Sleepless in Seattle

This last weekend we went up to Redmond, Washington to help Micah's brother get ready for their move to Hawaii. All of the Christensen brothers went up (except for Clay who went up the weekend before) along with Grandpa Allen. It was a last minute trip so ticket prices were almost $600 each. Because of the expense only Micah was going to go, but he found a great deal to buy someone's Southwest credit which cut the ticket cost by over half (that's so Micah:)! So he surprised me two days before we left with a ticket for me as well. We decided to go a day earlier than everyone else (Thursday) so that we could make a mini-family vacation out of it and stay in downtown Seattle.

We took the Light Rail from the SEA-TAC Airport to downtown Seattle. Kaylyn was mesmerized by the passing scenery and didn't take her eyes off the window. She's so curious and aware. 

Micah "Pricelined" The Westin Hotel - a 4-star hotel for only $65 - that was only three blocks from the Light Rail station. We spent the day in Seattle walking all over downtown.We started at our favorite Pike Place Market http://www.pikeplacemarket.org/. Pike Place is so full of variety from food, to colors, to merchandise, to people. We ordered fish & chips and salmon chowder from our favorite Ivar's Restaurant http://www.ivars.com/ then crossed town to go to Feathered Friends and REI - that's part of our tradition when we go to Seattle. After we hung out at the hotel for a while we found a delicious Thai restaurant in a nearby mall called Thai Ginger. We ordered 4 stars of spice and it was just right. We like it hot:) Then we went hot tubbing at the hotel and went to bed a little after midnight. Chancha woke up more than usual and spent a lot of the night cuddled with me in our king size bed. She continued that pattern for the rest of the trip so Micah appropriately named our vacation "Sleepless in Seattle." 

Friday morning we went back to Pike Place for unique breakfast pastries from a little Russian bakery called Piroshky's http://www.piroshkybakery.com/ and hot cocoa and steamed milk from the original Starbucks. I got four pumps of hazelnut flavor in my steamed milk and it was the perfect amount (I want to remember that for next time so I had to document it:). We stopped at Nordstrom Rack and Micah got some cool new shoes. It's rare that Micah buys anything for himself and he uses things for years and years so any time that he finds something he likes I encourage him to get it. 

Kaylyn had breakfast while sitting on a bench outside of the Bavarian Meat shop. Look closely and you'll see what happens when she's not quite focused while feeding and takes lots of breaks. We call it "milk drunk" :)

We wanted to make a surprise visit to Alickya so Micah took this pic and posted it on her FB Wall, then we waited outside in our car hoping that she'd recognize that we were in front of her house and come running out. James and her sister Steph were the only ones at the house at the time so they both started replying to the FB post accusing Micah of using an app to play a mean trick. Little did they know that we were hiding outside. We finally went inside and Alicia came home shortly after. We had a great visit with the Quigley and Nyland families.

Grandpa Allen and Seth playing with Kaylyn.

Cousin Ellie and Kaylyn

Cousin Jayne took such great care of Kaylyn the entire time. She built her  baby forts to lay in,  surrounded her with stuffed animals, and held her binky in until she fell asleep. 

Sam tried to stowaway in the trunk when it was time to leave. We didn't see much of Sam, Nathan, and Andrew during the trip because they were busy playing Nintendo DS or having Nerf gun wars in the basement.

Here's the whole crew. We had a wonderful weekend all together. We went to Sam's basketball game, went to a ward going away party for Seth & Amy where the Christensen brothers played a hilarious game of Family Feud against the Redmond 3rd Ward brothers, I went on a bike ride/run with Jayne, did some basketball drills in the driveway with Ellie before her game (love that one-on-one time:), we barely started cleaning out a closet in their house to pack up, found some awesome deals at Value Village, ate at Frankie's Pizza, visited with Kami, Allie & Boden who came over Sunday morning for a quick visit, and just loved being to able to spend time together with Seth & Amy. Looks like we'll have to  plan a visit to Hawaii soon!

Kaylyn slept the entire flight and drive home. Then of course she was wide awake and ready to party when we got back home at midnight. 

After Kaylyn went down Micah found me asleep in this position for 30 minutes. This morning I told him I was just praying long and hard that Kaylyn would sleep through the night, but turns out we're also Sleepless in Utah:) Thanks for such a fun, spontaneous, and wonderful weekend Micah! We love you!!