Matt and I decided (kind of last minute) to join Matt's parents, brother Dan, and Dan's kids in Seattle for New Year's. Initially, we had decided to spend the holidays locally since we used to have to travel so much to see family. But as we got closer to New Year's we decided we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see Cayden and the girls again. And we are so glad we did! We had a blast!
We thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the fam and I enjoyed playing in Seattle. I have been to Seattle a couple of times but usually for quick trips or layovers. This time Matt took me around and showed me his favorite places in the area and I gained a deeper appreciation for Seattle. Too bad I could never live there with all the rain!
Here are some photos from our trip:
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| Me at the San Francisco airport - because we were trying to use Matt's various hard-earned air miles, our travel was a little "creative". We both flew out of SF together but on separate airlines. When we flew back I flew into SF but Matt flew into Oakland. After landing, I drove over and picked Matt up in Oakland and we drove back to Mountain View. With four different airlines, we were lucky not to have any flight delays as our travel was orchestrated perfectly (and free). |
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| Matt and Calay - We all visited the Bellevue Gardens one night which had an amazing light display. |
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| Dan and Carys (we were all FREEZING!) |
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| Cayden (trying to not smile) |
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| Me and Cayden |
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| The lights at this place were amazing! |
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| Matt, Calay, Stefanie, Dan, Carys, Cayden, Lane and Kathy |
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| Carys - all wrapped up |
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| Me and Carys |
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| Dan and his kids |
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| Me and Calay |
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| Cayden loves dragons, lizards and dinosaurs so we had to take a pic of him with the beast |
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| Matt entertaining the kids at Costco while I relax on a couch - we spent a day shopping at Toys R Us and Costco so the kids could pick out their own Christmas presents from their dad. No small task! I even found some cute little singing dolls called Singamajigs for my Sunbeam class but in trying to decide which ones to get, Calay yelled in frustration "Oh, just pick one already!" which made the rest of us die laughing. We had spent the last couple hours saying the same thing to Cayden and Carys. Calay was the quick decision maker. She knew which toys she wanted and didn't change her mind. |
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| Calay taking a breather in Toys R Us |
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| We watched a lot of movies together - including a family fave of Despicable Me - and Cayden LOVED having Matt play video games with him. |
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| Dress up on New Years Eve - Carys, Calay and Stefanie |
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| Dan, Carys and Stefanie - We took Carys ice skating for her first time. She loved it! |
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| Carys trying to venture out on her own |
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| Me trying to entertain a very cold and grumpy Calay, who had no interest in going out on the ice. |
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| Chillin while they zamboni the ice |
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| Matt finally gave in and got himself some skates. I got to see a little bit of the "skate champion" in Matt finally. |
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| Matt, Carys and Stephanie |
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| One day, Dan and Stefani had to work so Matt and I watched the kids. We decided to take them to downtown Seattle and have Matt show us all around. Our first stop, Matt took us to see "the troll" under the bridge which we expected to be some small statue. |
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| The kids LOVED climbing on it |
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| Cayden chilling on the trolls head |
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| Then we headed to Gasworks Park |
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| Matt took a panoramic photo of us at Gasworks Park (Cayden in blue, me, Calay then Carys with the green gloves on) |
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| Beautiful view of downtown Seattle and the Puget Sound from Gasworks Park |
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| the Space Needle |
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| After finding there was no playground at Gasworks Park, the kids insisted we take them to park where they could play. We headed to Kerry Park hoping we would find a playground there. The kids were so excited we finally found a park with a playground, even if we had to walk down a million stairs to get there |
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| Playing at Kerry Park |
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| Spinning Silly |
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| Taking a break on the stairs back up from the park |
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| Then Matt took us to Pike Place Market |
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| Just having a snack |
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| As you can see, Calay was feeling a little grumpy again |
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| So silly! |
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| All was good until the three kids insisted on climbing on the pig together and Carys and Cayden fell off backwards onto the ground. We got dinner at Dick's Burgers, which was a fave of Matt's back in high school. We didn't take any photos there though. |
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The next day, Matt and I spent the day at the Experience Music Project "EMP" Museum (plus pop culture and science fiction). Best museum I have ever been to, naturally, come on - you know me!!!!
Here is a giant screen at the EMP playing a Nirvana Tribute concert |
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| Matt was in awe! |
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| the ceiling and cool decor |
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| the amazing guitar display that played music on its own |
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| Me in front of the guitars to show you how big the thing was |
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| Learning about the story behind the guitar structure |
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| About to enter the Black Leather Jacket display - a whole visual story of the history behind the black leather jacket |
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| The original gangster of leather jackets - the bomber jacket |
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| Which then became the riding jacket |
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| And eventually turned into custom motorcycle jackets for the bad boys but is now ingrained in fashion today. |
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| The old leather jacket brings out the rebel in all of us |
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| Trying on some leather jackets but this one was obviously too big. |
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| So tough and handsome! |
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| Ready to explore the Sound Lab - my favorite part of the museum where we got to try out and learn how to use different instruments and mix sound, remix, scratch, etc... |
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| Rocking out in the bass studio |
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| And now rockin' out on the keyboard |
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| About to enter the Science Fiction display (not quite sure what to expect). But it was full of the actual props and costumes used in different science fiction movies. But somehow also included horror movies as well - that was disturbing! |
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| Loved their funky decor - more so than the old science fiction movie costumes and props |
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Learning about the history behind different genres of music. I particularly enjoyed hearing sound bites from Ice T on the history of rap.
They also had a whole Nirvana display which we didn't take photos of. We had to rush through it to drive out to Matt's high school friend, Matt Fairbank's house for dinner. The whole display was fascinating with actual notes and diary entries from Kurt Cobain and other band members. It made me remember how much I actually loved their music in junior high and now I find myself listening to it more.
We also didn't take photos at Matt Fairbanks house but they have three wild little girls and another on the way. The girls were hilarious and kept us laughing all night. |
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| Our last day before we flew out, we spent with Dan and the kids having lunch and then playing at the mall (since it was really too cold to do anything outside). We probably spent almost an hour playing in the Lego store building different Lego people |
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| Cayden with his cowboy/pirate guy |
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| My guy, Matt's weirdo and Cayden's crazyhead |
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| A display of all of the different people we made waiting for the girls to build their people |
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| Letting the girls play while Matt and Cayden research Cayden's new Lego sets |
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| Having so much fun :) |
We were so sad to leave the kids but so glad we got to see them. Seattle rocked!
