Seattle!

We went to Seattle!  It was a big deal because this was our first real vacation!  Aaron had training in Seattle for three days and we decided to use some of our tax refund to go with him.
All in all, it was a lot of fun.  Eliza has been really, really, really hard to be with for the past month-ish (she is getting her molars, so I HOPE that's why) and as the trip was coming up, I began to wish that we weren't taking her with us.  I was sure she'd be horrible and.... she was.  :)  It's always nice to know that you can count on her.  :)  She screamed A LOT.  But oh well, at least I expected it, right!?  But nonetheless, the good of the whole trip overweighs the many, many, many rough spots and it was still so great to take them and let them see some place different.  Camille was almost perfect the entire time.  What a babe!

We flew out on Sunday and were nervous about the flight because Camille won't hold still.  Luckily the flight attendants didn't freak out about her playing on the floor for a lot of the time and our first hurdle (the 3 hour flight) went great!

We got to the hotel that his work put us up in (p.o.s.h.) and waited for Laurie.  My sister flew in and hung out with us for a couple of the days!  And then we went swimming!  It was both of the girls first time swimming and it took them a bit to warm up, but then they loved it!

MONDAY
Aaron had the training from Monday thru Wednesday.  So Monday morning, Laurie and I took off with the girls to explore! We first went through Pike's Market to get down to the waterfront.  Once there, we got the CityPass.  It was a bomb deal!  $74 to get you into lots of the big attractions for so much less than going to all of them.  If you go, I highly suggest it!  Pretty much every place I'll be telling you about was on it.

Here's my little loves.  Notice the food in their hands.  I had the inspiration a few days prior to leaving that I needed to take bomb food with us.  I am sooooo glad I did.  Did they eat super healthy last week?  Nope.  But did it stop many, many, many, many more tantrums that would have happened?  Yes, definitely yes.  :)

We first went on a harbor cruise in the Puget Sound.  It was a lot of fun and we learned so much about the city.

We then went to the Aquarium.  It was so-so.  They did have a couple of cool things, but it was pretty small, all in all.  I did touch a starfish, so that was cool.

 Then we made our way to the Space Needle.  We went to the Chihuly Gardens next to it.  They were AMAZING.  Seriously, take your breath away amazing.

We had planned on going up the Space Needle next, but Eliza threw a huge fit that lasted for a realllllllllllly long time so we didn't.  I refused to reward her for her tantrum, so we headed back to the hotel.

TUESDAY
We woke up and I could tell it was FREEZING.  I hadn't brought enough warm clothes for us so I knew I'd have to buy something.  I wasn't thrilled about that, but I went into the Gift Shop at the hotel and they had hoodies on clearance for $9.99.  AWESOME!  I got one for me and one for Camille.  (Eliza said no.)  It was big on Camille, but it worked perfectly and I was so grateful for an inexpensive fix!

We headed to the Space Needle that morning.  Eliza was incredibly ornery so we didn't stay up there long.

 We planned on going to a museum there, but found out it was closed that day.  We headed to check out Pioneer Square instead, which is the original part of the city.

 Klondike National Historic Park is there and it was REALLY interesting to learn about the Klondike Gold Rush.  Seattle was the gateway to heading up there and having that many people go through it made it into a big city.  Eliza was able to become a Jr. Ranger and got a badge which she was happy about!

 That night we met Aaron for dinner and then went up the Space Needle again (the pass included going up the Needle twice!)  We went up just before dusk and it was FABULOUS.  It was such a perfect time to go up and it was so beautiful watching the sky and city get dark.  And Eliza was in a much better mood, so yay!

(Aaron bribed Eliza with "pink and white cookies" (Mother's cookies) if she would smile for a picture.)  :)

WEDNESDAY
We spent the morning doing laundry and just hanging around the hotel trying to pass time.  (We had to check out of that hotel that day and we couldn't figure out a way for me to get to the new hotel easily except to wait until Aaron got out of his meetings at 5.)  Laurie left around noon. It was so great to have her come and hang out with me while Aaron was in meetings those two days!  I took the girls to Denny's for lunch with the hope of spending as much time as possible there.  While there, Camille pooped all over my jacket arm so I spent a lot of time trying to clean that up too (hey, whatever takes time!).  I took them for a short walk and they both fell asleep.  I was so grateful!

We waited for the last hourish in the lobby.  Aaron got out of his meetings and then we headed to our new hotel.  (We didn't rent a car so we took public transportation to everything.  It worked out for the best for our situation, but it sure made for some rough transportation of bags and such!)

THURSDAY
And now we had Aaron full-time!  Yay!  We went to the Pacific Science Center (the museum that had been closed on Tuesday) and saw a 3D IMAX movie about monarch butterflies.  IMAX always has a way of making things AMAZING!

I'm pretty sure this was my first 3D movie!  Eliza didn't use her glasses at all beside this picture, but Aaron put them on Camille while she sat there and sucked her thumb and she was totally cool with it.  It was HILARIOUS! 

We went through the museum which was really interesting and had lots of stuff to do, but a certain someone was REALLY unhappy (are you noticing a trend here?!) so we didn't really get to enjoy it like we wanted to.  They had a butterfly room which was cool to go in.

We decided we wanted to ride on the DuckBoat.  We had an hour to kill so we went into the EMP Museum.  It was the only thing on the CityPass that we were totally uninterested in.  But we were right next door and had a few minutes to kill so we went in.  And we were done in about 15 min.  If you're in love with Nirvana or Jimmy Hendrix, you might have liked it, but that was about all that was in it.  There was this cool guitar thing though!

