Spring Break

We got to spend Spring Break in Seattle this year!

My sister and her hubby let us crash at their place and hosted us in a most excellent vacation!

Her house is surrounded by parks . . .

There was a trail just off one of the parks we were playing at that led to a gorgeous little stream and had tons of fun trees for the kids to slip and fall off climb all over . . .

The kids named this  particular park "throw up park". The game is to go and see who does or comes closest to barfing after spinning on this . . .

Ryan is the reigning champ so far :)

Torey cut everyones hair. Always a welcomed treat for me who is normaly the hair cutter in our family

And Will, who is the hiker extraordinaire, led us on some gorgeous hikes . . .

We spent one afternoon at Pikes Place . . .

Where Jim got to ride in style . . .

And we smashed more of our DNA on the enormously disgusting "Gum Wall"

If I lived near Pikes, I would go once a week just for the bunches of fresh flowers!

We wanted to go to a zoo and aquarium and the Tacoma zoo is both.

I missed this awesome photo op. This peacock had its tail feathers fully faned five seconds before I clicked the picture . . .

Cotton candy for our zoo goers . . .

The kids loved the petting portion of the zoo . . .

And this is a bad pictures, we actaully took more video of this guy. In all my zoo going years, I have never seen an animal this active. The two polar bears played and wrestled and jumped in the water for the entire 20 mintues we were standing there. Right next to the glass! It was so fun to see!

Standing in a hurricane. I should have waited and taken the picture when the wind was at its max . . .

What better way to end a zoo day then with a carousel ride . . .

Torey and Will are also big rock climbers these days. They took us to their rock gym and let us have a go.

Seriously fun! Terry and I have a brood of monkeys, but I think I already knew that.

Our lovely belay . . .   

About 20 minutes into our rock climbing, where Torey and Will were having to belay for everyone, Terry decided he was going to take the test so he could help belay. Now realize they have a full on class most people take in order to learn everything to pass this test. Terry confident he could do it. Went over, took the test and came back a certified belayer!

Raegan wins grand champion climber! She climbed the most and highest of all the kids and half the adults, including me! The child has no fear . . . 

Terry go some serious height too . . . 

I toped out at about 30 feet, because I'm a little whimpy . . .

I don't have a picture, but we even strapped baby girl in a harness and let her at the wall. She shimmied up that thing like it was nothing. 30 feet later when she was at the top we realized we had a problem because she had no idea how to repel down. Torey just slowly lowered her while we said, "Watch out for that rock, and that one, and that one." It was funny, and a little nerve-racking.

And we topped off our climing advendure with yummy frozen yogurt . . . 

The weather was pretty good all week and we had an AWESOME time!

Thanks for making it such a fun trip,

we may have to make Seattle our new Spring Break destination, eh Torey and Will?!