*Washington*

Keo's babysitter is on vacation for two weeks and I figured that I may as well take a little vacation also! It was a pretty smart choice. :) Poor T did not have the time to take off so he got left behind, but I think that nine days without a single opportunity to wonder, "why are the boys being so quiet, what are they into now?" or worse, pondering the source of the crashing sound you just heard upstairs, really is a break too. We started off with the twelve-hour-that-google-said-was-only eleven hour trip to Spokane, Washington, my hometown. Upon leaving Southern Idaho and seeing the "Welcome to Montana!" sign, Jo yells, "YES! In your face, Idaho!!" Well I certainly hope Idaho learned its lesson for making the trip sooooo long, but I'm really not sure because Idaho did not respond to Jo's outburst and indeed, made a second appearance (much to his disbelief: "WHAT? How can we be back in Idaho??") when we crossed the panhandle into Eastern Washington.

This was really a rather indulgent trip for me. I visited several old friends, visited with my Grandma, saw my favorite Aunt in the whole wide world, got to see three of my four cousins on my side of the family and one on T's side, popped over to Seattle to see more family and friends, and let my kids play all the WII and PlayStation they ever wanted. They were, of course, in heaven. I didn't allow for any touristy things; I've already seen all that Spokane and Seattle have to offer, so I just wanted to hang out and relax. Honestly, how often do we go on vacation to not do anything? It was heavenly. I took the boys to three different lakes, and found that they have turned into little fish this summer. They were so happy and had to be dragged out of the water at the end of the day under threat of no video games back at Grandma's house.

Some things I learned:

1: I could go the rest of my life without ever hearing the Black Eyed Peas, "Boom Boom Pow" again. Turns out this is Keo's favorite song ever. He cannot be in the car without requesting, in his darling-and-so-very-over-indulged-adorable voice, "boom boom??" So...thirty six hours of car time...you do the math. He seriously could not go to sleep without his binkie, his ruff ruff (stuffed dog), and boom boom. Normal moms play lullabies for their babies. My kids' karate studio's elite team did a demo to that song for WorldFest last year, and when the sensei handed me the song, he said, "don't worry, it's the edited version" which I guess is pretty necessary for Black Eyed Peas. Anyway, never having heard the unedited version, I really liked the song. Until Keo decided he did too.

2: I'm a pretty bad binkie keeper. I went 0 for five on the trip. I don't know how I lost FIVE binkies in the course of nine days but I did. K, Keo did, but I guess if I'm honest, it's my fault.

3: I could happily live the rest of my life in Montana; it really must be *the* most beautiful state.
4: I have been very happy with my little 5-person car, have always figured that we don't need a bigger car unless we have a bigger family. This vacation started me thinking that a nice van/suv wouldn't be the worst thing in the world; the environment wouldn't suffer too much if we had a touch more space. Though I doubt even a freakin' Escalade would have been enough room to stop the boys' fights. (yeah, that whole 36+ hours in the car thing again...)

So, pictures. Just to warn you, this may not be the most interesting post ever, but wow we had fun and took a ton of pictures. Oh, and I've had a blast with the website picnik.com, editing these pics.

 

 I purposely edited this one with the "60's effect"

not that we are that old (close, but not quite), but it's been *twenty* years since i've seen my best friend from middle school, Andee. She happened to be visiting Spokane at the same time and it was such a treat to see her! I think her little guy is doing a dance in the picture, and that's Jo's head right above hers. We both ended up with busy little boys and we both love it!

The first lake we visited. It was so so so pretty.

After a lil' bit of Spokane, we jumped in the car and headed over to Seattle. I got to see my sweet sis for a couple of days. I also visited with my dear friends from high school. Randee has FIVE boys now and Jenny had her first baby that week! I even got to see my cousin who just moved to Seattle (I must admit I am a *touch* jealous of her :))

We went to Lake Washington for a picnic dinner. This lake is just beautiful, and we were so lucky to get Seattle weather at its best! We stayed with my parents, who were kind enough to find room for us in the middle of remodeling. Keo woke them at 4am screaming for his binkie, and they acted like it was no big deal. I have some pretty awesome parents.

I said I wasn't going to do anything touristy, but my mom had a ton of tickets to the Seattle Aquarium so we went on our last day there. It was so fun! I am partial to Spokane because I grew up there, but Seattle on a sunny day is hard to beat.

This is the front room in the aquarium, it was amazing. an entire, massive wall of fish.(you can see how big the room is by the reflection in the glass and this was one whole side of the room!)

Right after the aquarium, we headed back to Spokane, this time with my parents and Kel! It was a quick, lovely trip (Dad took the big boys in his car so it was just me, Mom, Keo, and a blessed repose from brother fights.)

We spent Friday at another lake, this one where our family spent pretty much every summer of my childhood. It was awesome, the kids stayed in the water pretty much the whole day and I even got off my bum and swam with them.

I also got to see another old friend from elementary school, Stephanie. It was great fun to catch up after so many, um, decades.

The last day there we visited with my Aunt, whom I hardly ever see. If I can be as good an aunt to my nieces as she was to me, I will be an *awesome* aunt! She is the most giving woman, she is kind and funny. Her honest, devout example of being a follower of Jesus Christ and her happy family were the reasons my own family joined the Church. I love her and miss her much.