He's Up, He's Down

 Hayden wakeboarding on a beautiful August day on Lake Tapps...

Hayden enjoying the refreshing water of Lake Tapps...

Seattle Aquarium

 After our harbor cruise we went to the aquarium.

 Carson the octopus

 Zoe the jellyfish

 These birds were so funny. The keeper put a mirror out there and they went berserk talking to it and bobbing their heads up and down. I guess they will do that for an hour or more and it's supposed to be good for them because they think they are interacting with other birds. Obviously not the smartest species...

 Salmon. Yum.

 Zoe got ahold of the camera and took a ton of pictures of the exhibits. Some of them are so pretty. Here is a pink anemone.

 A purple urchin

 A white anemone

 An orange rockfish

 A big ugly fish

 A shark looking fish

 Sleepy river otters

 A peach anemone

And this concludes our tour of the aquarium. Fun!

Seattle harbor tour

The next activity for our Seattle stay-cation was going on a harbor tour. Matt had to work so we brought Cole Mitchell along with us. I had the kids pose on the pier before our boat came in. The reason some of the kids are looking to the side is because just as I said 'smile' one of the dock workers started yelling at us to get away from the ring! Apparently their special Argosy ring is trademarked, which means they want to make you take a picture with it before boarding so they can try to sell you the print when you get back for $15. Yeah, no thanks. I'll just take my freebie picture, ha ha, you're too late!

 Waiting for our ship to come in...

 The boys...

 Enjoying the view of the city from the top deck.

 The city skyline

 Harbor traffic

 I think this picture looks like a postcard. We got lucky to have such a beautiful day.

 Carson was less than thrilled with the hour long boat ride.

 We got to go right into the Port of Seattle and see the big container ships and cranes. It was pretty neat.

Woodland Park Zoo

 We visited Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle as part of our Seattle Stay-cation. The elephants were so cute.

 After reading Modoc, watching this elephant made me think much more about them. They are such smart and gentle creatures. I wish I could have one. It would be quite a committment though since they live for so long.

 Carson fed the birds. They were really sweet and loved the seed sticks.

 This group of green birds looked so cool in their tree.

 Posing by the flamingos.

The flamingos are pretty but they stink! Probably because they eat brine shrimp all day. Eww.

Organ-ized

My friend Roni inherited an organ but since she doesn't play she asked me if I would like it. YES, I WOULD LOVE IT! And I DO love it, it is so much fun to play. About one week after I got it I even got asked to fill in at church on the organ and it was great because I was able to practice at home. Fun!

EMP in Seattle

 We finally went to the Experience Music Project (EMP) in Seattle for the first time. This is the really cool guitar tower sculpture.

 There was also a neat Avatar exhibit where the kids got to design their own Pandora flora and fauna. This is the flower/tree Zoe made.

Corn on the Cob Cupcakes

 These cute cupcakes have jelly belly's on them to make them look like corn.