BADGER MOUNTAIN
The kids really wanted to hike Badger Mountain one last time with Daddy before they moved. They all made it without being carried and were very proud of themselves.
FINAL WASHINGTON VACATION
At the beginning of this month we finally got our house on the market, and left on a trip the next day. We wanted to take one last family trip before leaving Washington. I'm glad we left when we did since we had a lot of showings and would have had to be out of the house anyway. It was nice to have some relaxing family time after all the stress of getting our house ready to sell.
STONEHENGE
No, we did not see the real Stonehenge but we did get to see this life size replica of it. The funny thing is that we met a couple from England who had seen the real thing, but they thought this one we fun since you could actually get up next to it and it was complete rather than ruins.
Here are the kids doing their silly picture poses.
APE CAVES
We drove all the way to Ape Caves, which are some giant caves formed by a lava flow millions of years ago.
There were a lot of cool features in the caves.
LAVA TUBES
The kids had fun climbing down the lava tubes formed by a casting process in which trees got caught in a lava flow thousands of years ago. The trees later rotted away leaving the tubes.
Abby crawling in one of the tubes.
Nathan looking up from a lava tube.
A tube formed from a tree trunk on it's side.
Maddy coming out of the lava tube.
MOUNT ST HELEN'S
Mount St. Helen's in the distance.
Mount St Helen's from the Johnston Ridge Observatory.
Mt St. Helen's up close.
The kids at the Mount St Helen's visitor center. It was really interesting to learn about the history of the event. It is crazy to think that is exploded just 2 days after Jared was born.
By the second day our house was on the market we had three offers. The problem was that we couldn't get cell reception almost anywhere. Finally we found a look out to Mount St Helen's that had cell reception so we stopped and had a picnic lunch and docu-signed papers on Jared's cell phone to sell our house.
CAMPING
The kids had fun camping and roasting marshmallows for s'mores.
MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK
On our last day we visited Mount Rainier National park. We lucked out and had gorgeous weather with a perfect view of the summit.
One of the waterfalls we hiked to.
Beautiful mountain ranges
Mount Rainier from the base
We hiked a bit at the base and enjoyed seeing all the beautiful meadows with wild flowers.
Maddy of course liked the purple ones the best.
We took another small hike to this beautiful waterfall which was near the base.
SNOQUALMIE FALLS
Since it was our last trip to the west side of the state we decided to make a stop at Snoqualmie Falls on our way home. We made it there right as the sun set.
Jared with the kids.
Jared looking handsome in his Indiana Jones hat.
Final view of the falls.
HOWARD AMON PARK
Once our house was under contract to sell, Jared had more time to spend with me and the kids. We visited one of the kids' favorite parks. Here are the kids at the top of a rock climbing wall there.
THOMAS' 2nd BIRTHDAY
Jared had to go down to Texas for some pre-employment stuff and to find a house to rent, so we didn't have him home for Thomas' birthday. We celebrated when he got back instead. This year would have been Thomas' 2nd birthday. We celebrated by going out to dinner, looking at his save box and pictures, and having cake. We sure love and miss our sweet little guy. We are so grateful for the time we had to spend with him.
