Father Son Trip 2012

This year for their annual Father Son trip, Michael took the boys to Seattle.  I love this first picture, because it wasn't staged - Morgan was trying to get a shot of Mason in front of a tall building.  I like Mason's shadow and Morgan's smile.

Anyway, they stayed with Tom & his family, one of Michael's co-workers - and good friend.  They were treated to fantastic food such as you see here:

Tom took them paddleboarding on Lake Washington - a first for all three.

 

They took a seaplane over to the San Juan Islands.

 Below, you can see Morgan getting ready to board.

Mason's new passion is flying, and he loves the opportunity to sit in the cockpit...

...but since he sat there on an earlier flight, he let Morgan have that seat.

 Once on the island, they did a lot of kayaking.  Here is Mason with Tom.

They took a ferry ride back from San Juan Islands to Seattle.

Tom's girls were watching a neighbor's chickens, and this photo is fun because that's a Barred Rock... we have a couple of those, but they're nowhere near this big yet!  Again, another great smile from Morgan as he tries to wrangle the big chicken!

Morgan found these glasses... how does he look?

They toured the Future of Flight Aviation Center. 

A highlight was when they got to tour the Boeing assembly plant, but no cameras were allowed.

A friend of the girls' has a pet hedgehog.  The boys got a kick out of that!

Here are the boys at the top of the Space Needle.

Morgan and Michael at the Experience Music project - right next to the Space Needle.

Another fun trip for the boys!

A Visit from the Obermarks!

As soon as the Thompson/Rostanzo clan left, we had another group of guests arrive!  The Obermarks!

To be more specific, we had Mike, Kim, Cheryl, Eric, Alex, Jason, Steve, Kris, Ashley, and Evan!  They basically took over the entire downstairs, as well as the treehouse... thank goodness we have the treehouse!  Everyone had a place to sleep.

One of their favorite outings while they were here was their visit to St. Mary's glacier... a perennial snow field not far from our house.  Michael and the boys went with them.

Here is Steve, enjoying a little rest on the snow field...

The boys got a wild hair and started sliding down the slope on their rear ends!

Aside from that outing, we had fun playing cards, sharing meals, and just about everyone had a turn on the zip line!  I don't have any photos of those things, but here's one from when Michael took Mike & Alex on a hike up Berrien Mountain (our mountain):

And lastly, here's one when we took a little walk around the lake.

Always good to see the Obermarks...!

Thompsons & Rostanzos Visit!

We had a lovely week-long visit from Heather, Conner, Grandma Sara, & Papaw Nick!  They went on several adventures, including the Georgetown Loop Railway...

...a wonderful park in Georgetown...

...and Tiny Town.

We visited downtown Evergreen, did a little shopping, and had lunch at the One World Cafe.

But mostly, we hung around the house and had some fun just being together!  The kids played several games of Monopoly.

We spent a lot of time on outdoor activities, like this amazing Badminton match.  The best part was watching them throw pine cones at the birdies that kept getting stuck in the trees!

Michael worked with Heather and Conner on riding the motorcycles.  Heather has graduated to learning how to use a clutch!  Michael said she did very well and catches on quickly.

 

Now that the lessons are completed, Heather decided to give this one a try.  :)

Nick got in on the motorcycle action, too!  This is the only one we'd let him ride.... (teasing!)

We introduced the kids to our chickens and Heather enjoyed holding one!

Conner wanted to try unicycling - he was getting quite good!

The boys had fun just horsing around... (look at who snuck into this photo!)

We may not get 100 degree temperatures up here, but it does get rather warm a few days out of the summer.  The kids decided to cool off on our inflatable water slide... the problem is, the water comes straight out of our well - very cold!  :)

And after all that fun in the water, these kids were very happy to sit on the swing in the sun and eat some watermelon!  I love this picture...

The kids played a few rounds of croquet... notice Heather all bundled up in her new Evergreen sweats?  She was still cold from the water play!

Of course, everyone had a go on the zip line... starting with Heather.

 Then Conner...

And little Maddox...

And even Papaw Nick!

Nick is such a great guy to have around... when he gets bored, he finds something to fix!  Here he is cleaning out our gutters!  Thanks so much, Nick!

No trip to Colorado is complete without a hike.  The views are always worth the effort!

 One morning, we took Heather to ride horses with our friends' daughter, Josie.  They are about the same age and seemed to really hit it off!  Josie and her parents lease horses for the season and Heather rode one of their other ones last summer.

We had a great visit!!