Seattle Trip

I have been putting off this post because I knew how incredibly long it was going to be and there are A LOT of pictures in it. Back in the end of June, Amy, myself and Marie (Micheal's sister, 100% our sister, just identifying who she is) went to Seattle, WA. About 6 months ago, Amy's friend had told her about the Rock N' Roll Marathon in Seattle in June. Amy made a decision to cross "Run 2 marathons in one year" (Crazy) off her bucket list and we were going. We left late Thursday night and returned Sunday afternoon. It was a short trip, but very fun.

When we left Utah, it was 96 degrees outside. When we got off the plane in Seattle, it was raining and it was like 48 degrees. We pulled out our sweaters and jackets as we waited for our hotel bus to come get us from the airport. No, I don't really know what kind of face I'm pulling in this picture.

Amy doesn't travel without her Micheal pillow. I made her put it on her head and dance around. Had to get a shot of that.

Our hotel was amazing. They shuttled us all over the place. They took us to the light rail a lot and picked us back up at all hours of the day. They shuttled us back and forth to the airport, they were extremely accommodating.

This was Marie's usual spot as we were getting ready to go to bed. She had her ipod touch, usually planning stuff out for the next day, figuring out how to get to places. Amy and I would have been lost without her. No joke.

On Friday, we went into downtown Seattle for Amy and Erica to get their running packets. Ok, Erica is Amy's friend who told her about the marathon. She was already in Seattle, visiting her parents. She came and slept at the hotel Friday night so they could catch the bus together in the morning. Erica did the half marathon and Amy did the full.

Erica was kind enough to drive us around in her van. We went to the temple up there and did an Endowment session. Actually, we were doing family names for Erica, so Marie and I did Initiatories as well. It was so neat for me. I hadn't been since I did it for myself 8 years ago.

The temple grounds were so beautiful and green. I guess all the rain helps out with that.

They had these cool statues on the grounds.

Me and Ames in front of the temple.

The temple had about 4 sets of escalators we had to go up to get to the top to do the session. It was so pretty inside. We ate at the cafeteria (Amy's favorite food... I know) Just kidding Ames.

Amy and I should be banned from the temple. I had turned to her in the celestial room to ask her a question and a part of my clothing looked hilarious and we both burst into LAUGHTER. We couldn't stop. I tried crying to make it look like I wasn't laughing but I couldn't hold it. We tried to go out and went the wrong way, bringing more attention to ourselves. Then we sat in hallway waiting for the other 2 to come out. Oh, it was awful and we were STILL laughing. Yes, we feel bad.

Here are us girls, getting ready to go out for dinner. The runners wanted to go get a good meal with lots of carbs. We ate dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory. Needless to say, it was soooo good.

So good, that Amy licked her plate clean!

Their Italian Cream Sodas were some of the best I've ever tasted.

We ate until we were stuffed full. I think it was like 10 o'clock when we got out of there.

We all tried the Spa-moni (as Erica put it). That is Italian ice cream. Yum!

That night we hit Target on our way home and got to the hotel late, the girls were supposed to get to bed early. Erica turned on the news to try and see what the weather was going to be like, it was seriously a bunch of murder stories.

Amy and Erica loading on the bus around 5 am or so. Marie and I went back to the hotel and talked and moseyed around until we hopped on the light rail to go get pictures.

Something that is really cool about The Rock N' Roll marathon is that it has live bands at every mile. I guess the RNR marathon moves its way around all the time. There is one in California next month and one in New York and so forth. At the finish line, the ending band was EVERCLEAR. I know they aren't as hot as they once were but I have 2 of their CDs. This picture is of them playing.

This lady's orange sign says, "Toenails are overrated!" I loved it. Marie and I got confused and someone told us that where we were was the marathon, turns out it was the 1/2 marathon and they told me everyone had passed. I was sick to my stomach, I thought Amy must have gotten sick and died or they had to haul her off... something like that. We finally figured out what was going on and I waited for her around a bend toward the finish line.

This is a bridge they had to run across...

Then it came down and around, past those buildings.

Here comes Amy, rounding the corner.

Her legs always look so freaking good in these pictures.

That's not even her real time. Her corral didn't cross the starting line until about 45 minutes after they started. I think she was just a few minutes after 5 hours. It was so freaking cold out there but she said it felt great and she could breathe better, being so close to sea level.

