We Love Washington!

The boys and I have finally returned from our three week journey to our favorite state, the home of our hearts, Washington State. It is good to be home, but we already miss it. The two-and-a-half day drive there went fabulously, the boys, even Luke, were easy-going and mellow. While there, we stayed in Issaquah with my parents, but got in visits with many of our family and friends in the area. My sister came into town for the weekend from So Cal, and my cousin Bek from Oregon. The weather was beautiful and sunny most of the time, but even the cloudy days were nice. It made me homesick all over again! We hiked, shopped, swam, walked, watched movies, visited with my mommy-night-out girls, scrapped, played at parks, visited, visited and more visited. We had some great overnights--the boys stayed with their friends Ian and Evan, and Aunties Sara and Loya; I had a wonderful kidless overnight with my Grandmother, Jackie; and we all got to sleep at Titi and Uncle Zach's. Ben got a special birthday Build-A-Bear outing from auntie Sara. After a week-and-a-half there, we headed up to Everett to stay with Jen and her family for four days so we could visit our old friends and neighbors up there. We loved every minute of our visit with everyone!

The four day drive home was an adventure of its own. We planned on camping in Yellowstone, and because it was kind of a tacked on adventure, we were highly unprepared. The Boy Scouts would have kicked us out! We had only blankets for the boys, not sleeping bags, and just like here, the nights get pretty cool even after a hot day. Neither my mom nor I had pillows, and it is amazing the difference a pillow makes in a good night's sleep. I was up half the night worrying the boys were freezing or trying to get comfortable. Not to mention we had no matches! MATCHES!! Who forgets matches on a camping trip?! Fortunately, we had nice neighbors who let us use their lighter for our lantern, since we didn't get to our campsite until after dark. Thank goodness for easy tents! The tent we had when I was a kid had like 4,000 poles, I can't imagine what I would have done if I had to put that together in the dark! The rest of the ride included two blow-outs by Luke, one asleep wetting by Josh and a six-foot near miss of crashing into a deer. The insult added to the injury was that the night after our camp-out (meaning both my mom and I were running on barely more than four hours of sleep, and a day of exploring at Yellowstone), we had planned on driving to a town called Riverton to sleep. But there were NO ROOMS!! The next nearest town was Casper, two hours away. Yes, Wyoming is a beautiful state, but I don't think I have ever driven through so much open space. Miles and miles of no human settlement. Our hero, Adam, called six hotels in Casper before finding one that had a room for us, and it was their "emergency" room, he had to charm the woman on the phone and ask three times before they released it to us. We pulled in at 12:30am. It was crazy. Who knew Wyoming was such a popular place to go hoteling? Anyhow, we are here, safe and sound. My mom and I have had a good number of deep belly laughs that have brought us to hysterical tears over the journey home. Fortunately, the boys were good sports through the whole thing and even asked if they could camp in the backyard last night.

A quick stop in Bosie on the way to WA to visit with our old pals the Richardsons who have the most ADORABLE kids. Sorry guys, Hallie is spoken for!

Visiting our old neighbors, Ian and Evan Parker. The boys just idolize these guys, and rightly so. They are great guys!

Playing at the park with Titi and the little girl she nannies, Kara.

Hiking at Cougar Mountain State Park with Nana and Auntie Lili

The McKenzie Women

My sis and I with our Grandmother, Jackie (aka "Tutu", Hawaiian for Grandma).

My mom with my cousins, Dave and Bek, my sister and Grandma.

The Build-A-Bear Turtles, Aunt Sara and Ben.

Meeting my girlfriends from high school for a walk around Greenlake, Carrie, Liz and Amy; Carrie I have known since I was three!

My sis-in-laws, Alea (lovely, Al!) and Ash. I am so lucky to have these girls as my family! The boys with Grandma and Grandpa Conlin. Their house is at the end of a two-year remodel, so we had to meet at parks for our visits in order to keep the paint off the kids!

At Willis Tucker with the Gierok kids, Hannah and the Brown kids.

A Hug-O-War.

Madison (Zach's betrothed), Zach C., Josh, Zach B., Hannah and Benny.

