Our morning got off to a rather interesting start, she requested a sandwich for breakfast with a side of *really* green smoothie on her Marcus & Marcus rubber divided plate, I wasn’t about to fight her on it as we wanted to be in the car and out the door in 30 minutes. She got her request, ate is all without any drive-by requests “take another bite please” from yours truly; So I’m going to just chalk this one up as a win. But of course in that 30 minutes between being up, changed, fed and out the door she decided that the outfit she had chosen originally lacked a “family vacation” feel and had to change before we left.
…WELCOME TO OUR LIVES
We made it out the door and not even to the bottom of our hill, I’m talking 2 minutes tops people and we got the dreaded questions…. “are we there yet?”. I mean next to “mama I gotta’ pee!” after just entering the highway has gotta’ be the most dreaded sentences to parents who travel with children.
We made it the 2.5 hour drive to the hotel with probably only 5 or 6 are we there yet’s and believe it or not only 1 panicked bathroom break, and it wasn’t coming from the toddler in the back *puts hand up*. We made it to The Hampton Inn & Suites in Lynnwood in great time, stopping over to just drop off our bags and head into Seattle. We knew were far too early for an actual check-in but had called in advanced to see if we could at least drop the bags off so our car downtown Seattle wasn’t a total heat-score. Upon arrival not only was our room ready but they upgraded us to a new suite that had just been renovated.
Checked out our room, jumped on the bed a few hundred times and then headed off to get lunch at Pike Place Market.
Finding a place to eat with a picky eater is actually a lot more difficult than one might think. With so many options for little restaurants, all very kid-friendly but not always picky eater kid-friendly. We found a cute little spot overlooking the water that we all got to enjoy a meal we salivated over. Sammy had the albacore tuna sandwich while I dinned on a chicken caesar salad and Sofia had a grilled cheese sandwich with fresh squeezed apple juice, everyone ate, and everyone was happy!
We could’ve easily taken home a dozen bouquets of flowers while strolling the market, it actually broke my heart to leave them behind. I love to decorate our home each week with a new bouquet of beautiful fresh flowers, there is just something about fresh flowers that make a room so inviting; that and also forgiving of the lack of attention to dusting I’ve taken in the week. It hurt that I wasn’t able to take a bunch home for our kitchen and coffee table, hurt more than it probably should’ve. HEY! Did you know there is such think as a Tulip Peony? Talk about amazing, two of my favorite flowers combined… MIND BLOWN!
We got back to the hotel and enjoyed a little lite snack after dinner. It’s one of the many reasons we love to stay at the Hampton Inn, their free breakfasts and evening snacks. While Sofia caught up on some cartoon watching I popped down into their reception area and grabbed a little milk and snack for her to have before bed. I filled up her Marcus & Marcus collapsible bowl with some fruit and nachos (because after all we are on vacation) as well as filling a second with fruit for the fridge in our room for a morning pre-breakfast snack. That was my parenting win for the weekend, thinking ahead and bought myself a morning of the bathroom to myself and not having to answer knock-knock jokes while trying to apply my mascara; having a snack to keep them company is always a great deterrent. Of course when I handed her the bowl of fruit she instantly asked for her matching chopsticks but managed to keep the peace when I handed her two straws and said “I betcha can’t use these like chopsticks?!” My challenge was accepted with a sneaky smile and sly eyes. #parentingwin
Concluding night one with a book before bed, snuggles and a girl who wanted her own king-sized bed to sleep in. Twist my rubber arm, I will gladly sleep with your dad in a bed to ourselves. Enjoy your sleep baby girl, until tomorrow where you will amaze me again with your silly ways. Motherhood is such a roller coaster ride, to anyone who thinks this parenting thing is a cake walk, I invite you to spend a weekend away with us. This I will promise you, it will be fun, it will test your limits, you will laugh, you will cry (quite possibly simultaneously), your phones photo storage will be full but I doubt you will leave saying you’d never do it again.
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