Question?

Okay here is a random post but I am wondering if anyone can answer my question. I have noticed that when I leave a comment on someone elses blog, it says cuddles,kisses & amp;tantrums. WHAT THE HECK IS THE amp; ? I did some searching on other peoples blog comments and I am at least happy to say that it isn't only mine doing that. Bonnie's is as well and someone I didn't know. Can anyone tell me why it is doing that all of a sudden?! I have gone into fix it but it WON"T FIX!!! AHH! I hate when I don't understand computers! HELP!

Our Big Vacation for 2008 SEATTLE

WARNING!! Once again this will be a boring post for anyone not a part of our immediate family! Please keep in mind that I am documenting our vacation as a journal/scrapbook for my kids and future posterity! If you feel so inclined, feel free to read the following post, but I take zero responsibility for death by boredom or spontaneous napping! I will have to have many posts in order to fit everything in, so if you feel like leaving me a comment please leave it at the very end! My post is so long that you will have to hit the older posts box at the end of the screen to go to the next page! (Does that make sense mom?)

Here we goooooo!

Off we go!

Brayden has been excitedly awaiting our trip to Seattle for 3 months. Everywhere we have been from the grocery store to the doctor's office, Brayden has told anyone that would listen that we were flying on a big jet. We left for the airport on Wednesday morning the 16th of July. By the time we made it to the airport here in Orlando he was flying high with excitement.
Ten minutes into the flight, the excitement wore off and both were sound asleep. Brayden was slightly upset that we didn't fly into outer space, but was quickly over his disappointment when we told him we were going to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner!

Day 1 "Seattle"

Thursday morning we woke up bright and EARLY- the kids were still on Florida time- and went to Woodland park zoo with their Wheeler cousins and Grammy Dina. The brisk morning air was so crisp and refreshing- for about 10 minutes anyway- and then I realized that it wasn't cool outside but FREEZING cold. We saw a few animals- a giraffe from many angles, an elephant taking a pooh, and some birds landing on sticks, but mainly empty habitats at the zoo. I think that it was too cold for them to venture out of their cages.
After lunch we headed into downtown Seattle to ride on the Duck. This was my favorite part of the whole day! I was plenty warm because the sun came out while we were eating lunch and I managed to borrow a second jacket from Diana. The duck took us all over Seattle then drove over to Lake Union and turned into a boat. It floated us past Gas works park, several ships from the show "Deadliest Catch," and the floating homes and houseboats. We went right past the house where they filmed Sleepless in Seattle. This was my favorite part of the tour. It brought back memories of Travis and I sneaking down onto private property when we were first married and getting caught by his boss! Those were some good times!

After we finished up with the Duck, we headed onto the monorail and down to Pike place market. I love pike place and the fresh bouquets of flowers you can buy there for $5.oo. The kids weren't too impressed- I think that they were tired of walking- but they perked up once we found ourselves at Red Robin for dinner.

Day 2 "Meet the Larsens"

Friday we met up with Travis' old friend Matt and his family. They are a great couple with two cute kids. I now have a new friend -Cherie- who is super cool, so now we have another reason to visit Washington more often. I think that I need to convince them to come to Florida for a vacation. Hopefully I will have more luck with that than Matt had trying to convince me to leave Orlando and move to Seattle! :) We went to the museum of flight and saw old planes from WW1 and WW2. I am sure that there was a lot of other interesting things to look at but I was too busy trying to keep an eye on my kids. Three decrepit, unpleasant old men told me to control my kids more times than I care to remember. We also went into an old air force one jet and the concorde. I would like to go back again without my kids and see all the things that I missed. We were also able to watch the F22 raptors take off and head to an air show at Fort Lewis. That was a cool sight. I have never been that interested in the whole military plane thing, but this was spectacular. It has made me rethink attending an air show! Thanks Larsen's for spending the day with us!

Day 3 "The lake"

On Saturday we went to a lake and had a big Osborn family BBQ. Our surroundings were beautiful and the lake looked like a post card. As soon as we got there, our kids were begging to go swimming. After about 30 seconds they were whining a different tune. "It's tooo cooold! I wanna play on the playground!" I, being the mean mom that I am, made them get in the water for a couple of Kodak moments.
This picture is Brayden screaming "I wanna get out!"

Kaity finally got to meet her cousin Abby. They are like two peas in a pod!