King Tutankhamun

Last Thursday we took off, with the majority of my brother's and sisters, to Seattle to visit the King Tut exhibit at the Seattle Science Center.  Alyssa and I were actually supposed to go in August with the Sumsions, but we had to postpone, because of Brian's grandma's funeral.  So instead, Nelsa switched our tickets for us, and we made a homeschooling trip out of it.  Christina called our group the Rise and Shine Homeschool, and it was fun to line up with all the other "real" schools that were there that day.

Christina's oldest kids went with Nathan to go see "Wicked" on Thursday evening, while the rest of us went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  Becca was so crazy and on and off my lap and wiggly, that I got my cheesecake to-go and ate half of it on the drive back to the hotel.

Putting one baby without a crib or rocking chair and three bouncy kids to bed was crazy, and I was a cranky mess.  That part was not fun, and I hotel-voice yelled a lot.  (That's one thing I've decided I really need to work on: not yelling.)

The next morning we had a yummy breakfast and went to King Tut.  One word: awesome!  Even Marcus and Ethan had a good time.  It was so cool to see the things the kids have learned about in History - things that were thousands of years old.  The gold masks were my favorite.  I wish I had pictures to share, but we weren't allowed to take any.  Sorry.  We also saw the IMAX movie about mummies.  My favorite part of that was watching Rebecca.  She was so amazed at the huge screen.

After visiting the butterfly house at the Science Center, our little family broke off and went searching for ice cream.  We went to Molly Moon's Ice Cream Shop, where I had the best ice cream of my entire life: honey lavender ice cream.  It was soooooo good.  I bought the recipe book.  Oh, and it was so funny, too - while we were walking to the ice cream shop, we passed a doughnut shop, and Brian went in to see if they had any cruellers (spell check isn't helping with that one) and there were these two little girls sitting at the table facing the window.  They were looking through a book, and while the kids and I stood outside the door, waiting for Brian, they held the open book flat against the window.  I looked at them and saw that the picture was what I am now calling, "educational nudity."  So they were holding this picture up to the window, and once they saw that I noticed it, they started laughing so hard, and they just kept laughing and laughing.  It was great.

On Friday evening we all went swimming, and had pizza for dinner.  Then, Philip asked the hotel to open the breakfast room for us, so we could eat the chocolate cake Tallia picked up for Michael's birthday.  After our first not very good night in the hotel, I was determined to make our second night better.  The kids were already in their pajamas for the cake party, so once we got back to our room we had scripture study, and the kids got into bed.  I pulled the office type chair in front of the television, and I told the kids we could watch T.V. until they fell asleep.  There were 44 channels, and the only thing on that was remotely interesting for families was "Wicked Tuna" on the National Geographic channel.  I kid you not - we watched the "What's On" guide for about 10 minutes, then we went though the loop a few times before stopping on the tuna show.  It was actually pretty interesting, and the best part about it is that it helped the kids to fall asleep quickly.  Once Becca was ready to lay down, I pulled the leftover cheesecake out of the fridge and ate it between the two beds so Ethan and Marcus (who were on the hide-a-bed, and were the only kids left awake at that point) couldn't see.  It was a much better bedtime for all of us.  (Oh, and that's another thing I'm now working on: eating less sweets.)

Saturday morning was spent packing up the car and browsing the aisles of Fries.  (It's an electronics store, not a french fry store.)  Then we headed to Pike's Place Market, where we had some awesome crepes for lunch, then we headed home.  I really enjoyed the drive home, because Brian and I took some time while Becca was sleeping, and Alyssa was reading, and the boys were discussing random boy things in the back seat to talk about how we feel our kids are doing in life.  We talked about their strengths and weaknesses, where we see them going in their extracurricular activities, and things we'd like to see them become.  We also decided to start having a special night once a month, during our Fast Sunday family council, where we talk about the things that we think are awesome about our kids.  We even followed up on our plan by having our first "You are Awesome Night" this evening, and it was great.

Oh, and another thing I loved about this trip was trying to hold our breath through all those long tunnels in Seattle.  There was one that curved in a circle, and I tilted my head to see if I could look further to see the end of the tunnel, and Brian started leaking air through his lips, because he was trying not to laugh.  I have to say, though, that we made it through every tunnel without breathing.

And here's some pictures:

Becca, at the beginning of our trip.  We borrowed my parents' van, because we didn't trust our old geezer van.  We turned Becca's car seat around just for the trip, and she thought it was awesome that there was a T.V. in the car.

Kenna and Alyssa after King Tut.  Alyssa is purposefully not smiling for some reason.

Marcus and Ethan on a pretend spaceship, or more likely, a real spaceship, for pretend.

Alyssa and Callie in the butterfly house.

Marcus and his friend

The kids at Molly Moon's.  They sat at the window table, and Brian and Becca and I sat outside.  And no, that guy is not a cyborg - that's the reflection of a hub cap on his head.

Brian's salted caramel ice cream with a fresh made waffle cone.  Poor Becca slept through the ice cream party.

This is Becca waking up a little bit when we put her back in the car after ice cream.  She fell asleep a couple seconds after this picture was taken.