La Conner and the Tulip Festival

For the Mothership's birthday, we hit the road to find SPRING. To see if it truly exists. It was supposed to rain all weekend. We were so lucky. It sprinkled all the way there. Thankfully, every time we got out of the car it was dry. It was pretty gloomy. Many dark, bad pictures.

The Tulip Festival runs through the month of April. It's located is about 1 hr north of Seattle, in beautiful fields of the Skagit Valley. Very picturesque. Snow in the foothills, and buds below.

Most of the flowers were just peeking out. It's been pretty cold and they were a bit shy.

In the usual swing of things you can see fields and fields of nothing but COLOR. We just saw several smaller fields of daffodils. The brightest gold you've every seen. Maybe that was just the gloomy sky making them pop.

"NASTY JACK'S" THE COOLEST ANTIQUE STORE AROUND

Our first stop was the tiny town of La Conner. It was first settled in the late 1800's but still only has about 760 people living there today. Gorgeous old homes are everywhere. Many beautiful old farmhouses too, on the outskirts.....and churches! We saw many! For a town so small.

This is the Quilt and Textile Museum. So sweet. So sweet, we got out of the car, walked up the yard, and almost made it inside. I just imagined some little Old Betty's watching you. Making sure you didn't poke, sneeze, or pull on anything.

"CITY HALL-Exactly the same Since 1890" maybe

Tulip time! We found an information booth that gave us a map of the well known farms that had things to see and do. A few of these places you had to pay a little admission to get in. We unfortunately paid admission to the wrong one. We went to (kid you not!) Tulip Town. Sounded promising at the time. They did have a fountain, windmill, and a pretty little groomed garden with quite a few different varieties. Then you could walk out down a little lane with several rows of about 4-5 different colored blooms.

I was happy to get up close and personal with some. After leaving Tulip Town, we drove right by the one that we kicked ourselves for not seeing first. Maybe next year. Maybe there'll be sun!

It was so windy and cold, there weren't a lot of picnic areas. In the middle of tulip land we pulled off next to a daffodil field.

After a lovely wind blown day we headed south to Scott & Mercedes' for the birthday bash. Scott made a delicious meal for the mother.

So good...I didn't take a picture, so you wouldn't be jealous. I'm sorry it was for the best.

Dinner was followed by these little tasty bites. A new phenomenon in the cake world. Cake Pops. Cupcakes, even smaller. I'm going to make "Cake Dots", and be a millionaire.

H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y M O M M Y

Spokane

Since Jeanette and I had a few days of for Presidents Day, we decided to pay the Dahles a visit.(Travis too) We were so happy that they moved back to Washington from Flagstaff. It's too bad that they live clear on the other side of the state! Sheesh!

I have only ever been through Spokane on a train and driving through it on I-90. I've always wanted to stop to check it out. From the freeway there are so many brick buildings including several Catholic churches that look like they are a couple hundred years old.

This is Spokane's court house. Looks like a Disney castle doesn't it?

Saturday we spent touring the city. The first place we stopped was "Brown's Addition". It was THE place to live for Spokane's elite who made millions in mining.

After Brown's Addition we drove back downtown to River Front Park. I had no idea that Spokane had a river, let alone one that ran right through downtown. This Radio Flyer slide was so fun. I love finding SUPERSIZED things. Especially things that are taller than Travis. He can walk right under this wagon.

Family minus baby. Cambree fell alseep in the stroller. It was so cold I don't know how she did it! Mallori had all the fun for her!

This one is CRAZY. It still baffles me. We were just walking away from the river, after admiring the usual kind of ducks when Jeanette and Travis called us back. Up came this enormous goose/bird/turkey/duck thing. I have never seen anything like it in my life. Not even a picture of one. He is HUGE! He must weigh about 20-30 lbs.

Even more surprising was that there was an island in the middle of the river and water falls on either side. I never found out why it's called Canada Island.

We went to this place called Tomato Street for lunch. Let me just say that I really don't like a lot of Italian food. I'm pretty picky. I don't even like spaghetti. This place was AMAZING. I'd be in trouble if I lived close by. They just have one in Spokane and another in Coeur D'Alene, ID. It looks like a huge chain kind of place, but its not!

Kate's birthday was the next day, so we made them bring her dessert. I'm so glad they don't sing! Another reason to love them. They bring out this awesome candle and a bowl of brownie ice cream goodness!

Yet another surprise. For some reason I had no idea they had a Temple in Spokane. A very happy surprise. Nearly every trip I go on I get to see one. It's pretty rare that there isn't!

H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y K A T E!

We had such a fun day. We went to church and heard Miss Mallori say the 3rd Article of Faith in Primary then took off through the "country" to see the Temple, put the kiddos to bed and played with the Wii, had delicious Cafe Rio-like pork for dinner, homemade strawberry birthday cake, and ended with watching Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Monday we crammed in as much fun as we could. We didn't want to go home!

