How We Spent Our Summer Vacation

In typical fashion it's been a number of months since my last post. Now that the chill of fall has set in and the leaves are turning, why not re-live the few glorious weeks of summer we did enjoy here in the Pacific Northwest? Rather than a boring narrative (aside from the fact that I've forgotten most of the details) I'll let the slideshow pictures speak for themselves.

Road Trip

I decided to take a solo road trip with the kids to visit my parents in Waitsburg. I might have been a bit delusional when I decided to do this on my own - after all 5 hours in the car with a couple of young kids is tough even with two adults. However, I persisted and the three of us arrived safely roughly 7 hours after leaving Seattle.

We all enjoyed our time with grandma and grandpa, and we even got together with one of my old high school friends and her kids for a play date and swimming.

throwing rocks in the river.

Izzy the camel - a popular roadside attraction in this small town. She's very friendly. Evelyn got to feed her and pet her.

Isaiah was completely freaking out! He's holding on to me for dear life in this picture!

Evelyn's really making Izzy stretch for this grass!

Visiting the local library for story time. I used to come here for story time when I was a kid!

Our visit also coincided with my birthday. My mom made my favorite cherry pie and the kids helped me blow out the candles!

Happy Thanksgiving

We took our first long trip with Evelyn over Thanksgiving. We headed over the mountains to Waitsburg for Thanksgiving with Grandpa Phil and Grandma J. The 5-hour drive was tolerable with Evelyn providing a running commentary and practicing her vocabulary.

We made a much needed pit stop in Ellensburg and visited cousin Marylou who graciously filled our bellies with tortellini soup and produced a huge box of toys to entertain Evelyn. We were then able to continue the drive and Evelyn eventually fell asleep giving Jeremy and I some welcome quiet for at least part of the drive.

On Thursday we went down to the barn and introduced Evelyn to the ponies. She seemed to be quite excited about the prospect of seeing them and kept repeating "pony, pony, pony" all morning. The novelty soon wore off and then she just wanted "down" so she could run around in the pasture. It kept us busy trying to keep her from running through the piles of horse poo that were scattered about.

"Hello Star"

Taking a ride around the pasture.

I'd rather just run!

This is what we refer to as Evelyn's "old man face." She's just being a goof.


Sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner with Grandma J, Aunt Helene, Uncle Joe and Aunt Donna.


Saying "bye-bye" to Aunt Donna


Story and cuddle time with Grandpa Phil.


Time to say "bye-bye" to Grandma and Grandpa.

The visit was too short. Unfortunately we had to leave Friday in order for Jeremy to be back at work on Saturday. Fortunately Evelyn did get to spend some quality time with her grandparents. And as Grandpa pointed out when we were leaving "no amount of time would be enough."