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Our Vacation, Thy Creations, and Our Relations- Part 13

Road Trip!

Goodbye, Grandma and Grandpa. Goodbye, evergreen filled mountains. Goodbye, Washington.

Welcome to Oregon.

Welcome to Idaho.

Hello, Snake River.

Welcome to Utah.

We made it to our final destination- home. Hooray! Sigh.

Traveling all day kept us from celebrating Embrace Your Geekness Day on July 13 (though we did listen to video game music on the drive) so we celebrated it the next day "observed." We like to call it Embrace Your Geek Day. I even wore my Mario shirt.

I have no more of our wonderful vacation to share. It really was wonderful, though. We got to enjoy the vacation, God's creations, and spent some good quality time with our relations. I'm so glad Jeremy got a real vacation instead of just a few days off. It was awesome!

Our Vacation, Thy Creations, and Our Relations- Part 12

Road Trip!

Jeremy's parents and we met up with Jeremy's brother and his family at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. Jet really enjoyed it.

"Fish in the water. Look at the cool baby fish."

"Roar!"

"Look at the crab."

Touch pools are always fun. Jet learned to be gentle with the starfish.

The animal show was fun, too. It's hard to get an in-focus shot of a vulture when it's flying right at you, though. 

We didn't get to see any puffins in the wild during our coast trips but we were able to watch them at the zoo.

We got closer looks at common murres, too, which we did see out in the wild.

We always get a picture with the gorilla statue at Hogle Zoo so it's fun when we can get a picture with Ivan. If you've read (or watched) The One and Only Ivan, the statue at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium is of that gorilla.

Uncles and cousins are so fun. 

1,2,3, Whee!

Jet really took to his cousins. He did not want to be separated from them. So much so that when it was time for them to go home to get things ready for us to visit their house after the zoo, he was in tears, hand outstretched, crying for his cousins. Ahhhh.

After the zoo we did indeed visit them at their house and Jet loved meeting their ducks and helping feed them.

He also helped collect eggs.

Jr. Jr. helped, too, including cleaning. Thanks, boys.

 

Back at Jeremy's parents' house, we celebrated Eat Your Jello Day on July 12 and were tuckered out after another full fun day.

I'll share more of our wonderful vacation later.

Our Vacation, Thy Creations, and Our Relations- Part 11

July 10 was Don't Step on a Bee Day and National Kitten Day. Creativity took over.

Jeremy's sister came to visit that day. It was nice to catch up with her.

Jet uncovered some slugs in grandparents' backyard. They weren't banana slugs but one was a leopard slug.

 

July 11 was Blueberry Muffin Day.

Road Trip!

When we went to Mount Rainier we saw where the Nisqually River came from the glacier. We wanted to see where the Nisqually River emptied into the Puget Sound so... Nichole, Jeremy, and I headed to Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. We love Nisqually Wildlife Refuge anyway. It's one of the places we always try to visit when we're in Washington.

 

Some highlights of this trip:

Bald eagle hanging out in what people told us was its usual spot, where we could walk right up to it... or right under it.

From its spot, we could look out and see seals sunning themselves on a sandbank. They were so fun to see. Adults and youngsters.

We also saw seals swimming in the water. There was a mama and baby swimming together that were so cute. Baby kept climbing on mama's back.

There were so many great blue herons out that day, both adults and juveniles. So many.

We went all the way to the end of the boardwalk, about a mile. 

From there we looked back at Mount Rainier which we had visited just two days before. So we went from where the Nisqually River started one day to where it ended another day. 78 miles.

As we were walking back through the forested area of the refuge, we stopped at a pond to see if we could find a frog. We found a frog then another then another. There were so many. I loved it.

We found out while we were there that this year was the 50th anniversary of the refuge so we just had to get a souvenir mug as it is one of our favorite places to visit in Washington.

I'll share more of our wonderful vacation later.