We Made it to Seattle!!!

This morning we were woken up at 6am by a little one with a wet sleeping bag and hammock. 😥 Fortunately, we are headed for Seattle and will be at Adam and Devin's house tonight so we can do some laundry. We tried to go back to sleep, as Joe especially was still very tired, but alas, more kids kept waking up until we had no choice but to wake up along with them and get moving for the day. We packed up the campsite to head for Ape Cave, which was less than a half hour away, and then finally to SEATTLE!

The cave is in the 40s year round, so we all dressed warmly, and with jeans and headlamps to light the way. Ape Cave is actually a lava tube, one of the largest in North America. It's bigger inside than I thought it would be, and hard to capture in pictures because it is so dark inside. The total length is over 2 miles long. The entrance is kind of in the middle, and you can decide to go on an easier or harder route. 

I thought we would all do the Lower Cave, and then see if some of the bigger kids wanted to tackle the Upper Cave. Katy and Lily were just NOT having it though, and were complaining a lot about not liking caves because they are dark and cold, and wanting to go back home. 😥 So I ended up turning around and taking them back up to the surface, while Mary and Joey and dad finished the Lower Cave. 

Ready for caving!

Heading into the caves!

We decided that we all want to come back to Ape Cave another time when everyone is older and do the Upper Cave together. For now, everyone was really anxious to finally get to Seattle to see everyone! It was about a 3.5 hour drive, so I pulled out another surprise toy that ended up being a HUGE hit with the kids - eyeballs that fit on your hand that I got for $1 each. The kids were playing and laughing SO hard for SO long with these!

We went to Uncle Alex's apartment first. He has a 3D printer and printed a bunch of fun stuff for the kids before we got there.

Then we went to visit Uncle Alan at his apartment, and drove Alex and Alan with us to Uncle Adam's where we had cheeseburgers and french fries - YUM!

Don't let Katy's face fool you here. She thinks she's funny. 

Of course everyone wanted to hold baby Emmett and play with the dogs. Wish I had more pictures, but we had a great evening hanging out with family!

 

Unfortunately, tonight is the night I need to take a leave of absence from the road trip. I had a midnight red-eye flight out of Seattle to Ohio, where I'll be attending a real estate mastermind event for the next few days. Joe is planning to take the kids to Olympic National Park while I'm in Ohio, and then when I fly back to Seattle we will all drive back home to Wisconsin together. Stay tuned!