Land of Lamz: Two Weeks of Beautiful Seattle

My husband and I decided a few months back that we needed two weeks of vacation. We love spending time in North America, so much that we have even talked about moving there! That is if the opportunity arises.
We have some really nice friends in Seattle that we haven't seen in a while, and they said that we could stay with them while we're there. So we bought the tickets. However!!! When I looked at the tickets a week before the trip, I noticed (mind you we're traveling with a 1 year-old) A. First flight was 8 1/2 hours and the next one was 5 1/2 hours!
B. the layover in Newark (worst airport ever) was only 1 1/2 hours! We had to wait to get through customs, claim our luggage + stroller, re-check our luggage + stroller, get to the other terminal, go through security, where they took EVERYTHING out of the hand luggage because of the baby food. run to the other end of the terminal to get to the gate. They had already closed the door to gate and the woman at the counter was so rude and couldn't even believe it. But luckily they let us on the plane - panting and sweating - and we made it. My advise is never book a plane with a layover in the US less than 2 hours.
When we finally arrived in Seattle, we had the best trip, the weather was great and the food was AMAZING!