November 5, 2021
Ammon and I really wanted to visit Washington State. It's where I grew up during my childhood years, and Ammon has never been there. What started as a trip for just the two of us, slowly morphed into a whole family vacation. I'm glad we did because we had so much fun! Today we checked Conner and Isaac out of school a couple of hours early and headed to the airport. We flew a direct flight into Seattle.
After getting seated on the plane, Emma starts looking in the pocket in front of her. She finds the barf bag, opens it up, turns to me and says, "Trick or treat!"
November 6, 2021
Today we went to Pikes Market. We walked around and sampled some fresh apple cider. Before leaving we debated how much "warm" clothes to bring. We ended up bringing pants and a light jacket. Once we got there we realized we should have brought winter coats for our Texas blood. But we still had fun!
That afternoon we drive to Seaside, OR.We wanted to visit the ocean, and this seemed like a fun spot! When we got there, we checked into our hotel, then decided we would go see the beach (before it got dark) and then head to a restaurant for dinner. The kids loved throwing rocks into the water. Emma hated how cold it was.
Daddy had to hold Emma most of the time because cold is NOT her thing.
As we were leaving the beach, the kids ran ahead of us to play on some big rocks. All of a sudden Ammon and I realized there was a big wave coming in and they were going to get wet. I ran to them and tried to get them higher on the rocks so they would stay dry...50% success rate. Caleb and Isaac's pants got soaking wet! Haha. So we ended up stopping of at the hotel to let them change pants before heading to the restaurant. It was an adventure!
November 7, 2021
The next morning we went to Ecola State Park and played at the beach again!
This might be the only picture outside that we have of Emma smiling. She did NOT appreciate how cold it was!
Then we headed back into Washington, through the mountains...
where it was snowing...
and into Yakima.
We stayed in Yakima tonight. We went to a park to let the kids play for a bit before getting dinner. The colors of the trees was amazing! We don't get this kind of colors in Texas! We also don't have soft grass; which is good for rolling down the hill!
We had energy to get out from spending half the day in the car...
For Dinner we went to the Miner's. The food was really good, but we waited over an hour for our food! Try doing that with 4 kids who are super hungry 😬
November 8, 2021
Today we drove to my hometown, the Tri-Cities! I wanted to go to places I remember from my childhood, so we went to a lot of parks!
This is Leslie Grove Park - this part of the Columbia River is where I remember swimming as a kid!
Next up, Howard Amon Park. All the toys are different from when I was a kid except for...
the elephant slide!
We drove around Richland for a while seeing our Cedar Ave house and my elementary school. I was amazed when sometimes I actually knew where we were at from recognizing my surroundings! I haven't lived there for 25 years!
When we lived in West Richland, we lived by the lakes. They now have a walking trail around the lakes, so we went and walked it. Ammon and I couldn't believe what an amazing neighborhood it is. Honestly, it's the kind of neighborhood we would love to live in! Larger lots (2ish acres?), no HOA, wide open spaces, a sports complex close by...it was beautiful!
Next to Flat Top! All the kids played on the playground, then Ammon, Caleb and Emma stayed there while Conner, Isaac and I climbed Flat Top! It was just as I remembered...2 steps forward, 1 step sliding back down in the sand! Haha!
That night we were all exhausted from playing so much and being in the sun all day, so we just relaxed at our hotel. Isaac likes to sleep shirtless, so it was really funny when Caleb came in, wearing Isaac's glasses and said, "Look! I'm Isaac!"
November 9, 2021
This morning we drove to Spokane. There were 2 things I remember about Spokane when I was a kid...any guesses?
The carousal where you try to grab the rings
...and the wagon slide!
Once we were there, I found other things that I remembered...
This is a goat statue and the mouth is a vacuum...it's a trash can...you put trash near the goats mouth and it sucks it up. We couldn't find any trash, so we let the kids do leaves. Why don't all parks have one of these? It makes throwing away trash so much fun that you can't find any on the ground!
We also spent time on the new playgrounds. This was one of the coldest days we had, and Emma was not having it. She stayed wrapped up in my jacket most of the time!
As we were heading back to our car, the kids loved playing in the leaves! They crunched under their feet and were beautiful colors....we don't get this in Texas! In fact, Isaac is learning about Autumn in school right now so he collected leaves on this trip to take back to his class and show them what changing leaves colors look like!
