I have a new LOVE FOR SEA GULLS..... that's all I have to say.
Isn't this the funniest picture or Eli? Right to the side of Ivar's (According to Heather and Matt....The most amazing little restaurant in all of Seattle), believe me, we ate there three times, there are hundreds of Sea gulls. Ivar's even has posted signs about feeding them. They strongly encourage it. They are so much fun to feed. You can hold bread, or french fries from Iver's out in the air and they will come still them right from your hand. It is so cool. Eli was a little terrified at first, as you can see from the picture. But once he warmed up to the idea he thought it was really funny.
Just love the facial expressions. He was so scared that they were going to get him. But then after they would still it, he would giggle so hard.
This is Mary Lynn. She is one of Gaye's oldest and best friends. They sort of grew up together and have just always stayed in contact. Matt was so excited to get the chance to see her. Eli took to her so quickly. I think it had a lot to do with the fact that her and Grandma Gaye really do have similar features. I'm pretty sure she had a lot of fun with Eli as well. He just grabbed her hand and was so excited to go show he how to feed them. And she was just so excited to accommodate him.
Cool picture huh? I tried really hard to catch a picture of the sea gull actually taking it out of Eli's hand, but the timing is so hard. And Eli would only actually do it a few times. He enjoyed throwing out into the air just as much.
Just another cute picture of Eli and Mary Lynn. But I do have to share a story about Mary Lynn on here, mostly for scrap booking and journaling purposes. Well, her and Eli where doing just great and feeding the sea gulls when she stood up and accidentally knocked Eli's most favorite buzz hat into the water with the seagulls. She felt so bad. But my son being the oh so spunky little boy that he is, turned to her and said, "its okay, we will go to Walmart and get a woody one." That's my boy. But long story short, she really did feel quite bad about this and immediately got up to track down someone to help her get it out of the water. Luckily there were some gentleman, firemen or policemen I think, that were on the other side of the dock. She was able to get their attention and they got this big long pole thing that had a hook on the end and was able to retrieve it before it went to far under the dock. But what was so funny is that it had already started going under so there was one guy at the top with the pole in the water and the other guy was down lower on a different dock telling him to go left and right, trying to direct him to the hat. Seriously, so much effort to save a Walmart special, but it definitely makes for a fun story to tell Eli. I do have some pictures of this, but they are on Heathers camera and I have not had a chance to steal her pictures yet. When I get one, I will post it.
I just really like this angel of Eli. He was getting to be quite tired by this time and he was just dragging, but all in all, he was such a trooper this trip and he had so much fun. Even when he didn't get good naps and he got dragged everywhere, he stayed so happy and positive. Not once did we have a serious melt down or a temper tantrum... nothing. We just had a fun, sweet little happy boy all week long.
During the day we went on an Argosy Cruise around the harbor. This was really fun because they talked through the whole tour and we were able to learn so many different things about the area and what different things were. Matt took a ton of pictures of the different types of docks, and the different ships, but I didn't really think that was something that was interesting enough to blog about. But this family picture... it was definitely blog worthy. It is even a pretty decent picture of Seattle in the background.
Just another angel.
This is just a pretty nice picture of Seattle. I still think it is crazy how you can just be driving along the road with really really tall trees right along the side of you the whole way and then.... boom..... it opens up into this really big open space and this is what you see.
Just the two of us..... you and I!!!!
This was the big boat that we road on for the cruise. It wasn't super big, but definitely the biggest that Eli has been on and he thought it was so cool.
Okay, so I don't know how many people have even been to Seattle, but they have this thing called the gum wall that is towards the back corner of Pikes Market. It has to be one of the most disgusting things ever created, but of course we had to go check it out to see what all the hype was about. The entire wall is covered... literately... and it is all gum that people have stuck on there. I can say one good thing for it though, if you stand kind of close to it, it has a really fruity smell...... GROSS I KNOW!
This is Rachel the pig. She is a big statue piggy bank in the corner of Pikes Market. She is the unofficial mascot of Seattle. All the money that is collected in her is donated to different children funds around the area. There are a lot of really cool stories about how she came to be. If you are interested you can go check out http://www.piggybankworld.com/Rachel-Seattles-Famous-Piggy-Bank-sp-184.html or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pike_Place_Market#Rachel_and_Pigs_on_Parade either site will give you some information on why she is so significant.
This is all 5 of us standing in front of the famous Pikes Market Place. This was insane. There was plenty to see and shop around for, but really, this place goes on forever. Level, after level.... it just keeps going. Little shops and vendors. Pretty much anything you are looking for, I'm sure you could find some version of it here.
At the beginning of the day we went to the aquarium. Although I did really enjoy this, I have to say that I was quite disappointed. For being an aquarium that was located right on the water front, I thought there would be many more things and maybe a few bigger things, but not really. There was not hardly even anything there. This picture is of Eli playing around in the gift shop of course, trying things on and being silly.
This was some sea lions that they were actually doing feeding time for. That is why they are so attentive and just sitting there so nicely. They were waiting for the lady to feed them food.
Heather and Eli posing at a spot that is in the aquarium.
This is a tiger fish. I just think these are one of the coolest fish ever out there. They have the coolest design and are so intriguing to look at and to watch swim.
Heather and Eli.
Eli the Jellyfish.
Matt being captured by an octopus. They had this display out so that people could lift up the tentacles to see how much they way and what they feel like. I was quite surprised by how heavy they were.
Eli was not so keen on the idea of touching it. But he thought it was pretty cool to loo at.
By far the biggest octopus I have ever seen. It was all over the tank and just would not hold still. I think these are some of the coolest and most interesting creatures that exist. They are so fascinating to watch move around. And this one was so large that I could see all the different features of him really well. The suction cups on the bottom of there tentacles were so strange.
So this picture is so frustrating to me. We tried and tried and tried to get Eli to reach in the water and touch a star fish, but he was not about to do that. He was so scared of them. The attendant that was supervising even pulled one out of the water for him to touch, but still nothing. I kind a think that this attendant had a thing for Heather, he was ooooooo so helpful and he just keep coming up with excuses to come back and talk to us, it was actually kind of cute. Well as I was saying, we tried everything, but in the end failed. This picture was the closest he would come. He would hold my wrist and I would reach in and touch the star fish. Well we get through and we are out in the gift shop and what does this little stinker do... he runs right over to the star fish (the ones that look exactly, and feel exactly the same as the ones in the water) and he picks one up, brings it to me, and asks if he can take it home. GRRRRRRR I was so frustrated. There really was no difference because the guy had even taken one out of the water for him. Kids... you gotta love em.
I just think this is a really cool picture.
So the story about this scary looking guy. He was in one of the first big tanks that we saw. He really is kind of scary looking and because he has no eye in that eye socket, he is even scarier looking. Well they have had this fish for a really long time and a while ago they noticed he was getting an infection in one of his eyes, well long story short, they did a surgery and removed the entire eye and all of the infection and he has lived a healthy, long life since. I just thought it was really cool that they would put that much effort into saving a fish.
This was a diver that was in feeding the fish when we first got there. I'm not sure if I would like this job or not. A part of me thinks it would be fun, but at the same time... it would be a little freaky. There were hundreds of fish in this tank. They had a two way mic that worked under the water so she was talking and communicating with all the people on the outside and answering questions about the different fish why she was feeding them. It was really interesting to learn all the different things.
A little bit clearer picture. Can you see all the fish in the tank behind us. There were many many fish.
1 comment:
wow ! the more things change. i did the same thing with matt & justin & heather & kasey when they were young. great pics thx
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