We packed up Emily, Matthew, 4 suitcases, 4 carry-ons, 2 carseats, and 2 stuffed animals, and schlepped it all to the airport. Matthew couldn’t believe the amount of airplanes that he saw, as he screamed “Dada, AIRPLANE!” at each new one he saw. After being delayed 2 hours, we “blasted off” (according to Emily) and flew 4.5 hours to Seattle. We were told that the kids were VERY well behaved on the flight, but we were still ready to pull our hair out. But we made it, and started our first out-of-state vacation in Washington State.

We then went to Jennifer and Clayton’s beautiful house in Northern Seattle, and visited with them. We went to Pike Place Market, the Seattle Aquarium, and basically all around downtown. We got live crab at the market and Clayton cooked it up for us, and it was DELICIOUS!

As they were still working, getting ready for their wedding, and I’m sure needed a break from having four new people in their house (two of which being under five years old) we took off and drove to Mt. Rainier. This was a great trip, and we stayed overnight on the mountain at the National Park Inn, which we highly recommend.

Once we got back, we did some other shopping around town, getting ready for the wedding. Then we took off and stayed near the castle.
The next day was the wedding, which was a blast! The castle was really nice, the ceremony was really nice, the slideshow Jennifer and Clayton put together was incredible, and the dancing afterward was awesome. We stayed with Jennifer’s parents, Larry and Kathryn, that night, at their beautiful place in the woods.

Overall, it was a great vacation, and all of us had a great time. Emily loved meeting all of Jennifer’s and Clayton’s family, and talks about them a lot. Thanks to everyone for their hospitality! It was so nice meeting all of you.

Click here for more pictures from our vacation.

Click here for more pictures from the wedding.

And last, but not least, here is a video of Emily dancing:

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Stella went to Seattle to visit Jennifer and help plan the wedding.  Here are some pictures from their weekend.

After we got back from Jackie’s baseball game, Stella was laying on the floor minding her own business, when a red-skinned boy decided to maul her! Click image for more…

Stella had ::wikipedia(”Lasik”, “Lasik”):: surgery today, and so far everything is going great.  She had surgery at 10am, and about 1pm she had a lot of pain in her eyes.  She was able to get some sleep (they tell you to keep your eyes closed for over 4 hours) and she woke up feeling great!

The only bad part is that she has to put rewetting drops in her eyes every hour, and medicine drops every 4 hours.

 It’s a small price to pay though. 

Christmas 2005 was great in the Smith/Garza Family.  Here are some pictures.