Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Advent... Day 16 (yesterday)

We surprised the boys, almost. Usually Kerry is the blurter, but this time it was me.

Monday evening: "C'mon Gunnar, pull that tooth out! You don't want to lose it tomorrow, in Seattle." Oops.

Turns out that was quite helpful, as the boys were amazingly cooperative in anticipation of their big day!

They LOVE the train. And isn't it sleek looking? I think they've gotten new seats since the last time we rode. Very comfy. (The boys look happy and engaged. I look like I'm just waking up. Why do I always blink?)









Got to Seattle, took the free underground bus over to Westlake Mall for lunch, and waited in vain for a (broken down) Monorail. Gunnar was disappointed, as he alone has not ridden it. But the boys were all thrilled by our decision to save time by taking a taxi over to the Pacific Science Center. What can I say? They're thrilled by simple things.

I was thrilled by what you don't see in this picture... crowds. That room is usually swarming with people, but not this day. Apparently the snow and icy roads caused the usual school groups to cancel. Yippee for us! Hurray for trains, and a bigger hurray for homeschooling and flexibility :0)

Normally the boys love the science center, and I love that they love the science center, but it starts making me crazy after an hour or so. The crowds, the noise, the keeping track of my kids among the masses. You might've noticed they are all dressed the same - in bright red sweatshirts - so I can pick them out in a crowd. HA! That wasn't necessary after all!

Usually there are swarms, flocks, hordes of people at all the exhibits, but this time the boys could walk right up to almost anything, and take as long as they want to explore. Didn't pay for an IMAX movie, but saw the free planetarium show, and learned to pick out a few constellations. Wyatt got chosen to be a volunteer at the "Physics of Bubbles" display, the best part of which was watching them create and explode Hydrogen-filled bubbles. Yeah. Hydrogen. Remember the Hindenberg?!

Yep, it was a big, fun-filled day. And two taxi rides (the monorail not having been fixed). Who knew cab drivers were so chatty? The first one had nine children, and told us we were "rich"... in children :0) The second regaled us with stories from "Leave It To Beaver", which apparently comes on every day at noon. Two shows. Back to back. And he never misses it. Oooooo-kay!

It was snowing again by the time we got home, but the boys - thankfully - we're too tired to get all giddy about it. They were on their A+ behavior all day, and swooped right into bed when we got home. Well, Gunnar needed a drink of milk first. "Regular milk, mommy. I've had a lot of chocolate milk today." Oh yeah... it was a day full of treats!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I have SO got to get myself to Seattle. We're about 3-4 hours away in PDX. How far out are you?

I don't know much about the city, but it seems like they have a lot of fun (read: educational) things to do.

Herding Grasshoppers said...

We're about a 2 hour drive. Longer on the train, but more relaxing :0)

We love the Science Center and the Woodland Park Zoo. Used to ask for annual memberships for Christmas until the gas got so high!

With Tate's hearing loss we have to go down to Children's Hospital occasionally anyway, so maybe I'll think about picking those up again.

I really want to get to the Flight Museum and sit myself down in that Concorde!

Herding Grasshoppers said...

But what am I thinking, Portland probably has a ton of fun/educational stuff... we just don't know "your" city as well :0)