Friday, August 29, 2014

Cross Country Road Trip, Washington aka "Home"

I always sigh in relief when I'm in Washington.  As much as I love living in Virginia, Washington is still "home" and I love being there.
We arrived in Kennewick late because of our wrong turn, but they were waiting and ready for us!  We were surprised to see Aunt Jenny there - we didn't think she was coming and were so happy to see her!  She had been working really hard with Pops and Grammy to finish their stone patio in the back yard and to get it all set up to have dinner in the backyard!  It was awesome!  We had a great week in Kennewick!

Grammy took us to a "new" park in Richland that we'd never been too.  It had a really fun zip line, great climbing toys, and a creek.

On the zip line




Cooling off in the water


It was really hot the week we were in Tri-Cities so we spent a lot of time in Uncle Matt and Aunt Sara's pool - swimming with our cousins.  It was great.  Unfortunately I only took one picture :(

Here are a few of the kids in the hot tub (it was 100 degrees that day, crazy kids)



While there Celeste got pink eye.  Luckily we took her to the Dr. early and it didn't spread

One day my sister, Betsy, and her family took the Russells out on the Columbia River for some skiing, knee boarding and tubing.  We had a blast!  I was able to get up on my old slalom ski and had so much fun!  Then the kids went knee boarding and we all went tubing!  Thanks Betsy!

Lots of kneeboarding




Celeste took a nap with Grammy

Tube ride with Uncle Matt and cousins

 Crazy tube ride with Aunt Jenny

Brothers and cousins




After a fabulous week in Kennewick  - complete with a double date with Mike's Mom and Dad, a birthday party for cousin Kate, watching soccer, playing in the backyard, going to a summer movie with Grammy, a dead battery in our car and lots of play time we said goodbye and drove to Mattawa.

We only had a few days in Mattawa - but really enjoyed them.   A few of my sisters and their kids were able to come and spend some more time with us.  We played, rode the 4-wheeler, Calvin went 
sturgeon fishing with grandpa, we swam a lot, and played some more!  The adults spent a lot of time talking and relaxing.

One afternoon we were invited to a family friend's house to swim at their awesome pool.  We had a great time on the diving board and the swirly slide.  Thank you Vicki!  It was so good to see you!



 I went down that slide 3 times with kids and I can tell you that I am definitely getting too old for that kind of thing!

Celeste in the kiddie pool!  Mike used his phone to merge two pictures together


The kids had a fun popcorn race with Aunt Janet




The boys made an army of Robots



Swimming 

Dancing

We packed up our car (we somehow collected a lot of things while in Washington, including my wedding dress, clothes for the kids, walnuts, and things for the house), said goodbye and headed east on Friday morning.  We were sad to say goodbye to Washington but looked forward to all of our fun stops up ahead!

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