Road trip!

So. As I mentioned, we recently took a bit of a road trip. All told, we drove about 2980 miles, took about 1500 pictures and were gone nine days. The primary purpose of our trip was my baby brother's wedding. Here's what went down...

JUNE 20: Packing always, always takes me longer than I think it will. Bleh. ;) Stayed up late the night before packing but managed to get on the road by 9:45 am. Our route was pretty straight-forward...north on I-25 through Wyoming and then west on I-90 through Montana, Idaho and Washington. We stopped in Casper, WY for our picnic lunch and in Billings, MT for a quick dinner. Made it to Butte, MT around 10:45 and nabbed a hotel room...yes, that's 13 hours on the road. Fortunately, the boys are excellent travelers. Yes, it would have been considerably quicker to fly. Suffice it to say, driving is cheaper and worked better for us. More on my thoughts about driving and road trips later... ;)

JUNE 21: More driving. Stopped at the 50,000 Silver Dollar bar/store/diner for our picnic lunch. Were making good time (and had forgotten about the time zone change so gained an hour) so stopped in Spokane, WA to stretch. We walked across the river and took the gondola ride over the falls. Back in the car and made it to Yakima, WA just after 6 pm (PST). Spent a nice evening with Nathan's parents and best friend's family...so nice to be out of the van.

JUNE 22: After getting in a morning run, we headed from Yakima to Prosser (about 50 minutes away) to visit with my mom, grandma and sister's family. Us girls headed for pedicures and a wee bit of shopping and met up with the boys for ice cream. We then all headed to my 6 year old nephews' tee ball game and then back out to my mom's house for a lovely dinner. My boys and their cousins (well, four of their cousins) had a blast playing in the yard. My guys taught the others how to play everlasting tag and I think there was some hide and seek as well:

We then called it a night and drove back to Yakima to crash.

JUNE 23: Another morning run and then visiting with Nathan's relatives through the morning. We had lunch and a small birthday celebration (for the many summer birthdays--primarily, though, for Asher and Micah who both have July birthdays) then had to get back on the road for Seattle. Made it to Issaquah (where my youngest sister and her husband live) about 2.5 hours later where we met up with all my siblings, their families and my mom and grandma (21 of us squeezed into my sis' home, lol). From there, we caravanned to dinner at a Chinese buffet to celebrate my grandma's upcoming 90th birthday. 

Here's me, gram, my mom and all my siblings (and one of my nephews that we didn't realize was lurking back there, lol). The buffet was gram's choice, and Asher thought it was absolutely awesome. (Of course, he was mostly delighted by the never-ending desserts, LOL!)

After dinner, we headed over to my brother's new place to help get things ready for the wedding (folding programs and such) for a bit before driving into downtown Seattle to check in to our hotel.

JUNE 24: Up early and got everyone out the door. We walked to the Seattle Monorail (about 4 blocks away) and got on one of the first trips of the morning. The boys were able to snag the very front seats and the driver even let Asher honk the horn. 

Upon arriving at the Seattle Center, we made a quick stop for Nathan's Starbucks fix and then proceeded to the Space Needle:

After seeing the sights and such, we walked to the nearby Pacific Science Center and spent the rest of the morning wandering the many exhibits there. (We did bypass the dinosaur room, though, as apparently that freaked Micah out and he ran through it to the space room, lol.) Not easy to get great shots indoors but I had to take this one:

Yes, that's a display explaining how toilets work. Yes, Micah has on a "this is how I roll" shirt. He picked it out himself and loves it. Because, you know, that really is how he rolls. ;) (And, yes, he posed himself by the toilet, laughing hilariously, and asked me to take this picture. Weirdo.)

Just before lunch, we made our way to the IMAX theater there to watch "Hubble 3D." We'd actually seen this particular one before in Denver, but not in 3D, and the boys (including Nathan) still loved it. :) After that, we left the Pacific Science Center briefly for lunch across the way and then went back for more exhibits and fun. Around three, though, we had to drag the boys back to the monorail and then the hotel so we could get ready for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. 

The rehearsal and dinner went dandy (dandily?). We then headed back into Seattle, waited for dark, walked back to the monorail, took it back to the Space Needle and went up to see the night lights of Seattle. It was cool:

Also, for the record, when you enter the Space Needle, they take these portraits of your group. You can then pick a background and email them to yourself when you're up on top. *Most* people probably stand there and smile. Here's what ours looked like (after I tweaked it a bit at home because the colors were simply too bright, lol):

Lovely. ;) We then hopped on the last (possibly second to last) run of the monorail that night and made it back to the hotel to sleep.

JUNE 25: Wedding day! The weather decided to cooperate for a gorgeous wedding day for my baby brother, Joe, and his new bride, Bridget. They were radiant! It was a beautiful ceremony and reception. I have many, many pictures. :) Here are a few of my favorites:

(My mom with all of her grandkids at the reception.)

(My gram with Joe & Bridget. Isn't my gram cute? She dyes her own hair and will be 90 later this month.)

(And, finally, us with Joe & Bridget. Yay!)

In any case, we saw Joe & Bridget off (so sweet...Bridget's feet were hurting from the heels so Joe carried her across the parking lot to where the car was waiting):

We grabbed some dinner on the way back to the hotel and then crashed...meanwhile the boys were delighted to finally be allowed to open the Lego kits their grandparents had given them in Yakima. ;)

JUNE 26: (Almost done. Promise.) We met up with Cassy & Charlie (my baby sister and newish brother in law) at the Museum of Flight the next morning. The boys (all five of them) walked around in awe talking about all sorts of airplane things. Cassy and I chatted and followed. ;)

(Incidentally, this was one of the last pictures we managed that day, as we'd used up both camera batteries at the wedding and had forgotten to charge them that night, lol.)

Did lunch there while the boys all watched planes take off and land. After that, Cas & Charlie needed to leave to shuttle my brother's family (not the one who just got married) to the airport. We ended up spending a bit more time at the museum before heading into a very busy downtown to do a quick jaunt through the Seattle Aquarium and then getting on an hour long harbor tour. The tour, itself, was quite informative and cool (loved all the little facts) but I always forget that I have a great tendency to get seasick, lol. 

Met up with my mom, two nieces and a nephew, and Cassy & Charlie for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. Said our goodbyes to Cassy & Charlie and then walked back to the hotel. (By this point, my mom, nieces and nephew were staying at the same hotel.) Did some more visiting and then got to the task of packing...

JUNE 27: Managed to say our goodbyes, load up and get out of Seattle by 9 am. We stopped at Ritzville, WA for a picnic lunch (had stopped in North Bend for groceries), in Coeur d'Alene, ID for a snack, and in Missoula, MT for dinner. We finally made it to Butte, MT for the night around 10:30.

JUNE 28: On the road by about 8:30...picnic lunch in Billings, Starbucks in Casper, and dinner in Cheyenne. Pulled into our own garage around 9:30 and managed to get everything (except clothes) unpacked by 10:30. (Needed to have things put away since Nathan and Noah had to wake up early the next morning for swim team pictures at 7:30 and would need things like toothbrushes, lol.)

Whew. So. We're home now. I'm starting to feel caught up-ish and am very much looking forward to a more slow-paced July and August. ;) How's your summer going?