Secret Trip To Washington (Part 2)

We had every move planned out for our 10 days in Washington. In the middle of our 10 days we took a trip to Spokane to visit friends. Anthony, Dave & Alicia (and Alexander), and Kevin. Kevin was gracious enough to let us stay with him in his awesome house (I can't wait until its finished).

It was really great to see everyone. Alexander is a very good walker now. He knows where he wants to go and makes it happen. Dave and Alicia are doing a great job. Anthony took the day off and didn't complain about shopping for baby stuff all day. I even got to have a lesson with my favorite teacher and visit my Alma Mater.

Visiting Spokane made us a little home sick for the city we lived in for so long. It was a great trip...and we took some pictures.

Secret Trip To Washington

(These pictures are from the whole trip. Just click on the link and then hit the Slide Show button in the upper left hand corner.)

P.S. We ate at P.F. Chang's... Delicious!

Super Secret Trip

On March 7th, by cover of night, we arrived in Seattle unbeknown to my family
(with the exception of 3 of my siblings).

A month and a half earlier Beth and I decided that we couldn't wait until Christmas to see my familia. Gabe would be over a year old and they would have missed so many of his "firsts." The decision was made to buy tickets and not tell anyone that we were coming down. We quickly came to the realization that that would be unfair to my parents. They would have unexpected guests that would tie up their time and spare room for 10 days with no forewarning... it seemed a little much to ask.

A fairly complicated plan was set in motion to keep our trip secret, but at the same time allow my parents a little preparation time. Thanks to those in on the secret, my parents never became wise to our plans.

We were to fly into Seattle and spend the next day at the Woodland Park Zoo with Kelsey and Emm (who came up from Portland (what a friend)).

We had kept Gabe up from 6am until our flight time of 5pm hoping he would sleep during our 2 flights. After a scream filled first flight we were a little disheartened. The second flight started off on the right note. Within 20min Gabe was fast asleep in my arms. Beth was entertaining our talkative seat-mate and I was listening to my iPod. I got an odd feeling, so I pulled the ear-buds from my ear and carefully put away my iPod.

"I need a bag!"

I told Beth. She looked at me and (annoyingly) asked, "A bag?"

I had suddenly felt dizzy, and my seat didn't have a barf-bag in the seat pocket...neither did Beth's...or our talkative seat-mate. There was no time to call the stewardess. I vomited all over my clothes, the seat, and Gabe (who didn't even wake up). If it wasn't for the stewardess who announced to the plane that I had thrown-up, no one (except the guy whose bag was under my seat and getting dripped upon) would have been the wiser). We eventually made it to Seattle, and early the next morning made it to the zoo. Here are a few pics.

The Ice Park!

One of 2008's highlights was the Ice Park/World Ice Carving Championships. We went at night and it was all lit up with different colors...and we left the battery to our camera at home (so we had no pictures). This year I made sure we had both a video camera and the picture camera.

With the wind, it was approximately really cold, so we didn't spend as much time there as we wanted. Its fairly early in the competition so many of the carvings are still being worked on. Beth and I will head back at night (sometime) and focus more on the carvings ...and giant slides!

BEST PARTS OF THE DAY:
1) The spinning ice top actually works this year!
2) Ice phone booth (it worked).
3) The warm up building.
4) (Lost first, then) Found camera case.
5) Skateboarder carving
6) Stepped over vomit in ice maze.

Gabe sitting in the train as happy as can be!



At the Fortress of Solitude's Chapel.



Another view.



How Gabe and I got there.



One of the many slides.



Look at the JOY in his face.



Gabe Spinning in the Top.

For a few more pictures, take a look at my Flickr page.