Take Me to the Emerald City

In preparation for our travels to Quincy and Seattle last weekend I was totally in my organization element. I started packing us up mid-week, and even had a list to check off items as I packed. It was fantastic! And I didn't forget a thing. I got the okay to leave work at 4pm on Friday, and by 5pm we had the car (and kiddo) packed and were pulling out of the driveway. I took this ease with which the weekend was starting as a good omen for all that lay ahead.

I should have known better. Perhaps I should have yielded more to my maternal instinct when, an hour into our drive, I kept catching a whiff of something that smelled a bit sour. Mind you, our kiddo was a major spitter-upper for the first 6 months of his life so this was not an unusual smell to us. And we have found that when Kendry is teething he regresses to spitting up again. His daycare provider had sent him home in a bib that day, which I took as a sign that he was spitting up a bit. I figured the sour whiff was simply from his bib. I figured wrong. You see, Kendry was also wearing his second outfit of the day due to a blowout at daycare. Maybe I should have considered that fact as well. But nooooooo - it took me another hour to discover Kendry's second blowout of the day. Terrific. No wonder he wasn't falling asleep like he usually does in the car. I wouldn't be able to sleep sitting in that either. Ahhh...the many facets of the teething stage are so wonderful, aren't they?

Without another town for twenty miles I had Justin pull over to the side of the road. Poor Kendry was not a happy camper. Neither were we. (BTW, see Red Bag sharing in this adventure?)

And no sooner do I get him in his new, clean outfit than he spits up all over it. Just peachy.

"I don't know what all this fuss is about Mom. Now could you please put some clothes back on me cuz its getting cold out here?"

We finally made it to Quincy where Kendry enjoyed an evening playing with his cousins, Paxton and Ava, and got to stay up way past his bedtime.

Fast forward to Saturday morning. I was on the road to Seattle by 9:30am, all by myself. I made it to Amanda's house by noon. We chatted for a bit - let's face it, she and I could probably talk for days and still not be done - and then we headed to Alki Beach for some rollerblading. It was gorgeous!

It doesn't get much better than a beautiful, fun day in Seattle with a girlfriend.

Bust out the cameras cuz its photo shoot time!

See the Space Needle poking up atop my head?

Seattle helps me find my zen. Now if only I knew what zen really is...

Hold that pose, chica. You look fabulous against the Seattle skyline.

Now on to the next stop(s): Target and pedicures

Look at those pretty little piggies!

Time to get glammed up for our dinner at Black Bottle.

Finally, Sunday arrived and it was time for the main event of the weekend: Seattle's Big Climb 2010, tackling 69 flights of stairs in the Columbia Center. WHEW! Talk about exhausting. We don't have photos of this because who wants to carry a camera with them up 69 flights, right? But we took a picture of our climbing team, Step It Up, as we dined on a delicious breakfast at Fado afterwards.

The unidentified male sitting with us is Amanda's boyfriend, Chris, who I finally got to meet this weekend.

After the climb and stuffing myself to capacity with an Irish brunch, all I wanted to do was take a nap. Alas, I still had a 6 hour drive home. I picked up my boys in Quincy and we arrived home safely around 6pm. Much to our surprise, our basement door was standing wide upon when we pulled in our drive. Guess we forgot something after all: closing and locking the basement. Thankfully, everything was just as we left it.