Last Few Seattle Days

The rest of the time at Natalie's we mostly just hung out and let the kids play, which was great.  My parents popped in for a visit, so that was nice, too, and Natalie and Cameron were hard at work making tons of amazing Indian food for everyone.  

Craig flew out Saturday morning, but I'd decided to stay just a couple more days.  In hindsight, we should have all just flown together that day-- everyone was exhausted and ready to be back in their beds again.  But it's hard to know these things when you're planning!  Craig had changed his flight so he flew to Dulles so he could get our car.  The kids and I were still flying into Charlottesville, and I was VERY nervous about how our flight home might get screwed up, but everything on that end went incredibly smoothly.  Because of all the trouble they'd caused us, the airline had upgraded us to Economy Plus, which didn't sound like a very big deal at the time, but it turned out that those extra few inches of space made a HUGE difference, as did sitting in row 11 as opposed to row 38.  I really enjoyed not sitting next to the bathrooms!  And everyone was so happy when we were finally home.  What a wonderful trip!

I love this shot

You can barely see a sliver of moon disappearing behind the mountains

Colton and Camille each lost a tooth on our last day in Seattle!

Look at all that extra leg room!

What we didn't know, was that our next big adventure was just around the corner...!

Point Defiance Zoo

We got in super late to Natalie's (the ferries were running late-- if you're watching the sunset in Seattle in early July, it's probably after 9pm!), threw everyone in sleeping bags and tried our best to get a good night's sleep because the next morning we were going to the Point Defiance Zoo!  Tracy and Cora joined us, too, and we had a delightful time!  The weather was perfect, also, so you really couldn't ask for a better day!

Caleb and Claire crack me up!

Snack time!

At the entrance  

Selfie with an elephant!

Camille pointing to the tiger behind her

They brought this beauty out and Kendra gasped, "I LOVE clouded leopards!" I'd never even heard of a clouded leopard before!

This shot is so great it looks fake.  Yay, hammerhead sharks!  Yay for Craig getting the timing just right!

Camille reached into the touch pool and asked what something was and the zoo worker calmly answered, "That's a rock."  Camille will definitely carry out my dream of becoming a marine biologist!

Kendra thinks we should get something like this for our living room.  Who doesn't love a glass sphere filled with jellyfish?

Bentley says jellyfish are proof that aliens have visited our planet.  It's hard to argue with that-- they are absolutely bizarre.  But I like how Colton is mesmerized by them here!

Very excited by the sea lion

This poison arrow frog looked so fake to me.  I mean, I saw it moving, so I don't actually think it is fake.  But it was WEIRD looking.

There was a petting zoo with goats and one of them was named BENTLEY!

Near the end, Camille got tired.  And sultry.

We said a sad farewell to Tracy, then, and stopped by Panda Express on our way home.  It was Natalie and Cameron's anniversary, so they went out to dinner and we babysat for them.  It made for a happy day for everyone!

And finally, this may or may not interest you, but the first thing we saw at the zoo were a bunch of red wolf pups running around playing and it was SO FUN to watch!  I've never seen any zoo animal be that active, and we must have stood around watching them for a good 20 minutes!  They were so wild and athletic!

Bainbridge Island!

(Once again, these pictures are ALL out of order.  I'm so sorry!!!)

We left Sunriver on the 4th of July and headed to Seattle.  The drive was so fun for me-- every hour you'd pass another huge mountain.  I love Virginia, but our "mountains" are wussy and really not worthy to be called mountains at all.  These all still had snow on them.  In July!  REAL mountains indeed!  

Mt. Hood peaking out from behind the trees!

We settled in at my parents' house, and I sent Craig out to get some groceries.  The next morning we drove to Poulsbo to get doughnuts from Sluy's.  It's my favorite bakery ever.  And we ate them at Tracy's house and then went hiking around Gazzam Lake, which (other than all the whining) was delightful.

Unfortunately this cute museum is closed.  But the kids still had fun climbing on the octopus sculpture!

As you can see, Bentley was NOT HAPPY about this.  He kept claiming he wouldn't have eaten such a big doughnut if he'd known we were going to make him hike.  What a weirdo.  Eating big doughnuts is WHY I wanted to hike!

Tall trees!!!!

Craig just makes me laugh here!

Tracy and Adam very sweetly hosted the Big Cousins at their house for a couple nights!  It was a nice chance for them to get away from their little siblings and parents for a bit.

Nicole and Camille are bestest friends!

You gotta look closely here, but there are two bald eagles perched in the middle of this tree

Playing at Fay Bainbridge (while Bentley and Kendra took a golf lesson at Wing Point!)

Visiting the miniature donkeys next to Tracy's house!

Another little hike near Port Blakely led to this abandoned creosote mill

And I'd never even heard of the Labyrinth before!  But it was really cool!

Camille practices her meditating

And we all got ourselves new Bay Hay & Feed shirts (mine is a nightshirt which I just threw on over my clothes for this glamor shot!)

Heading to Seattle

Tractor rides with Uncle Adam are always a big hit!

I can't even say how much how I love the look on Claire's face here!

As I was taking a picture of that eagle sitting on the rock there, another flew into the picture!  I missed my calling as a nature photographer...

Ferry in front of Seattle.  There's a speck off to the left above the edge of the trees, which is that same bald eagle that had been sitting.

Colton also got into the meditating...

Bentley is expanding the colors in his wardrobe!

Lovely sunset on the ferry!

What I (apparently) did not take any pictures of included: swimming at Wing Point, having a barbecue at Tracy and Adam's with Kevin and Pam Hogan (!), the longest dinner ever at Isla Bonita, a much nicer dinner at Thatsa Some Italian Ristorante, take-out from Sawatdy, and the golf lessons that Bentley, Kendra, and Craig all took with the Wing Point pro.  We had a lot of fun staying on Bainbridge!  But we were also excited to spend some time at Natalie's house...!

Whitewater Rafting

 We went ahead and paid for the professional shots of the whitewater rafting. 

The way this tour works, you raft for a bit on some tiny rapids, then get out and scout ahead so you can see what you're in for.  It's fun because it builds the suspense a bit!

The three 10-year-olds, Caleb, Eliot, and Ryder (with Ian in the background)!  These guys always have the BEST time together-- how fun to be in a set of cousins like this!

My group-- I love how Camille and Nicole's helmets are barely peaking out in the middle front!

I loved sitting in the back like that-- I could see the big waves crashing on Craig and they NEVER hit me as hard.  It just made me laugh!

Here you can see the other side of the raft, Bentley, Samuel and Cameron.

This was the other raft-- I love Colton's little head in the front of this one!

  Everyone had a great time!  I was so glad this worked out!  (Ryder, who is watching me type, says about the experience: Awesome!)