Journey from Seattle to Saint Louis

Our first stop on the way home was in Cle Elum at Daniel's friend's ranch.  We spent the afternoon there and stayed the night.  The kids had fun checking out the baby pigs and other animals.

 

 

Idaho

 

 

Montana. I loved driving through Montana, it is beautiful!

 

 

Old faithful

Picnic in Yellowstone

We saw bison, elk, and bighorn sheep...unfortunately no bears or wolves

 

Andrew spent most of the trip listening to Harry Potter.  We didn't have any screen time until the last day when we allowed them to use their devices for a couple of hours. 

 

Mt Rushmore was cooler to see than I thought it would be

 


I wanted to find hot springs in South Dakota but these were only "barely warm" springs :)

It was about 95 degrees and this was at about 8:00 at night.  So fun!

 

We went to Chimney Rock in Nebraska and this was at a Mormon pioneer graveyard right next to it.

Chimney Rock...another super hot day

After driving 5,400 miles on this trip we made it home safely.  The kids were such good road trippers!  When we got home they were still being super sweet to each other (It lasted a few days before fading back to normal). During that time of sweetness Andrew said "I love my siblings, I think the trip made us closer together." We are so grateful for this experience.

Seattle and Camano

 



(I stole some of these cute pics from my sister's blog post.) We met up with my family at the park. The boy cousins were excited to all be together for the first time since Mason was born.





All the girls

 

 

My brothers and my sister Kelsy who came up from California.



My sister Melanies's new house! I was mad I didn't get a good pic of Melanie...I have a few with her behind a camera and a cute video of her and Mason.  Anyway, I love her new house and we had a fun time there.

We did cousin camp at my brother Brian's house on Camano.  The kids had fun playing in this "quick sand" one morning when the tide was out.



Kelsy made them all the cutest t-shirts.  The back had their name and birth order number on it.

Andrew loves babies...especially this one!



Opening Ceremonies

Grandma was a great cheerleader during our kids vs parents soccer game. The kids beat us 4-1.



 

I stole a picture of Melanie

 

My mom with the kiddos

Hannah loves being a cooking helper and helped Brian make breakfast for everyone one morning.

I love and miss Washington, especially at summertime

Ethan and Hannah dreamed about eating the wild blackberries the whole way there.  Unfortunately we were a few weeks too early and there were only a few ripe ones. The sweet ripe ones are nothing like the ones at the grocery store.  At least they got a few.

Olympic game obstacle course

Olympic game relay race

Taking the boat out crabbing.  The crabs were delicious!

Pie face :)

Andrew looked at me hopefully one day and said "mom, your stomach is looking kind of big". I had to tell him the sad news that it was not because there was a baby in there and he was very disappointed. :)

Closing ceremonies



Thanks Kels for the adorable picture

We tried to get a good group pic with grandpa...but it was a little too late at the end of a long fun day.  The younger half is not having it.

 

Lake Washington on the 4th of July

 

My brother's neighborhood has a big 4th of July party with lots of fireworks

Thanks Uncle Chris and Uncle Brian for helping out my kids, they had a great time!

It was so fun to see friends.

I wanted to go to Karkeek park while we were in Seattle because it is my favorite.  Eliza was grateful (as were the rest of us) that Grandpa joined us.



Another awesome day at the park with friends.  We miss everyone!!

 

I loved these two getting some time together

On our last day we stopped at GG and Papas but I'm so sad I didn't get a picture of them.

Goodbye Seattle and family and friends, we had a great trip!