A post of epic proportions.

Our third stop was in Washington state. We stayed with our very dear friends for just over a week. We just love this family. We really *need* to live closer to each other. I do not know how we will make it happen but I'm working on it. Each of our children are the same ages, have similar personalities and are all very close friends. We really need to live next door to each other. My friend is an inspiration. She is an awesome home school teacher, the sweetest and most loving mom, and such a caring and wonderful friend. I miss them already...

Such Sweetness.


We had such a good time at their house. My friend often does things for her children they do not expect. Special treats or surprises. This time, she bought whip cream and pie plates and let the children have a "Pie Fight" in her back yard. We did a lot of fun things while there but I think this was the kids favorite. They had such a blast. She makes me want to be a more fun and relaxed mom. I just love her. We went to the Pacific Science Center http://www.pacsci.org/ and had a blast. There were many floors to explore and a lot of hands on activities for the kids.

There was a beautiful butterfly garden.

This honey bee hive was located inside but the bees had an outside access. It was so neat! You could hear them buzzing and vibrating while they worked.

We were able to visit a few touch tanks that had sea stars, starfish, anemones and crabs.

Lexy's "souvenir" from the Science Center was a sucker that had a scorpion inside.

She actually ate the scorpion. She is a lot more adventurous than I. Or just crazy. Yeah, I'll go with crazy.

We visited the zoo and had a great time. The kiddos favorite part was going in the Budgie Buddies exhibit. They were able to feed the birds and had many land on them.

We also went to the beach near my friend's mothers house. The kids loved exploring and playing. Cody had fun playing with the bucket and shovel until he broke both. Add those to the list of things I have to replace because of his...Ummmmm... curiosity.

We had such a great time. We will really miss our dear friends and can not wait until we can see them again.

4 Stone-Faced Men and Claustrophobia.

Our next stop was South Dakota, where I traumatized a waitress and made her cry. But we won't talk about that. Except to say that there is no good way to say that that the salad is rotten, the lemonade was unpalatable, an eight dollar steak and cheese sandwich should be served warm and on bread bigger than a small hot dog bun (and without gnats flying around it), and a five dollar kids meal should include more than 1/2 a grilled cheese sandwich and a tablespoon of applesauce served in a dressing cup. I told the young lady that she was very sweet and did not do anything wrong but the food was unacceptable. I guess there is no good way to say that to a young teenage girl without her taking it personally and hiding in the back to cry.

Anywhooooooooo...........

We went to the Washington Memorial on our way to Alaska 5 years ago but the kids did not really remember so we went again. The last time we went, parking was easy, there were no crowds and I escaped with my sanity. None of those things happened this time. They put in a multi-level parking garage and charge $10.00 per car BUT does not accept debit or credit cards.......That would have been nice to know. Also, the lanes were confusing and I ended up in the tour bus lane on the top level at a pedestrian crossing with one million people crossing and not letting me through. I think this was the first time I was grumpy before I even got out of the car.

After we got away from the crowd we enjoyed exploring and talking about the monument, the presidents, and the process used to make the sculptures.

Mom, please take the picture already, the sun is burning a hole our eyeballs.

We also visited the Beautiful Rushmore Cave http://www.beautifulrushmorecave.com/which brought about several episodes of claustrophobia. The last time I was in a cave it was the Carlsbad Caverns which are pretty large and airy. The Beautiful Rushmore Cave was not large and airy but it was really neat, you know, when I was not imagining getting stuck.

This hole replicates the opening of one of the entrances. No, we did not take this tour. If we did, I am certain that I would not be alive. I would have died of a panic attack.

This is one of the entrances that we did go through. You had to turn sideways and duck your head. Yikes!

Once inside we had a wonderful time. There were so many neat formations and minerals that had the most beautiful colors.

Kind of looks like fried eggs.

Another hole to squeeze through.

Stalactites are formations that hang down from the ceiling.

Stalagmites are formations that build up from the ground. When both are connected, they form a column.

This was the original opening. When they first discovered the cave, they had to put a tree down the hole and climb down the tree. Later, they used a ladder then eventually blew a hole in the side of the mountain to gain easier access.

Our guide's name was Fred. He is the coolest tour guide I have ever had. He told jokes and was very entertaining. He made my kids laugh. Anyone that makes them laugh is pretty cool in my book.

Look at those big brown eyes. He just makes me melt.

We had such a good time.

Two Headed Snakes, Two Headed Turtles, A Fish Manicure, and Terrifying Heights.

We had a blast on our trip but are so happy to be home. I could not update while I was gone so now I will write several posts to make up for it. We drove from Alabama to Washington and did lots of fun things on the way. We saw friends and family and made lots of good memories.

Guess where our first stop was?

We had a blast in St. Louis.

Our first stop was at the City Museum. This is the coolest place. It has an aquarium and artistic structures inside and out the kids can climb and play on. There are climbing tunnels, structures, and slides that scale the side of the building. Yes, the side. It is all made from recycled metal from businesses, old plants, automobiles and houses. They welded it all together. They made slides from old metal roofing and giant pvc, climbing tunnels from enormous springs and metal and the biggest ball pit I have ever seen. Before I show you all that, check out the critters inside the aquarium.

These fish eat the dead skin off your hands. Lexy got a wonderful manicure from them. These are all the rage in many salons now. I was not brave enough to try it. My daughter is so much cooler than me.

This is a two-headed snake. It was so cool. I have a video at the end so you can see it move around. Also, there is a video of a two headed turtle. I have never seen two-headed anything before, it was pretty neat.

Nurse Shark

This is a puffer fish that is, well, not puffed. They do something to them so they won't puff up. I guess it can kill them. They were so big and weird looking. Almost human-like.

This ball pit was awesome. It had huge balls and had varying depths. The kids kept getting buried and loosing things. In the process of looking for his lost shoe, Brandon found some money. I told him not to come back up until he had $100.00

Lexy could not resist diving in.

One of the climbing structures about 4 stories up.

This was a huge slide. You had to climb up via the rope then zoom down the other side.

This scared the tar out of me. This climbing tunnel is made from old wire/springs and scales 7 stories up. There is no protective glass or plastic around the tunnel, just wire. Yikes. I was so glad when she got out.

We spent 4 hours here and just had a blast. If you ever go to St. Louis, do yourself and your kiddos a favor and stop by.

http://www.citymuseum.org/home.asp

Having a great time on our road trip. We took a Northwesterly route to Washington. Stopped in St. Louis at the city museum. What a wonderful time we had. It is such an amazing place and the kids had a blast. We also stopped to see the Washington Monument and an awesome cave in South Dakota. We went to Seattle yesterday and went to a really cool children's museum, The Pacific Science Center. The kids and I had a blast but I became ill and had to stop to upchuck on the way home on the side of the road. Spent the rest of the day in bed wanting to die.

I'm feeling better today but we are still going to take it easy so I don't throw up on any of my dear friends.

The cord I bought for my camera does not fit it, so I can not download pictures but when I get back home I will do a post bomb and put up all the great pic's of the trip.

Hope you all are doing well. I'll update again soon.

My name is Mikey.But my owners got it all wrong..

It should have been Yoda.

May the force be with you.