Pasadena Cousins!

Dad's first cousin, Ryann, lives in Pasadena with her husband Brad and daughters Paige and Charly. After visiting with them last year during the trip to Disneyland, we were excited they asked to come visit in June 2012 so Brad could run the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll marathon. Charly is about 6 months younger than Harrison and Paige is about 18 months older so we had a 4, 3 and 2 year old roaming the house and the three of them soon became peas in a pod.; pretty literally in fact as Paige shared Harrison's bed and Charly slept in the "secret" trundle bed next to them. Harrison really enjoyed the company, shared book time and songs at bed time.

On the morning of the marathon, Michael dropped Brad off at near the starting line then grabbed a coffee and secured a place for us near mile 17 near the shores of Lake Washington. Ryann picked up some donuts from our favorite gourmet donut shop and we hauled the kiddos there so we could cheer on cousin Brad. They whined a bit on the 10 minute walk from where we parked the car but once they sat down and started eating their donuts their energy quickly returned and they started cheering the runners and ringing cowbells.

After the race the family, who by this point Harrison lovingly referred to as "my cousins", spent a couple days in Portland. When they returned Harrison and I joined them for fun day in Seattle at the Pacific Science Museum and it's butterfly house as well as a trip up the Space Needle. The weather was amazing giving us a tremendous view of the sound and the surrounding mountains.

One evening we met Grandmama (Aunt Dreslaine) at our favorite Mexican restaurant and then drove to Zaidy's firehouse for a tour which excited the kiddos to no end. It was all we could do to keep them calm while touring the firehouse because they really wanted to get into the garage and check out the rigs.

Once in the garage Firefighter Haistings had cousin Brad suit up, a wonderful idea as I didn't realize that it is common for kids to be scared of firefighters in full gear (including a breathing apparatus) and you have to teach them not to run away from FF's but to run to them in an emergency. Having someone familiar suit up made it familiar to them, especially Harrison who was surprisingly really nervous about it.

The highlight of the visit was without a doubt the emergence of The Ladder Truck, totally extended in it's full glory, basked in the soft light of the sunset! The FF's let the kids take turns pushing buttons that extended legs to help stabilize the truck and they kids cheered as Steve waived to them from the basket at the top of the ladder. Disclaimer: I'm pretty sure I am not using the technical terms, surely there are words more testosterone filled than "legs" and "basket."

Harrison is sad that his cousins have left, for days he would ask me "where are my cousins?" and he tells us that he wants to go visit them. We remind him that they live near Disneyland so the next time we go we will visit them. In retrospect that probably wasn't the best way to waylay his request; who wouldn't want to go visit cousins and see Disneyland in the same trip?