Seattle pt. 2

A few weeks after we had the chance to explore Seattle with Nonni and Poppi, Steve had a day's worth of work to do in Tacoma so we all tagged along and made a weekend of it. We spent Friday at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma while he was working at the University there, then headed up to Seattle where we enjoyed Embassy Suites breakfast, the Bremerton Ferry ride, exploring the beach there -- we made it kind of a trial run field trip for our exploration of aquatic ecosystems we're planning for science this fall.  Here are some of the highlights:

When we first dropped Steve off at work and headed to Point Defiance - the most amazing city park I've ever been to. Out of all the things to do there, my kids, of course, chose the beach.  As we arrived, a couple of people from the park's aquarium were setting up a demonstration for a school group that hadn't arrived yet, so we crashed it :)

Grace found this fine specimen all on her own!

It was NOT warm - maybe in the low 60's, but that never stopped my crew from living dangerously when it comes to the probability of getting wet!

Best attempt at a group shot -- Elias did NOT want to sit on that log, and since I was by myself I didn't have a lot of options as far as keeping him on while getting the camera far enough away to take the photo.

Love this!  It just captures his personality!

And now we're totally in the water . . . Did I mention it was cold?  They obviously don't care!

That tiny black bump is a seal that we spotted from the beach.

The rhododendrun all over Tacoma are so huge it took me awhile to figure out what they even were.  In the park they have an entire rhododendrun garden that we didn't get to because we spent 3.5 hrs at the beach and because kids would much rather search for little sea creatures than look at flowers that they aren't allowed to pick.

Other wildlife we came across:

Best of the bunch from attempt #2 to get a group shot on my own. Again, Elias did NOT want to cooperate. He was way past ready for a nap.

My beautiful girls:

 Enjoying the view of the Seattle skyline from the ferry.

 Grace in her element.

 Just checkin' out whats livin' in the log.

 Zeke being Zeke.  Those dimples are going to get him into trouble.

 I think boots and rolled up jeans are going to be our school uniforms :)

Much better attempt at a group shot at Snoqualmie Falls on our way home to the east side.  Note: 1. Steve and I were both there. 2. We bribed them with juice boxes. 3. No E.