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!

Up Top

 

 The view of Lake Union from Up Top

 Carson gets a closer look at a sea plane taking off in Lake Union

 Madeline doesn't really like heights so she didn't want to lean out and look over the rail

 Puget Sound in the sun with two ferries passing each other

This is the souvenir photo with the superimposed background. It was great that we had real blue skies that day!

Seattle Center

 Exiting out the rear crack (?) of the EMP to go to the Space Needle

 A beautiful day in Seattle with the sun gleaming off the EMP with the Monorail zipping by.

 taking advantage of the pretty hydrangea background

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.

Girls Camp

 This is our Buckley First Ward group at Girls Camp (Madeline is in the back middle)

 I was lucky enough to go as a leader and had a great time with Stephanie, Val, and Kim. We had the cutest little chipmunks that would come in to camp looking for food.

 This was our group in the back getting ready for flag ceremony

Madeline and I swam every day in the lake. We would get a yellow ribbon for each time we swam to the end of the bouy line and back (which marked 1/4 mile). Over the 4 days of camp we swam 6 1/2 miles and got special beads for swimming the most distance out of everyone.