Random catch up

In September, for a friend's birthday party, we went here:(Great Wolf Lodge)

I was trying to be cool (my first mistake), jammed my toe on a kiddie slide (within the first 5 minutes of arriving), and did this:What you may or may not be able to see is a chip above the second joint of my second toe. Yes, it hurts. No, it will never fully heal. Yes, it is still purple and swollen. No, I never want to go back to Great Wolf Lodge.
A few weeks later, Dave came home from work with this beauty he found on the floor of his shop:Now that I have taken a picture of it, and documented its' place in our family history, I can finally get it off of the kitchen counter, and throw it away.

(Un)Labor Day

We spent the Labor Day holiday doing nothing laborious. We drove to a park we have never been to before - Burfoot Park - and hiked down to the beach.

There we found a couple of pirates fighting valiantly on a sinking ship.

It is on days like today, and walks with this view, that make me truly love where we live.

Ohanapecosh

This past weekend we joined my cousins, the Dillon's, and the Campbell's, at Ohanapecosh in Mt. Rainier National Park. Our first hike was around Lake Tipsoo, where we encountered snow. A lot of snow. It was great fun to have snowball fights in August!
The "spring" flowers were just beginning to pop through in places.
It was such beautiful weather, and as always, the mountain delivered. Abby said it was the most wonderful place on earth. (Take that, Disneyland!) For your viewing pleasure, here's some of what we enjoyed.


We hiked to Silver Falls on Saturday. I know it's not just me - there is something very peaceful about a waterfall.
Now, on an entirely different note, this woman, who was in the campsite across road, cracked us up. She wore the cute little silk dress, with Teva's, and *wait for it* pearls. I'm totally taking mine next time we break out the tent!

Out of towners

We had a great visit from Dave's parents (from San Diego), his brother Mike and his 2 kids, Celina and Anthony (from Florida). Here's recap of the first part of the trip. It started off with me running my 3rd Rock n' Roll 1/2 Marathon. I earned one of these... We made the obligatory trip to Seattle. I should really count up how many pictures I have taken of this over the years...
I'm always impressed with the flower stands.
Another icon that I must have hundreds of shots of...
We celebrated a birthday...
...by going black-light mini-golfing. (can't you tell?)
We went here: (Tumwater Falls)
And took pictures of the cousins. Don't let the sweatshirts fool you - this picture was taken on June 27!

SAM

Today we furthered Caleb's education by helping him ditch/sluff/skip/play hookey from school by going to the Seattle Art Museum to see this:
No, maybe it was this:
Hold on, maybe it was this:
Okay... I've got it. We went to see the Picasso exhibit. It was amazing....ly crowded! Stand in line to buy tickets, stand in line to check coats, stand in line for our allotted time to view the exhibit, stand in line to look at the paintings, stand in line to buy the magnet that says were were there. (Which, by the way, isn't of a painting we actually saw, nor does it say SAM. It is of Man of La Mancha. Oh well.)
Since we were unable to take pictures of the pieces we did see, here's a sampling of what was there.
Bathers

Man in a straw hat with an ice cream cone

L'acrobat
While I have seen other Picasso pieces in different museums, it was a bit overwhelming to see so many in one place. These were mostly pieces he kept in his own studio, for his own collection, knowing one day he would put them in a museum. As he said, "Give me a museum and I will fill it." It was a great experience. I'm not sure Abby will remember much, but Caleb sure has a new perspective of the human face!

Ballard and Fremont

A few weekend ago, we went to Ballard (north of Seattle) for a birthday party for the kids of some friends of ours. While we have lived in Washington nearly 12 years now (yikes... has it really been that long?!), we have yet to see some of the local sites in that part of Seattle. So, we took the opportunity to be tourists in our own state.

This is where we ate lunch. It is a local joint, been around since 1954, cash only, greasy fries and soooo good!


The first place we hit was the Ballard Locks. It is used to get boats from Lake Washington to the Puget Sound, and the other way around. The kids loved watching the locks fill with water and then empty . We'll definitely go back in the late summer when the salmon are running in the fish ladder.


