Seattle Trip

Why take a 3 year old, a 19 month old and 7 month pregnant wife on a 4 + hour plane ride?
I had to travel to Seattle for business but we also have been trying to find a time to head out west and see our good friends Becky and Rob who have kids very similar in age to ours. We also had some frequent flier miles deal that was going to expire before we would be traveling again (Missy isn't supposed to fly starting tomorrow due to the pregnancy and flying with 3 kids probably won't happen much; at least not until #3 is a little older.) Additionally I had hopes of getting some skiing in and WA, and OR have just been getting dumped on this year. On top of those factors, flights were only $212 so we took advantage and booked the trip.

A cabin in the woods
Ashley and Nicole were both great on the packed flight out there. We lucked out with the weather as Chicago had gotten lots of snow every other day of that week. Becky picked us up at the airport and we spent the weekend at their house. Rob is the director of Cascades Camp and they live on the property so we had access to a cabin of our own. It is a beautiful area of the country and the rain doesn't seem so bad when the alternative is sub zero temps at home. We spent most of our time at Becky's house but had a good time with the girls in "Maiya's other house", the cabin. Speaking of "other house's", Becky and Rob are just weeks away from their new house being done. The weekend we were there was the one weekend that Rob had to paint the entire house. It was an impressive undertaking and he had gotten a ton done by the time we got there, but there was lots more to do.

Marmalade anyone?
Saturday it worked out for us to borrow Becky's Expedition and meet our cousins, Mike and Leslie, in Yelm. They drove up from Portland and it was great to grab lunch with them. They are about the best listeners and conversationalists I've ever known, trouble is, they are so good that 3 hours of talking and you barely know what is going on with them. Still a great time, but just making the point that next time we will have to spend more time and make it a point to talk about them too. Thanks for lunch guys! our turn next. Maybe Mike can provide Marmalade sandwiches or something (Mike asked for Marmalade for his toast and they had to look around to see if they had any. Turned out they had a 2 gallon drum of it and were willing to open it if he wanted it, but also offered to let him take it home since no one ever asks for it. Mike opted for the latter so if anyone is craving marmalade, let me know I'll get you his number)

On our way back to Becky's (about 15 min drive) the car started puttering funny and upon our return Rob drove it around. It did it again and the check engine light came on. So with one car down, two pregnant women and a house to paint, the odds of me getting to the mountains to go skiing were quickly dwindling. But I was prepared for that. It was first a family weekend with hopes of getting some skiing in. (Crystal, which was where I was hoping to ski had 300+ inches already this season and 3+ feet in the days before my arrival. So much snow that the mountains were closed- power issue, road safety, avalanche danger, etc.) So we stuck around the camp and I helped Rob paint (just a little) and we took some walks when the sun peaked out. We also fed the horses that live just across from their house. It was wonderfully relaxing and great to spend time with Becky and Rob and lend a hand as we could.

Sunday afternoon we all headed up to Seattle to stay at Rob's parents house who were out of town. We grabbed a fun dinner down on the water in Seattle did a bit of the tourist thing (merry go round). Then headed to the very cool house of Rob's parents. They had a hot tub in the back overlooking the Sound and when we turned off the jets you could hear the sea lions barking. Not your typical February day for a Chicagoan.



I went into work on Monday and Tuesday and when my coworkers heard that I didn't get my skiing in over the weekend it prompted a Tuesday afternoon flock to the mountains. Business went great, very busy, but great the two days I was there but the highlight was the chance to see 6 of the "originals" interact and take me skiing. Great guys, fun stories, wonderful skiing. We lucked out with the weather and had the mountain quite to our selves. Bit too long of a story for my already too long blog posting, but I had a chance to ski a lot, on Alpine and Telemark skis... both were great, but I love Tele! No pictures to prove it this time, but definitely made catching the flight back to Chicago much easier knowing that I had gotten some skiing in.

Maybe I'll add to this later but for now thought I'd share that story.
Posting some pictures here as well but my apologies as this is a very poorly photographed trip; busy taking care of the kids i guess; not photographing them.