July

After a 2-day drive in separate cars (we took turns driving the car the kids were in), we arrived at our house in the Seattle area on July 1. Nate had a week before he started work, my mom came up for a few days, and my sister Camille was in Seattle for the summer, so fortunately it wasn’t just me & the boys unpacking and trying to get organized. Mom & Cam were a huge help to help clean and organize, and entertain the boys while we worked. We did take a break for the 4th of July – we had a yummy picnic lunch at a park, then headed over to the Bellevue festivities and fireworks for the evening. The boys actually managed to both stay awake for the fireworks – a first for both of them.

  

   

That Saturday, we decided to do something fun before Nate started back to work, so we all (us, mom, and camille & bryce) piled into mom’s van and took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island. We stopped in Poulsbo so Cam could buy a sweatshirt for her principal, who grew up there, and wished later that we had spent a little more time there – it was a cute little town with lots of antique stores and a pretty waterfront park. We kept driving up to Sequim, which is mainly known for rarely getting rain, then went to the “dungeness spit” – a 5.5-mile long sand spit.

 

Riding the Ferry

Bennett on the Dungeness Spit 

Once Nate started work, we started to settle into “normal” life again, but tried to take advantage of the nice sunny weather by exploring a little bit. Some of the highlights:

Zoo – We met up with some friends and Camille & Avery at the zoo – Ryan’s favorite was the elephants, he kept saying he wanted to go see the elephants, and kept talking about them afterwards.

 

Visit from Grandpa – my dad had a LONG layover in Seattle on his way back from France, so Cam & Bryce picked him up at the airport and we all had dinner at our house, then went for a walk down by the temple.

 

Annual Morris Family Coast Trip – I’ll do a separate post because I have a lot of pictures, but the boys and I (Nate had to work) had a blast playing with cousins and grandparents, camping, and playing at Harris Beach.

“Swimming” and ice cream in the back yard

 

   

Snowqualmie Falls – We accompanied Cam, Bryce, and Avery out to Snoqualmie Falls. The water level was lower than when we went earlier in the year last year, but still very pretty.

And finally, a couple random pics from Nate’s phone – biking through the woods at the park close to our house, and Ryan all ready for his breakfast.

June

June started off with a fun trip to Portland, Seattle, and then to see my parents in Ashland. We were in Portland to see my nephew Landon be baptized, and my nephew Asher’s baby blessing. Both went really well – we’re so proud of Landon for making the decision to be baptized! And it was so fun to meet little Asher and be there for his blessing. Apparently I didn’t take very many pictures with my camera, but did get a few cute ones at a fun park we went to. First is Ryan swinging with my mom, and then a couple pictures of the game the kids came up with – choose an adult and chase them around the park (my dad, Shane, and Nate all took a turn being chased).

After Portland, we drove up to Seattle to do a house-hunting trip. It was tough with the kids, but they were pretty good and survived the 3-4 days of driving around in the car. Bennett had recently discovered a love of drawing, so a notebook and some crayons kept him pretty entertained. We tried to give them breaks here and there at parks and friends’ houses. We had some time to kill the last day as we were finalizing things and signing the lease, so we went down to the waterfront for fish & chips, and saw this:

Plane on a Train

After signing our lease, we made a last-minute (as in on-the-freeway, at the freeway junction last minute) decision to drive down and visit my parents in Ashland for a couple of days. We had fun jumping on their trampoline, hanging out in the hot tub, having a picnic at Lithia Park, and swimming out at Emigrant Lake.

 

Then it was back to Utah, and back to “work” – packing and getting everything ready to move. We had two little “helpers” who liked exploring the things we were packing (like the fireman costumes). We did manage to fit in some fun too—swimming at seven peaks, a lift ride at Sundance (see pics below), and lots of get-togethers with friends (Nate managed to fit in several rounds of golf, and lunch with friends on multiple occasions).

 

 

Loading the truck, and Bennett’s artwork on one of the boxes. He liked to help label them.

We had some more little helpers come down for the day – actually, they were great to play with Bennett and Ryan while their mom & grandma were amazing helpers in the house. Nate’s dad and bro-in-law Cory came down to help load the truck (and apply a massive quantity of bubble wrap and saran wrap to our furniture)

Once the truck was loaded and on its way (we packed & loaded the semi trailer, and the company drove it out), we stayed with Nate’s parents for a few days before making our trek out. We enjoyed hanging out with family, seeing Heidi & Cory’s owls (they had a family with mom, dad, and 3 babies living in a tree behind their house for several weeks), going to Connor’s soccer game, and Nate and his dad took the boys fishing (while I enjoyed some shopping by myself :).

the kids enjoyed a fun slip & slide in the backyard

the results of the fishing trip – they went up to a mountain lake where they were all able to catch some fish (pics are all on Nate’s phone) and got attached by mosquitoes. Bennett has an especially strong reaction to them and ended up with swollen ankles, and a huge swollen circle on his forehead. You can’t see it great in the picture, but it was about 2.5 inches in diameter and stuck out about 1/2 inch in the middle.

We were excited to start our adventures in Seattle and start getting moved in and settled, but also so sad to leave friends and especially family in Utah!!