Washington part 2

We decided to go on a hike on Saturday. So we hiked a bit of the ways around Liberty Lake. The scenery was incredible.

Daddy told everyone to smell this tree. He told them it would smell like almonds. Sure enough it did. :D

James smacked a large mushroom with a stick and it squirted mushroom juice on Natalie. Luckily she didn't start hallicunating...

The sun was shining on these dead ferns in the meadow and it was just WOWZERS beautiful.

Emma bequeathed her bunny hat to Natalie. I told her to keep it forever and ever! ;D

Have a small rest and snack,

We hiked about 5 miles, but Emma did awesome.

James spent a lot of the hike running back and forth looking for fish in the nearby stream.  I did warn him about Bears...

James being Sasquatch.

We finally reached our destination, one of the oldest Cedar Groves.

The light was really neat. It was like being in the redwoods.

yep, I was there too.

we all made it back safely. Aftewards the kid's played at the park near the lake and we ate sandwiches. We went back to the motel and let the kid's all swim in the pool. We ended the day at Taco Time stuffing our face with Tacos and empanadas.

Washington in October!

The kid's did so well on our trip to Yellowstone we decided it was time to try a trip up to Washington to see Natalie!

We have not been able to go for several years because of babies and pregnancies and money and weather and every reason under the sun.

So we were super grateful to be able to all go up there together this year and to be able to see Nat.

I will admit the drive was super long, but we stopped at had lunch and got ice cream cones for the kids along the way. It was fun to travel down memory lane and the October colors were just gorgeous. It couldn't have been prettier. I took hundreds of pictures from our car as we sped down the highway. I knew they wouldn't be focused, but I just couldn't resist. :D

We aligned our visit so we could go to her high school football game and watch her cheer on their team. GO BEARS! ;)

The Skinny Buffalo was still perched upon the big hill.

 FOurth of July Pass, When you go over this pass if feels like you're driving off the edge of the world. Super scary in the winter.

 Happy to be together again!

 I went to the store to buy Ellie a hat and Lauren a coat and came home with the strangest bunny hat for Emma. She loves it, I hope to lose it very very quickly.

 and THEN it was MINI CHEER night and 200 little cheerleaders descended upon the track and that was the end of getting any pictures of Natalie or trying to see her through the crowd. It was a mad house of spoiled little girls.

SO we told Natalie goodbye and found Barry and Owen and left. It had been a very long drive and a long day so we needed a good night's sleep.




Owen was definitely ready to say goodnight.

Top of Utah Marathon 2017

Barry got to run the Top of Utah Marathon this year.

He has wanted to run a Marathon in a race for years, but hasn't been able to, because of injuries.

This year was the year!

We came down to Logan for the weekend.
I dropped him off early in the morning to be bused up to Hardware Ranch. Then went back to Grandma's to pick up the kids.

(On a side note, the night before Lauren jumped off Grandma's stairs onto the exercise tramp and then face-planted it on the floor with her nose. There was a lot of blood and her nose swelled up like a turnip. We had a rough night, but her nose looked tons better in the morning.)

We picked out a spot on the course to cheer him on. Since we didn't really know when he would run by we sat and waited for quite a awhile....

 LOok! at this pretty house around the street from where we waited.  Love the crazy flower baskets.

 Owen helped the local residents with their landscaping. He enjoyed it a little too much....

aka

 Aka Sharp Tooth!

 Here he comes!

 Let the cheering begin!!!!

 Unfortunately, Barry looked terrible and was going very slow. But we cheered him on all the same, and ran over to the finish line to watch him finish.

 Full body cramps.
 Barry's mom encouraging him.

Even though the race didn't go as well as Barry had hoped. He did awesome and got a great time!
We were all very proud of him
3 hours 30 mins. It took him almost 20 minutes to do the last couple of miles, so he was disappointed about that.

 awards ceremony

 Barry places 5th in his division!!!

Congratulations!!