Arriving in Kirkland, WA

If given the opportunity, this is how Avrie would sleep every single night. This is at a hotel in Redding, CA. We arrived at bedtime but because we have to swim in every hotel swimming pool we encounter...swim we must. So, at 8:30 at night, my girls went swimming. But then, of course they were starving because we hadnt eaten anything since 2pm, so at 10pm, off we go to a local cafe. I felt like the worst mother walking into a restaurant with an 8 and 5 year old at 10pm, but to my relief, they were not the only kids there. Whew! I guess thats what you get in a stopover town. Oh, speaking of being a stopover town (the only place around), they can charge as much as they want for whatever they want. The Motel 6 would have been $80, so we opted for La Quinta Inn for $99, free pool, internet and breakfast. It was a no brainer.

Mt. Shasta. Cailin took about 2,353 pictures of this one mountain. I saved one of those pictures.

Of course Avrie falls asleep near the SeaTac airport, 30 minutes from our final destination.

Cailin and Avrie while we are sitting at the red light getting off the 405 onto 124th St. I LOVE Cailins raw excitement. She can hardly contain herself. Adorable!

I estimated we would get to Kirkland at 8pm...we did, exactly 8pm. I am amazing. Cailin was so excited to see Luke, the reunion was cute to watch. A funny story, when Cailin saw Luke, he said "Hey, dont I know you?" When she saw Jonah for the first time he said "Hi Cailin" as if he had just seem her the day before but when she saw Elie they saw eachother and ran towards one another and hugged and hugged and they were sooooo excited. When recounting her reunions to someone, Cailin says "Boys are so wierd!" Yep Cailin they are. They are uncomfortable with how their feelings make them feel and they dont know what to do with it so they say something awkward and dumb. And they continue to do it into adulthood. Get used to it.

California continued at the Santa Ana zoo

We decided one day to head to the Santa Ana zoo. Even though we heard that the only animals there were basically monkeys. We figured it was just down the street and didnt cost very much and what else were we going to do, so we went. We ended up having a lot of fun, but they were right. Basically only monkeys. Thats my Aunt Judie above with the girls. She is married to the guy below in the last picture, who happens to be brothers with my Uncle Dennis who was teaching my kids archery who happens to be married to my Aunt Judies sister, Nancy and both those Uncles are my dad's half brothers. Whew!

Here is my sleeping Uncle Marv. We checked his back, there was no arrow in it. He just works on roofs all day in the CA heat. He co-owns an AC business with my other Uncle, Dennis. They inherited the business from my Grandpa Sauer who nobody is related to by blood (although there is some question as to who my Uncle Dale belongs to) but my dad and Uncle Marv were adopted by him and my Uncle Dennis refused, so his last name is Hamilton. Look how much energy Dennis has while Marv is falling asleep. Dennis also comes home very clean while Marv that particular day was covered in insulation. Different work ethics.

You guys can ignore the family history part if you want, I just need to write this down somewhere.

On our way to Seattle...continued at my Uncle's in Tustin, CA

When I was little, one of my most favorite memories of visiting my Uncle Dennis in California was Archery and Tomahawk throwing. We would spend hours in the backyard getting lessons from my Uncle. So, naturally when we brought the girls, my Uncle was giddy like a school boy waiting for them so he could teach them archery. Its been a long long time since there were little kids running around. He snatched them up the second we got there and they had soooo much fun! Cailin was a natural, he very specifically told her everything to do, and her first shot, bullseye!

Isnt she the cutest thing youve ever seen?

Do you see his arrows, he has them all custom made. He's an archery snob.Pretty good form for a first timer.

On our way to Seattle

The first leg of our trip was to my Aunt Judie and Uncle Marv's house in Orange, CA. My kids adore her because she lets them eat strawberries with sugar every single morning for breakfast and she has a pool. She is officially their favorite Great Aunt. Plus, she equips the house with toys, movies and ice cream.

We stuck around her house for about 6 days, swimming and hanging out with my Aunt.

Im going to put everything on multiple posts because I hate adding pics to posts, everything gets all jumbled up.

My Aunt was having the outside of her house painted while we were there and the girls, no matter how hard they tried, could not understand why mommy didnt want to put on her swimsuit and swim with 5 strange men in the backyard. Cailin said I could show them how well I could swim. Ummmmm....no thanks.