Seattle in November (very long)

I have the best parents ever. They surprised me for my birthday with a plane ticket to Seattle. I was so excited, but a little nervous. I would be flying by myself. I have never flown with Alice by myself. Well, we left at 5:00 in the evening. I thought, how bad can this be. Alice's bedtime is at 7:00 so she will probably sleep the whole way. Well, she screamed and cried the whole flight and refused to sleep. I would have died, but you wouldn't believe how kind everyone was on the flight. I had several people that offered to hold Alice so I could have a brake. I also had people that would try to entertain Alice or give me words of encouragement. I guess there are still people that are kind out there. They made what could have been a horrible flight, not so bad. I would just like to say, the flight home Alice was an angel. She was happy, smiley, fun, she napped and she made everyone on the plane fall in love with her. While in Seattle we always go to the park. It was so much fun this time. Alice was actually old enough to play and she loved it.

They had just put in brand new swings, so of course we had to try them out. The girls had so much fun taking turns pushing Alice on the swing and she loved it.

That kid was grinning from ear to ear.

It was full fledged fall in Seattle. It was the most beautiful fall I have ever seen. We get some really pretty leaves her in Virginia in the fall. The colors are gorgeous, but in Seattle the grass is still green while the leaves change and since they receive so much rain the colors are so vivid. It's breath taking. Right before we had to leave the girls all migrated over to a group of trees that had fallen leaves all around. We had so much fun playing in the leaves.

One of my favorite things to see when you pull up to Shauna's house is Mount Rainer. It is gorgeous. This really is what you see as you turn onto my sisters street. I don't care how bad your day may have been, when you see this, it has to make you feel a little better.
One of my favorite places to go when I go to Seattle is the aquarium. I love aquariums. Always have. Anytime I find out a place has an aquarium I have to go. I even like to go to PetSmart so I can look at the fish. It's just so calming. Well, you can imagine how excited I was about taking Alice to the aquarium for the very first time. Well, she fell asleep on the walk over. Luckily she only slept for a little bit of it.
My favorite part of the aquarium are the giant touch pools. I love to feel the star fish and other creatures that are in the pools. I let Alice pet a star fish, but she was not happy with me. She did not like it at all. Adalyn and Cozy loved the touch pools. They even got to see the star fish being fed. I have to admit. That was pretty cool.

The girls were so excited to see there was face painting. It was so cool. It's a volunteer service that high school students through out the Seattle area sign up for. The travel around to different places and provide free face painting to kids. Isn't that awesome. The girls got the cutes penguins.

Sweet Adalyn in front of gorgeous Seattle.

There is a separate building at the aquarium that they keep sea life that is local to the state. It's my favorite part. My favorite are the seals. This day was special, because the seals were very active. I guess it was the cold weather. It was so much fun watching them interact and play, flopping on and off the platform.

Alice and I were getting a little cold, so we moved into the covered area so we could watch a little longer. She loved it and entertained everyone around with her laughing and squealing.

My second favorite are the puffins and Alice loved them to. She was not happy when we had to move on.

I had to throw this picture in. It was so cute watching Alice interact with her cousins. It melts my heart the love a family can have for one another.

While the girls went back to the touch pool I took Alice back to the first part of the aquarium. She had slept threw it and I knew she would love it. It's a giant two story tank full of gorgeous fish. I thought Alice would have so much fun touching the glass and playing with the fish. I was wrong. Her favorite part was the silver disks on the floor. She loved to walk on them and try and pick them up. It was so funny.

While in Seattle we always have tons of time to play. Adalyn and cozy made this cool fort out of packing paper (all that paper came out of one box). They had so much fun until....
Godzilla Alice came along and tore it down. Let me tell you. Alice was so proud of what she had done.
It is so much fun being able to spend time with my cute nieces. This time I was so lucky enough to go and see them dance at there new dance studio. I can't believe how much they have learned in such a short amount of time. They were amazing and so cute cute in there little dance outfits. Alice loved to watch them dance. She would watch and bob along. I think we are going to have a dancer (I hope). I had to put this picture in. This is exactly what I remember Shauna looking like when we were growing up. It's so weird. A blast from the past.

Cozy cracks me up. One morning we were running around trying to get Adalyn to the bus on time, I was yelling for cozy to hurry up, but she was taking forever, the next thing I know she came down the stars with a bunch of bows in her hair. She then proceeded to tell me, "I can't leave the house without a bow in my hair." Man she is such a girl. Alice picked up a fun habit while we were in Seattle. I had downloaded a Wiggles movie on to my itouch and every once in a while I would pull it out and we would watch a little of it. One day we were having a terrible time changing Alice's diaper so I turned on the movie. Well, Alice reached for the ipod so I handed it to her to see what she would do. Yes, she holds it perfectly. It cracked me up. I know it's probably not good for her, but it makes me laugh, plus diaper changing is much more pleasant.

I think Alice and Adalyn were kindred spirits before they came to this earth. Alice just loves Adalyn and Adalyn loves Alice. Every time Alice saw Adalyn, Alice would charge and attach her. Laughing and giggling the whole way. I loved watching it and Adalyn was so sweet to play with her. Before I left I promised to bake with the girls. We made a cookie cake. It is so good and the girls had so much fun decorating it. The only problem was we pulled it out of the oven to early so the middle was a little undercooked. It was so good. Cookie dough with frosting. Yum Yum.
We had so much fun in Seattle and we can't wait to go back. Thanks Williams Family for the awesome time. We love you and miss you like crazy.