Tuesday: Temple, University of Washington, and Downtown Seattle

 Tuesday was Seattle proper day.  It was really our only "City" biome.  Jason surprised me with a stop at the Seattle temple.  He knew that my hearts desire was to stop at every temple on our way (it could have been 11) but most were not exactly on the way and this wasn't THAT kind of trip.  So I was so glad we at least went to the Seattle temple.  AND it was wonderful.  I feel like you never regret stopping by a temple, even if no one goes inside.  The grounds were so pretty and interesting.   I think everyone had a great time.

Dane did not want to be in the picture. 

This was the BEST part.  They had my favorite statues from temple square on their grounds.  I hadn't seen them in over 5 years since they started doing construction and I didn't know if they would bring them back, so it was such a tender mercy that they were at Seattle (I am not saying these were THE ACTUAL physical statues from temple square).  The next tender mercy was that some of the kids were willing to reenact the statues with me!!!  I fully understand how cheesy and silly this is, but it made my heart so happy and I love that some of my kids GOT that.  I felt so known and seen.  Maddie was my main cheerleader and was willing dance around with us.

And Jason (who was not a cheerleader, but a reluctant peer-pressured participant) did lovingly agree to do this one with me and Eve.  There was another husband and wife one I wanted to do, but that was a bridge too far for Jason.  I am so glad he agreed to do this one.  My heart soars every time I see it.

They had, what looked like, small groves of trees in the corners of the temples, but upon closer inspection there were trails leading in and the inside of the groves were these beautiful secret gardens. 

And they had a beautiful weeping willow type tree and Mads took this beautiful panorama of it.

Our next stop was to a rainy Washington State University.  One of our family's favorite read alouds has been "Boys in the Boat" and when they heard we were going to Seattle they asked if we could see the boat house and the boat.  Jason did everything that he could to get us a tour, but they were less than accommodating.  So we went and walked around on our own, which was just lovely.

Mads was the main one who REALLY wanted to see the boat house, so I took a picture with her and it.

Through a tender mercy of Eve needing to go potty and a unsuspecting freshman who happened to be walking in as we were passing by, we got let into the locked building that held the boat.  But we didn't take pictures, we had to keep our cover.

It was a beautiful campus and everyone enjoyed being there.  I was hoping to see the Palestine encampments, but the university had shut them down just a few weeks before.  All I got to see was some writing on the bridge that said "from the river to the sea".

Then we went to Pike's Market Place.  This was... interesting.  Some hated it, some loved it.  We got split up and some kids got lost.  It was a little stressful.  I felt like it smelled like urine.  But it was a nice experience, if nothing else to at least you know hate it, and that was what we were going for. 

The last plan was to stop at the library but Eve had to go potty and but due to some homeless person and police presence we got stuck in the Target for like 20 minutes, so we didn't have time, but Jason did drive past it for Megan.

Monday: Seattle, Mount Rainier

We got into Seattle and stayed at mine and Jason's good friends, Corinne and Dan Myer's, house.  It was lovely to stay with them.  Our friendships with them are interesting.  I went to middle school with Dan and had several classes together, we knew of each other, remember each other, and had mutual friends, but weren't friends ourselves.  When Jason's family moved from West Virginia to Utah when he was in 5th grade they moved into Corinne's ward.   However, Jason and Corinne didn't become friends until 7th grade, and became "best friends" in 7th grade.  They were even "boy friend and girls friend" in 8th grade for a bit.  When I started dating Jason in 10th grade, it wouldn't surprise anyone to say that dating Jason wasn't easy and I was way in over my head in knowing how to "deal" with him.  He said, "you should talk to Corinne, she is my best friend and knows me the best."  He pointed her out to me and one day I stopped her in the hall, introduced myself and asked her if she would help me understand him.  (These days it would have been a text, that is a bold and awkward thing to do in person, but back then we didn't know any difference).  We became fast, life long friends.  I commandeered her from Jason for sure, which is fine becasue members of the opposite sex shouldn't be that good of friends after marriage anyways :)    And Dan and Corinne moved into our same apartment  complex when we were all newly married and having babies while going to college at BYU.  They moved to Seattle 15 years ago after graduating and he haven't really seen them since.  So when Jason said he wanted ALL EIGHT of us to stay at their house I thought it would be a little weird.  But he practically insisted and I am so glad he did.  It was beyond delightful and just what some of us needed.  Corinne and I may or may not have stayed up until 4 in the morning talking.  And I got more Jason advice.  She really does know him better than I do!  haha

When we got there on Sunday night we had a lovely Sunday dinner and got to know each other's kids.  They have 3 girls that are similar to our kids' ages.  Their family is also really into the same kind of stuff many of my kids are into (fantasy books, lego's, video games, etc) so conversation was easy and interesting.  Everyone seemed to hit it off pretty well.

They didn't have rooms or beds for us so we all slept in the same room in the basement.  It was a very large basement room and they did put a queen bed in there for me and Jason.  The teens slept in random configurations of couches, chairs, and floors and Dane and Eve were on gymnastics pads on the floor.  It was pretty cold so you can see Noah huddled around the fire.

On Monday morning we went up to Mount Rainier with the Myers.  When we got to the top we were sad to so find out it was all still covered in snow.  

So after pursuing the visitor center we went back down to some cool waterfall hikes we saw going up.  

At our first waterfall hike we stopped and made lunches in the parking lot first.

This is me and Corinne: both wearing purple.

Eve, Dane, Rose, Azur, Maddie, Megan, Noah, Brock.  I am not sure where Brooke is, I thought all the kids were in this picture.  Sad.

Brooke, Megan, Madison, Me, Eve

This was our third and longest hike.  It was supposed to be 1.25 miles, up and back.  We all got separated.  Brock and Noah were up ahead, then a mix of  the Myers and my girls and Jason and I with the littles at the back.  Eve eventually got too tired to go on, so Jason and Dane (Pictured below) went on ahead,

And Eve and I sat down and waited for everyone to come back down the trail after seeing the waterfall. 

We passed the time by taking silly pictures of ourselves. 

But we just kept having more and more time and taking more and more pictures.  

Where is everyone?  This was a short hike, everyone should have already turned around and started heading back down.  What is going on?

I also took pictures of the trees.

I won't go into all the details.  Sort of a, "we don't talk about Bruno" situation.  But after a couple of hours we were all reunited and we didn't have to get park rangers or other authorities involved.