How Was Your Trip? (Part 1)

I've had plenty of people ask, "How was your trip?" so I thought I'd tell you.  This is how our trip to the Pacific Northwest went.
We made really good time this year.  We left later than we were originally planning, but got there earlier than I was expecting.  I think it helped that there are so many 80 mile per hour speed zones in Utah and Idaho now.
Anyway, we got in some birding when we stopped at rest areas on the way to Washington.  That was great.

We were there for the 4th of July, so we went to a 4th of July festival with family.

We were going to go tidepooling, but before everyone even got to the sand, Nichole jumped down onto a board that had a nail in it.  Yeah, sad vacation time spent in urgent care.  Poor Nichole- puncture wound in the heel.
On the bright side, before we left Utah, Nichole was put on antibiotics for something else, so that helped her foot not get infected.  To be on the safe side she got a tetanus booster so she won't have to get one next year when all of her friends are getting them.  Since the nail went into her heel and not closer to the front of her foot, she didn't have to have any x-rays because the chances were slim that it hit bone.  And she got pampered a bit, though she said she would much rather have not had the nail go into her foot in the first place.  The kids did not complain that they got to watch a lot of Duck Tales since Nichole was resting her foot and not running around so much.

One day while the kids rested, Jeremy and I went with his brother and dad to a wildlife refuge (where I saw beavers!) and spent many hours walking around birding.

 You can see why we spent hours there.  This is a picture of just one of the areas we were in- a mile long boardwalk.  It went way out there... but we made it.

 
Jeremy saw a bird he'd missed in Utah (which I had seen).

Cedar Waxwing

and I saw a bird I'd missed in Utah (which Jeremy had seen).

 Common Yellowthroat

We also saw some new birds for us which we hadn't yet seen in Utah.

Swainson's Thrush

We also saw plenty of other animals (besides beavers) such as a family of raccoons in a tree.  So cute.

One thing Nichole could do with a hurt foot was celebrate her birthday.  All of Jeremy's siblings were there with all the cousins.  That was fun.

Lucky learned some new names for some of his relatives, such as Uncle Awesome, Aunt Amazing, and Cousin Cool.  Yeah, that's the fantastic family I married into (though technically Aunt Amazing and Cousin Cool came after I married Jeremy.  Aunt Amazing was not long after, though).
Before we left Washington, we got to get together again with everybody and do s'mores.  Mmmm, s'mores.  And movie watching.  Mmmm, movie watching.

I have to mention one more thing about our Washington trip.  Something that was a big deal was Jr. Jr. actually pet the dog at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  This little boy is scared of dogs (and usually stays in a completely different room from the dog) but he got to the point while we were there that he did go up to this nice dog and pet him.  So proud of that brave boy.