Vacay Part Deux

How long is too long after you get back from vacation to still post pics? Well, this is my blog and I think a week and a half is just right so here goes! This will be a long one so if you'd rather just look at the pretty pictures and skip the writing, I will understand!

The second leg of our West Coast adventure landed us in Olympia, WA. My cousin Alex was getting married so we drove the 4 hours from OR to WA the morning of the wedding. The baby slept. The boy watched a DVD. It wasn't half bad. We dropped Natey off to hang out with Aidan and Heather's mom so we could enjoy the wedding without chasing 2 insane-o toddlers around all night!

Of course we brought the babies. :o) These 2 baby girls were as sweet (and quiet) as can be.

Imagine the embarrassment of Heather and I showing up wearing the same baby carrier. Ha! Didn't you know Ergos are the latest in wedding attire? No? Now you do!

Arielle loved my Aunt Kat. She loves everyone, really. I have yet to go somewhere with her where people haven't asked me, "Is she ALWAYS this happy?". The answer to that is yes. She rarely cries. It is a blessing. It saves my sanity because, well, you've met her brother...

The day after the wedding we drove an hour and a half to go to A Day Out with Thomas with Heather, Chad, Aidan & Lilah, or as I will refer to it from now on, Thomas the Trainwreck. It was hot, humid, both of our toddlers had missed their naps (no bien by the way), the train was about 15 degrees hotter than outside, the windows did not open, a good 50% of the kids on the train were crying at first and the train ride lasted all of 8 minutes. At least there was cool things to do after we got off of the train!

Of course the minute we boarded Nate says he has to pee. Seriously kid?? I asked the guy if we had time to take him to the bathroom before the train left and he said no. So what's a resourceful mom to do?? That's right, I pulled out a size 3 diaper belonging to little sis, yanked his pants down, strapped it on him, pulled them up so no one would wonder WTH was going on and let him pee into the diaper.

When we got off the sweat box train car we went to explore the rest of the festivities.

Aidan almost got burned by a "real steam miniature train" (Why would they have this where curious toddlers will be running around?  I have no clue!)

At least he had fun exploring the RR tracks.

Nate watched a puppet show and thought it was hilarious

Nate got his first ice cream cone all to himself and only made a medium sized mess.

 

We went up to my Aunt's cabin at the base of Mt. Rainier for a couple of days and it was gorgeous. We hiked 2.6 miles (while wearing or carrying a baby and a toddler), explored the woods near the cabin, picked some flowers, saw some Elk, hung out and had a little down time of movie watching and book reading. Ahh....

Last but certainly not least we went to Lakefair with Heather and the crew. I made matching shirts for the boys (along with matching Mini Boden shorts) and I sewed matching open backed dresses and ruffle butt bloomers for the girls. It was hard to get the boys standing still long enough to get a shot, but we tried.

All in all it was a nice trip. I got to see family and friends. I wish I got to spend a little more down time just hanging out, but we did have fun.

However, the equation of 2 munchkins + 11 days + 4 different different places to sleep + 1 room to share + x naps missed or cut short + 26 collective hours spent driving + 4 different plane rides + 2 days of waking up at 4am to catch planes = exhausted kiddos and parents. It also added up to one liiiitle scene on the flight back home...but you'll get to hear that rant tomorrow!