Washington

Sadly, my favorite sister moved with her cute family to Washington this summer. I was really missing her, so my mom and I decided to be adventerous and go visit. We packed ourselves up and all three of my kids and went. It is amazing how much stuff three little kids require when going on a trip. Anyway we barely made it there (one of the three children was having a difficult time remaining calm in the car), but the important thing is we finally did! Becky (my sister) claims that the eastern part of Washington doesn't get much rain, but it poured for the first two days we were there! That didn't stop the kids though, they sure made the most of it....I knew those rain jackets would come in handy! Of course we had to take a silly picture to because that is how they were actually acting.

We first spent two days at my sisters with the kids playing in the rain. After that we drove to Tacoma and spent two days with my aunt and uncle. (more on that in a later post). Then we drove back to my sister's for two more fun packed days. One day we went down to the dam on the Snake River and watched the salmon and trout swim past. I had no idea those fish were so huge. On average the were three feet long. I am pretty sure now that I have seen what is in the river, I will never actually swim in the river. On the other hand I wouldn't mind learning how to fish in the river!

Anyway, after we saw the fish at the dam we went to a park by the river so the kids could play in it. (Notice how I am not in any of the pictures in the water.) They loved squishing their toes in the mud and pulling up "sea weed."

Nick and Ian having fun splashing and playing in the rocks.

By the end of the day the kids had made a giant nest of the seaweed they collected.

Every night grandma (my mom) would read stories for all the kids. Each kid got to pick out one book so she ended up reading for quite a while, but the kids loved it! That is definately one of my mom's talents, she can make any book sound fun. I am pretty sure she loved every minute of it too.

One of the other days there we went to a pumpkin farm with Nathan's preschool, and rode on a tracktor to pick out a pumpkin. It was really fun for the kids to see where pumpkins come from and they especially like the tractor ride.

At this same farm they had a giant pile of hay bales for the kids to climb on....and I do mean GIANT! I think their favorite part was climbing through the tunnel in the middle. They had to help each other to climb to the top. It was fun to watch the kids push one kid up then that one would pull the others up. It really was a feat for them to reach the top!

One thing I thought was great was how there were bike trails all along the sides of the rivers in Washington. We had brought the kids bikes up so we could go on a ride so one day we decided to try out the trails. We took all the seats out of Becky's van and loaded all 7 bikes in and a bike trailor. Becky and I thought this would be great fun as we rode in a little train down the nicely paved trails. The real thing ended up to be a totally different story. It started off great with only a few arguments of who could be the leader. Within 100 yards Nick and Ian had just stopped riding because they were tired. I decided to take them back to grandma who had Kyle at the park. Of course the two boys were too tired to ride their bikes back so I had to push them along with my bike. I left them with grandma then headed back to Becky and the older kids. We rode along again with the older kids now at a much faster pace, but within five more minutes of riding the kids were dragging and tired. After talking a little Becky and I reluctantly decided to turn around and head back to the park. While in the process of turning her bike around, Andrea crashed on her bike and skinned her knee good. The tears did not stop until we made it back to the park and grandma could heal it. About a minute after Andrea crashed, the chain on Daniel's bike came off and got caught so Becky had to spend some time fixing it. When we finally got back to the park I found out what happened with Nick, Ian and Grandma after I left. Apparently Nick got very upset when I rode off and tried to follow me. Fortunately grandma was able to catch him and haul him back. However, they were not quite at the park yet and had to walk a little ways to get back. Nick was not cooperating so grandma put Kyle (who was also crying), in the stroller, hooked Nick's bike to the back of the stroller. She pushed the stroller with one hand while holding Nick kicking and screaming with the other. All this while coaxing Ian along on his bike to follow her! Needless to say, the bike adventure did not turn out as we had planned, and it will be a few years before we try again!

On the flip side though, the park was awesome! They had a zip line for the kids to play in, two huge jungle gyms and two rock walls for the kids to climb on. This is a picture of the rock wall the kids had a blast on. Pretty cool huh!

We had a great time in Washington and it was really fun to visit! Thanks Becky for letting us stay and being ok with the total chaos we brought to your home!