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!

We had the best trip!

At the end of June (yes, it has taken me way too long to update!) Maggie, PJ and I took a road trip up to Martinez. We spent a week visiting family and friends and we had a blast! Maggie was a great travel buddy - she was so great in the car on the long drives, and she was more than game for all of our adventures across the bay area and beyond!

On the first drive, Mimi joined us so that we'd have extra company in the car for Maggie and PJ. The drive went quickly and smoothly, and we discovered how awesome and amazing a portable DVD player is. :o) If only we could find something like that for PJ... he doesn't enjoy the long drives as much as Maggie did. When we arrived on Thursday, we hung out and enjoyed Mimi's house. Friday, we met up with Jennie and her kids (sorry - we forgot to take pictures), Wanda, Erin and Nancy. It was so fun to see all the kids together in one room! It was a short but sweet visit and the perfect kick off to an awesome week.

On Saturday, Maggie, Mimi and I went to the Nut Tree to have lunch with Sam and Nikki, who I've known all of my life. It was a yummy lunch, and Maggie loved having ice cream!

Can you see the excitement?! I LOVE this picture: favorite of the trip!

After lunch, we had did some big "firsts" for Maggie! First, first, the train!

She was having a lot of fun - it just wasn't captured with a photo! ;)

 That's Sam in this picture - she's going to be having a baby soon! You can look back at a post about a year ago to see photos of Maggie at her wedding!

Next, we did this:

How cute are these? She loved it!

Finally, we hit the Merry-Go-Round:

Giraffe's have been Maggie's "thing" since before she was born!

I'm pretty sure she had fun on this! I, however, felt a little sick after the third or fourth 'round! 

We were bummed that Rob wasn't here to see these firsts... he was being a good Daddy and stayed home in San Diego to facilitate our bathroom re-model! Thanks, Rob/Daddy! We loooooove our new bathroom! 

This is Mags dressed up as a bag lady - her new favorite accessories are her blanket wrapped up like a scarf, and her "easter basket" as her purse. She collects goodies to put inside it. You can see our new bathroom a bit in this photo! Yay, new floor!

One of the best things about being at Mimi's house is the beautiful backyard! Maggie loved to run up and down the little hill of grass!

There is also an amazing park just down the street. One morning, Maggie, PJ and I took a walk down there. We were the only people/pets in the whole park! Both PJ and Maggie enjoyed running wild!

Can  you see her back there? Running!

And, obviously, a quick stop for some loves.



Our next adventure was an overnight trip to Nevada City to see Sara, Eli and Lauren! Seth (Thankfully! it was so good to spend time with him!) joined us for the drive and we had a really relaxing visit with the.Bottrells. Took a bunch of pictures of Maggie and Lauren in the pool, but they are sans clothing, so I'm not going to post them here. However, I did catch this one photo of Mags:

They had a blast!

After this trip, we had a wonderful BBQ with Poppy and my Aunts Patty and Judy, Uncle Art and my cousin Michael and his family. It was relaxing and filled with yummy food. We also took a trip over to SF for lunch with Gina. It was sooo great to catch up with her! Again - forgot the photos, but this Mommy was tired! We hung out more with Mimi, went to TJ Maxx for a good long while, and just enjoyed the wonderful weather. It was a great trip, and we can't wait to do it again! Next time, Daddy will come too.

We went for shopping and lunch in Benicia before the trip was over. It was a fun day, and Kerry caught this photo of me and my girl. Hey, Kerry? Maybe we should buy a vacation home in Benicia?!

Oh, you thought this post was done? Not yet!! We had two vacations in one, actually. Auntie Kiki drove back down to SD with us. The drive down took a little bit longer, but we stopped in Manhattan Beach to have dinner with Auntie Amy so that was a great break. Once we got home, we decided to dedicate some time to catching some rays. To the beach, we went!

This was the weekend of July 4th. On Saturday, we met up with Michelle P. and went to Moonlight Beach in Encinitas. It was full of happy holiday-ing people, and we were more than thrilled to join them!

Hello Watermelon!

Lot's of fun times with Auntie Kiki - here Maggie is giving kisses through the protection plastic we had to put up on the railing above the stairs.

This is what it looks like from the other side! So darn cute!

Whew! Are you as tired as we were after this whirlwind? It was a great time, and Maggie seemed to blossom from all of her new experiences. I swear she grew an inch or two! She was talking more, seemed more comfortable in new places more quickly, and just so happy! We're looking forward to lots of new adventures for Maggie when we hit the road again (well, okay, we're flying this time!) to see all of our friends and family in WA! We leave Thursday, so check back in a couple weeks for pictures and fun tidbits on Maggie's next summer vacation!

Aunty Amy's Pics!

So, although it wasn't completly fair to call Amy out on Maggie's blog, it did get the pictures to me quickly! Hee hee. Love you Ames!

Here are a few shots of Maggie hanging out with her Poppy and Aunty Amy, and of course, with her Dad! I wish I could have been around more that weekend, but was thankful for the help! What sucks though, is that Amy isn't in ANY of thes pictures! We'll make up for that with our visit to Martinez coming soon. Can't wait to spend a week in the sun with family and friends!

Cute little hair clip! We're in luck when she'll keep it in - it's so precious!

I think they are both updating their Facebook status to read: "Hanging with Maggie/Poppy is the best!"

Bread in hand? A true daughter o' mine.

There are some good iPhone games for the kiddos, but still! She's maybe addicted!!??

Our happy girl - probably laughing at how funny Amy is!

I was there some of the time! :)

This is my favorite!

 The simplest things...

Can be so fun!

Whew! That was so much fun! Now, it's time for bed.