Leavenworth!!

Yesterday Matt and I got a bunch of chores done in the morning and decided we needed to take a road trip to Leavenworth. It is one of our favorite towns to visit. So we got there about mid afternoon and we went into all our favorite shops....The Hat shop, The Taffy shop and the Christmas shop just to name a few.




We went to our favorite restaurant for dinner~ Adreas Keller. Gracie has very tired from her sleepover the night before and VERY hungry. So to stop the grumpies Matt made a bet with her. If she ate one piece of pickled herring he would buy her a webkinz. Now if you know Matt he is VERY against webkinz so Grace knew this is a BIG deal. She rose to the challenge and get this....she LIKE it! She even had another piece. And yes she did get her webkinz~ a brown bear!

So Matt feeling good about getting one child to try something new and her liking it to boot! So he tells Kaitlyn he will give her $10 to try some red cabbage kraut. The funny thing is she didn't want any of us to watch her but Matt said NO WAY how would he know she actually ate it. So he fed it to her! She did not like it but we are SO proud of her for trying it. She even tried a little piece of pickled herring too!!

We had such a great time visiting our favorite town. It was fun to be spontaneous and just enjoy and day together as a family.

Cousins

After a week in the Puget Sound we headed back to the Tri Cities. Grace got to stay and hang out with Ryleigh and Zach while I took Sierra back with us. It was a blast having Sierra and I think the girls enjoyed just hanging out without their little siblings.

We took the girls ice skating. Sierra had not been in a long time but she did VERY well. It was fun watching the girls and just hanging out with them!

After 3 days it was time to switch kids. We met Jackie, Zach, Ryleigh and Grace in Cle Elum at a park to make the switch. We enjoyed just visiting and letting the kids play and have some time being all together.

Cousins are the best gift from God!

Trying to get settled

We have been home for 2 weeks now and we are slowly settling in. Matt was home for 5 days then headed back to Canada to finish his job there. While he was gone the girls and I headed to the westside to visit family and friends.

We met my friend Jo at Bellevue Square for lunch and little shopping.

Our first stop on our trip was Thom and Christines. We had a great time celebrating Grace and Thom's birthdays. On Friday we got to have Sophie hang with us for the day. The cousins had a blast just hanging out together.



Our next stop found us at Point Defiance Zoo. We met Jackie and the kids there along with Jackies sister, nephew, mom and Jackie's sisters in-laws. We had a great time seeing all the animals and watching all the cousins have a great time just hanging out and being silly.

Finally, we made it to Grandma's house. Janet and the girls along with Matt's mom Marcia come over for dinner and visit. We finally got to meet Sharlet and I got my baby fix!! The girls and I enjoyed 2 days of visiting with Grandma and doing our special Dairy Queen treat.

Last on our stop was Dad and Debbies. Kaitlyn have fun taking care of the horses with Debbie and decided she wanted to try riding Sunny again. She did a great job and was feeling very confident. But she decided to canter and Sunny got excited and took off. Kaitlyn panicked for a moment, lost her sturps and got bucked off. She was OK and is ready to get back on a horse at her next lesson.

Later in the day, Dad and Grace went on a 6 mile bike ride. Grace is quite the bike rider and kept up with dad. She was tired when she got back but really enjoyed just getting out there and spending time with Grandpa.

The next day Dad and Debbie took us out the Bloedel Reserve. It is a 150 acre "plantation". It has a few different gardens and a beautiful mansion. We all enjoyed walking around and just enjoying the different plants and sights.



Our trip ended with Janet and the girls coming over for dinner and one last visit. It was fun to get all our girls together.

It was so wonderful to go home and see everyone. It was a fairly quick visit moving from place to place but I am thankful that we are only a few hours away and we can come back for a longer visit and have our family and friends over to our house.