8 Under 6 on Vacation

We haven't seen Steph, Ryan, Clayton and Brody for over a year. Cody was SOO excited to spend time with Clayton. When they got to our house Clayton totally climbed up the door just like we heard he could. holy cow. 

My mom, dad and Lynette and her three babes braved the 14 hour drive and met up at our house too.

We braved our adventures with 8 kids 5 and under. Personally I think it made it more exciting, if not down right crazy at times. But with 5 adults, not overwhelming.

Our first adventure started at Newport on the Oregon Coast in the tide pools at Yaquina Head.

We went at low tide, but the tide was high for low tide so we didn't see tons of cool things, but still pretty fun!

On top of this rock are hundreds of Common Murre birds. They live at sea floating around diving for fish and just come here to nest.

A couple starfish we saw

Posing the kids for a picture goes in many stages of preparation

Cheese!

With grandma and grandpa.

After the tide pool we headed to the beach.

Mackayla was in her element.

She could have dug in the sand all day.

We found jellyfish ALL over the beach

The kids gathered tons of them. They didn't have any tentacles but were all dead anyway.

Apparently they're safe that way. Good thing Nette knew. Living in Florida is useful.

Ben was home working. Darn responsibility!

We ate at the famous Chowder Bowl restaurant

It was quite a spectacle with 8 kids and 5 adults, considering they were the only kids there. They have the best clam chowder.

The next day we headed to Portland. I forgot my camera when we went to the Portland Zoo, so I will have to wait for pictures from everyone else! We made a stop at VooDoo Donuts in town

They have some crazy donuts like bacon covered, but we stuck with pretty traditional. Macey did get pink bubblegum

Hmmm

another line up with cute Brody running away

This is a peek inside voodoo

We took a tram up to a building with a lookout over some of the city. It's actually kind of an elevator for different buildings of a hospital. It goes way over the freeway and up a mountain side. Fun for the kids to go so high in the air. Here we are at the top on the building.

We headed up to Seattle after the tram ride. The restaurant we wanted to go to at dinner couldn't seat us all together and it was an hour wait, so we opted to go to the mall food court. They had a family area that was totally enclosed and so cute. Genius! Since there are literally NO children in Seattle we had the place to ourselves.

Ryan is Macey's favorite person. She practically swoons over him. So funny. In the past she won't talk to Steph and we figure it's because she's married to him.

We got to see where Steph and Ryan live, which is near Seattle. Ryan is doing an internship for Boeing. Apparently they can make a huge plane in a day. who knew. The next day we took a water taxi to seattle.

Getting ready to go:

On the dock going to the boat huge starfish covered the poles and jellyfish floated around

Cody and Clayton loved riding on the big boat

This is how we rolled

On the taxi on our way to the aquarium

Just a couple blocks walk and we made it

As you walk in you're greeted with an enormous aquarium:

Macey was almost hyperventilating with all the sea stars she saw. She was literally screaming with excitement with each new discovery of a star fish.

Jellyfish were swimming in a huge arch illuminated with neon lights

You can see Mackayla trying to grab them here:

A "Lion Fish"

The kids are staring at an aquarium on the ceiling

Group shot by the otters

Cody was cracking me up. This is his "smiling forever for the camera while everyone takes their pictures" look

These harbor seals were so cute they got up and started clapping for us

This ferris wheel right at the dock was just finished but we didn't have time to take a ride. Kind of cool though.

We went to a beautiful park right on the puget sound. It had a cool zip line.

The kids loved throwing rocks into the water

The next day we made the trek to see the space needle. It started in our cars. Then onto the water taxi.

The onto the light rail underground. (The elevators we packed onto like clowns in a clown car to go down there all smell like pee.) Then onto the monorail above ground. It was quite the adventure, each new mode of transportation just as exciting as the next.

Just before boarding the monorail we saw a huge candy store and knew we would have to stop in to pick a couple treats. Deciding was the hardest part.

My sweet dad ran back to the hotel in the beginning of this day because I left my backpack there. Thank you thank you it wasn't lost and he got it.  We finally made it to the space needle:

Waiting in line we got to enjoy an amazing exhibit of blown glass:

Here we are at the top. The elevators go so fast up your ears pop.

View of the city

The kids weren't as impressed with the view and helped themselves to Vanessa's candy

and squished faces

Here we are rolling around downtown again. The place is crawling with homeless, I guess big cities attract them. We saw one man washing his socks in a fountain.

After the space needle we set off on an adventure to get to our eating destination. We wound through the farmer's market and tasted some amazing smoked salmon.

We came out to the gum wall. The most disgusting wall in existence. After the space needle a lady was handing out handfuls of gum. Now I can see possibly why. My mom and Steph added theirs to the sticky mess.

I tried to add mine. Twice.

It didn't stick and in a moment of disgust I shook it off my finger and let it be by the gum wall. Maybe I started the gum floor.

Hilarious. CHEWS the right!

Macey chose her I Love Seattle shirt and Cody chose a ferocious shark

We made it to the Crab Pot for dinner.

My uncle Dexter and his wife Charlotte joined us for dinner. It was so good to meet her, they got married fairly recently and she is so sweet.

The crab pot is a good name since many of the orders are served by being dumped straight on the table. Not half stupid, it gives them less dishes and us a chance to eat like neanderthals. The crab was amazing, but I couldn't quite make myself eat much of the shrimp when I had to decapitate them and pull off their body parts. And I had no idea clams had so many body parts either. eww

Mackayla joined right in and helped herself to the feast. She did fantastic on this trip and was getting a little tired on the last day, but still did great!

Ryan wore his bib. This place was one of my favorite 'events'

I caught some pictures of the city as we headed back on the water taxi

It is by far the best way to tour the city since all kids 6 and under are free and adults are just $4. Parking  in downtown Seattle is around $10 an hour so with four cars it would add up fast. These huge cranes load enormous ships as far as I can tell.

It was so fun seeing the city with someone who knows their way around and knew what was fun. Steph did a great job as a tour guide. It was so fun to have the cousins together. Often Cody and Clayton were in their own little world having so much fun. Vanessa is adorable, she just loves being with the kids:)

Such a memorable fun vacation. Each day had a big activity to look forward to with tons of adventures getting there. Multiple people asked if we were a daycare. I suppose so but we don't get paid, don't get time off and love our job! I actually got used to all the gawking simply because people do not have kids in Seattle or Portland.  Hopefully they thought it looked fun not exhausting, because it was exhausting, but it was even more fun. Some things were free for the kids because they were young (6 were 3 or younger and they're usually free), so hey not all bad.

This picture is hilarious - they take it of you before you head up the space needle.

Mackayla and Brigham

Isn't that true though, vacations are so much more work with kids but so much more exciting seeing them get so excited and watching them. Thanks mom and dad.