Washington!

Caleb and I just got back from a couple weeks in Washington state. Unfortunately, Chris is wrapping up the summer semester and was unable to come. But he was able to get a ton of stuff done for school and work, so that is good. But we missed him tons!!

But Caleb and I had such a blast! We got to stay in a palace on the hill (a.k.a my brother's family's palace). We stayed with my brother Kerry and my sister-in-law Christy and their three cute kids (although they're not really kids anymore!). My sister, Kaylyn, also lives fairly close so we spent lots of time with her too. My dad was able to come up for a few days too. How could we not have tons of fun?!?!

My family has lots of July/August birthdays, and we were able to celebrate 4 while we were there. Here is Caleb helping my brother blow out his candles. (Hmmm...there sure are a lot of candles on that cheesecake... :)



We went swimming, to the park almost every day, miniature golfing, and of course played tons and tons of games. This time the favorites were Rage (a VERY fun card game and appropriately named) and Settlers of Catan, although we still fit in tons of others. Oh, and what's a visit with family without eating out?!?! A TON!

Growing up we were always playing games in our backyard. One of our favorites was croquet. So of course we had to break out the croquet and play a few "friendly" games. :)



The weather was a bit colder than I expected, but a nice break from the Texas heat! I was surprised by how early it got light in the mornings--it was fairly light by 4:30a.m. The first couple nights we were there Caleb woke up at 5am and must have thought it was daytime. We had a great view from our room with a balcony and at 5am Caleb was exclaiming, "Oh wow! Mom! Trees! Tall trees! Oh wow!" So after that we had to cover up our great view and keep it dark and had no more problems with early risers. :)

My niece Kathryn was in this awesome dance festival put on by like seven area stakes. It was awesome! And Kathryn did a great job! And of course, Caleb enjoyed every moment of it too. Here is sample of how much Caleb liked it:

He was so funny because he was trying to imitate each of the different dances. When they were dancing and clapping he was dancing and clapping, if they turned in a bunch of circles, he turned in a bunch of circles. When the crowd cheered, he would bow and say thank you--he was convinced everyone was clapping for him.

We were also able to attend my niece Karalee's baptism. We very much enjoyed it and it was very special.

Caleb was spoiled ROTTEN. Ok, we both were.

Unfortunately, I didn't take very many pictures, but my brother promised to send me some of his. So when I get those, I'll post them too.