Seattle

Our time in Seattle was short, but we got in two important things

The Ferry

And Ivars

If you visit Seattle you must do both of these things.  Ivars is right by the ferry dock and it is quite an experience to have a bird eat a french fry out of your hand.

Sequim

We drove to the coast for my Cousin Beth's wedding  (Congratulations Beth and Dave).  Tim flew into Seattle the morning of the wedding.  Somehow I didn't take a single photo at the wedding.  I think because all of my family was there we were just too busy.  It was the most complete gathering of Matter cousins that we could remember- just Gordy was missing.  We had a big family photo taken, I will have to try and get it from Beth and post it.

The kids did great in the car, again.  It is a long drive across the state, but we made it without any big stops.  I know a lot of people say the way to do a long drive with kids is to stop often and stretch out and run around.  That is not my experience.  Every stop seems to make them less able to stand being in the car.  TV was the trick for Mark- toys, food, and grandma works for Lilly.  I am looking forward to next year when Lilly will also be distracted by TV and we can make long drives easier.

After the wedding we went over to Sequim to visit my Auntie Su and her family.  Once again we were busy there and I didn't take any photos.  But we did take the kids to the beach, in hopes to tire them out, and I took some there.

Cherries and Elizabeth

My Friend Elizabeth came for a visit.  (She has a blog too, see Elizabeth Drinks Up on the right)  I am pretty lucky to have friends in my life who have been my friend forever.  Elizabeth and I went to preschool together, I guess that is when we met, but you would have to check with my parents if it was earlier.  We put a few boxes in the wagon and walked to the orchard.  Even thought it has been more than 15 years since we sold the orchard it is still weird to go there and have it not be ours.  

Mark rode is bike.  It is a little steep going down and he did a great job of controlling his speed.  I made grandma walk right by him because I remember getting going too fast, falling and sliding half way down, skinning all my exposed skin.

Lilly is 30 pounds now.  I think by next summer she is going to have to hike on her own legs.  The house in the background is the house my dad built when we sold the orchard.  I lived here durning most of High School.  It is really a beautiful house and Ricky Creek runs on the other side of it.  And it is for sale now if you are thinking of moving to the country.

Jim cut down a branch for the kids to pick from.  They thought that was pretty great until....

They decided they could climb the ladders.  

Even pie cherries were worth the climb for Mark.  He liked them- crazy kid.  If you have never had a pie cherry off the tree they are VERY sour.  It is the sour cherry with the sweet sugar that make a good cherry pie.

Grandma had to stop me from picking, we brought home 44 pounds.  We ate some then, Elizabeth made us a cherry crisp (yummy), Grandma canned the rest.  We came back home with a dozen or more jars of canned cherries.  

It was also reaspberry season while were where there.  We were picking 2-3 gallons of raspberries every other morning.  Some became salad dressing, some were frozen, but most were made into jam.  lots and lots of yummy jam :)

It wouldn't be a trip to KF without doing some work on the excavator.  Mark helped Grandpa move the logs into a pile.  Grandpa just added a thumb to his bucket and Mark was  good at using it to pick up and put down logs.

 Lilly got a couple of rides in too, but didn't do much work.

Cookie Neigh

Lilly has an obsession with Silver.  In the summer Silver goes up the hill to another pasture.  It's a bit of a hike to get there, but that didn't stop us from feeding horse cookies most days.   Every time we drove into my parents house, past Silver's winter house,  Lilly would say "no Neigh".  And then she would ask "cookie Neigh".

Welcome to KF

We made it.  And we had a great time.

What is wrong with this photo- the little one is walking and the big one is riding.

 Pancakes and yummy huckleberry sauce.

 Just a little excited this morning.

 Practicing driving the scout.

We talked with Lilly for a week or so before we got to KF about how we would be all done with diapers when we got there and Lilly would go potty in the potty.  And when we got there she got right out of the car and took off her diaper and promptly went pee in the potty.  I would love to say it was all easy after that, but it took a few weeks to get to almost all the time.  And those working on it weeks made a lot of laundry.

On the road

Grandma and I drove to Kettle Falls.  It is a LONG drive.  We left at 4 am which has hard since we were both recovering from being pretty sick.  About 3 minutes into the drive Lilly woke up screaming.  I was thinking "what are we doing".  Three years ago Lisa, Tim and I made the drive with 1 year old Mark- it went so well it took three years for us to try again.  Luckily this trip went very well.  I thought it might take us 3 days to get there by getting up early and driving during Lilly's nap- but we made it in 1.5 days.  

 We stopped in Buffalo WY after 6 straight hours of driving.  

We needed to relax:

 And Climb:

 And at 11 the pool opened!  The pool is massive and free and had this fun spray park area.  It may be free because it was unheated.  brrr. 

We stayed overnight in Bozeman MT.  The kids had a great time jumping around the hotel room- the adults were too tired to do much but watch.  Luckily no damage was done.  

Mom?

Riding the new bike at home

 So I was going through these photos with Tim over my shoulder and he would like to know why Lilly is playing in the street.  I said it must have been when Grandma was watching them :)

Going for a hike

We took a couple of hikes in the mountains.  

Mark was pretty happy to be just like his Grandpa.

 I am enamored with hiking through the aspens.  I always take a couple of photos when we go through a stand of them.  

 Stopping for lunch.  It was very beautiful.

 Grandpa gets a turn carrying Lilly.  This Mai Tie is the best carrier.  It is a Babyhawk brand that I bought when Mark was two months old.  It has has lots and lots of wear and you can barely tell.  I love how it fits great on anyone. 

 Just being a cutie.

 "There is dirt on my tummy"