She did such a fantastic job. I was so proud of her and I'm sure Micheal was there and so proud of her too. I am so amazed at what this woman can do. She is amazing and I know that Micheal was watching over her. She was walking around like it was nothing afterwards.

I love this picture of Erica with her garbage can heater, as I called it.

Amy wrote these on their shirts. Amy and Erica served in the YW together and decided that they would run also for their girls.

The back of Amy's shirt. I thought it was rather clever.

I know Amy is going to kill me for this picture but I loved it.

Seriously, who looks this good after they have just ran a marathon?

This is one of my favorite pictures. These 2 were killing me, dancing and check out Amy's freaking calf. Those things are ripped!

Here is the chip they used to track you.

She ended up with a little bit of bloody ankles, but nothing too bad. She had already lost 4 toenails in training. It might be more.

This is the spot we met under after the race so we could find each other. V for Virtue.

I had to get a shot of this. Josh and I have been watching lots of King of Queens and it reminded me of Doug Heffernan driving his IPS truck.

We hopped back on the light rail, back to our hotel. Marie wanted to stay back and check out more of downtown Seattle. Yes, she is crazy, she did that all by herself and for 5 hours. We got some sweet pictures out of it.

She got so many great shots of lots of cool things downtown. Thank you, Marie! This tin man would dance around if you put money in the bucket. I saw the video she took of it. Pretty cool!

Erica was meeting her husband after the race at the airport. Amy and I rode the light rail back into downtown to meet up with Marie.

Every time I see this picture, I laugh... Had to put it in.

Yeah, that's Amy at the very bottom of that huge axe man.

Here we are on the pier, dock, whatever, that's the ocean behind us.

I took my very first taxi ride, EVER. I think it was Amy and Marie's first as well. Sharieff was our driver. I do not even begin to know how to spell that.

We made reservations to eat at The Space Needle Saturday night. Yes, we were getting ready for all of us to sell an organ so that we could afford it but we figured, it was a one time thing.

In the elevator, on the way up.

Amy and Marie out on the deck, waiting for our table.

I didn't know that it was a revolving restaurant. It slowly moves.

Our view when we first sat down.

We spared no expenses and got funky drinks.

That is an actual dead squid in the middle of her plate. Gross. It's eyes were creeping me out.

One last photo. It was the perfect time to eat there. We started when it was completely light and ended when it was dark outside. It was cool to watch it change. We called our same taxi guy to come get us when we were done and he took us back to the light rail and he headed back to the hotel.

Amy was a great sport about walking around all over downtown Seattle, right after she had just ran 26 miles. She never complained once. I did have to help her a little bit when we were going downhill but that was it.

Amy is enjoying the rest of her food from Saturday night in her bed, Sunday morning. No different from home, eat in your bed, huh Amy?

I made Amy take a picture with the MARATHON bathroom tissue. Coincidental, that was the name of the toilet paper and she was there to do a marathon? I think not. Better than a plastic cup, right Amy?

We're waiting in the lobby for the next bus out to the airport on Sunday.

Amy and I decided to go out of the patio, take pictures and make fools of ourselves. Mission accomplished. I'm sure Marie was inside telling everyone, "I don't know them, I swear!"

Our ride back to the airport. We had this fantastic driver most of the days, named Rick. He was always such a delight to talk to and always shared many words of wisdom.

Amy had a special bond with him as they talked about Micheal and the military. He was a wonderful part of our trip.

Amy might as well be stoned. She looks like it. We were sitting in the airport waiting to board and she kept making this face. I love it. Amy totally offered Marie to take someone else's spot on the plane because she was in the exit row and you have to consent to helping if the plane goes down. Amy was like, "Oh, she's a nurse, she could do it!" I couldn't stop laughing. Marie didn't care, she wasn't going to be able to sit by us anyway. It just made me laugh.

I got frisked at the SLC airport, I always do. I was more lucky in Seattle, no frisking involved. A lot of our trip included the phrase, "Shut your face" which turned into the retort we all started saying to each other. We laughed so hard, I loved getting to know Marie better, we are all so comfortable with each other, it was a perfect trip.

I have so many fond memories of this trip. The non stop laughing until I was crying, the neat experiences, like when Amy shared a very personal song with me as we both sat and cried on the bed with one headphone in each of our ears. The wonderful conversations that Marie and myself were able to have while the girls were out running. The hilarious talks with Erica about undisclosed items. I'm sad it's over but we'll have to plan another one, soon.