An Evening of "Firsts"

Saturday, 12-3

Darin and I love to hang out in Seattle and we try to have opportunities where we take the kids some times too. :-) The problem is that they don't really enjoy just walking and looking around, so it has to be a very kid friendly plan.

Darin wanted to take them to a play at the Seattle Children's Theatre again this year, so we chose "A Year with Frog and Toad". Our initial plan included staying in a hotel with a pool, but oops! We have a puppy. Let's re-think that plan. We decided on a Saturday evening so we could go down a little early and look around the Seattle Center Winter Wonderland. Then I had a great idea to take them to Benihana for a late lunch. We thought they would enjoy watching their food being cooked in front of them. I also really wanted to take Elissa ice skating.

We left at 1pm after trying to get a Christmas card picture taken. That is always a "fun" experience. We had reservations at Benihana's at 2pm. The kids didn't know what we were doing.

They had a fun time. We all had a great time!

We left Benihana's and went to the REI flagship store to look around and get some new snow suits for the kids.

After that it was off to the Center House. We had enough time before the 5:30pm play to get some coffee and hot chocolate and watch the model train.

We got great seats at the play. As you can see the kids were not excited for me to take a picture of them waiting for it to start.

That was the only time they were bored. They thoroughly enjoyed the play. It was very entertaining. They really liked the actors who played the birds and the moles.

At the end of the play they had a short discussion time with the actors. One of the actors asked the audience to tell them what was their favorite season and why. Elissa was one of the ones that got picked to answer. She said, "Summer because we get a break from school." Nice. Then Zach raised his hand to ask a question and they picked a boy just behind him. He thought they picked him and he started talking. When I had to tell him it wasn't his turn, he got really embarrassed and hid under my arm. They tried to ask him next, but he was done at that point. Poor guy.

It was already late after the play, but we went to the ice skate rink anyways. At first Zach saw it and said that he was not going to do it. Elissa was ecstatic. So Elissa and I paid to go on the ice. I have only been ice skating once and this was Elissa's first time. She's been roller skating with friends a few times. As we are getting our ice skates on, Zach decides he wants to try too. So Elissa and I get on the ice first. I was scared! I did NOT want to fall. It just took one time around and Elissa and I were off. It was pretty easy to keep your balance. Well, that is, if there aren't little kids with walkers cutting you off and suddenly stopping. I am happy to say that I did not fall. :-)

Elissa is off and skating!

Zach is on his way with Mom right behind him.

 Here is a little video clip of our adventure. Look for Elissa in the middle of the rink dancing toward the beginning. Elissa didn't need a walker, but she would use it when she wanted to go really fast. Doesn't Zach look like a little old man using the walker? He fell a couple of times, but he never got hurt. He would just get right back off and head out again. Though he did want to take rests in the corners or when we came back to Darin. He would walk off and then turn around and walk back onto the ice to go another round. I also had to tell him a few times that he was going the wrong way or not to stop right in the middle of everyone. He gets pretty "tricky" towards the end. I think him and Elissa were racing.

They did NOT want to leave when we finally made them come in when it was after 9pm. They really enjoyed themselves. Darin said that Zach was asking today if we could go again soon. I'm going to have to take them to the Kent rink.

We were all starving after roller skating since we hadn't ate since 2pm, so we went to McDonald's for a very late dinner. As soon as we were back in the car, the kids were out. They slept the whole way home. I love it when you have a full day and they just can't keep their eyes open. :-)

It was definitely a very fun and memorable family day!