Ok I'm all ready to talk about Seatte

So we left Monday, probably around 11 I think. We had blankets, snacks, movies, and toys all packed up and we were ready to take on Seattle!

(arent their matching car seats cute? Kim and I have the same one, albeit in different colors.)

Zeke and Preston both had plenty of snacks to keep them busy for the drive and I must say it went better then I imagined it would. Zeke only slept about a half hour and he whined quite a bit at the end but never got hysterical.

Except I guess when he got scared of the shark, that is. You see Preston has one of those nifty DVDs that connects to the back of the seat, but Zeke has never actually been exposed to TV before. Well we put in Finding Nemo (Preston's fav) but then suddenly a half hour or so later Zeke is just screaming. When suddenly Kim realizes that the movie is at the scary shark scene. Oops. He also got a little upset during Cars when he's searching in the dark for Mac and cant find him. I guess Zeke isnt quite ready yet for the emotional rigors of Disney cartoons.

But all in all, an uneventful drive. I think it took us about 5 hours to get to Seattle. We checked into the hotel, went to a BBQ at Kim's sister-in-law's boyfreind's house (OMG the biggest most expensive house I've ever entered...with the best view of downtown Seattle not to mention the waterfront) and then found a park to play around in.

Then we went to the hotel and Zeke stayed up until almost 10 playing happily and enjoying a sucker on our bed.

We woke up at 8 and Preston maybe 15 minutes later so we got some of the continental breakfast at the hotel and got ready for the zoo.

(here are the boys finishing breakfast and watching cartoons while the mommies got ready)

I think we got to the zoo around 11 but already by noon Zeke was getting cranky and didnt want to be in his stroller anymore and by 1 he was having the tantrum of his little life so Kim was nice enough to agree to leaving for a little while for a nap and lunch. Both boys ended up falling asleep in the car so we took turns running into a cafe and ordering food to go. When we got to the hotel both boys woke up in excellent moods and ate pretty decent lunches so we headed back.

From that point on they were both happy as could be and we ended up seeing the entire zoo and staying until they closed at 6. I think it helped that when we went back I let Zeke take his bottle. Because yes, I am the kind of mother that lets her toddler drink out of a bottle all day if it will keep him happy.

I think the ice-cream sandwich also helped. You know, the one I bought for myself.
THIS is the treat I had bought for Ezekiel. Apparently it didn't look as good as mine. And I can assure you, it wasnt.

Dont think we were the only ones to enjoy snacks at the zoo though. We were kind enough to feed this giraffe as well. Zeke loved his long tongue, he kept sticking out his own at it.

He also loved the little birds in this bird exhibit. They were letting him get really close before they would fly away.

But I think I have to say his FAVORITE were the fish inside the bear exhibit. You know, the fish they put in there for the bears to eat. He was CRAZY about those fish.

Unless it was that random turned on hose he found.
Or the stool at the flamingo exhibit with an egg carved into it.
I'll admit he didnt pay much attention to the animals but I think he had a lot of fun.

Both boys were so sticky from their ice-cream that we decided we had to go BACK to the hotel again to get them washed up before we went out to dinner. Thank goodness we spent the extra money to be able to stay inside the city, right?

They played a game I think Zeke enjoyed a lot more than Preston.
It mostly entailed Preston carefully filling up little cups with water and lining them on the side of the tub and Zeke then knocking them back into the water.

After they were clean we went to Red Robin for a late dinner where both boys behaved beautifully. And by the time we were back to the hotel for bed it was 9:30 and Zeke was so tired that I was able to carry him to the room, take off his pants and shoes, and change him into a night diaper without him even stirring.

The next morning was our last day so we packed up to go, and then went down to Pike Place for an hour or so since we both wanted flowers. Also I'm pretty sure its illegal to be a tourist in Seattle without going to Pike Place at all.

Then we went out to the Children's Museum with the plan of staying until one or prefferably both of the boys were stone dead tired and maybe even having a melt-down. Let me tell you the Children's Museum in Seattle is AWESOME. From my experience at the museum here in Spokane I kind of figured I would just stay in the small under 3 section because all of the other stuff is way to advanced for Zeke.

Well yeah, they had a lot of advanced stuff but there were also numerous other sections that Zeke really would have really enjoyed. I say "would have" because before we could get to many of them Zeke found this.
Yeah...that is a water table.
And he REFUSED to play with anything else the entire time we were there after he saw it. Oh I distracted him for short periods with other things, he especially liked making faces in this mirror.
But he always headed right back to the water after a few minutes, and if I tried to take him out of sight of the water he would climb out of my arms as quick as he could and RUN back.

He even got mad because he couldnt climb INTO the water.
Of course eventually another little girl wanted to play in the water. Zeke first politely moved her hands away when she tried to touch "his" waterfall. But after I explained to him that he had to share the water, and the little girl proceeded to play away in "HIS" water...well let's just say that Zeke got that very special gleam in his eye and I decided that it was best to remove him from the situation before I was explaining to some poor mother why her toddler was crying.

Luckily at that moment Kim found me with the startling news that it was 2 o clock and we better get lunch and on the road if we were going to make it to Spokane that night.

Neither of the boys had the looked-for meltdown but let me tell you after eating and getting on the road they both passed out cold for a good 3 hours, which left Kim and I to chat very happily in the car.

We made it all the way back without any tantrums or excessive crying and learned a few valuable lessons.

1. 5 outfits for 3 days is not enough. I could have used with at least 1 more.
2. 3 days to see Seattle is also just not enough. I could have used at least 10 more, lol.
3. Little boys will get very attatched, even after only a few days. By that last day Zeke and Preston were both getting quite upset whenever the other one was out of sight.
4. Little boys will also rub off on each other. Zeke learned quite a few...interesting...noises on the drive back. Much to everyone's hilarity, maybe the kids werent the only deleriously tired ones.
5. Preston and Kim are perfect traveling pals. Thanks guys for going with us!