Washington Wrap-up

On July 25th, we returned from a wonderful 2 week vacation to Washington. We had tons of fun and greatly enjoyed our time spent with family and friends.

We flew in to Seattle on July 11th. Anna spent the next day and a half playing with her cousins. She was particularly enthralled with Alyssa's gymnastics abilities and loved to try and copy her.



After church on Sunday, everyone but Tara and Jon piled into the car and headed to Yakima for the week.

Mom had enrolled Caleb in a drama camp and Alyssa in a gymnastics camp. So they were pretty busy. But once they were done for the day, we packed in lots of fun activities.

Tea Parties:

Kids Castle:

Swimming in the Backyard:

And feeding the ducks:

Even mundane activities like going to Costco were made that much more fun with cousins!

On Friday, Caleb's drama class put on a performance. Caleb got the lead as The King of Hearts in Whole Stole the Tarts. We enjoyed watching their little show.

After the show, we decided to beat the heat with a dip in the pool. My parent's friends have a gorgeous house and pool and let us drop in for a swim. Anna has always been a water bug but she was in heaven floating around and going down the slide all by herself!

Later that night, everyone but Anna went to opening night of Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at our community theatre.

We had a great day on Saturday. We started out with a trip to Meadowbrook Fun Center for go karts, bumper boats and batting cages.

After a yummy dinner at Zesta Cucina, we then went to see The Fantastiks at the Akin Center Theatre. While in Yakima, we also had the opportunity to catch us with some old friends. It was a great week.

On Monday, we headed back to Auburn. That evening we had family pictures taken, had a fun barbecue in the park and took a walk.

Tuesday was Caleb's birthday. To celebrate, we went bowling and then out to dinner.

Caleb got Mario Kart for his birthday. Anna desperately wanted to play while he and his friends were so they gave her a disconnected nunchuk. She wiggled the little toggle, truly believing she was driving the car. Hilarious!

On Wednesday, we saw Harry Potter and then had a talent show with lots of fun entertainment.

On Thursday, the adults spent a wonderful night at the Seattle Temple doing sealings and then dinner at PF Changs.

Friday was a marathon day beginning with a tour of Safeco Field. The boys, especially Caleb, were thrilled with the chance to go on the field.

After getting outfitted with new Mariners caps, we then walked down to the waterfront for a delicious lunch at Steamers and a stroll around Pike Place Market. I also had the chance to catch up with my good buddy Ivan.

A few hours later, we headed back down to the field for the Mariners game. The M's had a poor showing and lost badly but it was still a fun time. Also fun was running into our Provo friends the Haffners after the game! They live in Indiana now so it was definitely a surprise.

Saturday was full of lots of packing as we tried to squeeze everything we acquired over the last two weeks into our bags. We succeeded for the most part and made our flight. We had such a wonderful time with family and were very sad to leave them. Hopefully we'll see all of you again soon!