Family fun!

We had such a nice time visiting Jason's cousins and Aunts and Uncles! It was great! When we arrived, Jason's cousin and Isaac had the same colored shirts on! They had fun together --we all did!

Cousins D D and Charles and Jason's Aunt and her husband, Don.

Isaac really enjoyed hanging out with Cousin Charles and trying to catch his little kitty! He tried and tried to get his hands on it, but only with our help was he able to pet him.

Isaac made a new friend! They were so cute playing together!

Isaac and Jeremy really had fun together and bonded! Isaac even fell asleep on his lap one day!

Isaac was thrilled to play with Cousin D D's toys!

As we were getting ready to leave, the neighbor's dog came over to say hello. Isaac LOVED playing with him and chasing him!

The dog LOVED Isaac, too!

Seattle ~ Pike's Place Market

I had heard about Pike's Place Market after reading a book called "Fish", which was about excellent customer service and having happy workers who do a great job. They throw fish there, and so I was eager to "watch the show". However, they didn't throw very many fish while we were there, so I was a little disappointed. It turns out that they only throw the fish when people buy the fish (and maybe when a shipment of fish first arrives...not sure). People weren't buying fish at the time that we were there, but about 50+ tourists all had their cameras out to take photos of flying fish. It was a mad house! I definitely didn't get the "fish flying show" I had been expecting. I'm sure they do work very well, and are very happy employees, but I wasn't a terribly happy tourist after visiting the fish area.

Otherwise, the Pike's Place market was really great! I loved looking at all the beautiful fruits and veggies and the GORGEOUS flowers!!! They had all these great bouquets for sale . . . and cheap! If I lived in Seattle, I'd have fresh flowers on my table all the time at those prices!

If you look really close in the middle and slightly to the right in this photo, you will see one of the few fish that we got to see "flying"! :-)

FLOWERS!! And this was not the only area where they were assembling and selling these pretty bundles, there were at least 6-7 other vendors who had an area set up just like this.

We walked around a little park that over looked Pike's Place market for a while and let Isaac stretch his legs and run around.

This was the view from that area --a cool perspective of the water and highway by downtown Seattle.

Seattle Space Needle

Some really pretty gardens made a nice backdrop for a quick family photo at the base of the space needle. Isaac had just awakened from a nap. He slept in his umbrella stroller as we walked from our hotel over to the Space Needle.

It was such a beautiful day, and I had lots of fun taking photos!

It was super windy at the top of the Needle, but we managed to get one photo in which we were all looking at the camera. I guess smiles are not "on demand" yet with Isaac. Maybe I need to teach him the word "cheese" next, so that every time we take photos I can call out "say cheese"!

We rode the monorail back to our hotel! It was a nice walk over to the Space Needle, but it was getting late as we were leaving and so taking a quick ride on this train was a great idea! The rails are up high throughout downtown Seattle, so we got some new perspective on the city from up there, too!

July in chilly Seattle

We were really, really loaded with luggage and baby gear for our 2-week vacation! This photo was taken right after we picked up our rental car. We were pretty tired after a full day of travel.

Here is our first glimpse of downtown Seattle! Our hotel was located within walking distance of the space needle! Oh, and very close to a Cheesecake Factory!!

We ate lunch there, and then enjoyed a special dessert!

YUMMY! I couldn't finish it all, but it was definitely a special treat!

On our way towards the Space Needle, we stopped to look around in a glass blowing shop. They had beautiful products for sale and on display that had been blown in the workshop in the back of the store.

The bright-colored flowers stuck in the soil here are glass that was blown in that shop. It was really cool watching them pull white-hot and red-hot globs of glass out of the fiery furnace and then spin it and press it and roll it against metal to form various shapes and textures. I took some photos of that process, too, but it was hard to see what was happening, so I didn't include any here. It was a much cooler experience to watch in person vs. in photos.