Sorry I've been so lacking in posts lately! No excuse will do justice, I just haven't made time to post. Here is a re-cap of our Seattle trip. I've had to narrow down my pictures to just a "few":
BEGINNING OF TRIP: Maggie and her 1st cousin once removed Olivia. You'll notice the tank top attire- it was LOVELY that day! 70's, a mild breeze and lots of sun. Quite a feat for Seattle!
Olivia & Maggie with Grandma Pearl. Grandma Pearl lives in Missoula, MT, so this was a special visit. We don't get to see her often.
The next day we went to lunch at Mormor and Hilmer's house. Mormor showed Maggie Hilmer's personal airplane in the garage out back, and Maggie told us she went to the airport with Mormor.
Then, we were off to my Dad's in Spokane. The last hour in the car (it's a 5-hour trip) both directions were TERRIBLE. Maggie was so fussy and whiny. I wanted a divider like a limo has so I wouldn't have to listen to her pitch one more fit. Oh, well. I didn't like the long drives when I was little, either. But she loved seeing her Poppy and Mimie.
Here Mimie (Sylvia) is helping Maggie feed one of the llamas. She loved them!
Dad took us to Riverfront Park and we went on the carousel. Maggie was a little hesitant at first, but she did great with Poppy next to her on the
stationary tiger.
After her nap, it was still really nice out, so we went swimming at Medical Lake. I'll spare you pictures of me and Tyler in our swimming attire.
The morning before we had to head back to Seattle we visited Cat Tales. It's a sanctuary for big cats just outside Spokane. It was AWESOME! Note the irony in this picture - she was actually running past it, near some very large tigers.
You could pay a small fee and "feed" one of the cats. Dad and I both did it. We got to feed a 600 pound tiger named Ali. He was as sweet as a lap-sitting housecat, and very gentle. I will say that I was glad for the big fence and plexiglass safety cage, though. But it sure was neat to be that close to a real tiger. Here you can see HOW BIG Ali's mouth was. Closed it was almost as big as our heads, and open it was downright scary.
Now it's my turn!!! Can you see my excitement?!?
MIDDLE OF TRIPWe got to visit some of our good friends from back in the day, the Harrelsons. Here's Maggie with Micah and Ethan. Lucas was already at school. I am still amazed that they all looked at the camera at the same time.
While still at Tyler's parents, Papa Dave came over for dinner one night. You'll note the long sleeves, the weather was starting to sour on us.
Maggie with Gaga and Papa. So cute!
We enjoyed a free blueberry pancake breakfast at Central Market one Saturday morning. can you tell Tyler LOVES to have his picture taken?
Afterwards we took Maggie to a playground. I got this great shot of Maggie in the tunnel slide.
Here's Tyler finishing his trip down the same tunnel slide. At least he was able to get out of it!
Here's Papa playing with her in the fire truck.
Maggie and her Daddy reading the comics Sunday morning at breakfast. Tyler was asking her to point out some letters.
THEN (can you tell we saw a lot of people) we went to my mom's parents for Sunday lunch. Here's Maggie with some of the other GREAT-grandkids (I think there are 20 altogether).
Same Sunday afternoon, we visited my dad's mom, Grandma Margaret. It was a nice surprise, too, because most of my aunts and uncles popped in while we where there, so we got to see a lot more family than I thought we would.
Here is Maggie and her Gaga (we are trying to get her to call Amron "Gramma", but I think it's a little confusing since she's also got a Gramma Sue, Gramma Pearl, Gramma DeHoog, Gramma Margaret, Mormor and Mimie to remember, but we'll get there eventually). They are going through a "Busy Bible". It's a fabric/sewn book with activites for each story. Maggie knows all about Creation now, and says "It is goo-ood" after each day's picture. I just love how you can talk about each story as they do the activity (lift flaps, de/attach velcro objects, snap stuff, zip stuff, etc.) so I broke down and got one. I am so glad I did! As soon as it arrived at home and Maggie saw it though, she gave me the most confused look and said, "That's Gaga's?" It took some explaining that Mommy bought one, too. She still calls it Gaga's bible.
END OF TRIP We spent the end of our trip at my mom's. There's a new park down the road, so one afternoon we took Maggie there. She had a great time running all over the place. This was the first time she had ever tried a full-size merry-go-round on a playground. The girl pictured was very gentle and spun it very slowly for Maggie.
Here's Maggie with Gramma Sue in the garden. Notice the jacket. The last week was pretty cold (for people used to 90-95 degree summers now). I just can barely handle a 60 degree day in the middle of summer anymore!!! Maggie loved being int he garden. She liked to look at the flowers, pretend to sniff them, and then pinch off a handful of lemon balm and smell it.
So we did a lot of animal sight-seeing this trip, and took Maggie to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. It was really nice! We got there right when it opened, and it honored my Nashville Zoo memebership, so Maggie, me, and my mom got in free, we just had to pay for my dad. Here a jaguar is getting breakfast - half a chicken. She ate it right in front of us at the glass! It was REALLY cool to watch.
Maggie saw this boy sitting down having a snack, so she got out of her stroller, sauntered on over, plopped down a safe distance from the boy, and declared that she needed her goldfish crackers. The two sat there for about 5 minutes before we could get her to get back in her stroller and continue on our way. It was really darn cute!
Check out this photo of the silverback. I can't believe how clear my shot was considering I took it through a plate glass window and he was a good 25 feet away. Do you love the Elvis lip?
Maggie in her slick shades checking out the parakeet I got to land on a seed stick. She was fine with the birds as long as they didn't fly too close.
Posing on the baboon at the gate as we left. We didn't get any good shots of the "money animals" - the elephants were never in good view, the lions were sleeping, the bears weren't out, the tiger was nowhere to be seen. But, we had a great trip to the zoo and Maggie behaved the entire time! That was quite a treat given the rest of the trip.
Barely out of the parking lot and she zonked out. She slept all the way home and then for another 2 hours once we got home. We all had a great time that day.
Maggie with Gramma Sue enjoying a popsicle. My mom keeps a box on hand at all times, so Maggie had one every day. She'd wake up in the morning, and sheepishly look up at me and ask if she could have one. Every. Morning. I, of course, told her "No, you have to eat breakfast now, but you could have one after lunch." So after lunch or if she forgot, after her nap she'd get a popsicle.
So, that was a very truncated narration of our trip. I did not take pictures or audio of her throwing a tantrum when it was time to get off the airplane. I am certain I scared the remaining passengers still on the plane when I finally lost my cool and shouted -those of you who know me, you can imagine how loud that came out - "Maggie! Get off the ground. We have to get off the plane RIGHT NOW. We are going to see Daddy!" Then proceeded to grab her up with the three carry-ons I was
already carrying and march off the plane while she screamed and kicked the entire way. (side note: This post is just about being real, not glorifying my behavior in any way. I did spend some time later one praying for losing my patience and my own sin, I was a mess getting off the plane and quite an embarrassment to the Lord, I'm sure.)
I can't tell you how happy I was to see Tyler at the security gate! The trip was fun, but I love being home with my husband and our small little family in our small little house.
