Road Trip

About a month back, Josh and I decided we wanted to take a trip up to WA. It had definitely been too long. The weekend we finally decided on just happened to be Easter weekend.

We hit the road on Thursday (March 28th). This was Elliott's first long car ride. Besides this trip, her longest car ride was about an hour and a half (and she was still really little, so she slept the whole time). The drive up to Richland is about 10 hours. Elliott cried for the first 30 minutes (Josh and I were both wondering what we had gotten ourselves into) but then fell asleep. She didn't cry the rest of the trip! She took two great naps and then played in her carseat. We read books, fed her solids and played. She did wonderful! What a pleasant surprise that was! We only stopped twice!

Rest stop!

Thursday night my mom got in lots of hugs and snuggles and then we put Elliott to bed. Josh and I were pretty tired but we stayed up talking for a couple hours before hitting the sack.

On Friday we got up, went over to see my brother John and his family, went back to my mom's house, put Elliott down for a nap and then went over to my friend Cherrie's house. She had some girls over with their babies. All the babies were so cute. Cherrie's little girl, Kennedy, just crawled right over to Elliott and sat as close as she could to her. Then they just sat, staring at each other and eating each other's toys. It was so cute.

[Kennedy and Elliott]

That afternoon we also went over to my friend Kristin's house. We got to see her step-mom and siblings. It was so nice to see them. I miss that family a lot. And it was their first time meeting Elliott.

So cute!

Saturday we took a trip to Seattle. Josh had never been to Seattle! What? So, it was a must. On the way out of town we stopped at Spudnut for donuts. A must. We spent the first while at Pike's Place Market and then hit up the Armenian for lunch. The restaurant was two stories and looked out over the bay. It was a gorgeous view. After lunch we walked around a bit more, got some Baklava to snack on and then headed over to the EMP. The EMP is a huge music museum. It was so fun. I had been once before (on a middle school band trip) and loved it and I knew Josh would love it. We had a lot of fun. Elliott did so well getting dragged around town. She took little naps here and there throughout the day. After the EMP we took some pictures by the Space Needle and then drove around to find somewhere to eat dinner. We decided on Hard Rock Cafe because my mom had never eaten there! It was so busy (being the Saturday before Easter), but it was so great. Yum. After dinner we hit the road back to Richland. It was such a fun and exhausting day.

Spudnuts on the way out of town!

the roads are scary steep

Pike Place Market

At the EMP

Can you spot us?

Lunch at the Athenian

haha

Outside the EMP

waking up from a nap in the car...not so sure about it.

Since we don't make it back to WA often, we decided to go to my old ward and my mom's ward for Easter Sunday. It was fun seeing all my old friends from Tri-Cities. And of course, this time I had an adorable baby to show off. :) After both sacrament meetings we went home and got the food in the oven. Then we headed over to John and Sara's for dinner. Easter dinner was delicious. The weather was absolutely beautiful on Sunday so after dinner we took the kids out back and played. It was just too pretty. Once the sun went down we got the kids to bed and watched a movie. Such a nice day.

Giving Elliott her Easter basket

On Monday we spent most the day with my brother and his kids. Again, the weather was gorgeous so we ran a bunch of errands around town and got lunch at the Mongolian Grill. My favorite. After lunch we went to DQ and got blizzards and then went down to the river to eat them. We just sat on a bench by the river. It was so nice. We took some pictures on the dock and down by the water. Elliott looked adorable. 

We had plans to do Casa Mia (my favorite local Italian restaurant) that night with John and Sara but they decided not to go, so it was just us and my mom. But we had a great time. It was delicious as always. After dinner, we headed back, packed, cleaned and hit the sack.

Tuesday we slept in a bit and then hit the road again. The drive home actually felt shorter to me. Elliott did so well. We only stopped once on the way home. Once! Our weekend went way too fast, as always. But we had such a fabulous time!

My view on the drive home