Washington, as always, was beautiful and, as always, I had a chance to see my older sister, Melissa, and my parents. As a bonus, my brother's family trip to visit our parents overlapped with mine and I got to see them too. It's always so good to be with family. I got there around 11:00 Saturday morning and spent Saturday-Tuesday with my sister Missy. The first evening there I got to see one of my two best friends from high school, Lani, and catch up on the last 20 years or so. Lani is such a beautiful person and I'm glad I got the opportunity to catch up with her. The same evening my kids went to see Incredibles 2 with their friends. The kids LOVED it. Kenzie said it focused a lot on the importance of family. Sunday we attended church with Melissa and her family and Sunday evening Rick's family came up and we played Psych. Monday we went shopping a little and just hung out. I went running in Washington and couldn't believe how well I could breathe. If my tailbone hadn't been hurting so bad (yes, I broke it again when I fell out of my duckie in the river here) I think I could have run for 10+ miles. Tuesday Mom and Dad came down and picked us up to bring us up to Anacortes. On the way up I met up with my Young Women's leader from my youth, Sister Anderson. Again, she is such a beautiful person and I feel blessed to have someone like her in my life. I got to meet her two little great grandchildren and I was impressed with how strong the bond was between them and Sister Anderson and how excited they were about life. Wednesday we had an opportunity to go whale watching with my parents. It was an awesome experience and I highly recommend that anyone visiting the Seattle area go and do this. I tried to capture some pictures but after an hour in of watching the whale and not catching anything, I gave up. I did catch this on camera though:
My mom caught the following pictures.
This is Jake, Kenzie and me getting ready to board the boat.
Here's another one of Jake, Kenzie and me about to board the boat with my dad in the background already on board. I look like I'm frowning here, but I was really trying to just get on the boat before all the other passengers got mad at us for taking pictures...and even though I look angry, I can't get enough pictures of my parents with the kids. So, since Dad's in it...I'm putting it in.
Here's a few she captured of the whale.
Mom more patient than I am and even though you can't tell how big the whale is, it's amazing she caught these pictures. It was really hard to be ready with your camera when the whale surfaces. Good job Mom! She also caught this cute one of Jake and Kenzie. Jake's hair looks a little funky on this whole trip because of the mohawk that Brad gave him before we left...so no, he doesn't have a comb over and he's not going bald. Brad only left his top hair when he cut the mohawk.
That night, after dinner, we visited our favorite park, swung on our favorite swings....
and ziplined on our favorite zipline...fun and free.
And on our way home saw the famous Washington slug. I used to think that slugs looked like poop. Really, they kind of do.
The next day we went to the beach with Grandma and Grandpa and enjoyed walking along the shore. I caught a picture of Mom and McKenzie walking together without my Mom knowing. She hates pictures of herself but I will treasure these pictures forever.
And then there's Kenzie by the shoreline. There's just something about water and McKenzie that makes her happy. I feel like she should be singing the song from Moana here...See the line where the sky meets the sea....You know how it goes. Don't pretend you don't.
And, I got mom to take a selfie with Kenzie and me...another rare picture I will have forever. And yes, it is worth it even though we are all squinting with the sun in our eyes.
Here's a picture I caught of Dad and Jake making a sand castle while we were walking down the beach.
Wish I could have caught my Dad's face too.
At night I captured my Dad's magical yard that he sets up with all his solar lights. He says they remind him of little fairies.
To me it looks like Christmas year round. I love the lights. Dad really does have a beautiful yard. He works hard to keep it green and lush.
Final day was low tide at the beach. I didn't know you were supposed to get there an hour before low tide so you can see all the sea creatures. We went at the hour of low tide. So most of the creatures looked dead. McKenzie thought that they were all dying and was determined to put them all back in the water and I had to remind her that they know how to survive at low tide and probably was hurting them more by trying to put them back at the water.
We think this was a sea anemone but as we are not marine biologists we weren't 100% sure.
Kenzie says to describe it as squishy and flacid but we didn't touch it so I don't know how she would know.
We did see a starfish
and a lot of crabs.
Both of those creatures may have been dead. I'm not sure.
Finally we saw this and we weren't sure what it was...
Maybe a jellyfish? Feel free to correct me on any of the sea creatures. Again, I am no marine biologist and won't claim that I know more than you.
I did have a little spat with an older local neighborhood man that got upset when I ended up (accidentally) on the private drive to some condos. I was trying to turn around and get out of the road and he started honking at me. I pulled over, he kept honking. I got back on the road, he kept honking. So I finally got out of the car and thought I would politely explain to him that I was just trying to turn around and ask him to please stop honking. Instead he started yelling at me and I probably reacted poorly and then he got out of the car, spit in my face and slapped me. Really, that happened. I was in total shock, sized him up and thought I could probably beat him up but restrained from reacting physically and just got back in my car. He eventually let me turn around. Wierd, right?I probably should have reported him for assault.
That same day we headed up to Leavenworth to watch the Sound of Music put on by a local theater group. I loved it. It's been a while since I've watched it live. I was sad as I left the following Saturday to return back home. It seems like I never have enough time to visit as much as I would like. Thanks Mom and Dad for the great visit! Love you!
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