Two days after Christmas, we took a trip up to Seattle to visit with our family up there.  All sorts of relatives! We stayed with Lisa, Jonathan, and Phoebe, which was fun for all the kids.  On Friday, we met up with my Uncle Johnny, Aunt Karen and cousin Riley to explore the Pacific Science Center.  While the whole place was fun, Jonah and Nora were most excited about the space part of the exhibit.  Surprise.  :)

Sitting in the space capsule.  Which buttons to push, switches to flip…?

Nora and Phoebe check out the honeybee colony.

My favorite part – the butterfly room!  We walked around and got to get a close look at all sorts of beautiful critters.

Cousins!!  On a caterpillar!  The cutest.

Nora was interested in touching some anemones.  She also liked the sea star.

Another favorite spot was the large funnel where little balls can roll around in circles until they drop down the hole.  They loved how Riley could get a huge handful and put a whole bunch in at once!

This picture cracks me up – it looks like Nora’s trying to take down the Space Needle with her water cannon.

Later, Riley was a great source of entertainment for all the kids – puppet shows and baseball silliness.

We also got to see Aunt Jeanne at Gran and Grandad’s house.  She was visiting from South Carolina and enjoyed seeing the kids.  Nora gladly sang a few rounds of Take Me out to the Ballgame with her.  It’s pretty much her favorite song these days, and she knows all the verses.

“…three strikes you’re out!”

And Jonah played his first full game of Scrabble at Lisa’s place.  He said, “Mom.  I just love Scrabble so much that I think we should play it every single day!!”  And while we haven’t played a whole game every day, I’m pretty sure we’ve played at least part of one.  He loves coming up with the words by himself, and after a few games even started counting up all the points and taking over the scorekeeper job!

Um…  hey there, Bean.