We saw this guy diving under the water searching for fish to eat. It was pretty amazing.


What?? I thought this would make a good picture. (Don't worry... it is a dead set of tracks!)


This is the Fremont Troll. It is located under the Aurora Street Bridge in Fremont (near Ballard). It is made of concrete and was a lot of fun to crawl around on.


Here you can see that it is holding onto an actual VW bug. Sure hope the passengers got out in time!

Abby and Caleb trying to escape from the clutches of the troll. Caleb looks seriously scared!!


We also drove past this Fremont public sculpture called "Waiting for the Interurban". I didn't use my picture because it is forever festooned with layers of junk, clothing, and masquerade attire, celebrating whatever.


And lastly, America's largest statue honoring Lenin. Truly. It really is. There is a sort-of interesting story about how it came to be in Fremont. I won't go into it here, but you can go here to check it out. It was a great day to be a Washingtonian! - April

Seahurst Park

Over Memorial Day weekend, we took a little day trip to Seahurst Park in Burien.  It was amazing to me that this beautiful waterfront park was minutes from the first church building Dave & I attended when we lived in SeaTac, but we had never been there.  10 years later we realized we need to do a better job of exploring our little neck of Washington.  

Here's a picture of the cousins enjoying the sand and frigid water (it is still Washington after all!)

Speaking of being in Washington, I had to snap this picture of the tide coming in with all the seaweed.  It can't be a Washingtonian beach without the seaweed!
Abby and cousin Lily playing in actual sand!
This see-saw was all set up ready to played on.  Caleb and cousin Corgan had a great time on it.  In the water you can see the group of kayakers that were practicing their recoveries - flipping upside down in the water, and then righting themselves.  
What a beautiful beach.  I am so glad we went! - April

Spring Break in Utah

The kids and I went to Utah for Spring Break this year.  Before we actually went, it was great to have that trip to look forward to.  And the trip itself was wonderful.  We drove down with my mom & dad.  I'm proud to say that the first day, Caleb & Abby didn't watch any movies until it was too dark for them to read and play!  We arrived at my sisters house in Plain City (near Ogden) on Saturday afternoon.  I was fighting a cold (a miserable way to travel) so Abby & I took a nap while the others went to cousin Gretchen's soccer game.  Sunday was General Conference, and the Wellsville Mays and Mike & Krissy came for a nice Easter dinner.  The weather Sunday, Monday and Tuesday was beautiful!  It was so nice to have warmth and sunshine.  It was all we could do to keep Abby & Caleb off of the trampoline.  Man, I wish we had room in our backyard for one!  

Monday we went into Salt Lake with grandma & grandpa and walked Temple Square and saw Kristin & Mike's place.  As we were driving around SLC (which has changed a lot since Dave & I lived there) I found myself pining for Dave's company as seeing many of the places we frequented brought back such great memories. Caleb & Abby were such troopers as I dragged them with me to see a friend from HS (thanks Tiff for letting us invade your craziness), and a mission companion (it was great to see you Margaret & meet your girls).  Thursday Dyan, Kristin, mom & I spent the day together getting fitted for bridesmaids dresses, Kristin's bridal dress fitting and some shopping.  We spent Friday night with the Davis side of the family - Dave's grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  It was nice to be able to connect with them, even if Dave wasn't around.  I especially enjoyed showing Caleb & Abby the Bountiful temple.  As the kids were marveling at the view of the valley and the temple itself, I found myself marveling that just over 10 years ago that temple was where Dave & I started our own eternal family and how much I love those 2 crazy kids and am thankful for that ordinance!  Saturday we enjoyed Gretchen's baptism in the early afternoon before starting home again.  As with most vacations, it was so fun to be there, but finally being home in our own beds, and not in a car was really nice.  I am so glad the kids got the chance to reconnect with their cousins and that I could do the same with friends and my siblings.  - April