Washington/Oregon Trip

The boys' Grandma bought a house in Washington last year, and invited us to come visit her. Katie actually took the kids there a week beforehand, and then I flew in by myself to take over the boys.

Finn loved showing me around, especially telling me all about his chicken coop duties.

On my first day there, we decided to use the kayak. Grandma hadn't warned us about the mud at the shore, and we were quickly sinking in knee deep, Finn even lost a shoe that we would never find again.

We eventually made it on the water, while my friend Allison, who had flown in from Michigan to join us on this trip, stayed on the shore with Finn.

He is such a dog lover!

Grandma was showing him eagles from the porch.

The weather was so perfect, and I loved playing soccer with the kids on the grass on our first night there.

Katie had set up an obstacle course for them in the woods, but that activity was pretty short lived.

The next day, Allison, the boys and I, drove an hour to go to Seattle. I had been there many years ago, and the boys had just recently been with Katie, but claimed that they like it there, so we were all excited to go.

Lunch with a view!

I definitely wished once or twice during this day that we had brought a stroller for this lazy 7-year old. He is getting so heavy!

After exploring the pier, we stopped at Pike's Place Market and the kids showed us the best location to get a smoothie.

I had actually never been to the gum wall, so this was a first for me.

We rented some scooters to get to the space needle, and it was so fun cruising around the city with them.

We had found a bookstore at Pike's Place, and Fox had to get books. It's definitely a hobby I will always support.

The boys hadn't been up the space needle and were so nervous about it.

Fox was more scared than Finn, and would not get onto this platform.

This sweet boy really wanted this as a souvenir, but then found a key chain that he thought Katie would like, and bought it instead. I thought it was so sweet and thoughtful of him, and he couldn't wait to give it to her the next morning.

We found a playground right next to the space needle and the boys had fun for a good while, before we drove home.

We stopped at Jimmy Johns for dinner and Finn just wanted this bread haha.

The next day we went on another roadtrip, this time 3 hours south to Portland, Oregon. I loved visiting these falls on the way, it was so pretty.

I definitely got my exercise in on this trip!

Once we were in Portland, we checked into the hotel and then went to dinner. Finn found this giant tree branch and dragged it around for a mile back to the hotel. I told him we had to keep it outside the hotel, but when we left the next day, he insisted we would take it home (to Grandma's house).

Fox rarely holds hands with me anymore, and I'm so grateful Allison was able to snap this picture while it was happening.

The hotel had an indoor pool and hot tub, which we all enjoyed before going to bed.

The next morning we left to explore the biggest book store in the country, Powell's City of Books. I could've stayed in there for hours.

We found another playground on the way to the hotel.

And there's the stick again. We had to pick it up at his resting place from the night before so we could take it with us...haha.

Our next destination was the Rose Garden in Portland. The boys found some squirrels and were trying to touch them.

Sweet brothers!

Portland wasn't very exciting for us, but I'm glad we went and crossed another state of our list.

More playground fun while the weather is nice. We still have two more months of summer in Phoenix, where it's almost impossible to be outside, so we were enjoying it while we could.