Washington

Some of you may not know that we took a quick trip to eastern Washington in late May. The circumstances were stressful- there was a death in my husband's family- but we were happy to be able to visit, as we hadn't been to the area in about 2.5 years! It was a long drive, but pretty. We even found random roadside benches where we could eat lunch in Montana.

We were glad the kids got to see their other grandpa, who's been ill, and some of their cousins with the same last name as they have. We even met one cousin we'd never seen before! She's three years old, and looks a lot like Elora at the same age.




















While we were at their apartment, the kids were fascinated by a slug on the ground. Too bad it wasn't one of those huge banana slugs they have around Seattle.

This was my favorite thing at their apartment!

We were happy to soak up the green of late spring, which hadn't yet arrived in South Dakota at the time we went on our trip. We had a day or two to explore the area, which was nice as our kids hadn't been to the state in the warm seasons since Elora was about two years old!

Do you think they look like cousins? This was in grandpa's yard.




















We got to play at the park and a school playground too. It was pretty, but it was weird to have to watch out for the teenagers and possible needles under the toys, even though it was a small town. Guess they don't have that stuff in ultra rural South Dakota!

we loved the tall trees!



Jonah really liked having someone to play with!

Elora had fun too! Though she was disappointed that three of their older girl cousins couldn't be there.

























One day we went on a little hike, but it was very short because the trail was blocked by fallen trees. There was a lot of nice flora to see anyway. Yes, Josh dropped that apple in the dirt about five times.

We forgot our lunch at Grandpa's house,
 luckily we'd bought a few snacks for our hike.

We tried to go to a more well known hike, only to discover that now in Washington, you have to get a special pass to go to most recreational sites! Residents can renew it every year for $30, and visitors can buy a day pass for $10. Unfortunately, you can't buy it at the waterfall we visited, and it was a 40 minute drive back down to town. So that adventure was over!

Daddy was happy he got to see two of his brothers, one of whom looks like the lead singer of Metallica.




















We also took the traditional cousins picture. At least, we traditionally do it in my family, everyone there seemed to think it was kind of a weird idea, especially the older kids. FYI, there were some trees over to the side, and I thought that would be a nice background, but everyone was facing the wrong direction so we got this instead....

 

See, this is the way it was supposed to be! No one wanted to move, and only Eli and Elora knew which way to look , lol.

 



 

Finally, we had to say goodbye to grandpa and his dog Honey, to make the two day trip home, so Josh could go to his Kindergarten graduation.

 

 

 

It was pretty and cloudy all the way home, with an abundance of rest stops. This one was in the chimney of Idaho...

























Can you tell this one is in Wyoming? About two seconds later, everyone fell down and had to have bandaids.