Spokane Trip

On Friday, we hit the road and drove to Spokane. If any of you know me well, then you know my obsession with good fireworks and with waterfalls. Well both of these were part of the highlights of this trip.

We got to Spokane around 4:30 and headed to Toys R Us. We had promised Joey a new Thomas the Train to go with his tracks, and Emma got to pick out a new My little Pony. They both thought that was pretty neat. Me and Mike picked out an old movie with Cary Grant in it to go with our collection and I finally found clogs in Emma's size and in one of her favorite colors, Purple...so I thought that trip was successful.

After Toys R Us, we went on to eat dinner. When planning this trip, I tried to accommodate everyone in the family, so for Mike we planned on going to a good steak restaurant. Well the one we originally picked out (and had a 25 dollar gift certificate to) was closed (probably due to the Holiday) so we were bummed but found an Outback Steakhouse so Mike being bummed didn't last long :)



After we ate, we found our Hotel and got all checked in. I got a pretty good deal on Priceline.com. We stayed at Courtyards by Marriott... it was next to Riverfront park so we didnt have to pay for more gas than needed and it had a king size bed with a hide-a-bed for Joey. It suited us nice!



After we got all settled in, we left to go find a good spot to sit for the fireworks.



Here are the kids waiting for the show to start!



The fireworks were of course very pretty! Emma didn't quite know if she liked the big booms but she did pretty good!



Here we are after the show was over!



After the fireworks, we got some treats and headed back to our room and relaxed. Cool Runnings was on t.v. which was fun to see..I haven't seen that movie forever!

The next morning, we slept in and then got everything out to the car and headed for breakfast. We were sick of looking so we ended up at Sherri's.



After breakfast, we headed to Riverfront Park. We had a lot planned that day at the park so we started immediately. First, we tried the Farris Wheel. The minute we started going up in the air, Emma freaked out and started screaming so that didn't last long and we got off. After that we tried the Carrousel.



The Carrousel was Emma's part of the trip. She loves ponies so I thought she would love to ride on one. WRONG!! She wouldn't let go of Mike, so they ended up on a bench!



Joey sure loved it though, I tried to get some cute pictures of him but the ride was going to fast..I don't remember it going so fast as a kid! He couldn't stop laughing, though. It was pretty cute!



After the carrousel, we went on the Skyride to see the waterfall! Emma sure takes after me in the ride department. She hates anything that goes up in the air! So again, the minute the skyride took off, she started to scream. It would stop every once in awhile for more riders to get on and to give everyone a chance to take pictures. She would stop crying for a minute but the moment it started moving again, she would scream, "No, No, No!" It was sad! We got her calmed down for a minute by having her sing, I am a Child of God (she loves to sing this song so it usually works to calm her down) but the minute it started moving again she freaked out. All the other gondulas that would pass us would see Emma and go "ohhh"






After that, we went on the train for Joey. Boy, was he in heaven!

Can't you tell! :)



Emma still wasn't quite sure! She probably figured we were taking her on another scarey ride!

I love Mike's face here...you can tell he has just about had enough of holding her! :)



After a few minutes, though, she realized it wasn't that bad and that we were staying on the ground... so she finally got off of Mike's lap. She still had a huge grip on Mike's shirt though, just in case!



I even got a smile out of her!



I loved her face when we went over the bumps!



We even got to go in a tunnel! (For some reason, Joey has been obsessed with trains and tunnels lately! All bridges are tunnels..if there are big trees on both sides of the road, then that is a tunnel and they turn our chair upside down to make a tunnel and crawl under it. It is cute! So I was hoping that we would go under a bridge and sure enough we did!

Here is Joey going under the tunnel!



I let Joey take the camera for a minute and he took a picture of the conductor!



This was our highlight of the tour train...they had a cool looking Tiki Post!



Here is Joey standing next to the train!



Here is Joey thanking the Conductor for taking him on the train! Too Cute!



After the tour train, we went to see the LARGEST Radio Flyer in the world. They turned it into a slide so it was really fun for the kids!





I even went down the slide once! I was very disappointed when we didn't get a picture of that! :)

After that, the clock tower striked 5, so we knew it was time to eat!



We decided to walk across the street to the mall to see if there was anything there! I have never seen such a tall mall!



If you cant tell what that picture is, it is all the escalators going up 6 floors!

We didn't find any restaurant we liked in there, but we found some yummy chocolate covered strawberries! Yum!

We walked down the street and found a yummy local pizza and pasta shop so we got the food to go and then went and ate on the grass at the park!

After we ate, we went to the IMAX theater and saw Kung Fu Panda. I wasn't quite sure if I was going to like the movie but it actually turned out to be pretty cute! It was a little violent so we had to cover the kids eyes during some parts but I actually liked the movie a lot.



After all that, we were getting pretty worn out but we decided to let Joey go on some rides before we went home!

This is a big blown up ship that has a climbing wall and a slide in it. He had a blast!



Then he went on the airplanes! He first chose the red one, then he had to go on it again and chose a white one! He couldn't quite figure out how to make it go up in the air but he had a blast none the less!



After that, Daddy decided to see if he would like the Spider! Joey loves spiders so he of course said, Yes! After the ride was over, he didn't quite know what to think...Mike asked him if he wanted to go on it again and he said, NO! :)



Then I convinced him to go on my favorite ride (again it is one on the ground! ) the scrambler! After the ride, I asked him if he liked it and he said it went too fast!



After that, we decided to go home!

This is one last picture of us with one of the waterfalls behind us and one of the kids...definately acting ready to go home! :)



We had a pretty nice time! It was nice to get away..even if it was only for a couple days!