The One with Washington Trip Day 3: The Return of Eric

What a day what a day. It felt like Christmas, none of us could sleep last night. We woke up 'round 7 and put our faces on. Then we went to my favorite bagel shop in the world: Mikie's Brooklyn Bagels.
I always get the exact same thing: an Everything bagel, toasted, with cream cheese.
At the entrance to the mini mall there's a sign I insisted we take a picture of Allie with. You see, Allie has recently decided to become a vegetarian. "She would."
We went to Everything Party and ordered three dozen balloons and two specialty mylar balloons for pickup later that evening.
Theeeeeeeeen we had to kill time so we went to the Kirkland waterfront. Mom was quite depressed at this point because my dad had been tracking Eric's flights all morning and had just found out that his flight from Mexico City to Dallas had been delayed over two hours, meaning he was going to miss his connecting flight from Dallas to Seattle, meaning he wouldn't get home 'til almost 11. But she was trying to stay positive, as were we. This is Washington's idea of a beach. Puh-leaze :) But really, it's fine. For Washington.
Then we visited my dad at work. We're not allowed to take pictures inside of Google. Understandable. They don't want their top secrets leaked. Understandable.
I love eating lunch with my dad at work. It's a "must" every time I come home. Google is da bomb.com
And theeeeeen we went to Seattle. Allie heard there was a "2-for-24" deal-e-o going on at Urban Outfitters.I've been wanting to see "300 Days of Summer" ever since I saw the preview a few weeks ago, but it's not playing within 40 miles of Provo. It's playing here in Seattle though! Unfortunately we didn't have time to see it then.This store is giving Anthro a run for its money as far as window displays go. This is a tree made of blue hangers with a smattering of shoes randomly dangling from it.Then we came full circle and went back to Google to pick up Dald. The plan was to take the jet skiis out and pass the time until Eric's plane arrived. I haven't ridden those babies for years and I've been feeling the itch to ride the waves. Buuuuuuut, someone up above had a better plan in mind. Miracle is the name of the game in this family because somehow Eric made his original flight and was going to be home at 9pm. No more jet skiing. Trade up though I say.
We stopped off at Everything Party and looked like a carnival coming out of there. I love this picture. Look where my dear husband is standing then look at his lovely face. A picture is worth a thousand words.
Balloons balloons balloons balloons. Oh how I love you, colorful balloons.
The car was filled to the brim with balloons balloons balloons balloons.
And so was the car in front of us! Random!
Back at home we unleashed all of the balloons and they floated high up to the ceiling. The strings were 10 miles long though so there was no worry we wouldn't be able to bring them back down to earth. Except for one which for some reason or another had a super short string so Allie, being the genius that she is, stuck tape all over a balloon and bumped it against the floater to bring it back down.Chris, Allie and I had a hay day tying 36 balloons all around the house. Every which way there are dozens of balloons to behold. As Chris so eloquently puts it, it looks like a "magical wonderland."
At this point I was sweating bullets. I have never sweat so much in my life and that's saying something because I sweat a lot. Ew right? So we took a dip in the pool for a much needed cooling off. We couldn't take the heat any longer (what is this? Arizona?) so we changed into our Sunday best, packed an American flag balloon and the festive posters I made into the car and we headed off to the airport.My mom was TRIPPIN'.We weren't the only ones waiting for a missionary, it was fun to share the moment with another family. Now that Eric's home, it seems like only yesterday when he was opening his mission call:

Finally, the blessed moment arrived. Elder Taylor rode up the escalator and back into our lives. Don't mind the shrieks and squeals coming from our entire party.

One big happy family reunited at last!