me, smile and capture the space needle as well.  These are my attempts.  They will have to do.

We celebrated Kaitlyn's birthday while in the city.  She wanted to eat at McDonald's so that's what we did.  Here is a picture of the kids in our rental van. Madison got to sit in a forward facing car seat while we had it, but then changed back to rear facing once we got our van back.

Jackson and Kaitlyn wanted to show off the toys they got in their happy meals!

We went to this fun center and played some games.

Then Kaitlyn opened her one gift from us (she sort of got jipped this year, just don't tell her).  It was a princess book with a magic wand.

And she seemed pleased with her cake- cake batter ice cream with sprinkles and kit kats on top.  Yum!

Here are more pictures of our adventures around Seattle.  We walked all the way to Pike Place Market one day.  I couldn't believe the kids actually did it.  We also walked to the sculpture park.  It was so beautiful that day.

I don't know if you can tell, but we are almost at the top of a very big hill.  We were on our way back from the sculpture park and had to walk up this!  It was tough.  I was pushing the stroller and both kids were hanging onto the stroller.  We are awesome.

Many days we met Kevin for lunch at a park a couple blocks away.  They had a small playground and the kids could just run around.

We had a few hot days there and got to play in the fountain at the Seattle Center!

Kaitlyn took a nap almost everyday and Jackson took two naps during that time.  This boy NEVER naps anymore, so I really must have worn them out each day.

Like I said before, I LOVED living in the city.  It was so nice to be able to walk everywhere.  The kids loved it because there was always so much to see.  They saw the local news helicopter land on a skyscraper, and a homeless man offer to take our picture (luckily that turned out okay).  I felt like it was such a great experience for all of us.  Plus we were closer to Kevin and he didn't have to drive home!  I probably couldn't handle it for long term, but I do find myself missing it sometimes.