June wrap-up

We had robins who made a nest in the PERFECT place for our viewing. The kids have loved watching them grow.

the mom sitting on the nest. Now we see the babies heads up reaching for the puked up worms – ha!

the view.

our landscaping is really coming together too. It was a LOT of hard work from what it was last year.

I wish I had pictures of the landscaping last year when it was a forest. Everything had been overgrown for 3 years.

my roses are incredible! they thrive in the Spokane weather.

peonies.

The kids picked the bouquet for me from the yard with the help of Alex our amazing neighbor. Iris & peony on the left also from the yard.

last year – this was a forest. next year it will be raised beds.

Pappy came to visit!

The kids love these magnatiles – I’m excited about building a collection of these.

Seattle trip, day 4

Tuesday morning, Kelley and I went to an Indorow class at Rival Fitness – so fun to be back on water rowers, but also to take a class to see what it is like from someone else.

After we packed up our stuff we decided to leave town and head to Everett to a Children’s Museum that people raved about. It was so so from my adult perspective, but the kids loved it.

Claire building a house with her dad.

animal riding and looking ridiculous.

Charlie has been plagued by this cough and it is horrible. People stop and stare. Thankfully – so far – no  one has gotten it. Time will tell.

enjoying the sunshine on the deck with these two cool cats.

We parted ways with the Dickerhoofs and started our drive home – we went a little out of the way and stopped in Leavenworth. Leavenworth is an entire town modeled like a Bavarian Village. It was WICKED hot when we got out – like 97+!

the kids were fried and really just wanted to keep watching DVDs.

I was pretty tired myself and HOT.

charlie whining and Ellie looking like she might drink out of the dog bowl. She was actually just checking out creatures.

busting Charlie for more crying. He can still throw some serious fits.

we scored when we sat down at this place. Warm pretzels with delicious cheese….a cider for me…beer for bill…gallons of water for the kids.

they just look hot.

Bill spied the Growlers and was impressed with them. Found out they import them from Germany so he picked one up.

Beautiful scene!

we took the kids into a shop with all glass items and they did awesome. we could only do one, but we were impressed. And Bill liked this Griswold figurines.

That is it! We drove home and arrived back around 6:30 pm – in time for Bill to head to a work interview dinner. What a great trip and I am so glad we went off adventuring again. Can’t wait for our summer travels ahead!

Seattle trip, day 3

Monday morning, we connected up with the Dickerhoof family because they were in Seattle too! Braxton was in Charlie’s kindergarten class and they have become great buddies. Brittan their oldest loves taking care of/playing with the girls and Landon their youngest is pretty close in age to the boys so they all play well together. Kelley & Tyler are super fun peops and we enjoy spending time with them too – so it all works. (K&T also own Training Ground where I am teaching rowing).

We met at Mighty O-donuts… little did I know it was a healthy donut shop – I would have totally tried to find a deep fried donut instead. whoops! they were still good.

Brittan and the girls!

The clan all ready to rock!

after the donuts we headed to a park to burn some steam before heading to the zoo. Britt came running over saying take a picture of the girls! they are so cute! and she was right – they are adorable!

E&C

seriously! these boys are so cute!

Heading into the Zoo!

this was a map we liked that showed just how big Africa is! such a good reminder!

the zoo was pretty sleepy – not many animals out – might have been the heat. thankfully we came upon the Raptor show just as it was starting.

these raptors flew around and landed near us. it was awesome.

we all loved it.

a little climbing area for some cute monkeys!

Claire & Ellie were able to feed some birds!

Ellie’s turn.

We wrapped up the zoo and headed to an awesome Mexican lunch spot and chowed down despite the craziness of our kids.

After lunch/dinner – it was 3pm – we headed to the Space Needle!

at the top!

they fought over who got to look through these telescopes, but no one could see anything anyway – ha!

perfect day for it!

bill’s face says it all – ugh! we had to do this a lot for the girls.

family shot by Tyler. Charlie was pulling a Dickerhoof and doing bunny ears – but he was happy!

classic Claire – checking out the sky. I love thinking of things those girls behind her were thinking about. ha!

taking it all in and resting.

there were cool screens to touch inside.

the cheesy photo courtesy of the Space Needle.

after wrapping up the Space Needle we went into the Chihuly Garden and Glass museum (?- or place?).

this room had the coolest ceiling! Braxton & Charlie.

Kelley & me! She is a beauty – inside and out and I am thankful for our growing friendship.

Bill tagged behind with the girls and it is a miracle they didn’t break any of this. I loved this exhibit!

the colors were incredible!

I LOVED this room!!!

me and C! Love this boy!

Bill is the genius behind this photo.

love this. the glass looks like rock candy.

After Chihuly, we headed to the park next to it. It was a fabulous park! The kids were pumped!

The EMP museum has this awesome, wild outdoor design.

climbing!

chillin’ on the bench with Hawaiian ices (me & K). We were able to hang on this bench for hours and just chat and enjoy the scene.

this is the awesome park.

C

We left the park around 9pm – after being there for 4 hours or so. We all loved it. But then we had a desire for Pie and off we went to get some Pie at a pie bar.

On our way out – we snapped these awesome photos.

Landon wasn’t joining in at first…

he joined in when he heard Pie was involved!

the clan: Landon (5), Claire (4), Braxton (7), Charlie (6), Brittan (9), Ellie (4)

the kids dipped their hands in the fountain (claire may have tried to drink it- yuck!).

we ended our night with a scary parking incident in the laundry mat – but the guys picked out delicious Pie from Pie Bar and finally got the kids in bed after 10:30 pm. What a day! But so worth it and it was great fun sharing it with new friends.