In October we took a road trip up to Washington for LDS General Conference weekend and also Salmon Days, which is held in Issaquah, WA, where Mike's sister and her family live.
We went to Seattle and visited Pike Place Market. I've always wanted to go there and it was neat to get to experience it all. I especially loved all the signage at Pike Place (some of which can be seen in the above image). I think my favorite of all the signs was the restroom sign (seen above, bottom right). It cracked me up, and is so true to life. :)
Going to Pike Place made me wish we were locals so I could buy all the yummy looking fresh produce.
We ate some DE-LICIOUS doughnuts! I'm so glad my friend told me about them or I never even would've seen them. The cinnamon ones were the best! So yummy!
And again with the produce...looks so delicious. Being around all this fresh produce makes me want to eat healthier. Oh yeah...if any of ya'all have great tips on how to do that, let me know. :)
And again with the signage! :) So fun!
I tasted some delectable salmon...mmmm mmmm mmmm I love me some good fish! And we got to see them throwing the fish firsthand. :)
And the flowers were incredibly beautiful and smelled A-MAZING! I especially fell in love with all the dahlias. They were sooo beautiful! Definitely a new favorite of mine.
These crazy kiddos pretty much slept THE WHOLE TIME we were at Pike Place. But I ain't complaining!
We bought some yummy berries and other treats from this dude and he had fun talking Mike's ear off.
Eli had fun playing on the big bronze pig out front.
And Sam didn't sleep like my crazy kiddos.
It was a super fun day at the market.
And we also enjoyed the view of the bay.
And the kids slept on. :)
We met up with Mike's best friend, Paul, for dinner. Paul was living in the Seattle area at the time. Evera's face in this picture cracks me up.
I don't even remember what made Evera upset--pretty sure Paul told him not to do something (he wasn't mean at all, but this boy is especially sensitive if anyone other than Mom or Dad reprimand him, and even when it's us, he gets pretty sad). I had to take pictures because WOW this boy has got quite the sad face.
Seriously, how can you not give in to that frown?! It gets me EVERY.TIME. And I think the best part of these pictures is how hard Mike is laughing at him. POOR KID. But seriously, his sad faces are the best.
Two cool guys with two pretty awesome kids.
It was fun to get to spend time with Amber and her kids. These two girls are pretty adorable. Morgan is such a responsible big sister, and baby Natalie is just a doll.
The kids had so much fun playing together. These next few pictures are just from one morning when the kids all the sudden started running around the kitchen like wild hooligans and were having SO MUCH FUN!
And then when the exhaustion set in, the kids played with baby Natalie. My kids are OBSESSED with babies! They LOOOOOVE babies, ESPECIALLY Baby Natalie.
Melia seriously hadn't stopped talking about Baby Natalie since the last time she'd seen her in May. She ADORES Baby Natalie and seriously thinks she's the cutest baby on the planet. (And she hasn't stopped talking about her since, either.)
We took a fun walk over to the Salmon Hatchery in Issaquah, just a couple blocks from Amber's house. It was a beautiful fall day in Issaquah.
Evera liked watching the salmon jump.
Aren't these two guys just so handsome?
And this girl is pretty darn beautiful too.
It was super fun to see the salmon jumping in the river. After birth salmon swim out to see. Once they've reached full maturity and are close to death, they swim back up the rivers to spawn where they were born. Isn't that amazing. The salmon try to jump up this waterfall to get back upstream to where they were born. Most of them do not make it up, or if they do, quickly get flushed back down. But every now and then you'll see one get away!
It was fun to also watch them jumping up the "fish ladder." They're pretty amazing fish! --And tasty too! ;)
That salmon is almost as big as Evera!
You can see tons of salmon swimming in the river.
I love this family of mine.
Mike went up to Vancouver, WA to visit his brother, Dave, and his family for the priesthood session, but the kids and I stayed in Issaquah. We took another walking field trip to Boehms Candies in Issaquah, inside what is called The "Edelweiss Chalet," which was built in 1956 and was the first Swiss chalet built in the pacific northwest. The kids had fun playing on the grounds and exploring the beautiful area.
I love that these two love each other so much.
And seriously, how cute is Baby Natalie?
Melia and Eli played together really well and had such a fun time spending time together. They also enjoyed their delicious chocolate covered strawberry creamies. Mmmm!
As did Evera...although this face I'm not so sure about. Brain freeze maybe?!
On the grounds of Boehm's Candies, is also the Alpine Chapel. It was so beautiful and quaint. The chapel is a replice of a 12th century chapel near Saint Moritz, Switzerland, and was built to honor mountaineers.
The kids had fun just running around.
How cute are these two 2 year old cousins?
That evening, Evera enjoyed helping Aunt Amber mow the lawn. :)
He followed her around with this little pink lawnmower the entire time she mowed.
We went to Evan's soccer game and Melia and Eli had fun playing together.
Cute cousins.
They even had fun playing around in their jammies on my blow up mattress.
I love these two cuties.
The next day we went to SALMON DAYS. Salmon Days is an enormous festival in Issaquah which celebrates the annual return of the salmon to Issaquah.
There were a ton of giant blow up bounce houses and slides, etc. which was all free and the kids had a blast.
Morgan and Evan had fun fighting eachother.
And Evera and Sam had fun watching.
And Melia loved some more on Baby Natalie. Did I mention she is OBSESSED with Baby Natalie?!
How cute are these two cousins?
Evera felt so big climbing to the top of the huge slide. :)
And he looked so tiny sliding down. :)
Melia had fun on the slides too.
They also had fun coloring pictures at one of the booths.
We waited in line
and then took a ride on this cute little train.
And visited the Salmon Hatchery once again. I think Evan is trying to eat the salmon.
And Melia slept through our second visit to the hatchery.
These cute boys played around.
And we had to take a special trip to visit the Honey Buckets--which apparently are Eli's favorite thing. I dunno. Morgan's expression says it all. WHATEVER!
My crazy kiddos had fun getting their picture taken in the recycling truck (sounds pretty classic-Washington-state to me)!
And we played a little at the playground before going back to Amber's house for bedtime.
That night the kiddos fell asleep in my bed and I found them snuggled up like this. I kept moving Evera off of Melia but within just a minute or two he'd be right back in this position on top of her. I guess he just wanted to snuggle his sister. :)
I love those two!
And this was our view on our way out!
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