In Seattle

At the beginning of May, I took the big three to Seattle for a series of field trips sponsored by our parent partnership program.  First, we went and saw a production of "The Secret Garden." Although I factored in traffic time when deciding what time to leave the house that morning, apparently I hadn't been liberal enough in my estimates, nor did I remember to consider parking delays or long entrance lines. We managed to get to our seats just two minutes before opening curtain. Sometimes I hate city life.

There were 2,000 other kids and chaperones in the theater that morning from 37 different schools, yet I was quite impressed with the level of order and respect.  It's a gorgeous theater and the production was well done.  I think it was geared more towards a 10+ crowd.  Aubree loved it, but Thane kept asking, "Is that the end?" Two and a half hours is a long time for a little guy to sit still!

After the theater, we walked the six blocks down to the piers and went on the iconic Great Wheel.  I was worried the kids might be scared, since the Ferris wheel is enormous and goes 175 feet in the air, but their initial nervousness vanished once the ride began.  We were promised a minimum of 3 revolutions, but instead went around 5 times.  

The views really are glorious.

For our last adventure of the day, we used our field trip tickets to try out the new Wings Over Washington simulation ride.  Again, I was unsure how the kids would react. They LOVED it.  It was definitely the highlight of their day.  Aubree insists the only downside of the ride is that it was too short. They keep begging to go back and ride again.

By this point, we were all starving, so we treated ourselves to a late lunch at Miner's Landing before heading home. It was the warmest day of the year thus far, so we were all sweating as we made the long, uphill walk back to our car.  

Mark "worked from home" that day to watch Nellie and Graham (based on how much time he had to work later that night, I don't think he got much work-work done during the day). Nellie refuses to nap for him, but otherwise they had a lot of fun.  Nellie really wants to be a big kid.

Graham still gets mileage from his "shaving kit" Christmas present from a year and a half ago.