All Hail to Washington

Since we couldn’t get enough driving the last time we went to Washington; Rob and I drove out again Thursday after work. The occasion? Paige’s blessing of course! We arrived at our rest stop (thanks Aaron and Brit!) about 1:30am Friday morning, and then continued on to Federal Way at 9am. After driving through some absolutely gorgeous farmlands and mountains, we reached our destination by 12:15pm Friday afternoon. Mom, dad, Sav, and Mason had flown in first thing that morning.

We started immediately to Snoqualmie Falls. The falls were amazing and there were sooo many flowering bushes everywhere. Friday night our friends Diana and Travis came over so we chilled at Lyd’s apartment and had a lot of good laughs (while Rob was exploring the city trying to get Mason to fall asleep…).

Saturday was TONS of fun! We went to this place called Northwest Trek. It’s a giant forest with a lot of wildlife; kinda like the Yellowstone of WA only w/o Old Faithful. We went on a tram/train ride through the forest. We saw black tailed deer (different from what we have here in UT/ID); elk, big horn sheep, mountain goats, geese, ducks, swans, and bison! Many of the herds had babies and they were sooo cute! We saw so many things I have never seen out in the wild before. The best part was Mason though; he went absolutely NUTS! Every time we saw an animal he would start kicking his little legs and his arms would start this propelling motion and he would start yelling. hahahaha! He was SOO excited to see the animals!!! I cannot believe how fun it is to have a baby at this age who can finally understand things and really start to appreciate what is around him. Case in point, we went to see some beavers and otters in another part of the forest. You can watch them through glass in an observatory. One of the beavers must have gotten use to people over the years because we put Mason against the glass and the beaver came up and put his paws against Mason’s hands on the glass and looked at him for a moment then did a black flip and swam around and then came back. Mason was giggling up a storm!! There is no sound on earth as beautiful as a baby giggling. He thought it was the coolest thing in the world. We also got to see some wolves, bears, coyotes, foxes, and mountain lions; pretty much anything you can find in the west.

Unfortunately, mom and dad got sick about the time we were headed home. Savannah had been a little sick the day before, but these guys were full-blown. I won’t go into details, but it wasn’t pleasant. On our way home Rob, Dad, Mason and I stopped at the ocean. You can’t be by an ocean and not stop to see it.

That night Lyd, Nick, Rob, Mason and I met a bunch of friends at Black Angus for some great food and laugher, and some horrible service; we were there for two hours!!! Lyd realized she had picked up what mom and dad had on our drive home. What is weird is, I can honestly only remember maybe one time growing up that dad or mom was sick; and the only time I remember Lyd ever being sick is when she had the chicken pox; we just don’t get sick in our family!

Sunday was the blessing and Paige looked absolutely beautiful in her little islet dress my mom had made her; her little white booties, and the big white bow on her head. Nick gave a wonderful blessing and I was so grateful I got to be there. We had a luncheon and Rob proceeded to beat two kids and their grandmother at a game of Monopoly that lasted three hours. He loves the game!

Sadly the time in Federal Way had come to an end. Below is the only complete Day family picture in existence; and since I’m the one who took it, it did not turn out very well. haha!

We had such a blast and I can’t wait until I can go back again to see my little niece and little sister.

The next stop in our vacation was Richland, WA at Aaron and Brit’s. Mason was with us and he had so much fun getting to know his cousins. She does a much better job with pictures and writing so I’m just going to add the link to her blog for that part of our trip.

http://stevens1007.blogspot.com/2010/06/fun-visit.html

Tuesday morning we had to say our good-byes. It was a good time had to all. I must say that Mason did a wonderful job traveling for so long, and did not get upset until about the last 45 minutes or so. After a 10 hour day, I don’t blame him though~! Thanks to all of our families who made the trip possible and so much fun!