Upon our arrival, we quickly unpacked the car, had dinner, put the kids to bed, and headed over to our friends house. It was magical. It was like they never left! It was like we never aged! It was... well, it was us, 4+3.5 kids later. We decided to plan things day by day, because kids are weird and don't conform well to strict schedules.
The day after we got in, Doug's mom told Doug and I about a neighborhood wide garage sale in one of the gated communities in the area. We decided to check it out. I am SO thankful we did! We went into the garage sale with $100 cash, thinking we could find some power tools for cheap. We didn't find any tools, but we did end up spending almost all of our money on the greatest garage sale haul of my life! For about $100, we bought: 10 boys 2T outfits (shirts and pants), 2 boys swim suits, 4 sets of 18 month pajamas, 4 boys 3T outfits including a pant/shirt/vest/tie church outfit, a 3T fleece jacket, two pairs of shoes and a pair of sandals, a brand new Melissa and Doug train set, a tricycle, a shop vac, a power washer, and 5 children's books. Yup. One lady had raised her only grandson for 6 months of the year every year for 5 years and so she bought a whole life for him so he wouldn't have to move a bunch of stuff every time, then she sold off everything. Each article of clothing was $.50, shoes $1 and the toys were super cheap, everything either gently used or still new with the tags on it. Another house had an old lady and her friends selling off all their stuff, which is where I got the shop vac and power washer, but I was sorely tempted to buy some of their purses and lead crystal and beautiful oil paintings, if only I had more room in my car. As it was it was a tight fit home, but well worth the packing effort!
Our first outing with the Tanner's was to Lake Washington where they had a wonderful park and a place to swim. It was really an awesome park. I wish we had more lakes to swim at in Utah.
Eloise fell asleep on the way to the park. The jacket is explained by the fact that we had just come from Utah, and so when the weather said 65 and cloudy, I planned for cold. Silly me. :) The sucker in her mouth while she was asleep was an accident, but it was pretty funny since Nick is a dentist and he highly disapproved of the situation. Oops. After a picnic lunch and some playground time, the pull of the water was just too much for our kids, and so we had an impromptu swim session. It was pretty cool how well our kids got along, and so quickly too. It just goes to show that we were made for each other.
The Tanner boys take sand seriously. Seriously.
That evening we met up at the Tanner house for a WONDERFUL steak dinner and then headed out for a double date to see The Avengers. Funny movie, but more fun with friends. Canon took a liking to Doug on this trip, which Michael did not like. He was fine being friends with Canon as long as Canon wasn't friends with his daddy. But what's a couple of pushes and punches between boys?
Feed us!
After this the Tanner's left for a few days to visit their family in ID and so the Jacobson's, with Grandma and Papa, went camping. Shocking I know. Some of you may know about my great love of camping (insert heavy sarcasm) but this was actually quite nice, even with the unfortunate weather. Doug's parents rented a cabin at Ensign Ranch, which is an LDS run camp just over the Cascades, which had bunk beds, a furnace, and a roof, all wonderful qualities. The unfortunate weather was the wind. It was REALLY windy and kind of cold the whole time we were there, but that hardly put a damper on things, except making cooking outside a little bit of a trick. But we managed with lots of hot chocolate to keep the kids happy. We first went to the pond and canoed around for a little while. It was here that I discovered that I stink at canoeing. I have no concept of steering, and it was almost miraculous that Doug and I made it back to shore. We also had Michael in our boat, and it is my opinion that boats need seat belts. Grandma and Papa took the girls and had much more success. The ranch had a "water slide" area to play on, which was really a man-made hill covered in tarp with water running on it, and you could buy small inner tubes to slide down on. It was super cold, but Doug, the kids, and Grandma all suited up and braved the cold for some fun. Papa and I maned the towels and supplied lots of encouragement and laughter from the sidelines. Please see videos at the bottom for a better idea of the hilarity.
Michael looks unsure here, but he went down a few times before becoming a permanent bench buddy with me.
Michael looks unsure here, but he went down a few times before becoming a permanent bench buddy with me.
