a salvaged weekend

the weather here has been miserable and memorial day weekend was no exception. we tried so hard to "make lemonade out of lemons" in order to keep us all from going crazy! on sunday afternoon we headed downtown to the seattle aquarium. brooke and gavin both fell asleep on the ride there so we drove around seattle for a while in the rain. when we finally headed over to the aquarium, there were so many people standing in line (outside in the rain) that we bailed on the whole thing. brooke awakened and we told her that they sold all the tickets to the aquarium, and we'd have to come back another day. we were at a loss for what else to do so we just drove home. on monday morning, kevin suggested we head down to tacoma (one hour southwest) to the point defiance zoo and aquarium. sounded good to me. anywhere but here was a great idea. we held out hope that the weather would be better if we got in the car and drove for an hour. we drove in and out of dark clouds on the way down. nearing tacoma we drove through a big storm but could see lighter skies ahead. oh, please, please... let this be our day. we turned off the highway on the main road to the zoo and discovered the electricity was out. every traffic light was down for miles. it looked like this just wasn't going to be our weekend, BUT THEN... we got to the zoo. no rain. no electricity = free admission :) the scenery was gorgeous. it sits right on puget sound. check it out. they don't make zoos like this in ohio :)

the only downside was that the power outage meant the aquarium had to close down. brooke was really looking forward to the aquarium, but the awesome kid zone with slides and climbing structures made up for it! then, an answer to our prayers.... the clouds parted, the sun came out and we had blue skies. i realized i have become obsessed with the sky. every time i see blue skies and white puffy clouds, i take a picture. i think to prove that it was real :) i also love the way the evergreens look against the sky. a thing of beauty.

we came prepared for cold & rain, but we happily shed our layers and soaked up the sun. the kids loved seeing the animals. i think they enjoyed being free to roam outdoors even more. the few hours we spent at the point defiance zoo salvaged our entire holiday weekend. thank you, kevin/daddy for a perfect day!