Bucket List #3 | Whale Watching

This blog has been neglected horribly, but we are truly winding down our time in Seattle (less than a year left!) and I want to follow through on our bucket list! It has been a fun way to spend our time here and we still have a lot to see and do!

Whale watching is one of the first things I added to our list - I've heard such incredible things and it seems like something you wouldn't want to miss living in the Pacific Northwest. I hadn't realized what an endeavor it would be - you've got to get out to the islands and it's fairly costly. Lucky for us, I have a fabulous cousin who planned it in as part of her destination wedding, so we were able to make it happen!!

We went on a chartered boat (thanks again, DiFrans!) and the trip lasted about 4 hours. Clearly Walt's upset about it:

It really was an incredible experience. We saw a pod of orcas, some seals, lots of birds, and other beautiful wildlife.

Our kids loved the feel of the boat and had a blast hanging out with cousins. (Second cousins? First cousins once-removed? I'm just never sure...)

I couldn't believe how BIG the orcas were. Fun fact: I'm terrified of orcas. For some reason when I was pregnant with Zuzu I would have this reoccurring dream about being stuck on a ferry that was being swamped by huge (and apparently very organized) orcas. Irrational for sure, but still horrifying. I think it's their human eyes that creep me out the most. But seeing them up close was actually fun! And they did not try and attack our boat, so bonus. :)

Definitely a beautiful experience that I'm glad we had. Thanks for including us Chel. Love you guys!

Disneyland!

It feels like so long ago that we were at Disneyland...we had so much fun taking the kids and can't wait to return someday!

We convinced my entire family to join us and had an amazing time. I easily have a thousand photos so I'll just share some highlights. :)

Walt's favorite rides were the Buzz Lightyear ride in Disneyland and the Toy Story ride in California Adventure. Both have controls and allow you to interact with the ride like a video game. Coincidence? Yeah, not.

Zuzu loved all things princess (they were the only characters she wasn't afraid of) and came home obsessed with Cinderella.

To help the kids get hyped up for the trip, we told Walt all about the "Jedi Academy" and how he could be trained in the ways of the force. We even showed him a video online of other kids doing it. He was SO excited. Little did we know, this experience is only given to a limited number of kids each day. It is so popular that you must be at the very front of the line the SECOND the park opens, run to the Launch Bay, and cross your fingers that you get in. I think there are something like 300 spots open each day (out of tens of thousands of kids). You can only sign up the day you plan to participate - you can't do it ahead of time. Also, your child must be present when you sign up at the crack of dawn. Well, dumb us - we had already promised Walt he could do it. So on the third day of our vacation we found ourselves up so very early in the morning, standing at the gate to Tomorrowland with hundreds of other parents all wearing Star Wars shirts.

I told Landon he had to bolt for the sign up as soon as they dropped the rope. He laughed at me and said, I'm not actually going to run... But sure enough, the second the park opened, the crowd surged towards the Launch Bay. I was laughing so hard while we ran with a stroller, 3 kids and 2 babies (my nieces wanted to do it too). We happened to follow another family through a shortcut and were 5th in line to sign up. It was insane, hilarious, slightly embarrassing and seriously worth all of the craziness.

Walt had the time of his life and literally thinks he can use the Force now. He was a little scared of Kylo Ren but had no problem taking on Darth Vader.

So yeah, we did that. And I'm glad.

Walt surprised us with his willingness to try every single ride. Even though it was clear on the first day that he was not loving rollercoasters - he went on every ride he was tall enough for. He would go once, declare if he liked the ride or not, and then would not go again if he didn't want to.

Even when we knew he wouldn't like something and tried to talk him out of going, he would insist on trying it out. Including Tower of Terror. He definitely didn't like THAT one!! We were so so proud of him for going on everything though. What a brave kid!

We maximized our time from dawn till dusk daily for 5 whole days and were still so sad when it was time to go home. Luckily my family all loves Disney and our next trip is already being talked about. I can't wait!

Portland!

Playing catchup again! Being an adult leaves little time for things like journaling/blogging, doesn't it? But I'll try to do a broad recap.

For Landon's Spring Break this year, we decided to head down to Portland, Oregon to visit his Grandpa Burgener.

I'm so glad we went! We have lived within a few hours of Grandpa and Betty for years and hadn't done a proper visit. They were very gracious and happy to see us.

While there, we figured we may as well do some epic exploring!! We've been to Portland twice before as a family (and I used to live near here as a young child), but we haven't had much chance to see the sites.

We decided to use our time to take a ride on the Portland Aerial Tram, visit Powell's, eat our weight in food at the Portland food trucks, and visit an ice cream hot spot called Salt & Straw. There's a lot of eating involved in visiting Portland. :)

The next day, we had a huge surprise for Walter. The OMSI Museum happened to have a traveling display the same time we were in town called Game Masters. It was about video game designers through the ages, and included actual game consoles, from 80s arcade games to the most recent Kinnect and Wii games. When I saw the advertisement, we discussed it at length. It was expensive. And we work pretty hard to stay OFF screens when we're together on vacation. But it just seemed like too great of a chance to pass up. Walt's favorite thing in the world on display in the town we were hanging out in? So in the end, we went. And literally this photo made it all worth it:

This was his face when we got close enough in the line for Walt to see the giant Mario/Zelda poster and realized what we were doing. He could NOT hold still. He tried out nearly every single game, we stayed for hours. He bounced from one thing to the next and told us all about the different Zeldas, Marios and Minecraft games. He asked lots of questions and we enjoyed chatting about game design and showing Walt some of the games from our childhood. He LOVED it. Sometimes, spoiling your kids is a perfect idea.

Meanwhile, Zuzu found some fun things to do, too.

They had a great children's play space and she spent about an hour exploring it while Walt continued gaming. :) Rumor has it there were several sections with science and art and some other stuff, but we never made it that far!

We had a great time. Each year, we've managed to scrape together enough money to do a little spring break trip, and I've loved all the memories we've made! We've seen some fun things around the PNW, and spent time with great family members. And of course, Walt's favorite thing in the world is staying in hotels. So there's that.

Peace out, Portland. Hopefully we'll see you again soon!