Seattle trip - part one

The week before Christmas we took a four day trip to Seattle to visit CJ's family over there. It worked out perfect. CJ had a work reason to go, so his ticket and hotel were paid for. For me we used all the airline miles we have accummulated while traveling to and from Europe. And since Katherine is under two or a few more months she was flying free! Score! We even had enough miles to get 1st class tickets! Thank goodness we did too, flying with a super active toddler who demands to have ample personal space.

But to start from the beginning...

Our flight was leaving around 4:30 on Thursday afternoon and we had to head to the airport around 2:30. We woke Katherine from her nap (after only 1 hour of sleeping ughh!) and headed down. She was really excited, we've been playing this whole thing up for about a week leading up to it. Everyone knows that she is a huge fan of the Bubble Guppies, and so they recently had an episode about air travel and the like and Katherine was all about the songs and stories from the show. We got checked in in the priority line and headed to the pre-check line of security. CJ is such a high roller that he has been invited to the pre-check club and now no longer has to take his shoes off and do all that stuff while flying. And we, as company, were reaping the benefits haha...

We got through and headed to our gate. They were beginning to board so we headed in and as we were walking on board CJ wanted to show Katherine the cockpit and guess what, the pilot told him sure come on it with the baby and even let Katherine sit down in the captain's seat! Whoa! Who knew they still did things like this for kids in this day and age! It was so much fun!

After that we got all situated and waited for takeoff. The flight left maybe half hour late and we braced for the trip. It was supposed to be a 5.5hr flight, so really almost as long as if you were flying to London! We brought lots of snacks, milk, some toys, my iPad with a ton of games and Guppies episodes and for the most part it went great. Katherine started getting restless due to fatigue towards the end and started crying a couple of times but it was more to do with having to be contained in our small area on our seats. Oh she insisted on sitting in her own seat so we had to take turns sitting on the floor haha... So much for 1st class seats... haha... but in all honesty, it was such a blessing that we had all that extra space and that it was just our two seats next to each other.
First Class baby.

CJ took her for walks up and down the main aisle and she was loving seeing all the people. Also what cracked me up was that she would stop in front of a random person and start talking to them and handing them her Bubba - that is her bunny lovey - would you believe? She loves that thing more than anything else in the world. Maybe only second to milk, but def more than mom and dad. And she was freely handing it to strangers. Too funny. At one point we discovered that a couple we knew from Charlotte were on the flight with their cat and dog (they were making a permanent move to Seattle) and Katherine was thrilled to see the animals. From then on she kept asking to go see kitty and doggy every few minutes.

As we started going down, we gave her milk again to help her with pressure in her ears and that put her to sleep for a few minutes. Poor thing was exhausted by then. I think it was like 10:30 east coast time, and with just 1 hour nap in, she was on her last legs. But at least this gave her a little boost to survive the final part of the trip.

We landed and got to the hotel (after missing one shuttle pick up and having to wait for another one 30 mins later!!) and we were just sooo impressed with the suite we got! We got upgraded to the best room in the house, the St. Helens Suite. I totally blew it and did not take any pictures but in a nutshell, it was a 1,200 sq ft suite with a huge living room, space for a massive conference/dining table, bar with sink, huge master bedroom and two bathrooms!
This is the only photo I was able to find on the hotel's website. It shows the living room area. We were told that last year, William Shatner stayed in this suite during some Start Trek convention in Seattle.

And here is a generic photo of a guest room, ours was done up in a similar way but much much bigger.

Oh and our bathroom had two huge completely separate vanities, a huge walk-in shower and a jacuzzi tub. Insane! 
As soon as we walked in and Katherine saw the pack'n'play , she started yelling 'baby's bed baby's bed!'. She was so excited. We let her run around and get familiar with the place and she seemed to be doing great and went right to sleep as soon as we put her down.

The next morning, we woke up around 6 - that included Katherine which I was thrilled about! - and headed to breakfast downstairs. After that CJ had to work and set up a display of their product that was being given to the hotel as winnings in a contest. We helped him for a bit, breaking down boxes, riding around in carts and trash cans... (not me!)

Later took a break to go outside to play because... drumroll..... it snowed overnight! Yes! There was about 3 inches of snow on the ground. It was not supposed to last long so we had to hurry to take advantage of that.
And let me tell you, we had such a blast! This wasn't Katherine's first time in the snow, but obviously she doesn't remember anything from this experience last year, when she was just a baby. Once again, Bubble Guppies save the day, the Christmas episode aired about a week earlier and Katherine was all about the snow, snowballs, building snowmen, etc. We played outside for about an hour and then headed inside to change out of wet clothes and have lunch.
The view at 6am! So excited!

 

We made a snowman and a snow bunny...

CJ had to work longer than we had originally anticipated so we had limited time to explore afterwards. We decided to do what we had never done before on any trip we've ever taken together. We took a shuttle and actually went to a nearby mall! Shock I know! But when it's cold and dark and you have a toddler with energy to burn that's the best you can do. We walked around for a while and then went back, had some quick dinner and went to sleep. We were all pretty beat.

That was day 1 of the trip.