Wednesday, March 17, 2010

On the road again...

This week is WSU's spring break and our little family decided to take advantage of all of Ammon's free time by taking a trip to the Seattle area. We left on Friday afternoon and turned our 5 hour trip into a 7 hour trip... let me explain. A little outside of Colfax (15 miles or so away) I noticed some splatter on my side of the windshield and the passenger door window. I thought nothing of it and figured it would wash off with the slight rain we were driving through. When it didn't, I mentioned the splatter to Ammon. We figured a car must have kicked something up from the road. When we stopped in Ellensburg at a gas station to get some warm water for Kent's bottle (oh the joys of traveling with kids!) I had Ammon wash the windows after I touched the stuff and found it kind of oily. We were splatter free, for all of 3 minutes. We rethought our diagnosis and figured it was coming from the car and would get it checked out in Seattle on Saturday. We continued listening to our book on CD when Ammon looked at the temperature gauge and got concerned. Our temperature gauge was rising quickly. We pulled to the side of the freeway, only 10 miles east of North Bend for Ammon to pop the hood and take a look. Sure enough, our radiator was cracked. What to do? What to do? We decided to let the car cool and take another shot at the road only to go 20 yards before we were overheating again. Have I mentioned how I have been wanting a new car...? So after 45 minutes on the phone with insurance, a towing company, my friend Sarah (her house in Everett was our destination) and the classiest repair shop in North Bend we had a plan of action. We had to wait on the freeway for an hour to come get picked up by the tow truck and be towed into North Bend, where my friend and her fiance would pick us up, only to return us the next day to get our car. Kent was pretty good considering it was 30 some degrees outside, no heat in the car, the car wasn't moving, and he had to be strapped into his car seat for safety purposes. The rest of the trip was a success. We were able to spend some time at the aquarium, swimming at a hotel, and at the zoo in Tacoma. Now for your viewing pleasure...Oh and did I mention I want a new car?


Here is Kent pretending he is a jelly fish.


Kent could stare at the fish all day.


Happy as can be at the aquarium.


Auntie Sarah showing him the river otters.


"Look, Mom caught a fish!"


"And Dad is feeding me to the shark."


We even snagged a box of Samoas at a gas station from a girl scout.


Wondering why on earth he has to sit on this bouncy spider web...

or pretend he is a hermit crab.