Our three kids spent the majority of their life living in Seattle. Two of them were born there. They were city kids. (They kind of still are.) Sometimes, we pushed the boundaries on what were kid-friendly activities, in the name of exposing them to some awesome stuff that they would remember for a lifetime. This was one of those times.

I’m spending today compiling all of your thoughtful suggestions for the Bellingham Bucket List, so this morning, I’m sharing this post from my Seattle-based blog, Being5. Hope you like a little glimpse into what our life was like in Seattle! (warning: there are swear words ahead. the good ones.)

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Originally posted on Being5 on 7/25/2013.

Being that time I took my kids to be in a music video.

Trust me when I say that there were moments tonight when I gave myself a skeptical look and said, “You know, it probably wasn’t a great idea to take your three young children to a rap video shoot in the middle of Capitol Hill at 8 o’clock at night.”

But, then, I told myself to shut the fuck up.

on our way into the crowd.
american apparel in the background, because that’s how we do it on the hill.

Sometime this afternoon, the news hit Seattle that locals, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, were filming a music video on the roof of Dick’s (an iconic Seattle burger joint.) on Capitol Hill, which is the heart of the heart of Seattle. In other words, parking really sucks there. We had to pick Josh up at the airport at 9:30 p.m., so I figured that we’d leave a little early and just drive up there, hoping to get a quick glance at the hype, or maybe roll down the windows and get to hear them giving it a go. After all, what good is it to live in the city if you don’t take advantage of the occasional music video shoot? The kids were stoked at even the possibility of seeing their favorite musicians in person, a sweet friend of mine joined us, and we were off.

ingrid leading the way, hands held tight.
this was a major don’t-lose-the-children moment.

It was insane, as predicted, on the Hill. Thankfully, my one true life skill is finding a good parking spot and we did, snagging one on the block over from the shoot… or so we thought.

We waited for about two-hours in a crowd of Seattlites. (who were all very kind and sweet to the kids, including our new friend, helen, who was our “blocker” on one side to make sure nobody walking by knocked over a kiddo. i think she was far more concerned than i was. thank you, helen.) Eventually, Janie, Meg and Ev were done. It was 10 o’clock by now and we had no idea how long it would be before they went on, so I called it and we headed back to the car.

our view of dicks from the crowd.

As we got closer to the car, I realized that something was going on where we’d parked. In fact, there were people literally hanging all over my car, which now, was smack dab in the middle of the video shoot. I got the kids buckled in and was kindly informed by a nice police officer that I wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Before long, we could see why — they were rolling down the street, slow-motion, filming the video — Macklemore, Ryan Lewis and their crew all hanging out of the windows of that Caddy, the film crew in the back of the truck riding ahead of them, and us, sitting in our car, one lane over.

front row seats, from my own front seat.

To say that the kids’ minds were blown would be an understatement. Meg, who is a huge Ryan Lewis fan (she always pretends she’s Ryan at home… and I’m always Ryan Lewis’ mom, naturally.), was so pleased to see him eating chips as they drove by, and when Macklemore got out of the car and walked along side it as they kept filming? MAJOR amazement.

They went back and forth on the block, filming and re-filming the same piece over and over again, even coming back down the street in the lane that was closest to us, with Macklemore hanging out his window so close that I could have reached out and pinched him (can i just say, he has very lovely skin. it was luminous.). The smiles on their faces were huge and as in awe as I was that they were just right there, I also felt so excited for them, that they were doing what they so obviously loved.

i wish this wasn’t blurry. my arm was shaking after holding ev for two-hours.

Eventually, the police officer said it was a good time for us to sneak out of our spot, so we did, with three tired little ones in the backseat who were asleep before we hit our ‘hood. I hope they always remember the night that Mom took them to a music video shoot, and glad that I made them stick it out “just five minutes longer” for what was actually an hour… seeing their sweet faces light up when that car drove by made it all worth it for me.

For a better view of what we were up to, check out the Seattle Times post. See that main close-up, of them in the car? That’s exactly what we were seeing out our car window… and that close-up, if not closer at times. Seattle photojournalist, and one of my personal favorites, Joshua Trujillo, has some great photos on Twitter too — you can see them here.

UPDATE: Check my 9 Tips for Taking Your Kids to a Macklemore Video Shoot on the ParentMap Blog… To say I learned a few things from last night would be an understatement and I had to share with my fellow parents.

(again, much love to the crowd on capitol hill tonight, who were kind, thoughtful and sweet to a mom who brought her kids to a video shoot. there’s a reason i adore this city so much and you are it.)