Our Washington Trip!

We had decided that we could not afford to go on a vacation this year but thanks to generous in-laws we were able to drive up to Washington for a few days and see the Hill family!

We decided to go on Wednesday evening so on Thursday morning we had to go and take the car in to make sure it would not be hurt by such a long drive, and buy new tires for the car. Then we had a lot of fun going to a benefits fair for Mitchell man’s new job at Columbia high school. It was actually really fun and informative, I did not take any pictures though because I forgot my camera but Eli had a lot of fun and was so charming that he got a goody at every booth we went to! The best part was going into Mitchells classroom.  It is so exciting to see his name on the door and know that he made it!  Graduated and got a good job I love you Mitchell! Eli and I are very proud of him. Eli had so much fun playing in daddy’s classroom he got mad when we left.  We got everything packed and ready and cancelled the different things we needed to in order to leave then we stayed up pretty late waiting for Mitchells sister Alison and her fiancé to come stay the night. It was so exciting to see her again and to meet her prince charming. We all headed out pretty early in the morning on Friday. 

We made several stops Mitchell found ahead of time online, so cute. He found great parks and activities to stop and do.

We got there around 3:30 (we gained an hour) Eli was an angel in the car he started crying about 5-10 min from their house. Other then that the whole drive was amazing he really is patient like his daddy. I drove the last 2 ¾ hours I am not found of driving, at all, so the Washington freeways and traffic was quite scary for me but I got through it with Mitchell help. We called it a trust building activity in marriage. J I love my man.

Once we arrived we found that the new house my in laws moved into was needing a lot of help getting put together. My poor mother in law needed help with some projects so Mitchell man replaced their sink and did some cabinetry work on the bathroom, and set up a bed, and kicked everyone into gear, what a hero. I helped be bossy too, I am very good at that, especially when things need cleaned and no one is doing anything. So Mitchell in work mode and me in my rotten red streak bossy mode helped get everything cleaned and working in a few hours. Then we had a delicious homemade dinner and enjoyed catching up with everyone. Eli imedietly took to Mitchells brothe taylor and teased him quite a bit on our trip. I asked him to share his fruit snack with uncle taylor so he walked up to him holding out a fruit snack and then right when taylor almost had it in his hand eli shoved it in his mouth! He did it several time in a row! Ha ha, he also whiped taylor in the leg with a toy snake and laughed when we all wanted him to give taylor a sorry hug. He really was funny with Taylors reaching stick, the whole time we were there he found it and played with it, trying to grab toys or people with it and not beign able too.

The next day we woke up early, Eli made sure, and drove in two cars to Tacoma. We went to the Zoo at point Defiance Park. That zoo was wonderful fun! My highlight was getting to see the big sharks! Eli loved all of it but he really loved the hands on aquarium exhibit, and the petting zoo. We all loved the 3 giant walruses! So cool. Granma Hill kept up with us but we wore out everybody else. After the Zoo we when to Owens beach and had a picnic lunch and then played down at the beach. They were having a heat wave while we were there so the beaches and lakes were packed. Eli loved the beach and would have tried to swim out to sea if we had not held on to him tightly. Cousin Kiah forum a starfish at the beach and let us see it before she released it back into the wild.

Then we went on a beautiful five mile loop and stopped to look at all of the overlooks. I got so excited because I got to see lots of beautiful sail boats. Then Uncle Taylors back needed a rest and Eli needed and nap so we all parked in some shade and grandma stayed with Eli in the car while Mitchell and I walked down by the water front we walked really far and enjoyed the view , bought a smoothie and soaked in the us time. After that we went to a cool old part of town and walked around, we went to a bridge and looked at amazing glass art on the bridge, amazing coolness! And then we went out to the old spaghetti factory. The food was delicious and Eli went crazy he had such a blast!

The next day we went to church and took a nap and then we all ate an early dinner. Then Mitchell Eli and I and his parents drove to a park by a lake to eat a light snack and enjoy the Sunday afternoon. It was so much fun. Mitchell had loved to play at the same park when he was little, it had the biggest wooden play structure I have ever seen! Eli had so much fun playing. It was a wonderful relaxing evening with his parents.

Monday we went to Seattle. Just his parents came with us. Mitchell found a beautiful glass museum and garden for us to all go see which was amazing. Eli loved it he kept wanting to get out of his stroller and go play with the brightly colored glass exhibits. After that we got on the monorail above the city street and went to the Westlake mall where we looked at some shops and ate a lovely lunch and PF Changs, YUMMY! Then we headed down to Pikes place where we saw lots of pig statues and people throwing fish. Eli got a balloon plane and Mitchell bought me some beautiful flowers! Thank you! We headed back to the car and drove back to Kent where his parents live. Mitchell and Eli played in the sprinklers in the backyard while Diane and I went to the IKEA store. Wow it’s a big store. I got an awesome lamp with a lampshade for a total of $13 and some fabulous wooden toys for Eli and upcoming brothers Christmas gifts. Grandma got Eli toys too which he loves to play with! We went back to their home and make nachos the boys all played magic together while Eli and I got things organized in the room we were staying in.

We debated heavily about staying another day to go on a short hike and visit Mitchells grandparents gravesite but his niece needed driven to Boise to meet up with her mom so we ended up leaving on Tuesday morning. There will always be another visit with a huge list of want to do’s in Washington. The Drive was harder going back Eli did not like being stuck again in the car so soon and Mitchell and I both felt very car sick. But my fabulous husband again had wonderful stops planned for us. The first stop was just off the road for me to get out of the car but then next stop we made was in Yakima at a park near Wal-Mart adjacent to a golf course. It was beautiful! Eli loved the fountain and was so mad at me for stopping him from swimming to it. We had a snack I packed for us and then looked at some memorials they had and headed on to Pendleton. There we had a simple lunch at Wendy’s before going to the woolens factory. Sadly we missed the tour by 15 min but we checked out the gift shop and bought Mitchell some really nice socks and picked out a wool blanket for our family, all my boys. We headed out pretty quickly and made only one more stop at Ontario to get a bathroom break and let Eli run around. Mitchell was feeling really sick so I convinced him to buy a milkshake, I was right some cold sugary milkshake helped enough for him to say he wanted to drive the rest of the way home. We got home at like 6 or 7 (can’t remember because of the time change) We got the car unloaded and started some laundry then we visited with his sister Nichole for a while. It was getting late and everyone was tired so Kiah and Nichole went out to eat and we all went to my parents’house where we ate and snack and washed and vacuumed out our car. We headed home and got Eli to bed around 9:30 and then I went to bed early while Mitchell stayed up with Nichole and Kiah. They headed out the next day around 12:30.

Our vacation was wonderful I am so so so glad we got to go and that we were able to spend so much time with his parents. We can’t wait to see them when they pass through in September to go down to Alison’s wedding in Utah.