Monday, October 2, 2017

Washington Summer of 2017.




I have to take myself and my kids to my parents home every summer. It's non-negotiable. Olive had been asking for months and months if "today was the day" we got to go to "Grandma's that lives far away" (that's what she calls her,) and so all our adventures were long awaited when we got there and Washington, you never disappoint.  





































There is a checklist of things that my kids and I must do immediately upon arriving at my parents home; check the chicken coop for eggs, get on and feed some horses, and rummage through the garden/orchard for fresh produce. Elijah wanted to spend every waking moment on or by the horses, Olive wanted to check the coop for eggs about 10 times a day, and I think I consumed about 50 plums in the time that I was there. Being at my parents always reminds me that it's the simplest things things in life that bring you greatest joy and happiness. 



















My Mom's next door neighbors are huge Corgi aficionados. They have three of these dogs themselves and lots of friends with them. Elijah and I went out for a little ride on one of our horses and when we got back my mom and Olive were talking to our neighbors and I peered over the fence to a yard full or corgi's! 15 of them! They invited Olive and Elijah to come in and play with the dogs and it was like someone opened up the pearly gates. It was just about the cutest thing I ever saw! A few days later they had a big Corgi party and had over 100 corgi's there at once! The last picture is Olive holding a little corgi named Olive. They wanted a picture of her holding her namesake, and then she made that funny face (and that was her good face after a little coaxing haha.) She cracks me up when she randomly pulls these faces out of nowhere. 







Vacation Sleep.











I. Just. Can't.






















Every time I go home I love to visit the Seattle Science Museum. It's a great place for kids with tons to do for all ages. An animatronic dinosaur room, a sea life station, lots of bugs and a butterfly room, a little rocket ship and space exploration and so much more. We are lucky our yearly pass for the museum here gets us in free over there, but we were less lucky with how busy it was with lots of summer days camps... you can't have it all. 




















I went on the most wonderful bike ride with my brother and his kids. It was everything I love about Washington. We rode along the slough with the beautiful greenery and the wonderful smells and sights and sounds of birds with my kids laughing and enjoying life with their cousins, and it just felt like how life should be. I love being with my little brother. He is always up for an adventure and so playful with all the kids. We rode to a little park and played for a bit and my brother initiated a game of tag, and you should have seen the way Olive's eyes lit up when he ran over and tapped her and shouted TAG! We rode back into the sunset and stopped to get some blackberries on the way. They were not quite ripe yet so we tried some tricks to get what little bunches we could find way up high. We stacked all the children up on my brother's shoulders and did a little chain to get the blackberries down and safely away from the bushes, after which they were consumed within milliseconds by all the kids. We did get quite a few scratches here and there, but it was worth every bit of it. 




















Every day this summer in Washington was a great one, but this one might have been my favorite. For lunch I met up with best friend in Kirkland and we went to this amazing place for lunch and sat and chatted and enjoyed being together (and I enjoyed the only little break I took from my kids on this whole trip.) Then I went back and took my kids to Mukilteo Beach for low tide, to take a ride on the ferry, and to get some yummy fish and chips and ice cream. I loved everything about this afternoon; enjoying fresh caught seafood on the wharf, searching for little crabs under rocks with my littles while they squealed with delight, and riding across the water feeling the breeze in my hair and smelling the salt in the air. At our stop on Whidbey Island the kids saw an older lady waiting and couldn't help themselves to go and start talking to her. She was sweet and cute with them and told them she had grandchildren close to their age and that's probably why they liked her. People are good.  











Saturday was Olive's birthday. On our day in Seattle we were going to visit my Dad in his office, but because of traffic and because Elijah fell asleep we decided to skip it which devastated Olive, so on her birthday I let her pick what she wanted to do and she wanted to go visit my Dad at his office. Luckily my dad is a workaholic and was going in on a Saturday anyways so we joined him. I love being up there and can't believe my Dad gets to have that amazing view of Seattle to look at everyday. The funny thing is that Olive just wanted to visit my Dad to get free hot chocolate from the machine in the lunch break area. Kids are so funny. But you know, birthday day made! 






All the heart eyes. 




Then we headed out for a swim at my friend's house on cottage lake. We had had the best weather while in Washington, and it could not go wasted without going for a swim. The water was pretty cold though, and I can't say we lasted too long, but luckily we got to go home to birthday celebrations and one last dip in the hot tub. 









These first two photos are still shots I took from a video. It makes me laugh just to look at it. The first one is Olive greeting all of her presents with so much delight, and the second is Elijah when he realized after trying multiple times to steal presents that none of them were for him. I didn't really think to prepare him by saying that it was Olive's birthday and all these presents would be hers since I think the last thing he remembers was Christmas where they both got presents. Major fail on my part, but also pretty cute and hilarious. He will get his turn this month. 









Then you know, one last dip in the hot tub followed by an amazing fire by Grandpa, who is always up to make a good fire for us all. It was a good trip, it always is.



















We left Sunday night and spent the night in Eastern Washington with Kc's Aunt and my mother in law who had flown out to drive back with me. I had wanted to stop in Granger for a long time but it's hard to justify a big hour or more long stop when you have 12 or 13 hours to drive. We got on the road a lot later than I had hoped so we didn't have a ton of time to play on all the dinosaurs before the sun set, but it was totally worth it and something the kids of course just loved. I would do this every time if I could. It was awesome to cut a few hours off our drive the next day and have somewhere to stay and to let the kids enjoy the trip a little more and stop and do things that we love. And a shorter drive meant I could take my time a bit more and let this beautiful little boy and girl sleep in a bit in the morning. What a lovely way to end our month away from home. Can't wait until next year. 






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