Awesome Summer Trip #2 - Washington!

We had a blast in Washington this summer! The trip started out with our excuse for the long visit - Tait and Cecelia's wedding! It was so much fun. We had a very nice overnight away while Maggie hung out with her entourage, Gigi, Grandma, Auntie Mardi, Grandpa, Cameron and Auntie Tracey!

The weather was beautiful for our visit, and we made the rounds! We hung out in Federal Way with family and friends, and also took to the road for visits with as many friends as possible! Check out the photos below for a few of the highlights. Of course, the camera-woman forgot to pull out the camera on a couple of occasions, so a few of our great visits are missing! :( However, we had a blast seeing Tricia and Kaylyn in Woodenville, where Mags and Kaylyn played at the coolest place ever! It was a coffee shop with a built in play are inside. The play area is surrounded with a short wall, so the parents can sit outside it and watch the kiddos play. Genius! We also saw Joel and Addy for dinner in West Seattle! That was a delicious meal with great friends, and it was so good to catch up with them! Addy disappeared for a few minutes and brought back ice cream... which is Maggie's favorite! We had a blast.

Maggie was such a trooper on our many long road trips. Elmo helped, though! Maggie LOVES Elmo these days, so a DVD of Elmo was her companion when things started to get a bit tense in the car! Now, she pretty much asks for Elmo as soon as she wakes up in the morning!

Federal Way Days

Cousins! Maggie was very curious about Cameron - they had a lot of fun!

Water park! This park is so awesome! A great way to cool off, and it was free!

This one was her favorite.

Lake Chelan!

The Beckstead Clan invited us up to the lake for a few nights, and we had so much fun. Maggie loved playing in the water and going on the boat. We all soaked up some sun, relaxed, and enjoyed great friends!
I wish I had picture of Emma and Rob together - Emma's famous quote of  the weekend "Rob, you're a party barge!" ahahaha... She is such a sweetie, and was always asking Maggie to come and play. Jess cracked us all up with his obsession with the iPad, and Hannah is the sweetest little Daddy's Girl you've ever met!

I love crackers!

Note the impressive belly. My mother (Mimi) can atest to a similar belly had by me - so impressive that I was dubbed "'Chelley Belly"....

"Huh?...."

"You want us to do what??"

Our beautiful hostess, Lindsey with Hannah in the pool! Lindsey did so much to make us feel right at home - it was so much fun to relax and catch up!

Maggie had so much fun playing on these stairs that led right into the lake. The water was pretty cold, but she didn't mind it. She just loved splashing around and 'jumping' in with me!

The amazing lake!

Failed attempt at a family photo, but at least we tried!

The guys were more cooperative. :) Handsome group, no?

Robbi, Ryan and Rob

Point Defiance Zoo

This was kind of a grey day, but Point Defiance park made up for that! What a beautiful spot! Gandma took Maggie and Cameron (and us too!) to the zoo for a bit. We had a little picnic after walking around a bit and then rode the Merry Go Round. After the zoo, Rob and I took Maggie on a drive around the park. It was so pretty and green! 

"Cheese!"

Trouble makers!

Cam and Grandma picked this horse - he was really excited about this ride!

Maggie and Dad picked this one. She loved the idea (when this photo was taken) but didn't love it when the horse started moving up and down. Next time, we'll stick to the stationary ones. :)

West Seattle

We were actually early when we went to meet Joel and Addy. Yes, you see it here and it is true: we were early to something! We took a little walk along the boardwalk of West Seattle, and Maggie got to run around a bit. It was a nice few minutes of family (down) time during our busy trip!

There they are: my loves.

What do you think, Mags?

This picture doesn't do justice to the moment. Maggie was practicing her "jukes" - she'd fake one direction, then spin around and run the other direction! What was she trying to do, you wonder? Oh, just stand at the edge of an 8 foot drop to the beach and peek over! She loves to test the strength of our hearts...

She thinks she got away! The giggles are just too much for me - I love them!

North Bend

One of my favorite parts of visiting the NW is that we get to see Curtis, Emily and Murray. They hosted us for an early dinner at their beautiful home in North Bend. It was an amazing backyard bbq, complete with smoked pork by our very own Curtis! Delicious Ginger Margs were for the grownups, and for Maggie? She got to play in the dog's water bowls! ;o) I guess she's officially a water baby.

Our beautiful Emily, hostess with the mostess! She was ready with two boxes of toys for Maggie to enjoy!

Here are the most important guests! "Puppas!"

They are fun from afar, but....

A little ltoo much when they are surrounding her!

She got used to them right after this - that's when she followed them to the water bowl!

Time to go...

Maggie really did do a wonderful job with all the traveling we did. As a Sagittarius, she is adventurous, eager to extend her experiences beyond the familiar, and loves travel and exploration! We see that in her already, so it didn't surprise me that she took the hundreds of miles we put in over this week like a pro. We're already looking forward to another trip as soon as we can!

Do I have everything I need for this flight?

Ahhh, that's the spot! You guys don't mind if I stretch out, right?

Nite, nite!