Beth wasn't happy about having to take this pre-makeup picture, until I reminded her how nasty and sweaty I looked just after my run up Seattle Hill. She is definitely the lovelier of the two of us, even without makeup!

Meeting our old church friends for a playdate at the park.

Some of my favorite Everett moms, Kristin, Kedra, Leah, and Jody (Jody's son and Luke are only three days apart, it was fun to see how he had grown!). My scrap girls, Jen, Emily T., Mary, and my friend Emily S. who stopped by for a chat.
Hannah and Ben, friends for life.

Jen and I, the reason Ben and Hannah will be friends for life (because we are too!). Zach had a chance to visit his BFF Carson twice. And was begging for more!

My Mom and Dad, if you haven't had a chance to know them, you are missing out. I love you M and D!

The boys with Nana, Papa and Tutu.

Yellowstone needed its own slideshow, so here ya go! If the slide show has ended, just refresh the page. The pictures show our visits to the different thermal features of the park, such as the Mammoth Hot Springs (the big white rocks), Norris Geyser Basin (the expansive one with the big boardwalk through it), Grand Prismatic Spring (the really big bright blue colored ones and our favorite), and Old Faithful (big spout :) ). We also saw a grizzly bear, elk, bison, coyote and many more animals, and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (big waterfall) along with many other lovely falls. As you can see, it is a very BIG park! It is a beautiful sight!

Seven Blissful Days at Lake Billy Chinook

Our week in Oregon was one word: Ahhhhhh. We relaxed, read books, swam, relaxed, partook in water sports of various kinds, ate delicious food, chatted and laughed, and...relaxed. It was amazing. Over the years, my in-laws have truly become the second family of my heart. I love spending time with the Conlin Clan and am blessed to have such wonderful people in my life. Besides giving us the chance to grow our love and enjoyment for one another, this vacation proved one thing: we Conlins definitely know how to take a load off, laze around and eat a lot of food. This vacation was the essence of chill. And I also have to give my love to and say how grateful I am for my wonderful parents who were willing to watch the kids for a week so we could go. Everyone needs a Nana and Papa. Anyhow, the pictures say it all....

Adam trying out the wake board for the first time, not bad!!
Taken from the upper deck of the houseboat.
The ladies taking a dive, Angie (A's sis), Alea (A's sis), Nicolle (A's mom-middle), Ashley (A's sis) and I (in black).

Looking hot in the sweet hot pink and purple P.F.D. (that's Personal Flotation Device, to you landlubbers).
Lake Billy Chinook is surrounded by these awesome towering igneous cliffs.
Full relax mode.
Adam's little bro, Ryan, turned 30 on the trip. So since we were on a boat, we HAD to have a pirate themed party, what else?! This is just before we sent him on a treasure hunt throughout the cove where our boat was anchored.
Alea and Zach and I looking sleepy as we got ready for an early morning ski (just to clarify, I didn't early morning ski, it's not nearly hot enough at 7:30am to get in the water, just Adam and Zach did that...crazies.)
Nope, I'm not practicing to be a highway man. I'm preparing the blueberry-ginger relish for our pork chops which included serrano chiles that were so spicy they were making me cry and choke while I chopped them, hence the lovely Old West-style robber gear.
Success! I may look WAY COOL on the slalom ski, but really it took me 10 tries to get up. Once upon a time, I could get up on the first try and actually looked like I knew what I was doing! So sad that it has come to this!
Contrary to my not-so-lovely form above, Adam really does look way cool here. The man still has it!
Adam and "Mr. Grin" the crocodile with our house boat in the background.
This is what we did pretty much all day long...reading in the sun then cooling off in the water.
Don't worry, this is a G-rated blog. No kissing actually took place...wink, wink.
Ash and I screaming our heads off on the tubes. Tubing was incredibly fun, but I couldn't lift my arms for four days afterwards because I was clinging on with all my might!

Alea and I tubing in a more relaxing style, slow and easy.
Adam (blue rash guard) is up on the rocks with our bro-in-law, Mike. And you probably guessed it...they are getting ready to jump the 25+ feet down into the water that is so far down in this picture you can't even see it. It makes me nervous just thinking about it!

Boing!!!!