So then we went on our DuckBoat!  I have ridden in one of these in Boston and loved it.  They are WWII vehicles that were made to go from land to water.  So we drove around and the guide really entertained us and told us so much stuff and then we went for a dip in Union Bay.  We saw lots of houseboats including the one from "Sleepless in Seattle".  It was so much fun.

 On the way back to the hotel, we finally caught a picture of us with the Space Needle.  Whew!

FRIDAY
We took a bus down to the Museum of Flight.  (The bus ride there and back were VERY sketchy, but we survived!)
The museum was incredible.  So many planes and so much history.  Aaron was REALLY into and loved it.

They had planes from the Wright brothers all the way until now with special exhibits on WW1 and WW2.  And then a huge exhibit about space travel too.  All very interesting. 

Part of the museum was the original Boeing factory.  Kind of crazy to think of how big they are now! 

I had Aaron pose. :)  (notice the sign)

They had some planes outside you could go in.  Including the former Air Force One!  Right behind Eliza is the "Presidential Conference Room".  It's good that they can take care of important stuff while flying!

That night we went back to Pike's Market.  I wanted to see the Gum Wall and add to it.  :)

We got Aaron a monster donut and I got a piece of carrot cake.

SATURDAY
We went to the last place on our pass... the Woodland Park Zoo.  It was beautiful.  For beauty, I give it a 10+.  For animals, a 6 or 7!
The grounds were almost too lush to be able to see the animals.  No joke!  Camille was practically perfect the entire time until Saturday.  I guess she had had enough!  So both the girls were pretty testy at the zoo, but we survived!

 

Then we headed back down to stay at a hotel near the airport.  Camille was hilarious.

We flew out the next morning.  We had a couple hour layover in SLC.  The girls were really good on the flights which really surprised us.
We are so grateful we could go and have a week away from the regular norm.

Easter Pics & Update

Hi!

Life is good and super busy!  Time is flying by!  We really like Albuquerque.

A few recents: 
We've had both sets of parents come visit us and that has been wonderful.
Aaron was officially sworn in as a CPA!
I'm loving working with the Young Women.


We are looking forward to the next few months.  We're going on our first real family vacation to Seattle (pray for us, because I'm pretty sure I'm going to regret taking the girls!) and we'll be using up a lot of Aaron's vacation days visiting both families and camping and such!

Aaron loves his job and I love mine, usually.  :)  (The past few weeks have been pretty bad... Camille got 3 teeth in six days and Eliza got her last two molars.  There has been LOTS of screaming around here.  Here's to hoping that things change soon!)

Here's what our beautiful girls are looking like these days:

Christmas Recap

So blogs are way out.  But I do have some people who tell me they read my blog so I do this for them!  (Thanks loyal readers!)  And maybe it's a pride issue... I don't want to be like almost everyone else who hasn't updated their blog for 3 years.  So I continue, but definitely not at the pace I did years ago when I started.

Anyway, here's our Christmas recap Albuquerque style!

We went to the Twinkle Light Parade.  Peeps decorate their car with lights.  Some cars were rad and others were lame.  Most important thing to know--Aaron was not wearing a jacket.  And it was December.  At night.  !!!  The weather down here really is a plus.

Santa came to our Ward Party.  E and I do a lot of role-playing these days. So we had Santa ready to go.  So when he said, "What do you want for Christmas?" and without a pause said, "A puzzle," I was one proud mommy!  After she got off his lap she came over to me and said, "Where's the puzzle?"  :)  Poor girl.  I had totally led her on thinking he'd provide.  Luckily he did hook her up with lots of puzzles on Christmas!

Camille on the other hand just ate Santa's beard and glove.  This girl puts EVERYthing in her mouth.  Yes, I know all kids do.  But I swear she does it more than most.

We also went to the River of Lights.  Down by the Rio Grande, they put up tons of "sculptures" of lights.  This is a horrible pic, but tractors are a family fave so we had to get a picture!  We enjoyed it, but were disappointed that they could have zillions of different shapes, animals, etc, but not one nativity.

We also went to an Ugly Sweater Party!  I can't lie, we were pretty excited to wear these.  And then we were the only ones who showed up in them (beside the hosts, thank goodness they did!).  So that was a bit awkward.  :)  My poinsetta's defffffinitely deserve a prize.  You can't tell, but they're outlined in glitter puffy paint.  Magical.  And E's smile in this pic makes the picture just that much more awkward. Love it!

 I couldn't find anything too ugly in Camille's size, so opted for these adorable jammies instead.  Did she need it?  No.  But was it 99 cents and adorable?  Yes.  So no regrets.  I adore the reindeer feet.

 Christmas morning was awesome.  Eliza was pretty hesistant.  I mean for weeks we'd been telling her not to open anything and now we were making her open them all!  She caught on fast enough and had a great time.  She's at the stage where who cares what's inside, I've got to rip all this paper off RIGHT NOW of every single present.  Play comes later.  She got some awesome stuff.

 Camille enjoyed sucking on some wrapping paper.  She got hooked up too.  We are so grateful for our familes who give so much.

We went to Utah for a few days over New Year's.  We got to see the missionaries--my brother who just came home from Mexico and my sister who is leaving for Guatemala.  So the holidays were fab.  They just go too fast.

In other news, I was the Gospel Doctrine teacher for a whole month and then was called as the Young Women President.  I am excited and nervous.  There is so much work to do.  But we are so blessed, so serving is the least I can thank Him with.

Happy 2013!