My niece is here . . .

She came back to Washington from California with us! We have been busy since we got home showing her around to all the place we have discovered. She loved hiking with us!














Unfortunately for me, this was the result of our hike; I managed a Grade 2 Sprain to my right ankle! First Mr. A head and now my foot!














On Saturday we took the kids to Enchanted Village and Wild Waves - our local Six Flags theme park. Notice my injured foot on this ride!


















































On Sunday we head to Seattle. We went to the Space Needle, and then we went on a tour bus that lead us through all the neighborhoods in Downtown Seattle. We had lunch at Pike's Market and then walked through the Seattle Aquarium.

Wordless Wednesday # 14

OK maybe not quite so wordless. This is my older son. Apparently we were gone on vacation soooooo long that he forgot where everything on the playground here at the apartment is. He walked right into a pole!

We're Back From Cali!

And I have a few quick photo highlights to share! We had a big BBQ Friday Night and our long lost friend Roger drove down to see us. He lives about 4 hours from where we were staying in CA and haven't seen him in over 3 years!

This is Chris and Summer. The BBQ was at their house. Thanks to Summer for getting everyone together. You truly are the Matriarch of our click!


Saturday was my nephews Birthday Party. Happy Birthday Boy! He got a little carried away with the punch (as you can see!)

And here is the new baby I've been dying to see. He was just so cute! I hated having to leaving knowing the next time I see him, he is going to be so big and won't have any idea of who I am.


Our last night in Cali - we spent the evening at the beach with our OC friends. Afterwards we all went back to the house and BBQ'ed and played games and just hung out til we past out!

And here we are back in Washington. Here is the sign welcoming all travelers to Washington. We pulled over on the side of the freeway and had the kids hop out to snap a quick pick.

I loved getting to see everyone and going back to cali - even though the temperature was awful. I am so glad to be back home.

Wordless Wednesday # 13 - Zoo Edition

Keeping cool

Boy it has been H-O-T HOT! We knew it would be, but I just wasn't expecting the record breaking temperatures. Here's a little video of Hubby trying to teach the girls to back dive into the pool.

Video Hosting - Upload Video - Video Sharing

California here we come . . .

. . . right back where we started from! Today we leave for California! YEAH! Despite all the terrible heat I hear they have, (and we have been under cloudy skies and rain for 3 days) I can't wait to get home see everyone again. Lots to do and many people to see and just not enough time! I'll have plenty of pictures to share along the way!

Wordless Wednesday # 12

Sparkler Fun

Here are the kids with our Little Neighbor. The county fire department was driving around handing out these plastic fire hats!

















Here is Little Man our Little Neighbor enjoying the sparklers. You can just see Little Man's disappoint as his sparkler burned out:

Wordless Wednesday # 11

Hidden inside this picture is a real man's face. Can you find it

Happy Independence Day 2006

I want to post this picture as a tribute to all my friends back home! It has illegal to do fireworks where we lived. In some nearby cities you could do what they called "Safe and Sane" fireworks. Which were ground displays and sparklers. No aerials, no bottle rockets, no fire crackers, . . . etc. Here, we get to do everything! When we saw this one at the stand, we just couldn't pass it up. Here's to you California!

Good day sunshine!

This is a picture of our beautiful sunset over the weekend. I was just amazed at how red the sky was! Even the little kids were talking about. I am so glad that the rain has been gone and we get to get out and enjoy ourselves. The sun rises around 5 in the morning and doesn't set until well after 9 o'clock, so we get plenty of hours of day light to adventure out and discover this new area we are in.














This weekend we venture over to our local lake to go swimming. We had a man made lake at a state park back home, but this was so different. It's a REAL lake with ducks and frogs and fish and lily pads. The kids had a great time jumping off the dock into the water. And the water was SO warmer than our pools here at the apartment. Even Little Man, who refuses to learn to swim in our pools, was floating around the lake BY HIMSELF! Hopefully that will give him the courage he needs to swim in the pool. We really want to get him into swim lessons, but I refuse to go if he is gonna stand there screaming the whole time! If you look closely, you can see all the lily pads around the edge of the lake.














Here's a bit of a close up of all the lily pads. I really wanted to get all the flowers, but they close up in the evening. When we went back the next day all the flowers were open and, Of Course, I forgot the camera! Maybe next time!














Then after all our fun in the sun, we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese. And it wasn't too crowded there, which makes it all the better!