We'll for it to warm up a bit before we venture back to Spokane. The drive home over the mountain was a scary, white out, slick one. Without anti-lock brakes to boot! But still worth it!

I love this picture. Getting "Geepus" (GPS, hehe) ready to go with Kate and Miss Mal waving goodbye!

Snoqualmie

We haven't been on any sort of road trips in so long. Since Mom had the day off, we decided to go on a drive after church. We headed north of Seattle, made a loop east through wine country, then south towards Snoqualmie. We didn't get out hardly at all. It was after dusk when we got to the Falls. It was so windy and COLD. We quickly snapped a few pictures and ran back to the car. Made it home in time to make Valentines and bake cookies before bed.

VANCOUVER 2010

Since it's been 1 yr this last weekend since the Closing Ceremonies, I thought it might be time to blog about our trip there. Why not, Eh?

When they announced, way back when, that the Winter Olympics were coming to Vancouver. I thought....no way am I going to fight my way through the crowds. The WHOLE world will be there.

When it came down to it.... it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Right in our backyard. Jeanette and I decided to go VERY last minute. We were the only ones with passports and it was the very last weekend. I love being spontaneous. We had no event passes or anything. We just thought we'd go enjoy every second.

We just went for the last Saturday. The day before the closing ceremony. It was crazy to just drive into another country. Never done that before. Someone else has either driven or we've taken the ferry. It was a little nerve racking. I obeyed the speed limit exactly. Just after the border crossing, there was a big tourist building...thing. We stopped and talked to some officials who gave us all kinds of maps and advice. Thank goodness. We parked at a huge casino. It even had the subway station right there. So easy. We bought a day pass and we were on our way. It was about a 10 min ride into the city. The first place we stopped was at the torch. We stood in line for at least 45 min. That was just to get a better, more picturesque view without the giant chain link fence in the way. It was awesome. You could feel the heat radiate from it.

After the torch, we walked around downtown. We stopped at a crepe shop for lunch time ....deliciousness. We also poked our heads into a few souvenir shops. Prices were OUTRAGEOUS! We're not big on souvenirs anyway.

Many countries had what they called "houses" places you could go in and learn a little about their culture. We were only able to find the Canada house. Inside they had all the history of their Olympians, and an Olympic ice skater signing autographs. Wahooo! This gentleman was Emanuel Sandhu.

Being new to this whole Olympic experience I had no idea what these pins were about. Every place you went, almost, they gave you a pin. That's where we got most of our souvenirs, and they were FREE. Sweet. We have a Canadian flag pin, and a pin from Manitoba. Not much compared to a lot of people parading around.

Toward evening we made our way to Granville Island. There was this little home decor store called "Benedict's". They weren't too nice. They were trying to close up. Shame. I really wanted to buy something from Benedict's and hand them my card

We finally found a restaurant that was not so crowded. It was awesome. It was while we were there that the Canadian hockey team won the gold. And rightly so! The whole place was on their feet, on the tables, cheering and screaming! Then came the national anthem and every one was singing. We sang as much as we knew. It was the perfect way to end the night.

It was a long night after that. Slowly making our way home. I got so tired, we stopped at a few rest stops and finally mozzied in at about 4 am. Ahhhh beddddd!

Loved this sign. Loved being in a country that had everything in English and French.

Mt Rainier

We actually started our at Northwest Trek. When we left there, in the late afternoon, we thought, "Hey, we're SO close to Mt Rainier, let's just go!" I've never, ever driven there. I've hiked around the mountain many times. But to drive....never have.

Pulling into the park there were so many trees. After a while you think, "where is this mountain?" It was getting late, and it was Fall. I hoped we might be able to see something before dusk.

And then..... there it was in all it's majestic beauty! We turned off the road and got out just to stare. I love this mountain. I feel lost when I can't see it. After long trips away from home, I love flying over on our descent into the airport. It's like a giant welcome home present.

I could stand here all day!

An old tour bus that used to take passengers around the park

A tree trunk that is older than the founding of our nation! Amazing! The brown plaques have different dates in history that this tree, in it's life, was around to "see". I should have written some of them down. Pretty fascinating.

On the way out of the park was this very cute little lodge. Very tricky to slow down for. We passed it the first time at 50 mph. It was there and gone in the blink of an eye. It was the only place to eat for miles. A warm yummy dinner, on a chilly fall night.


We didn't get to stay and explore very much at all. We definitely need to return when the weather gets a little better!

We survived the road to Hana

Does a road trip from 2006...in Hawaii count? Absolutely! The truck was filled with Benedicts!
It was a long and windy one. About 3 hours if I remember right. Full of waterfalls, bumpy roads, and gorgeous ocean views.

Taking a break. Mom and her crutches! She won best souvenir. She took home a broken ankle. Lesson learned...don't turn your back on the ocean!