You can never go wrong with hot dogs and watermelon while camping. :)
After dinner we walked over to another part of the ranch where there was a pond with an island in the middle and Teepee's set up for other campers to use. We made a fire and had s'mores and sang silly camp songs for a while. The island was also home to a beaver dam, and when it started to get dark we caught sight of one of the beavers in the water. That night we put the kids to bed with surprisingly little drama considering we all were in the same room, and then the adults stayed up and played games and ate way too much candy before we surrendered to exhaustion and went to bed.The next morning proved to be even more windy and just as cold, and the horses that the ranch owned were out to pasture right outside our cabin. We had some fun petting them and feeding them grass and flowers. We tried to sign up for horse rides for the kids, but the horse wrangler was gone for the morning, and we weren't planning on staying that late in the day so we passed on the rides in favor of warmer and less windy weather at home.
The next big event was the 4th of July. I had been in Maple Valley for the 4th once before I think, but this time surpassed anything I had remembered previously. From about 10 am to 12 am there was a constant sound of cannon fire throughout the neighborhood. Everyone bought fireworks, and everyone had big family or block parties and set them off, all day long. It sounded like we were right in the middle of the Revolutionary War with stuff going off all around us. It was so awesome! By the end of the day Michael had learned two new words, fireworks and BOOM. (Side note, this trip Michael learned and started using maybe 50 new words, and after we got home from the trip his vocabulary continued to explode. It's been amazing to see him progress from a slightly behind talker to right up or surpassing his age level in a month's time.) The morning for some reason did not start so well with me, I was just grumpy and irritable. Probably just a cumulative lack of sleep that happens on vacation. But we all trooped off to Grandma's ward breakfast and children's bike parade, which was a huge hit with Evelynn. Eloise didn't think much of the "parade" (lots of kids riding around the parking lot following this little car someone brought) but she definitely enjoyed the treats given out at the end. The kids had decorated some scooters Grandma and Papa keep at their house and sported all the awesome 4th of July stuff Grandma had picked up for them. Michael was fascinated with the little car, and the man behind the wheel obliged many children with a ride around the parking lot.
I'll sit with you, just don't touch my candy.
After this, we went back home and I made all the kids, and myself, take a much needed nap. We all felt much much better afterwards. :) The it was time to get ready for dinner. The Tanner's got home from their trip right about dinner time, so they came over and played in the kiddie pool and ate dinner with us. Grandma Sue then revealed the amazing treasure hunt. The kids got picture clues of places all over the yard which lead them on a hunt for buried treasure, which turned out to be a big box buried in the garden FULL of candy. Those kids came out loaded, much to their delight. Then it was time to light off our own small supply of fireworks and head off to the main event, the fireworks at Lake Wilderness in Maple Valley.
The Tanner kids all loved the fireworks, as Nicole is demonstrating. My kids are still leery of holding fire, or things that shoot in the air close to them, especially since the firework mishap from last year.
Sadly, I don't have any pictures from the night of fireworks, but we went to the lake and set up camp and the kids got glow sticks to run around with, and we watched the other people with houses on the lake setting off their own shows, enjoyed the oldies band that was playing at the park, and danced until the fireworks started. All the kids loved the show, as did I. It was a very good show, and it was accompanied live by the Maple Valley Youth Orchestra, who did a bang up job. Then it was home and to bed with the exhausted kids, but the fireworks continued in the neighborhood far into the night with people putting on their own private shows all around the lake next to Doug's parent's house. Luckily my kids slept right through it all. At the end of the day I commented to Doug that this day had been almost perfect. It was one of those holidays I hope our kids remember forever, because it was wonderful. Nothing could have been better except my morning mood, but luckily naps are wonderful things. :)
One last excursion we took with the Tanner's was just trip back to Lake Wilderness to do some swimming with the kids. It was a beautiful sunny day and the kids all had so much fun together. We also got together one more time for dinner before we headed back to Utah, and there were a few more late night chats with just us adults. It was a wonderful trip, and we miss the Tanner's desperately, but luckily we'll be able to see them much more often, with the double bonus of seeing Doug's family too!
Also on the trip we had the pleasure of watching our nephew learn how to walk! I am pleased to say that it was me who brought this to pass, not Doug. He bragged that he would get Henry walking before we left, but I guess I'm just cooler. ;) Henry is becoming such a cute and happy boy! I'm excited for him and Michael to be a little older so they can play together better. Michael was so sweet to him the whole time we were there, which was unusual because he has started to become territorial of everything, but he loves his cousin!
What a fun vacation!
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