Seattle Fun

We decided to visit Dave's sister Kari and her family up in the beautiful Northwest. Dave thought it would make the perfect birthday present for me, and it was a dream come true! We left on the first and got back yesterday. Kari and Trevor were the best hosts. I hope we didn't wear them out too much! We were able to see the locks which are these holdings for boats that either raise or lower the water level. It was such a gorgeous day and Kari said that the summers are like that everyday. It was beautiful - the sun was shining, the temperature was just right - in the fifties, and the kids were very patient while Dave insisted that we see a boat be lowered :) This was an enormous barge being pulled by a tug boat.

This is a shot from the hill above the locks. We ate our picnic on the terraced grass overlooking the lock. Braden has this bad habit of saying cheese the other way. From left to right is Braden, Taigan, Tina, and Lorin. They are all so cute!

The next day we planned on going to the zoo, but after seeing the line and full parking lot, we thought we would visit a really fun park. Yes, that's me and Kari on the teeter totter with ALL of the kids. We had lots of fun exploring and playing kick ball. The park was amazing to see all of the trees. It is so gorgeous!

My camera ran out of juice before we could take pictures of the destroyer "Turner Joy" boat that was used in the Vietnam war. We dashed to make it in time to ride a ferry to an island (the name started with a B, but I can't remember) We toured the boat and went to the naval museum. It was amazing to see all of that. I think the kids had fun. I sure did! We also got to watch conference on Trevor's laptop hooked to the TV. We rented "Enchanted" and watched it about 4 times. The songs all getting stuck in my head! We also snuck in a trip to Target which was definately an adventure. We got Tina a little princess CD player which would be fun for her to play with on the way home, but yes Kari, I did not think about how loud it could be. Luckily it wasn't played with too much :)

I think my favorite thing was playing Blockus and Ticket to ride board games after the kids went to bed. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Kari is an amazing cook. I need to get her recipes for her "Cafe Rio" night. We had homemade sweet pork salads with cilantro rice, black beans, lettuce, tomato, cheese, tortillas that you heat up yourself, and wonderful ranch-cilantro dressing. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

We also got to visit my aunt Jenn in Portland. I loved our visit and the pizza. Jackson is such a cutie. I hope my kids didn't destroy the toys TOO much. I'm sorry that they are such dumpers. Her house was so nice. I can't believe that she has only been there for about 4 months! I hope work gets better and she can find people to trade babysitting with. I don't know what I would do without my sweet neighbors!

Dave dubbed this trip for me and gave me the third book in the "Twilight" series. I tried to read it in sections, and I finished about 3 hours after we left Portland. Dave is so sweet, because I read the book instead of talk to him. It was good and has left me breathless for the next one. I won't say any more for those who want to read it.

The last part of the trip was coming up with goals to tackle when we get home. The general idea is: Keep the house clean, Be on top of our finances, Start up exercising and eating right (again!), and make our prayers more meaningful. Hopefully this documentation will help me be accountable!

Well, there was our trip in a big nutshell. We loved every minute of it. We sure love our family. Thank you for everything guys! Can't wait to see you when you come out to Utah!