Spring Break 2014

On Monday, March 24th I drove up to Washington with my boys to visit my parents.  The boys were off of school because of Spring Break and my parents leave in only 6 more weeks to move back to Ohio so I'm determined to spend as much time with them as I can.  We drove to Point Defiance State Park and met my parents there for a picnic lunch.  It was really beautiful weather and the boys were ready to get out of the car and run around a bit.

Townsend dipping his toes in the water at Point Defiance.

Julian eating a cookie.  He was the only one brave enough to want to go into the cold water.  It didn't last long, I think he wanted to get dressed after about 5 minutes in the water:)

After we left Point Defiance we drove the other 30 minutes to my parents apartment.  My boys were bummed the swimming pool was closed for repairs.  We hung out with my parents and watched the movie "Frozen" and then went to bed. 

The next day, Tuesday, we drove over to Bainbridge Island to an indoor rock climbing gym.  My twins had so much!  Unfortunately Julian was too small to climb.  We were going to head over to the awesome Bainbridge swimming pool but we struck out again because it was not "open" swim time.  So we took my parents to "The Lego Movie" which was lots of fun.

Emerson on the rock wall

Townsend climbing up the wall

My two little monkeys!  They really loved this activity, I'm going to have to see if there is a rock gym closer to home we can go to.

Wednesday we all took the ferry over to Seattle.  My parents have been on this mission for nearly 2 years and this was the first ferry ride they had been on!  Once in Seattle we ate lunch at Ivars, fed the seagulls, rode on the giant Seattle ferris wheel and walked along the waterfront.  My Mom and Dad took Julian back on the ferry but Townsend, Emerson and I stayed in Seattle because we had tickets to see "The Lion King" musical that night.  Hyrum took the train up from Portland and met us at the Paramount Theater with only about 5 minutes to spare before the show started (his train was running very late from Portland).  The show was amazing, especially the costumes.  After the show we walked to our hotel and stayed the night in Seattle.  It was fun to just hang out with our "big" boys for one evening.

Riding on the ferry from Bremerton to Seattle

I like this picture of Emerson watching the water from the ferry window.

The boys on the ferris wheel.  I have to admit, I'm not great with heights and I really don't ever want to go on this again!

The marquee for our show. 

Thursday we had to wake up pretty early (which is no fun when you are staying in a fancy hotel with a yummy breakfast you have to miss).  We needed to catch the ferry back to Bremerton, pick up Julian from my parents and then catch the 2:00 ferry to Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.  This is where we would stay for the remainder of Spring Break.  I had been complaining to Hyrum that I hadn't used my passport since we came back from Europe and I guess he thought "Canada" was exotic enough for me.  I was really down on going to Canada for Spring Break (I really wanted to go to Ireland) but I have to admit I had a fantastic time and would really love to go back.

On the ferry from Port Angeles, WA to Vancouver Island, BC.  We were so lucky to have beautiful weather.  The forecast said "rain" the whole week!

I like this one of Townsend on the ferry.

The view of Victoria as you are coming in on the ferry.

After checking into our hotel we decided to explore the city a bit.  We walked through Beacon Hill park and had lots of fun climbing all over these rocks.

Family photo op

On Friday we took our time getting out of the hotel.  Sometimes it's just nice to relax on your vacation and not rush around.  We decided to walk around the city and hit a few of the museums we thought the boys would enjoy.  

The waterfront and downtown buildings of Victoria.  We lucked out again with the weather:)

The first museum we stopped at was the "Miniature Museum."  There were rooms filled with very detailed dioramas of scenes through history.  This is a scene of a street in Germany during WWII.  I loved walking around looking at all the displays.  The boys asked lots of questions and I think they really enjoyed all the little details.  There was one diorama of an apartment building (complete with naked lady in the shower!)

We walked around the city until we made it to Chinatown.  The boys had fun climbing all over this statue.

I like this picture of Julian.  It looks like this dragon is sitting on his lap:)

After some yummy noodles in Chinatown we headed down to the "Bug Zoo."  I was expecting more than just two rooms filled with different bugs but considering how small it was it was actually really interesting. 

There were two "zookeepers" wandering around the rooms that would get out bugs and let you hold them.  Townsend held a stick bug but none of the other boys wanted to hold anything.  This is one of the zookeepers holding a very large tarantula.  When he asked if anyone wanted to hold it, no one raised their hands...ummmm I wonder why?

Even though this trip wasn't the trip to Europe that I wanted I still managed to find my favorite European treat...gelato:)  We actually found 3 gelato shops in Victoria and of course i had to try them all:)

That evening we walked from our hotel to "Fisherman's Wharf" which has some fun little restaurants right on the docks.  This is where our luck ran out with the rain.  It totally poured down rain.  Luckily we quickly found somewhere to eat that had a place to sit under a covering.  We enjoyed some fish and chips while it rained and then all of a sudden it stopped and there was this beautiful rainbow!

Saturday was actually my birthday and I was determined to see the "goat stampede" that I had read about on the internet as one of the most fun things to do when you visit Victoria.  The boys just wanted to stay in the hotel playing on the iPad but consented to go, because it was my birthday...how nice of them.

The petting zoo where the "goat stampede" takes place is back in Beacon Hill Park.  It was sprinkling a bit but wasn't too bad.

They call it the "goat stampede" because each morning when the petting zoo opens the goats run from their barn, where they stay the night, into the petting enclosure.  It's lots of fun because all the spectators line the path and the goats run right past you and are so excited to get to their pen.  It was lots of fun!  We spent some time petting the goats and brushing them with the little hairbrushes they had available.  Julian really loved all the goats

After the petting zoo we went to the Royal British Columbia museum.  This was a fantastic museum. I wish the boys would have had more stamina for the museum, there were some exhibits we didn't even see.  I guess I have a reason to come back:)

After the museum we walked around some more and I got a bit of a European "fix" when we came upon this Cathedral.  I miss all the big churches in Europe.

The inside of the Cathedral

The boys hanging out in Victoria

When you're in Canada you have to get a picture with a moose:)

Hooray for the sunshine!  I had such a great birthday walking around and enjoying this beautiful city.

Of course, if you ask any of my kids they will say the best part of the trip was swimming in the hotel pool...what's up with that?

We caught the ferry back over to Washington on Sunday morning.  Then drove the full 5 hours all the way back to Portland.  Overall it was a wonderful spring break.  I definitely want to go back up to Victoria, maybe Hyrum and I can sneak a weekend up there without kids:)