Our Trip to Seattle

We thought we'd have time to update our blog on our trip but we kept plenty busy!! We stayed in Boise that first night and drove all day Monday across Oregon to the coast. We stopped close to Portland at Multnomah Falls. They were beautiful!

Then we drove over to Seaside on the coast and up to Astoria. It was fun to see the ocean. The kids were very excited to get to Seattle so we chose to drive into Washington Monday night and stay there rather than Astoria. We ended up finding a hotel on priceline in Longview, WA. Not a very cool place, we all decided that we didn't like it there and were anxious to hit the road Tuesday morning into Seattle.

Longview was 2 hours away from Seattle. We decided that rather than check into our hotel in Federal Way, we'd go straight into Seattle and take a tour of Safeco Field where the Mariners play. It was a great tour--we all enjoyed it. We got to go out on the field, sit in the dug outs, see where the locker rooms were (we couldn't go in because the teams were showing up), we saw the owner's suite, the press box, and even some Red Sox players when they showed up (Dustin Pedroia, Mike Lowell, Sean Casey, Terry Francona and Bartolo Colon). It was so fun.

After the tour, we drove into Seattle to find some warmer clothes!! It was really cool there--but we got used to it and really appreciated it knowing it was 100 degrees at home. We then went back to the field for batting practice and met up with a lot of Zach's teammates and their families. The kids love to go to batting practice and try to get home run balls. Kaden was able to
get a ball the first game. After the first game, Zach and friends made it down to the Red Sox dug out to get autographs. They weren't among the lucky ones that night....however, the second day Zach was able to get autographs from Sean Casey and Hideki Okajima. If you ever want to get something from someone, you need to follow Zach. He (& Tanner) got tickets to go down to about the third row. It was fun to watch them from our binoculars in our seats. Kaden was also lucky--a lady from a radio station came up to him and gave him a bobble head of Adrian Beltre. She told us to now do something nice for someone else....he was so excited!! After the first game, we just drove back to our hotel and checked in and went to bed. The second game was a day game so we walked around the city and along the water and had some seafood. While walking, Zach found a bobble head still in the box of Felix Hernandez. That kid is one lucky kid! That day we took the bus into the city so on the way home--Zach, Tanner and his friend Dirt who was with us, rode back with two families. Greg, Kaden, Brynn and I took the bus back. By this time it was after 9 pm and the bus was packed. We had to stand....luckily a gentleman gave me his seat so I could hold Brynn--she was swaying all over the place. Eventually another guy let Kaden have his seat cuz he was falling asleep.

Tanner, Justin, Dirt, Tanner R.

Brynn, Kaden & Zach

On Thursday, we went into Seattle again before Zach's first game that evening. We went to the Phiten store (our kids LOVE Phiten's--the necklaces the baseball players wear). We ended up running into every team mate while there!! It was the highlight for the boys. We then walked down to Pike's Market and then had to get home to get ready for Zach's game. They won that first game 14-1 after 5 innings. Zach pitched 3 innings. Thursday was also Brynn's 6th Birthday. We went out and bought a cake to share with some of the kids from the families on our trip. Brynn thought that was great. She didn't have the best birthday but she got lots of attention and one of the families even bought her a present--some Hannah Montana jammies, bubble gum and Orange soda. She also had a little "swim party" in the hotel pool with her little friend, Kiah who was also on the trip.

Brynn in the Phiten store (along with other team members and their families!)

Kiah and Brynn eating Snow Cones they bought from the Ice Cream Man

Zach pitching in first game

Brynn's little party after swimming in the hotel pool

On Friday, we went into Seattle for our last time. Half of us went up the Space Needle (Me, Tanner and Kaden), while Greg, Zach and Brynn went back to the Phiten store. It was beautiful up there--Tanner said it was boring..he is so funny! He liked the elevator ride up (there were windows so you could see out while we went up). Kaden thought it was cool. We had to head back to Federal Way after that so we could get ready for Zach's next game. We won that game as well 11-1. That night the baseball kids stayed out of the pool so Tanner, Kaden and Brynn enjoyed a quieter swim with some of the other younger siblings.

We knew on Saturday morning our game would be tougher--we lost that one 11-1. All of us were in the stands wondering who the kids were out in the field representing South Cache Stallions...they just did not show up to play at all!! Oh well...Saturday afternoon they had a skills competition for all the teams. It was a mad house. There were 64 teams participating in the tournament. Zach participated in the Round the Horn competition with his team. His team mate Trace, won the home run derby--way to go Trace! Later Saturday they played another game...they won that game but I forget the score!! With that win, that meant we had to play Sunday morning. That was a tough one. Zach wasn't sure what to do. He knew he had to play because he couldn't just not play and leave them stranded. They played at 9:00 am. They were winning 3-0 and we all felt pretty good about it when the other team had a great inning and came back 4-3. In our last in the field...a strong hit went to Zach on first base and he put his left hand up to block his face and he dislocated his finger. He was the next up to bat so they skipped him and ended up losing the game. A parent on our team is a nurse so she helped get the finger back in place and he didn't have any problems with it after that. That was lucky!! It was a sad loss, but after that 7 of the 10 families loaded up and headed home. We left Federal Way at 12:30 pm and got home at 2:30 am. It was a long drive, but we all had such a great time. We would do it all again!

The team played great and the boys all had such a great time swimming and hanging out in the lounge watching sports center. When we got home, we started right back up with baseball again!! Tanner had his All Star game on Monday night, Tuesday night and Wednesday night. They lost Monday and Wednesday. Zach's tournament started Tuesday afternoon and then again on Wednesday. His team won the Legion B Tournament. Baseball is officially over at our house...for now anyway.

Now we are getting ready to send Greg on his week long Teton backpacking trip. They might have to hike in Yellowstone instead because there is still snow on the Tetons. He is upset about that but looking forward to the adventure. We will miss him and life will still be busy with Tanner, Kaden and Brynn taking swimming lessons.

School starts here on August 21st--yikes..three weeks away! I am not ready for that at all. Both Greg and I hate to send the kids back to school. We like them home and we like the relaxed routine. Plus--once they start back, I start back the next week! I'm not looking forward to the fall semester.....hopefully it flies by! We'll see.