Visiting Seattle

A little road trip up to Seattle to visit Aunt Laurie before she heads back to the Midwest. The boys were so excited for the trip! We made reservations for a Salmon Bake at Tillicum Village. It was similar to a Hawaiian Luau. We rode the ferry for about 45 minutes out to an island. Upon arrival we were handed a mug full of clams to eat (the boys weren't interested in eating them). We took pictures then went inside a lodge to see where the Salmon was baking and to find our table for lunch. The buffet was open and so we piled our plates as high as we could with salad, salmon, rice, & fresh fruit. After lunch we watched a show giving the history of the island's Natives and their folklore. The boys were riveted. Probably because of the loud yelling and dancing from the storytellers. Afterwards, we went down to the waterfront and played in the sand for a bit before heading back to the ferry. Back in Seattle the boys got to ride the Ferris wheel with Papa Jim! We took a quick walk through the market and stopped by the famous Wall of Gum. We finished off the night with a swim in the hotel pool. Saturday morning we ate breakfast and headed out to Snoqualmie Falls. We had a fun time looking around and then hiking to the bottom of the falls. It was quite a steep grade heading down and I think everyone was a bit nervous about hiking back up. But everyone did fine! We enjoyed lunch at the lodge right above the falls with a beautiful view. We continued our adventures at a Ben & Jerry's ice cream shop in Issaquah and then headed off to Lake Sammamish to play in the water for a bit. Well, Nate and Logan played everyone else tried to take a little nap on the beach. We closed the day out by swimming at the hotel and then driving home. So fun to have Aunt Laurie here and help us visit our own Pacific Northwest! Come again soon!

Jr. Parade

It's TRADITION! The boys were up for walking in the parade again this year. We decided at 9am we were going to put on our "knight" costumes and join the fun. We didn't have any one with us this year.... I'll admit it was a bit lonely. We were the only act for 2 city blocks! People were kind and cheered us on. Nate waved the ENTIRE parade. I asked him a couple of times if we should duck out of the parade half way through but he was determined to get to the end. We saw OMA and looped around at the end to sit with her and watch the rest of the parade. Good Memories!

Visiting Portland

Aunt Laurie came to visit us before heading to a conference for work. We had a nice time at the Rose Garden in Washington Park. Beautiful weather! We had lunch at Skyline Restaurant. Yes that's me photo bombing in the window! I roped her into running in the Starlight Parade with me. We had lots of fun and can't wait to do it again next year ;-) We debated on whether to go to the coast or the mountains and finally ended up on a scenic route through the Gorge and then North to the Ape Caves. Hindsight we didn't take the most direct route, but it WAS beautiful and we did enjoy spelunking in the caves.

Memorial Day

Well some people take Memorial Day weekend to go camping or have BBQs with friends. We decided to work in the yard. We fell 3 more trees in our yard on Saturday. Back breaking work from 8am to 6pm. (I'm still sore a week later!)Sunday we spent time at a Carnival at the club. I can't believe they gave the boys real darts to throw at the balloons! Look out everyone! Nate's finally able to go on the slide by himself! One quick stop at Home Depot to ride the lawn mowers!

And Ken's biggest accomplishment! Getting this stump out of the ground!