Northwest Trek

I haven't blogged in quite a while, so this is one of 4 posts I've done today. As you'll read about in the next post, Jonathan's parents went on an Alaskan cruise and left from Seattle. They docked in yesterday and were able to spend yesterday and today with us before flying back to Idaho. We took them and the kids to Northwest Trek, a zoo-type park that has animals indigenious to the northwest area. I think we enjoyed it more than the kids, but oh well. We walked around some exhibits then took a tram ride through a free-roaming area. I'm so glad I had the long lens because most of the animals in their exhibits were far away. The first thing we saw was this gray wolf.

Dean reading up on the animals

Grizzly Bear

The tram ride was cool because a lot of the animals were right next to us so we got to see them up close.

Interesting fact about bison: see that huge hump on his back? That is all muscle, and without it, bison would not be able to hold up their huge heads. I thought you'd all want to know.

Dean enjoyed actually riding the "train" more than seeing the animals. Whatever.

Herd of buffalo

Grandpa tried his best to keep Dawson to behave, too bad it didn't work!

Jonathan and his Mom.

The absolute best part of the day was visiting the Wetlands. We saw beavers and otters. The beavers were very friendly and came right up to the glass by the kids' faces. They loved it!

They were screaming and laughing, it was really fun.

National Night Out

I don't know if anyone of you out there celebrated "National Night Out," but we did. Our community put on a little carnival to promote community safety and such. It was pretty fun. They had bouncy houses, balloons, this little circus train and free food.

Dean climbed all the way up the ladder to go down the slide, but as soon as he got to the top and realized how high it was, he just climbed back down.

Yes, Dean is wearing pajamas. And yes, they are a little too small. Wearing pajamas out of the house is an almost daily occurrance, something I'd rather not fight him about.

The kids got balloons which they loved, but Dawson didn't want his tied around his wrist, he just wanted to hold it. Great idea.

So naturally, it ended up in the sky.

Jonathan got smart and tied the next one to his shoe.

Jonathan's parents were able to go on an Alaskan cruise this past week (lucky ducks!) and since they left from Seattle, they came in the day before and we took them around Seattle and to a Mariner's game. Here we are at Pike's Place Market.

I chatted it up with the "tin man," well not really since he doesn't talk. I talked, and he made funny noises.

Mariner's game. They lost, of course. Not a great season for these guys.

On a final note, we finally got Dawson a big boy bed. He absolutely loves it!

Our stressful, crazy, HOT, but fun trip to Idaho

Before we start with the pictures, I should probably explain the title. We took a road trip to Idaho a few weeks ago so Jonathan could attend his 10-year high school reunion. Most of the trip was a blast, it was just getting there that was the stressful, crazy, and HOT part. The trip was going fine for about 2 hours (this is usually a 10-hour drive), until the air conditioner stopped working. Yikes! I honestly don't know how people travelled back when cars didn't have air conditioning, it was terrible! So we drove another hour and a half to Tri-Cities where we stopped at a Toyota place so they could check out the car. We sat there for 2 hours while the children went absolutely bonkers in the waiting room. They mis-diagnosed the problem and said they didn't have a part for whatever they thought it was, so they sent us on our way. We drove a little while longer, still with no air conditioning, until our fan belt snapped and the battery light came on. We had no idea what to do, so we thought maybe we could make it to the next town.

After talking to Jonathan's mother, we decided to turn around. We got off the freeway at a rest stop to turn around and the car died. Talk about tender mercies in the midst of a trial! It was bad enough that the car completely died, but at least we were at a rest stop with shade and bathrooms. We can now get to the pictures. Here we are waiting for a tow truck to take us back to Pendleton to figure out what is wrong with the car.

In order to park in the shade, we had to park right next to the dumpsters. That meant flies. Oh goody.

Dean was in total awe of the tow truck

The kids thought being in the tow truck was the greatest thing ever.

I'm just trying not to cry.

Our tow truck guy was definitely heaven sent. By the time we made it to Pendleton (where it was 105 degrees), all the repair shops were closed, so he drove us to his friend's parts store, bought a new fan belt, then drove us to his other friend's shop to put it on for us. What a guy! We felt pretty grateful. Plus, I got to get this picture of a praying mantis, something you don't see in Western Washington.

The kids got to play in this junky area while the guys put on the fan belt. I tried not to care, after all, they had been so good thoughout this whole ordeal.

We finally made it to Twin Falls, rolling in at 1am. We were able to finish the drive with the new fan belt, but we still didn't have air conditioning. We were so thankful for our safety and Chris the tow truck guy who was such a help. If anyone gets stuck in Pendleton, Oregon, we know the guy to call!

The day after we got to Idaho, we got to take a ride on Jeff and JaNae's boat (Jonathan's sister and bro-in-law). So fun! That day made up for the awful one before. We took turns riding on their tube and we were out on the river all day.

Dean was in hog's heaven on this boat. He thought it was the greatest thing since super capes!

Well, until I put Dawson down next to him for a picture and they started hitting each other.

I rode with my crazy neices Annie, Whitney and Meg.

Jonathan took Dean on the tube and he had a blast! Jeff drove the boat pretty slowly so there was no chance of them falling off.

I had so much fun riding with JaNae and Cara. We just laughed the whole time.

I know this picture is blurry, but I couldn't pass it up!

Just enjoying the ride.

Even Dawson got in on the action.

Walker grandkids: Andrew, Dean, Whitney, Wes, Holly

Crazy Uncle Jeff, thanks for driving the boat all day!

Jonathan's sisters Jill and JaNae and in the back is Jill's husband Steve

The last ride of the day with Jeff and Gary

Pierce County Fair

At the beginning of August, we went to the Pierce County Fair with my sister Brittany and her children. It was one of the hottest days we've had this summer, in the high 90's (which is VERY hot for us), but we had a great time anyway. Here we are watching a pirate show.

We had only been there a few minutes and the kids' cheeks were already bright pink from the heat.

My sister Brittany and her girl Evelyn

All the kids were able to make awesome stick horses for free! That was probably the highlight of the day.

The fire department was there and let the kids put on jackets and climb inside the fire truck. I couldn't believe Dean actually did it! He is really coming out of his shell and will do more things these days.

Another thing that I was surprised about was Dean wanted to ride on one of the amusement rides. He and Evelyn could only pick one ride, so of course it ended up being the car/motorcycle thing.

Dawson was so wiped out and ready to go