Somewhere in Seattle...

Okay, where did I leave off...?

Dinner was at Anthony's on the way back from the island. Frederick was cashed out. The big kids may have had a little crabbiness, but they still had energy to goof around in the sandbox. 

I don't actually remember if this photo is from that night or the next morning, but you can see that Frederick is awake and Pete is conked out. 

We finally went to Mighty-O's the next morning.

The kids had fun watching the donut machine "poop out" the donuts into the oil.

It was a beautiful morning for enjoying donuts and coffee outside. I had my favorite, the Don King. The Don King is a chocolate donut with chocolate frosting and coconut on top. Mmm....I want one right now! 

After filling up on donuts we went to another great beach. This place is called Carkeek Park. We headed straight for the beach at low tide.

We spent much time finding starfish and many many crabs.

Chloe and I enjoyed wading way out in the chilly water.

That night, Scott and Melissa cooked us some dinner. 

The girls spent some time making perfume out of vanilla, honey, flowers, cinnamon...

They bottled it in various small containers, as well as little blood sample vials from Melissa's office. They made some good money off us. 

Frederick just enjoyed going up and down the steps, in and out of the house...

Here's the crew enjoying some delicious rice and beans, as well as kale fresh from the garden. 

Later that night we went to a party hosted by some friends of Scott and Melissa. We took some wife-swap photos, as we had been driving around for a couple of days in swapped cars for easier navigation.

If I remember correctly, Scott and Melissa met and started dating just a couple weeks before Pete and I first met and started dating. It was a fun party, with some strong mojitos. There may have been a little silliness as the night wore on. The kids played with other nice kids, and eventually settled into a movie in the basement. Frederick was taken for a short walk by Scott and Pete, during which he promptly fell asleep and then was carried to an upstairs bedroom.

The next morning we went to the Freemont Street market. I didn't get many pictures. We were busy looking at art and junk and trying tasty foods.

I have no pictures from our next activity, which was swimming at a beach on Lake Washington. After that we went to a Mexican restaurant we had been to about 8 years ago with Chloe and Henry in high chairs. While we were waiting, this time, the kids were looking out off this dock and suddenly Frederick's nuk popped out of his mouth and into the water! Away it started to float. You can see Scott trying to reach it here, but it was just out of reach. I told him to let it go anyway. It became a perfect way to give up the nuk. Frederick had a little bit of a tough time the first couple nights. His first morning without it he woke up and asked "Nukkie?" I said "No...remember? Where is your nuk?" He said "Water?" I said "Yep. It fell in the water." He said "Bye bye Nukkie?" I said "Yep. Bye bye," and he said "Oh, Tum On!!!" ('Oh tum on' was the refrain of the trip.)

Our last full day was a Monday. Melissa had to go back to work, Scott had to work from home, and Chloe had a camp to go to. So we packed a picnic, took Nico and went back to Carkeek.

Later on, Henry and I went out in the rental on our own to find a couple of bookstores. We also found this cool record shop, where I refrained from buying Pete this cool t-shirt.

When we got back Chloe was home and the children all partook in popsicles on the deck.

Then we went out to a nice last-night dinner at Ray's.

We tried to wrangle the kids for a photo, but of course, the one time Frederick decided to cooperate, Clara was pouty.

Then Frederick found something more interesting to look at.

And Henry got some massive splinters while chasing Scott on the dock. Fortunately, we were dining with Dr. Melissa, and she expertly removed all of the splinters with some very pointy tweezers. Henry was way better for her than he would have been for me, and insisted he didn't feel a thing.

I realized that we ate all of our dinners in Seattle outside. This deck had the loveliest view. The kids had their own table.

...Though some of them occasionally joined us at the 'grown up' table.

You might be able to tell by this photo, that Pete and I enjoyed not only our seafood linguini and halibut, but also our entire vacation. It was so lovely.

We ate early enough that we still had some time for a fire in the backyard, and s'mores before bed.

Frederick wanted to taste this pine cone. 

He also enjoyed exploring the little fort under this tree.

Pete was very relaxed and happy.

Scott showed the kids a dead bird I found (it's on his hand).

We had to get up pretty early the next morning. Frederick had trouble waking up.

Here's the pretty morning sun shining on the city on our way back to the airport.

Frederick wanted me to take this picture as we looked outside, waiting for our plane.

And here's the little man all buckled back into his carseat, ready to fly home! We had a few bumps as we got closer to Chicago, but the kids didn't seem to notice.

And now we're back home! With a few new t-shirts, a couple of copper mugs, a tiny Smokey the Bear, some shiny rocks, shells, a little picture, a dishtowel with an octopus on it, a bottle of tasty oil, a whole lot of pictures and lots of happy memories to show for it.