North by Northwest

Our next stop took us to cousins on the other side of the family.  More fun and good times!  The weather surprised us--although we always seem to bring the heat with us to Washington--so there was some of this:

 

and some of this:

Millie's first time on a kayak.
She wasn't so sure at first... as the boat wobbled while we all climbed in

but once we got moving, she settled down and actually enjoyed herself.

Kayakers unite!

Photog selfie

Serene and scenic



We had fun digging up mussels in the muddy banks

 

The next day we hit one of my favorite childhood fieldtrip destinations,

The Pacific Science Center:

 

 

 

The IMAX movie we saw

 

 

 

and other fun, interactive exhibits

 

 

Butterflies

Unfortunately our camera died right about here, but trust me when I say there is a ton to do and see at this museum.  The next time you're in Seattle with kids, you should go if you can.  And if you get to go with cousins, even better!

 

Wait, Aunt Lisa had a few more on her camera:

 

 

The Empty School Nest

Eight o'clock feels early.

 

School-supply-laden backpacks wake them up a little.

As does the excitement for the first day of fifth grade,

kindergarten,





and second grade.





 

Mommy-daughter shot.

 

A familiar walk,

although reams of paper in the packs make it feel longer.



 

Back to the blacktop.

Miss Millie starting to look a bit concerned,

as she gets her turn to line up outside the classroom.



Finding her seat at the blue table, 

 

and finally getting a turn on the very carpet both her big brothers have sat on for story time.

Guess who started to tear up during The Kissing Hand?

Definitely not Millie.

Chester Raccoon stood at the end of the forest and cried.
"I don't want to go to school" he told his mother. 

 "I want to stay home with you. I want to play with my friends.

And play with my toys. And read my books. 

And swing on my swing. Please may I stay home with you?"

 

Is it so wrong that I relate more to the kid than the mom in this story?

Calm down, Mommy, it's going to be okay.

Portland Temple Peeps

I can't help it.

Just a few more.

 

NorCal Gypsies

The road to Seattle ended up being a little bit longer this year, thanks to a few fun pit stops along the way.  We started in Sacramento with our friends, the Broadbents, whose AMAZING home kept us so happily occupied that we completely forgot to take any pictures.  Wish we had.  Acres of peaceful, beautiful property surround their bright, spacious home decorated in that distinctly-wonderful (and magazine worthy in my opinion) Heidi style.  Their backyard leaves nothing to be desired, either.  I'm pretty sure our kids could have spent the full two weeks of our vacation playing in it. 

Next we headed over to Brownsville--near Grass Valley--to visit Stephen's uncle and his girlfriend.  Blair and Roseann live way up in the hills with only the deer and bears as neighbors.  Roseann and Stephen have been talking vegetables, fruit, and flowers for several years, so of course the first order of business had to be a tour of the garden, orchard, and yard.  Fantastic.  They grow, jar, pickle, jam, dry, dehydrate and cook with all sorts of produce and herbs.  Lucky us, we got to try some of that yumminess.

Gardeners unite!

The boys sad to leave the tree swing and Bugs the cat

After Brownsville we headed over to Redding.  Uncle Bill lives around the corner from Stephen's grandma's house, so we had a chance to visit with him.  We also got to see Stephen's cousin and her family.  The kids love swimming in their pool with Jack and Ava, and we love chatting and catching up with Katie and Josh.

Benito and Billy Idol with Jack

Millie in girl heaven, a.k.a. Ava's room

After our fun Northern California walk-about, we drove on to our first official stop: Portland with my little sis and her adorable family.  Normally, we pit stop at their house for a night and then move on to Seattle.  This year we had the luxury of staying longer and spending some quality time with some of our favorite people in the world!  We loved it too much, I'm afraid, because it made me wish we lived closer to each other more than ever. 

Frequent sight: Honeycomb scarf-down

Cosmic Lanes at the bowling alley?  Yes, please!!
Mills and E busting a move to the dance songs

Waiting my turn with Benito



This girl loved using the dinosaur slide for her bowling ball

Jenae and I
(or awesome bowler and terrible bowler:)

Cascade, aka biggest you've ever seen, raspberries we picked together

This little girl is a natural. 

Berries in the northwest.  What could be better?

Sunday afternoon seemed a good time to introduce our kiddos to one of our favorite temples

Flowers = fun

Cousins at the reflection pond

Clouds, glorious clouds

Two years to go

One thing definitely does look like the other...

My eyes are closed, her mouth is open.  Sisters!

 

Stephen was super impressed that Burgerville gave out seeds with their kid meals

Beat the heat at a water park

Benito and E having fun filling buckets

The boys scheming and/or retaliating

Stephen catching some shade with Chase and the twinners

 

Quality time with a cutie

Reading books is the best