Me: Let's get a playset for the backyard. The kids need something fun out there.
Adam: A lot of people have trampolines here, that is another possibility.
Me: Well, I think a playset would be more fun, since the kids are so young.
Adam: That's fine, let's do that....Well, they could grow more into a trampoline, and you know they would love it.
Me: True. Well, you make the decision, because either is fine with me.
And so he did.... Below are pictures of all the boys (I mean all of them) on our new trampoline. He says it was for the boys...well...you be the judge!

Luke loved being bounced! He was so mad when we took him off!

Ben and Zach catchin' some air.

Josh and Nana, instead of jumping himself, he likes to make you do the work boucing him.

Adam...now we know who really wanted this tramp.

Adam and I are off on a trip to Oregon, then the boys and I are heading to Washington, yipee! So pictures to come after the 14th! Have a great 4th!

Some Pre-Fourth of July Fun

Here is a link to an MSN version of the Citizenship Test. It was kind of fun...and I am proud to say I only got one wrong, the number of constitutional amendments, oops. Thanks History BA, I knew you were useful for something! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25461301/ Don't miss the post below on our visit to the mining museum that I just added last night, but I thought this was good prep for the 4th on Friday! Give it a try!

One Final Adventure

Ahhhh, sweet peace and quiet. While Adam and the kids are out at the Nickle-A-Play video arcade and the baby is snug in his bed, I have time to post. We had one last "exploring Colorado Springs" adventure before all the fun of July vacationing begins. Today we went to the Western Museum of Mining and Industry. It was a really cool museum exploring mining and the industrial advances that came about as new techniques for mining were needed from the "Forty-Niners" through today. We attended the tour, which was interesting enough to keep the boys mostly listening, watched a video, and then explored on our own.

The museum was full of hands-on exhibits and large steam-powered machines. The tour guide turned some of them on and they were loud; they freaked Josh out so much that when we were going to go back through on our own he refused at first because he thought we'd have to hear the loud ones again. It was one of those museums that make you glad to live in 2008, with all of our modern conveniences, safety laws and labor laws. Just looking at pictures of the young boys, the "Grease Monkeys," Zach and Ben's ages, that worked oiling the machines or those just a few years older who were already going into the mines as full-time, 10 hours-plus-a-day miners, made my heart lurch. In August, they are having their Outdoor Machine Day where we get to see the big Steam Shovels like MaryAnn in Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel in action. We are excited to go! Sorry about all the commentary on the pictures below, obviously I was way too fascinated by this museum, I felt like everyone needed to be educated!

Weighing the different ores...this is coal mined in the Western States, some of the cleanest burning coal in the world.

Zach panning for gold, this is early-style mining called Placer Mining, or surface mining. Gold was discovered in Colorado in 1859 and then came the Placer Miners with the slogan "Pikes Peak or Bust!"

Before the deep blast mines came (where they blasted out rock with dynamite deep into the earth), this is how they got gold out of rocks...one hammer ping at a time. Seriously, this was their livelihood they were working for.

After hammering away for awhile, they used this tiny scoop to scrape out any small gold pieces that may have been chipped off. Can you even imagine the tedium of it? Thank goodness for salaries!This part of the museum had the loudest of the loud machines, the steam-powered jack hammers for drilling holes in the rock face in which to place the dynamite. The tour guide turned on one of the jack hammers and said there would be four going at the same time all day...many of the men went deaf at an early age. Surprised? No.

Modern mining safety gear; I don't think Ben is ready for the mines yet, since the boot is as long as his leg.

Zach operating the elevator on the miniature late-ninteenth century mine. Talk about dangerous jobs!

This was the biggest steam engine they had, one of the biggest ever built. Amazingly, it was pretty quiet compared to some of the smaller ones when it was running. This would be used in one of the larger mines to power any number of things, elevators, water pumps, electricity, etc. This is the one the little 6 to 8-year-olds would be running up and down oiling with little cans.

This is one of the noisy small engines I was referring to. This was used to power the pump to pump water out of the mine. Even though it was noisy, it does sound so cool, like listening to the past.

This was Josh's favorite steam engine, because it was red like his shorts and they didn't turn it on.