mema comes to washington!!!

with every visitor, i am more convinced i missed my calling as a tour guide! now i do not know if i am actually that good at my newly acquired occupation, but except for being completely exhausted and totally frustrated with silly seattle traffic, i really do enjoy it! this week we had the pleasure of having gma marilyn (mema) as our guest! we traveled all over the western half of this great state seeing all there is to see! we picked up gma on saturday evening at the airport and headed off for dinner. after a yummy supper at famous dave's, we headed north toward home. on the way, the tour began with a trip past boeing (the everett plant(shawn's work)). that night was pretty tame (as were the ones to follow!) - one, we have two little guys who no matter the visitor still need sleep, two, gma is not a real club scene goer! ha!, and three, gma enjoys watching the olympics as much as i do, so i had a co-comentator for the week! sunday morning we headed off to church and then to the pike place market! i don't know if it was exactly what gma expected, but she came away with some fresh fruit! we took a little rest on the plaza area just north of the market! we enjoyed some of our fruit, diet cokes, and a free concert! that evening we dined on tacos and stayed in the rest of the evening! unfortunately monday - the offical start of the tour- was a very rainy day! and when i say rainy, i am not talking a drizzle here and there! so we headed off to storytime in lynnwood and then back home to rest up for the week to follow. later that afternoon, after naps, it cleared off for about an hour, so the boys and i took gma to picnic point beach. we only stayed for a short time....it started sprinkling again! thankfully when we woke on tuesday, it looked a little more promising for touring! we started out at snoqualmie falls and then headed off to the mountains and snoqualmie pass! the main reason for our trip to snoqualmie pass was so gma could go to the mountains. i had another motive though! this is where we brought judy and charles when we went skiing, and i was anxious to see everything without 10+ feet of snow on top of it!! boy, did it look different! it was a beautiful drive through the mountains, gma snapping away at all sorts of mountain shots!! on the way home, i spotted (or should i say sniffed out) boehm's candies - so of course we had to stop in for a little morsel! we came away with some mint candy, a smore type of candy, a box of fudge, and some various other goodies! there is just something about fresh candy---ok, i'll eat any candy, but i really like the fresh stuff! that evening gabe had soccer practice - so gma got to see him strut his stuff! wednesday morning the boys had dentist appts. first thing, and then we headed off backpack shopping! gma wanted to get the boys their backpacks for school, so we went to target and found exactly what they were looking for!! with shopping out of the way, we went to the bothell country village for play time , train ride, and lunch! the country village is just a little old fashioned shopping, dining, and touristy adventure. now for the train ride--it is not a huge train by any means...they only have enough room for 4 adults and 10 kids on the train. there is room for 3 adults in covered cars and then room for 1 adult in the caboose. guess who got the caboose?! there was a warning on the caboose for people who are claustrophobic - if that gives you any idea how i spent 10 minutes of my wednesday! yee haw! the important part...gma, gabe, and grady had a blast (mostly at my expense!), and from the caboose, i had a great picture opportunity of the rest of the train! hey, you got to look for the silver lining! we enjoyed lunch and took pictures by the huge rooster that stands at the entrance of the village! that evening we headed down to mukilteo beach for some beachcombing! thursday morning was the designated ferry day! we headed back down to mukilteo and boarded the ferry - this was a very exciting day....it was my first time driving onto the ferry. everytime we have been on the ferry, i have been adament about not driving onto it - shawn always does the driving. it is a very close fit for a small car not to mention a tank like the armada, but i am happy to report the armada still has all of it's mirrors and there were not any extra red marks on the ferry! while on whidbey island we toured fort casey - where the kids climbed on some old cannons and checked out the old lighthouse...after that we headed back down to langley for lunch and shopping! after an icecream stop at dq we headed back to the ferry! that evening gabe had soccer practice again. that evening during the scrimmage he played goalie where he stopped a goal! he knew he had an audience--such a performer! friday was our last touristy day - and with that we headed back downtown to the space needle! we had a pretty clear day, we could see mt. baker really well, and mt. rainier, not super clear, but better than usual! we spent a couple of hours there and then dined on lunch at mickey d's! on the way back home, we stopped off at trophy's cupcakes for a scrumptious mid-afternoon snack! gabe had a snickerdoodle cupcake, grady chose the red velvet, gma's choice was the chocolate & vanilla, and my choice was the smore cupcake that had been featured on the martha show!! of course we all had nibbles of each other's cupcakes - every one loved their cupcakes, but i thought gabe had the best one! mine was a close second - grady would probably choose mine, he really liked the marshmallow icing! that evening we headed back down to mukilteo to arnie's for dinner! this morning, we woke up and headed off to the airport -- thanks for coming to visit gma!! hope you had a great time, and as i always say -- hope you enjoyed the quiet trip home!