washington (vacay part 3)

On the 4th of July, we left Oregon and drove north to Washington.  Rob's cousin Venn and his family live in Olympia and just bought a lake house on Summit Lake.  We went to their house first to shower (we had been camping, remember) and we loaded up and took off for the lake house.  I drove with Cathy and we stopped at the store to buy some groceries.  We saw a man standing on the corner by the store holding a cardboard sign that read, "Need Explosives.  Please Help!"  It was pretty funny for Independence Day!  I wish I had gotten a photo of him.  Summit Lake is beautiful!  Venn and Cathy's house is so nice; they are in the process of furnishing it.  It was fun to go shopping with Cathy a couple of times and live vicariously through her as she bought pots and pans, bedding, etc.  It's great to spend someone else's money :)

Here is the view from their balcony (you can barely see Venn and Rob on the deck on the left):

We had a great dinner and then enjoyed one of the most amazing firework shows.  I couldn't believe how much money their neighbors must have spent on fireworks!  They went on and on for maybe an hour and a half!  The kids eventually got tired and came inside to go to bed (it was really late, maybe 10:30).  I should note that being way up north is very different for us.  We do not have daylight savings in AZ, so it is so strange to be up north in the summer when it is getting dark at 9:30-10:00pm!  It is getting dark here around 7pm!  Our schedule was very different; seemed like we were eating after 8pm, and the kids were getting to bed well after 10pm every night!  Thankfully the kids are old enough to sleep in more now.

The fireworks were amazing over the water!

The kids doing sparklers:

The next morning, it was time to take the boat out for a spin:

Loving the boat:

Burke on the knee board:

Hewitt on the board:

More boating the next day (it was a bit warmer):

Getting ready for tubing:

These are hard to see (didn't want to take my nice camera on the boat), but Tosh is all smiles here:

And then the speed picked up and he wasn't so happy (can you tell that he is screaming!).  The other kids (including Liv) LOVED going fast:

I enjoyed the tube as well, but sure felt it in my neck the next day (getting older):

Cathy's two nephews and their wives had been visiting Seattle and joined the party late Friday night.  On Saturday morning we went to the farm and got the 'famous' hot apple fritters.  *If any of you have heard/seen Rob's awesome tribute song, "Oh Venn" then you might recognize the lyrics talking about going to get fritters....  Still as delicious as ever.   Another side note:  A guy at Venn's church recognized Rob from the video and asked him about it :)

We stayed after church on Sunday for choir (Venn is the choir director).  I went to the nursery to play with the younger kids and couldn't help but smile at this little boy's name.  It's what some might call a "Utah" spelling of an old bible name:

Sunday afternoon we played games and the guys played their guitars.  Good times.  We love these guys.

Monday morning we headed north to Sequim, WA to visit my sister and brother-in-law.  They've recently moved there from Houston.  Talk about a change in climate :)

Mindy and David surprised us with a most exciting and memorable day!  They took us to an airport and Mindy presented Burke with a blue 'merit badge' card.  They had rented an airplane and David (pilot AND aviation merit badge counselor) was going to help Burke earn his Aviation merit badge that day!

Mindy, the boys and me prior to flight

First off, David took Tosh, Liv and I up for a little tour.  We were able to see much of the area including the house that they are buying this month.  It was awesome!  These two haven't been in a plane since we flew to Utah in January 2012.  What a treat!

I love Tosh's face as we are about to take off!

Here he is giggling at the impact!  They loved hearing themselves in the headsets.

So cool and beautiful!

We landed at a different airport and Mindy, Rob and the older boys drove there to meet us.  Mindy had packed sack lunches for everyone and even peanuts for the flight!

David, Rob, Burke and Hewitt then did a thorough inspection of the plane and learned all about airplanes and flight.  Then they took off for a much longer tour of the area.  Hewitt sat in the back with Rob:

At one point David decided he would like to eat his sack lunch and asked Burke if he was ready to take the wheel.  How cool is that?!?!  Burke flew for about 15 minutes while David ate his lunch :)

They flew over Olympic National Park, while Mindy and I drove to the top.  View from the air:

View from the ground:

After Mindy and I had already started up the mountain into the national park, we discovered that my gas was low and so we turned around to get gas.  This was unfortunate because the guys were hoping to wave to us while we were at the top of the mountain, and the younger kids freaked out about having to drive more and took turns throwing fits.  Liv eventually cried until she fell asleep and napped in the van with Min, while Tosh and I explored outside.

It was so awesome to see snow!!!

Tosh tried to run up with snow hill (in his flip flops) and slipped down on his hands.  He was surprised at how cold it was!

This view was spectacular.  I really enjoyed being somewhere that I have never been to before.

There were deer all over the place!  Can you see them in this next one?

We eventually all met up at a playground (like the "castle park" by my Dad's house) and then checked out some nearby falls before heading to David and Mindy's for dinner.

On the way, we pulled off for this gorgeous view of the Elwha Valley overlook:

Back in Sequim, we enjoyed a fantastic dinner of hamburgers, pasta salad, frog eye salad, and a home made lemon pie.  Thanks to D&M for going out of their way to create some amazing memories for us.  Love you guys!

We had such a great time in Washington and hope to get back up there soon!