{Seattle/Canada} Flashback: Day 6

I could not, would not, leave Canada without going on the Westcoaster slide. I was determined. Today was our last day and the only thing holding us back from getting in the car and heading back to Seattle was the slide. The sun was shining this morning but as 10 o'clock approached, so did the rain sprinkles. Long story short, we ended up waiting a couple of hours and did a little begging to make it happen! Finally, and luckily, we got to go on! 

Darren and Cara couldn't go on with us which was so lame but the rest of us went as single riders. With all that time waiting for the ride to open I took the time to prep the girls on how to use the slide. I basically said, just push the lever all the way down! It's way more fun that way. I told Marisa if you do feel like it is too fast just pull the lever slightly up. haha

Natalie went first...

That thumbs up meant she kept the lever down the entire time! Good girl!!

Tim went next. Then Marisa...

(I had to trim the video in order to upload so what you don't hear in the beginning is baby Cara cheering on saying, "Piiiizzzaa!" meaning "Marisa". It is pretty cute.)

Luckily the staff let the people behind her go again. But hey, she did it! I'm so proud of her for giving things a try still. That is all I ask!

I went flying down last.

It was finally time to say good-bye to such a fun family vacation. It was seriously so much fun.

Cara only took one nap the entire week which was fabulous. But she has never gone without a nap before! I couldn't believe she hung in there. Have we finally arrived? Sure enough though, all 4 kids fell asleep in the car before even getting to Vancouver. The youngest two were out for a long time!

We did make a quick stop to see the Vancouver temple. Stopping to physically let the kids touch the temple is the best kind of stops in my opinion. A great reminder that no matter where we are in the world we can find peace.

Our ragamuffins! haha

May you all be the best of friends in life.

We arrived in time to Seattle for Darren to throw up in the Chick-fil-a parking lot where we were eating for dinner along with a proper Seattle greeting of rain. Not to mention the huge amount of water spilled on the tables by my kids. Yeah, it was special. Needless to say, I was more than ready to crash in our hotel and just chill!

In true parenting life experiences the hard moments are always quickly forgotten by the few happy moments like these...

I just love traveling with my crew!!

{Seattle/Canada} Flashback: Day 5

With rain in the forecast I was pretty nervous that our Family Adventure Zone fun day in the Upper Village would be ruined. With high hopes we went right over first thing anyways. And who knew that such beauty could be found in just a short walk??

Mini golf was the first thing ready for us. With the two littles in tow we loosely followed the rules of the game. We were trying to quickly hit our ball into the hole before one of the littles ones could grab it and throw it far into another putting green. And if Darren wanted to cheat by placing the ball right by the hole, then so be it! Mini golf with kids goes right next to sweeping while kids eat dinner. Pointless.

It did sprinkle a bit during our game and it down poured as soon as we were done. We did luck out there!

Not a bad backdrop, eh?

While waiting for the rain to calm down the kids jumped in a massive jump house with two slides, hallways, and all sorts of random inflatables inside. They had it all to themselves too so that was a double bonus. The jump house was Darren's favorite. And when the rain did stop the big girls wanted to do the bumper/racing cars. They LOVED this.

And here is the pass up by Marisa! Oh, Natalie!!

Next up, working our way through all the activities, was the ropes course. Natalie was all about this one. In fact, this was her favorite activity. Tied to a harness you zig zag your way through tricky ropes. It was interesting and a little challenging in some areas!

Even daddy got in on the fun!

Remember my cautious, afraid of heights girl? She bravely gave it a shot and did it!

What we really wanted more than anything, well I should say what I really wanted more than anything was to go down the Westcoaster Slide. But with the rain they just couldn't open it up. Anytime it stopped raining they had to go through a huge process of making sure the slide was dry and it looked like it just wasn't going to happen today. I was so bummed and crossing all finger and toes that maybe tomorrow we will luck out.

So the last thing to do was to try the batting cage. It was cute to see the girls giving it a try. They both hit the ball a few times so we will call that an all around success!

On our way to the Great Glass Elevator Candy Shop Darren insisted he didn't want candy but ice cream from Cow's instead. I don't blame him it is pretty good stuff. But let's be real, he totally wanted candy once we got to the sweet shop too. Oh, well.

This picture below is complete nostalgia for me. I have so many pictures of our older girls walking seemingly alone on the streets of Europe eating ice-cream in complete peace. I LIVE for these moments with my kids. New country, new food experiences. JOY!

The sweet shop was another take back moment for me of bringing my older girls to pick their favorite sweets at our favorite shop in London. This store had American, Canadian, and European sweets. I grabbed a few new Canadian chocolates to try, and of course, I bought the European Kinder eggs!! I mean, that is a big, DUH! The  kids grabbed a whole bag of other random candy too I don't recall at the moment. It was awesome!

Conveniently, there is the funnest kids park right outside the shop as well as an outdoor amphitheater called the Whistler Olympic Plaza with a huge grassy area. Perfect for the kids to let loose even more.

Whistler Village is so charming and clean and loads of fun for the whole family. We must have walked up and down the village numerous times just to enjoy the ambiance of it all. Except for Cara who refused to be in the stroller, refused to walk, refused to be carried by dad at times. but then would cry if Darren got on the stroller, or cry if we left her behind walking, or cry if we put her on Tim's shoulders...and that my friends is the vicious cycle of the baby in our family!