Nana and Papa come to town!

A couple of weeks ago, Nana and Papa came to town to see the new house and the office.  It was such a fun visit!  We went to Chuck-E-Cheese, Coeur d'Alene, checked out Daddy's office, visited Rylynn's preschool and even celebrated St Patrick's Day!  Every year I make Corned beef and cabbage for St Patty's Day since that was what my mom did for me growing up.  So when they arrived on St Patty's Day it was fun to make corned beef and cabbage for my mom this time.  We loved driving around and showing Nana and Papa Liberty Lake and why we love living here.  We tried to subtly hint that this is a great place to live so that Nana and Papa might want to relocate here sometime soon:)  After a fun-filled few days, we headed to Seattle to meet up with Marianne and her kids Nathan and Aria.

Papa was an excellent babysitter in the back seat:)

The kids were so excited to get to hang out with their cousins for a couple of days.  And it was a miracle because it was nice and sunny weather for us in Seattle!

The first day we took the kids to the aquarium.  This was the cool floor to ceiling fish tank at the entrance of the aquarium.

This was a huge star fish the kids found in the wave tank.

The highlight for my kids were the big touch tanks where they got to touch starfish, anemones, and sea urchins.

The anemones felt so cool.  If you kept your finger on them for a few seconds they would grab onto you.

The tanks were so colorful!

As you can tell we spent a lot of time there.

We also got to see the feeding of the seals.  They were so huge.

Carter was liking the seals, but he loved the otters the best.

Beckett slept for most of the museum but when he woke up he was loving this bubble tank!

It had different colored lights shooting through it and he was completely mezmerized.  I love his face in this picture, it's like he's saying, "can't you see I'm busy enjoying these bubbles?"

We had a slightly terrifying moment while at the aquarium when we lost Rylynn for about 7 minutes.  I panicked and we were running all over the place trying to find her.  It is really hard trying to keep track of 5 kids!  Luckily she had just wandered ahead a little ways into a different room and we found her there sitting quietly looking at the fish.  Man I hate those moments as a mother!

We did a couple of other fun things in Seattle like eating fish and chips at Ivars and walking along the pier, but the kids kept begging to go back to the hotel so they could swim in the pool so we spent a lot of time there.  What is it about kids and hotels?  Rylynn seriously said on the drive home that her favorite part of the trip was the hotel and swimming in the pool.  It makes me wonder why we spent so much money on the other stuff when the pool was free.

On the way home we got to see some of our favorite people in the world!  The Poyfairs!  We got to stop in and see Adam's office and have lunch.  Then we went to my favorite place in the world...

I've been so deprived since moving to Spokane, but I tracked down the manager and asked him when they are coming to the Spokane area and he said within the year!!  That man made my day!  We also left with a trunk full of Trader Joe bags (sigh).  Rylynn was so excited to shop at TJ's too.  That's my girl!

She was a little more excited though to be hanging out with her friend Olivia again.

Carter and Jack had their moments of scratching and hitting at lunch, but at the end of the day they loved each other:)

What a cute group of kiddos!

I just love this girl!  Seriously what could be better?  Shopping at TJ's with Carissa!  It was like old times.  Now if I could only get her to come to Spokane with TJ's!

We passed some amazing country on the drive down and back.  This partially frozen lake was so beautiful.  The picture doesn't do it justice since we are driving on the freeway as I snap the picture in the car but you get the gist.

Pit stop on the side of the road with the kids.  They were such troopers.  We had soo much fun seeing family and friends that we love!