A little bit of this....A little bit of that....

My friend Lori was in town from Colorado a couple weeks back. We were able to meet up for lunch at Taco Time (they don't have TT in Colorado). It was so good to see her and get the chance to catch up. Ella went with me and she had not had a nap all day so the experience with her was not so great. It was great to see you Lori!!

I hate the blackberry bushes surrounding our house nine months out of the year, and the other three I love them. We have made a few blackberry cobblers and I have learned to appreciate these big sticker bushes (kind of). Ella went outside with Cirdan one night to pick some berries for a cobbler. She was right up there with the thorns and it didn't t bother her one bit.

We started the summer off by going to Chuck E Cheese with Stacey and Casey so we thought it was only appropriate to end the summer off with the way it was started (that and I happened to see the coupon in the newspaper ads)! Casey wasn't walking when we went in June but this time he was able to walk around and enjoy the toys more. Kaiya had fun gathering up as many tickets as she could find.

Ella was trying to get out of the little kid section to go be where Kaiya was playing. Good thing she was unsuccessful.

GOODBYE SUMMER....

Having fun at the park

Northwest Trek

Ava came for a visit the end of August. The 1st day she was here she hung out with Cirdan. She went with him to get a hair cut. Then the girls and I came home and she got to play with Kaiya. They were playing detective or something which was really cute.

On Thursday we decided to use our NW Trek passes . We bought a year pass and wanted to make sure we get our moneys worth! It was a nice warm day. I thought that you just ride in a car the whole time and didn't realize that they have trails that you walk around to see some animals. I wore the most uncomfortable shoes... The girls had fun and it was exciting to see animals that aren't at the other zoos.




This big wolf scared the girls...

We had good luck when we went on the tram. There were a lot of animals out. We saw moose, bison, mountain goats, deer, elk, others that I cant remember and a wild skunk that the tour guide said she had never seen before.

The buffalo scared me to death. When I was little I went to Yellowstone with my family and Gramee. I was so scared of the buffalo that just walk around on the road next to the cabins were we were staying. I even had a dream that one came through the window and licked me. I still remember being so afraid of those animals. This part of the tour was not fun for me. It didn't help much that we pulled up right in the middle of them and they were so close we could touch. A couple of them had a baby and they weren't looking too happy about us being there. Another stood in the front of the tram so that we had to sit there and wait for him to decide to slowly walk out of the way. That was one of the longest 5 minutes of my life. Thankfully we made it out alive.

We were kind of worried how Ella would do on the 45 minute tour but she did great! She loved looking at the animals and being outside.

I was sitting next to Ava and all the sudden I felt a head against my arm. About 30 minutes into the tour she feel fast asleep.

Since we passed Sonic on the way home we HAD to stop.

Ava flew out on Friday but we got that morning with her. We drove down to Tacoma where her Grandma lives and took the girls out to Ihop for breakfast. We played at the park.... by then it was time to take Ava back to her grandmas. It was really good to see her again. She didn't want to leave so soon...which was heartbreaking.

Weekend with the Fam in Spokane

I received an email from one of a radio promotion guys saying that I won tickets to Silverwood Park just for being signed up to receive their emails. I thought it was really random and didn't think much of it since Silverwood is in Idaho. A few days passed and I realized that Spokane is right next to Silverwood. We were planning on going to see the family in Spokane so it worked out great! I talked to Sue about it and she thought it would be a good weekend to get everyone together for a family picture.
We left on Thursday and drove all the way making only one quick stop for Cirdan to go to the bathroom. Ella did good and just started freaking out the last 20 minutes of the trip. Kaiya always does well...she just asked about 15 times if we were close. We got in about 6:00 and Sue and Richard had prepared a yummy lasagna dinner. We ate, visited and went to bed. Kaiya went with Emily to Charlie and Kim's for outside movie night.
Friday morning we woke up and got ready for Silverwood Park. Since we got 4 tickets we asked Emily (she was in town visiting) if she wanted to go with us. Hannah also had a ticket that she had earned from school so she also went which was nice for Kaiya to have a friend/cousin. The traffic was kind of bad on the way there and we got there about noon. We started out at the water park. The girls had fun with Emily in the wave pool and the lazy river. Cirdan and I took turns with Ella. She wanted to play in the wave pool but she wanted to be Ms. Independent and not hold hands which was rough. Theme parks are just not as fun as they used to be when you have little kids to watch!
We got a bite to eat and it was pretty hot outside so we decided to go to the rides where there was some shade. The girls enjoyed some rides and Cirdan, Ella and I went to go see if there was any baby rides for her. We ended up at one of Cirdan's favorite spots. The games. Whenever we go to the fair or a place that you can win stuffed animals he has to win us all lots of stuffed animals. This time was no exception. We met up with Emily and the girls and walked around, ate some ice cream and watched Cirdan go on some rides. We were all getting tired so we decided to call it a day. Silverwood was fun but I don't know if I would have paid the $45 per person. Free is good! Friday night we ate dinner and played some games and then went to bed.

Saturday we got up and everyone came over for some Fritatta and some Swedish Pancakes. The food is always so delicious at Richard's and Sue's house. Everyone then walked over to Manito Park and played. Cirdan and Richard played frisbee, played catch, all the kids played on the slides and took a little hike up the big hill. Charlie and Kim took their girls home (Isaac and Kaiya also went) to have the girls take a nap. Everyone came back over and we had a BBQ. The kids were super excited to play in the sprinklers. We went to Charlie and Kims that night to roast marshmallow and eat smores.... It was so good to visit and spend time with the whole family.

I had left the white shirt that I was going to wear for pictures on Sunday in the dryer at home so I had to go shopping to get one (darn!). We went to the mall Sunday morning and didn't find anything so we took the girls back to Cirdan's parents house and they asked if they could watch Ella for us. Twist my arm!! Cirdan and I went to Old Navy and found a white shirt and then drove around for a while with no kids screaming or asking questions in the back of the car. We got back to the house and got ready for pictures.
Pictures went pretty good...Ella was not on her best behavior which was difficult. I think there were 1 or 2 that turned out. We had Panini's with some pasta salad for dinner. The kids had fun playing together and we had fun visiting with everyone.

Monday morning we woke up, packed our stuff and headed home.

Thank you Richard and Sue for such a fun weekend! Hope to see you soon!!