Washington we LOVE you!!!

After a LONG pit stop in Utah we headed on to the Great North West! We LOVE Washington! We spent 4 yrs in Tacoma and started our family there! Our oldest 2 are natives. We got to WA the end of June, just in time to run a 4 day fireworks tent. It worked out nice that one of my good friends lives in the same town that we sold fireworks. So we got to catch up with Jamie and meet her new (to us) hubby Corey and see their kiddos! They took the kids to play and had us over for a BBQ.

Then we headed over to our old stomping grounds in Tacoma. We stayed with our friends Andre and Joan and their son Dominic. Joan and I had a nice night out..... dinner and walked around downtown. We found some good local music to listen to. Another day we checked out the farmer's market and took the kids to play on the Ruston Way walkway and beach. We drove around town talking about the good ole days and visited our favorite beach in Steilacoom, Sunnyside Beach, where there was lots of HUGE jellyfish washed up to check out. We also made it to Point of Defiance Park Zoo. The kids loved playing with Dominic and all his cool Lego's and electronics! Joan and Andre introduced us to a SUPER funny show Flight of the Conchords! The adults had a nice night out to a yummy Mexican place and we went to downtown to look at all the cool glass art and marina. 

After our great visit with Andre and Joan we headed up north to see Uncle Mike and Aunt Joleen. While visiting them in beautiful Seattle we did our favorite things that we use to do there. Like see the Troll under the Freemont Bridge, See the Space Needle, visit Mike and Joleen's new sail boat that they are working on and yes of course it wouldn't be a visit to Washington if we did not do the Pikes Market and watch the fish be thrown around. We also spent an afternoon with Mike and Joleen at the Lake during Seafair. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Onward we headed further up North to Probably one of our favorite National Parks now Cascades National Park. It was so peaceful and beautiful. We got in some amazing hikes (some of the best we have ever done)! On one of our hikes we had the dogs running back and forth on the trail. When we were heading back down Coco decided to run off the path and chase a deer he had seen. We thought we had lost him for good. For minutes we yelled for him and nothing, then he finally decided to show up. We looked up above us and there was a deer looking down at us. We thought that was strange, the deer then disappeared and for some reason we were whistling and the deer reappeared over us. He looked at us for a few minutes and then disappeared again. We whistled gain and he reappeared again. We couldn't stop laughing about it. We thought this was a trained deer, and someone left him in the woods. The deer actually listened better then Coco did. Another hike we hiked miles up to a lake that had a glacier still and ice burgs floating in the lake. So what does a crazy family traveling the country do. They strip down to nearly nothing and run into the freezing cold water, SCREAM!!!! like girls and run back to shore and get attached by the biggest bugs ever seen by man. What a wonderful time we had in the Cascades.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the Cascades we headed over to Anicortis and the San Juan Islands. We went there to meet up with our sweet peeps on the road The Chinchens! We boon docked with them for a week or so over looking the water and some of the other islands. Had a blast with them. Steve went with Jason to watch him play a show at one of the local bars, we got together and jammed with them, and with doing so we found out that we have an awesome drummer in the family (Isabelle). She rocked the studio. We went to the beach and had a wonderful picnic. We went on awesome bike rides around the Island as a large group, it must have been a sight to see all 11 of us riding around together. While we were in Anicortis Winston learned how to ride his bike with out training wheels. Yah Winston! Thanks Kara and Jason for the good times!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then put the bus and the VW onto the ferry, that's right I said ferry! Nothing like seeing the skoolie and the VW on a ferry. We crossed over to Port Townsend. We again met up with Jamie and Cory and kids while they came up to camp at Fort Worden. We toured the run down Fort and looked for surviving ghost. It was kind of scary. We did a day on the beach with them and went to the local farmers market. One of the best farmer's markets we have ever been to.