Today we spent an entire day in the car to get to my Tia Karen’s house where we will spend the next week. We love driving!
We started about 4:30am:
Along the way we saw some crazy stuff:
Got to sunny California by midday.
Ate at a Mexican restaurant for a late dinner
And made it to the BaycArea
And promptly conked out the last leg of the trip.
No fuss, no drama, no problems! A great road trip with cousins at the end!
As you know, this is what the Seattle Skyline looks like:
Every year for the holidays, the Space Needle gets dressed up for the occasion. Last night we went to visit the restaurant LUC – a fabulous french restaurant in Madison Valley by our friend the Chef in the Hat: Thierry. On the way there we passed the Space Needle and saw the lights!
If you don’t celebrate Christmas, you could call this a Pyramid of light to recognize the Egyptian God of the Sun, Ra.
This could also be an acknowledgement of the enlightenment of Buddha to celebrate Visakha Puja Day.
This could be a homage to our own Mount Rainier.
But really, for us, it’s just a Christmas tree.
We spent 5 days and Miami – despite the constant, pouring rain, we had a blast. We stayed with our cousins, Tory, Bella and Christopher while Mom and Dad went to Isla Morada for Pablo and Jessica’s wedding.
We had so much fun with the kids!
When Mom and Dad got back, we went to the Alligator Farm – it stayed dry for the few hours we were there, so even though we didn’t get any beach time, we learned a lot!
Annabel gets close:
Here’s a real one:
A whole lake of them:
Luckily for that fence, we are safe:
Not sure why the alligator wrestler would do this:
We got to hold one:
And eat some Alligator Tail Nuggets
Here is one that got really huge:
And some babies that we got to feed some dog food:
They had other reptiles. Here is a reticulated python that ate a duck a few days ago:
And I held a little one:
We highly recommend the Everglades Alligator Farm!
To celebrate my last weekend before school starts, I got to go camping for the first time. Annabel and I loved it and can’t wait to ask Santa for camping supplies of our very own.
We camped at Vantage River Resort on the Columbia River.
Dave Matthews Band Caravan was performing at the Gorge- but most importantly we were there to watch our good pal Christian perform with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. We got to go back stage and even on stage (practically) to watch the show.
Megan and Zubin came too (luckily my mom and dad had some expert campers to show us how it’s done.)
Enjoy the slide show.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Because summer hadn’t found it’s way to Seattle yet, we spent two wonderful days at the beach with Mark, Shauna and Anthony and Katy. The Forment cousins from San Diego came and joined us one day too! My cousin Cody took Anthony out to ride the waves – we can’t wait to go back!
Last month we got to go to California AGAIN – this time to celebrate my Uncle Matt’s wedding. (Those pictures to come in an upcoming post).
I got to spend a lot of time with my cousins and I can’t wait to go back.
The first day there, we went to practice Uncle Matt and Aunt Jennifer’s wedding and out to Marino’s for a delicious Italian dinner.
Here’s the bridal party being told what to do:
Grandma helped try to keep Annabel quiet:
My Dad looking sharp in his new suit:
And of course, me looking good as usual:
The next day, we went to LA Brea Tar Pits.
Here we are in front of the stinky tar pit:
Learning about the Saber-tooth cat:
Jidi was telling us about the time that he worked with oil:
An ancient Camel skeleton:
Here is Anthony planning his future career:
We drove by my Mom’s old house:
The next day was Matt and Jennifer’s Wedding and then we spent two days at the beach!
More pictures to come!
