Olympia 2011

We just went on our annual trip out to Olympia, Washington. We had a great time! We had all really been looking forward to the trip but I had honestly been dreading the flight.We had a non-stop flight from Charlotte to Seattle and back. Phil and I have flown with the kids quite a few times but this was only Everett's 2nd time flying. And he is at that age where things could just fall apart. Not to mention, the flight out there was 5 1/2 hours long. I tried to go with as much entertainment and as many snacks as I could. We didn't give him Benadryl for the flight. I tested it out earlier in the week and I wasn't sure how helpful it was going to be. When I gave it to him he mellowed out for a bit before taking his nap. It didn't effect the length of his nap at all and when he woke up he started fussing and running around like a crazy man. So we decided no Benadryl would be best. I gave him his first dum dums for take off and landing. Those were the times when he did the worst. He's had an awful lot of ear infections and I'm sure that didn't help. We watched Elmo movies and played with an array of small toys and cars that I had in my backpack. I brought a pack of Elmo stickers and those were a huge hit. He did fuss for a bit but ended up napping for a couple of hours. So I think the other passengers should count themselves lucky. :)

We went with our whole family plus Phil's Dad, his brother Zane and his wife, Mindy. We ended up renting a 12 person passenger van for us all to fit in. It was actually the same price as a mini-van!

We always get to do a lot of resting and good eating while we are in Olympia. Aunt Carol treated us all to Starbucks one day. The girls got hot chocolate and cake pops!

On Monday, we drove into Seattle to have dinner at the Space Needle with our friend, Jason. We didn't have enough time to see much other than the Space Needle on this trip but we have big plans for our future trips!

Megan and Makena kept trying to get up on these big balls...

The sky was fairly clear so we had quite the view. The entire restaurant rotates 360 degrees allowing you to see the city from every angle. We got a great glimpse of Mt. Rainier and Seattle's Harbor. We could also see the lights from the Mariners game going on that night. And we enjoyed a beautiful sunset!

The girls, Makena especially, LOVED the Space Needle. They were amazed by the view and the restaurant's rotation. People put notes along the side of the wall and wait for the restaurant to rotate around to find it again. Makena tore off a piece of paper and wrote the word "dog" along with her name and watched the wall and waited for her note to come back around.

Since we met our friend, Jason, for dinner on a Monday we had to wait to have dinner until he was off work. That coupled with the restaurant's availability meant that our reservations were for 7:45 Pacific Time, which would be a late dinner at home. So us East Coasters were having dinner at 10:45 EST! Everett got tired pretty fast. We took about 20 pictures like this to try to keep him busy and happy. We would take a picture and then look at the picture over and over again.

Here is a shot of us all at dinner...

Shot #2

He was out like a light!

We had to pick up a few things in Tarjay one day. I thought this was an awfully cute sight! I don't know if I've ever seen Phil and his dad both give piggy-back rides like this and I thought I would take a picture in case it doesn't happen again.

 We dressed Everett up in overalls and Megan said, "Look! He's Farmer Brown!"

We went for a walk down to Boston Harbor Marina one day. The weather was absolutely perfect! Fall temps have already arrived in Olympia! Lows were in the 50's and Highs were in the Upper 60's to Low 70's. As hot as it has been in NC the cool temps were very refreshing. The girls wore leggings every day they were there and wore sweaters in the afternoon. Isn't Olympia awfully pretty?

Doesn't Megan look like a contortionist in this picture?

Phil and I both loved watching Everett push Megan in the stroller. He probably pushed her for a quarter of a mile.

Aunt Carol took the girls on a shopping trip to Toys R Us again this year. They loved it! Megan a new Pooh Bear....it sings and came with a honeypot. And Makena chose a big box full or art supplies. 

Here is Everett sitting on the deck at Grammy's our last night there. What a beautiful view!

Everett also hung out with Peter and Judy.

Here we are with Aunt Carol before heading back to NC. What a wonderful hostess she was!

Our flight home was even better than our flight out there. It was a little shorter and Everett probably slept for 3 hours. I had to poke him on the way to the airport to keep him awake. We were impressed and amazed with how well Everett did on both flights. He was a huge wild card and could have very easily gone nutso on the flights. We're so glad he didn't!