Among the Wildflowers: Washington (NOT DC) is Beautiful!!!

I've gotten a little behind on my blogging lately. I wish I could say we've been too busy and doing too many exciting things, but the truth is we took a couple of weeks down time and have laid low in Elma, WA for a couple of weeks potty training! Fun stuff. It went really well. Thanks for asking! :) It was much easier this go around with Maggie then it was with Emmy. I think that's because Emmy is a really good cheerleader for Mags. The secret? M&M's. And Emmy wants her share of the M&M's too for every prize Maggie deposits. Kids are yucky fun.

Anyway, back to being behind on my blogs...in order to 'catch up' I'm going to summarize a bit and throw a bunch of pictures in at the end. You can piece it together however you want with the pictures. Think of it like a quiz. There are no wrong answers here (except when you get it wrong, of course).

So...Washington (Not DC) IS Beautiful!

Chad has traveled to DC a lot since Emmy has been little, so we've talked about it often. We are now in Washington State. We have had to clarify to Emmy several times that Washington DC is different than where we are, Washington State.

It is incredibly amazing out here. Venturing far from our flat-land-mid-western-corn-field-roots, we have traveled across a myriad of terrains. Several people told us "if we go to Washington and Oregon we won't want to leave". I'm not ready to close a deal on a house, but it certainly is beautiful! We accidentally came across Stephen's Pass in WA. OMGosh! We were just going from Point A to Point B with our camper (from Leavenworth, WA (uber-cool German town) to Gold Bar, WA) and we were just en route. This was probably, one of the most beautiful, scenic passageways to date. I was so not prepared for it, either. I mean, it was only an hour and a half drive. We were in the mountains that were capped with huge, mystically foggy clouds. It was like a fairy land, honestly. I'm sure poor Chadly had a hard time appreciating it, because he is always stuck driving (I truly wish I were more at ease behind the wheel of 16,000 lbs moving at 70 mph carrying our entire family, especially our three precious babies...or even at 25 mph for that matter), but he IS an excellent driver...and I am a harsh judge on driving.

After arriving in Gold Bar, WA, we met up with my super-cool Uncle "Buzz" (Denny). He is a wonderful and gracious tour-guide and showed us all the major sights of the city. Emmy absolutely LOVES Uncle Buzz. LOVES HIM! So, she had a great time doing everything by his side. We had a lot of fun with him and can't wait to meet up with him and Donna again and more of my family in Long Beach, WA soon!

We toured Seattle. Seattle is a city I have always wanted to visit, though I've not known much about it. Hands down best place we have visited? Pike Place Market! Chad and I both absolutely LOVE farmer's markets, and this was a farmer's market on steroids. Even the peaches we bought there were on steroids. It was seriously cool. We had a very limited time to explore the city (though I could have spent weeks here, literally...weeks!) and we visited this market twice...in two days!!! We went to the home of the ORIGINAL Starbucks...yep, started right here in Seattle...in the market...took pictures of it and everything. We also had a moment or two of weakness and gave in to our meat cravings and succumbed to Gyros (spelled Yeero's here...more authentic?..you be the judge...and they were VERY good)..actually we've fallen of the meat wagon quite a bit lately...darn that willpower. I would have loved to have bought some flowers from the market as well, but we live in a camper (and my girls - the best flower pickers EVER - who honestly pick me every flower / wildflower within reach, keep me well stocked in flowers...and love). I don't mean to offend, but I'm pretty sure they are the best kids on the planet...and I am totally un-biased when I say that.

Also, in Seattle we spent an afternoon touring the Museum of Flight in Seattle. Admittedly, it didn't sound that cool to me (coming from someone who does not LIKE to fly...at all), but it ended up being a really awesome experience. Yet another freebie on our ASTC card! We got to tour an old Air Force One too...pretty neat stuff!

In Seattle, we did get to spend some wonderful time with Uncle Buzz. He is a totally cool, down-to-earth, and mellow kind of fellow. I often wish I were more mellow myself. Maybe if I spent more time in Seattle I would be? We had a lot of fun with him and a lot of laughs! He is definitely the kind of guy you want to hang out around a campfire with...we missed that opportunity here, but have definite plans of catching up again in Long Beach, WA.

And the random pictures, as promised:

Maggie loves dirt. Dirt loves Maggie.

At a fish hatchery

Leavenworth, WA

Supercool German Town...we like German towns...a lot

The Space Needle!

No, we did not go up it. It's about $20 per person...the Eiffel Tower in Paris isn't even that much (last I checked), so we passed since this is something like a 1/3 of the size of E.T.

Been there, done that, still don't like heights.

Plus, I'm pretty sure there wasn't a ring in it for me this time.

Love, love, LOVE the Market!

Really great time playing in the fountain...until Emmy decided to run AROUND the fountain (at which point poor Chadly had to chase her and got SOAKED)!!!

A wet Chadly is not a happy Chadly.