Kidimu is less than a tenth of a mile from the ferry, so we headed there right away. There was so much to do. They had lots of different areas set up on the lower level. A bank, doctor's office, harbor, construction site, grocery store, etc. Upstairs was a ginormous Lite Brite and a few golf ball stations set up to teach kids about velocity, speed, and motion. It was all very cool, and lots of fun. We probably could have stayed for another couple hours, but lunch was calling.
We grabbed a couple slices of pizza and then went to a small playground. We planned on going to a public beach, but the kids fell asleep on the 10 minute drive there. So, it turned into me driving around the island looking at ridiculously expensive houses until it was time to catch the ferry. Of course the kids woke up as soon as we pulled into the lot to wait on the ferry. We took the ferry back to the city, skipped real naps, ate lots of watermelon for dinner, and the kids went to bed early. It was a pretty great day.
Tuesday morning we all, Michelle, Angie, Chris, the kids, and I, grabbed the bus and headed downtown to go to the aquarium. The aquarium was very cool, but the kids were in terrible moods and had no interest in anything going on. There were lots of touch pools, but H and B were too small to reach most of it. We tried lifting them up, but that yielded less than stellar results.
When Plan A doesn't work, our Plan B usually involves food. In this case, we walked to Ivar's for fried seafood and to feed the seagulls. Harrison's mood improved as soon as he downed an entire order of popcorn shrimp, and Brooke decided the seagulls were worth a few laughs. We fed the gulls almost all of our french fries and then called it a morning.
We didn't bring the stroller with us, so we wound up carrying the kids back to the bus. 3 blocks uphill at about a 35% grade. It was a workout, but we made it to the bus stop just in time. Brooke passed out almost immediately, and Angie had to hold her head up to keep her from falling off her seat. Harrison fell asleep on the bus too, so it was quickly to our room for naps when we got home.
That evening Michelle's mom and brothers arrived, and the house got even more full. A friend of Matt and Michelle's made dinner for the entire house. He and his wife joined us for pasta, salad, pesto chicken, and a little wine. It was great, and so nice of them to make dinner for the entire house.
Baby carrot from Aunt Michelle's garden.
Wednesday morning the kids and I headed to the zoo. We took the bus and I managed to get all three of us, plus the stroller, there early and with no hiccups. We walked a couple blocks to grab an iced coffee and a croissant. Our morning was off to a great start. Then we got to the zoo, and things quickly took a turn for the worse.
The Woodland Park Zoo doesn't allow straws or lids, and we were informed of this as soon as we entered. I didn't think much of it other than tossing the straw and lid from my iced coffee. It became obvious really quick that the kids weren't happy. They had zero interest in the gorillas who were actively playing right in front of the glass, and they made that clear by screaming at me. Since Plan A wasn't working, in came Plan B. Our almond croissant. We grabbed a couple chocolate milks and plopped ourselves down at a table. We ate our croissant with a peacock who was just waiting for a taste.
This is where the no straw thing becomes an issue. Two kids who want to drink their milk, but aren't familiar drinking milk from a carton and they can't have a straw. I'm going to refer to it as The Great Chocolate Milk Disaster of 2014. Needless to say, the cartons didn't go over well, even with me trying to help. They were cold, wet, sticky, and angry. The happiness the croissant brought was quickly gone. We wound up spending $80 at the gift shop for new t-shirts and sweat shirts.
That made the rest of the zoo trip tolerable, but still not great. The ground was wet and dirty, which meant the stroller was wet and dirty and the kids were wet and dirty. They just weren't happy. They didn't even care about the elephants or hippos. ELEPHANTS and HIPPOS! How they weren't excited, I don't know. We didn't finish the zoo because the Seattle zoo is huge! After three hours we'd all had enough and headed home. One highlight of the zoo trip was Harrison's love of diggers. He found a construction site in the middle of the zoo and didn't want to leave.
The Woodland Park Zoo doesn't allow straws or lids, and we were informed of this as soon as we entered. I didn't think much of it other than tossing the straw and lid from my iced coffee. It became obvious really quick that the kids weren't happy. They had zero interest in the gorillas who were actively playing right in front of the glass, and they made that clear by screaming at me. Since Plan A wasn't working, in came Plan B. Our almond croissant. We grabbed a couple chocolate milks and plopped ourselves down at a table. We ate our croissant with a peacock who was just waiting for a taste.
This is where the no straw thing becomes an issue. Two kids who want to drink their milk, but aren't familiar drinking milk from a carton and they can't have a straw. I'm going to refer to it as The Great Chocolate Milk Disaster of 2014. Needless to say, the cartons didn't go over well, even with me trying to help. They were cold, wet, sticky, and angry. The happiness the croissant brought was quickly gone. We wound up spending $80 at the gift shop for new t-shirts and sweat shirts.
That made the rest of the zoo trip tolerable, but still not great. The ground was wet and dirty, which meant the stroller was wet and dirty and the kids were wet and dirty. They just weren't happy. They didn't even care about the elephants or hippos. ELEPHANTS and HIPPOS! How they weren't excited, I don't know. We didn't finish the zoo because the Seattle zoo is huge! After three hours we'd all had enough and headed home. One highlight of the zoo trip was Harrison's love of diggers. He found a construction site in the middle of the zoo and didn't want to leave.
The guys had made it safely back from the bachelor party, and the rest of the fam got in that night. After naps, we all met up for pizza and beer. We took over an entire pizza place and stuffed our faces. It was glorious. The only way to top pizza is with ice cream, so we walked a few blocks down to Old School Frozen Custard to finish the night right.
Matt and Michelle live right around the corner from the Fremont Troll, so we stopped and let all the kids see the troll on the way home.
We were very excited to get in some daddy time on Thursday since we didn't see him for four days. We went to the Seattle Children's Museum. We took the bus there and back, by now the kids and I were professional bus takers. We spent a good three hours at the museum before heading back to the house. I think older kids, 4-6 yrs old, would get even more out of the museum than H and B did.
The kids took a long nap, and Rob and I were headed to the wedding rehearsal before they were both up from their naps. They hung out with Grandma while Rob and I got the lowdown on our MOH and groomsman duties. The ceremony and reception took place at the zoo, so we got to hang out with elk, wolves, mountain goats, and bears during the rehearsal.
The happy couple!
The rehearsal dinner was a "I Do Barbecue" at M & M's house, so we all headed back there after the rehearsal was over. Michelle's mom did a great job putting together a casual dinner for 30 people. The kids were off to bed pretty soon after the rehearsal dinner started, so I may have taken advantage by having a few drinks and hitting the sangria. Big mistake on my part, but we'll save that for the next post.
All that's left to share now is the weekend wedding fun! I will hopefully be getting that posted tomorrow. If you missed out on part 1, you can find it here.
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