We had so much fun that we never stopped for lunch. Around 3:00 we headed to our hotel and decided to go out to eat for Linner. We took the kids to Golden Coral for the first time ever...Conner and Isaac said that "Golden Carl" is their favorite restaurant EVER because they got to pick out all their own food and eat as much as they wanted (especially of the desserts!).
November 10, 2021
This morning we drove back to Spokane where we flew home. We didn't get home til very late at night due to our flight leaving in the afternoon and the 2 hour time difference.
I loved this trip! I love spending time with my family like this...with "less responsibility". What I mean is I wasn't worried about dishes, and laundry and the messy playroom. I got to play and have fun with the kids. I'm not saying they never fought and were perfect angels. But I love making these amazing memories with them! And this trip in particular was super fun for me because I got to share with Ammon (and the kids) things I remember from my childhood!
November 11, 2021
We had a quick switch back into normal life...Today is Isaac's birthday! Happy 6th birthday! I had his presents ready before we went on vacation, and since it's an even birthday, I didn't have a birthday party to plan. I told Isaac he would need to pick something simple for his birthday cake/treat. He chose ice cream and brownies. He had a great day!
November 14, 2021
Often times I hear people talk about how Thanksgiving starts the busy holiday season. For our family, it's Halloween that starts the busy holiday season! With 2 November birthdays, every November flies by, but this year, with a vacation thrown in there too...what a whirlwind of fun and memories!
Happy 36 birthday, Ammon! You are the best Daddy and husband! We love you so much!
I made everyone wait while I checked to make sure I had taken good pictures. The past few birthdays, I've either taken no pictures or very blurry ones...so I was determined to get a good one this year!
November 18, 2021
Conner and Isaac both wanted to enter the school art competition (Reflections). I slacked off and we had to pull it off in one night. Conner wanted to do a photography entry and Isaac a 3D art. However, we realized the night before they were due, when we were pulling out the supplies to actually make the 3D art, that 3D art wasn't allowed. So painting was his back up plan. I don't remember what the kids wrote about their submissions. The subject was "I Can Change The World By..."
Conner wrote about riding bikes more and driving cars less and submitted this photo. Conner won at the school level. And then won again at district level. Meaning his photograph made it to State Reflections!
.JPG)
Isaac wrote about planting trees and submitted this painting
.jpg)
I'm proud of both of them for entering the competition, and vowed to myself to work on them earlier next year!
November 18, 2021
Today I got to go on a field trip to the children's museum with Isaac!
November 25, 2021
THANKSGIVING! We have some fun Thanksgiving traditions that we love doing each year. The first one is our Thankful Trees! Each day in November the kids get to write something they're grateful for and put it on their tree.
We also like to put up a tree (some might call it a Christmas Tree) and then make home made Thanksgiving ornaments to put on it!
I guess I didn't get a picture of the full tree, but here are the decorations we made! In a few days when we are ready to put our Christmas Tree...it's a quick switch over...take off the Thanksgiving decorations and wallah(!) our Christmas Tree is already up and ready to be decorated!
We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year. I had a few crafts for all the kids to do throughout the morning while waiting for our Thanksgiving Feast to be ready...
And then of course, the feast itself!
This year Ammon smoked one of the turkeys, and I made a cheeseball, homemade rolls and a Dutch apple pie.
After everyone left, we relaxed!
November 26, 2021
Since moving to Texas, each year we go camping the day after Thanksgiving for 2 nights. The weather it typically beautiful and it's a long weekend! This year we went to a new campground, Guadalupe River State Park with our friends!
It's a lot of work, especially on years we host Thanksgiving, but it's so much fun that we just keep doing it!
That night once it was dark, the kids were running around with flashlights. Caleb ran into a tree branch and cut his cheek pretty bad. Poor guy!
That night it rained. And rained. And we discovered that our 10 year old tent is no longer waterproof. It wasn't just the seams that leaked...the whole thing leaked. Around 3am there was standing water inside of our tent. The kids and I ended up hiding inside of Ammon and my double sleeping bag to stay dry while Ammon got our stuff in the van so that not everything would be drenched. Next we all got inside the van. It was a long morning.
November 27, 2021
By the time the sun started coming up, Ammon and I had decided we wouldn't be staying for the second night. We decided to just throw away our tent in the big dumpster across the street, since we wouldn't be able to use it again. We spent the morning exploring the state park before heading home.
Rock Angel
Now I'm trying to convince Ammon that a small RV would be a good replacement for our tent!
November 30, 2021
Letters to Santa!
