Gymnastics Anyone?

Spokane

After a night in Pullman, sans kids, we met my parents and the girls in Spokane.  It has many wonderful activities for young kids in it's river front park area that Alex and I were not aware of from our earlier years in the area.  It is the same park where Mommy and Daddy got engaged.  The girls were able to visit the world's largest Radio Flyer wagon, feed ducks, ride a carousel, and play in the water fountains.  Lila especially enjoyed the ducks.  She held out a piece of bread and before she knew it, a goose took it right out of her hands.  She tried to feed the ducks out of her hands but the geese were too strong of a presence for her.

We also went on our first family ferris wheel ride.  It absolutely terrified me as I was stuck at the top with Savannah and Adeline in an old fashioned seat that rocked back and forth.  I tried very hard to put a smile on my face after telling Savannah to not move a muscle and make the chair rock.  Once we were going around it was fun to watch Daddy and Lila down below in their seat.  I was surprised that the girls weren't scared since the seats were so open and rocky.  After the ferris wheel, the girls hopped on a couple of other rides solo.  They are getting so old.  I just can't believe that they are comfortable riding solo.  Where did my babies go?

After a nice night in the hotel, we visited the local children's museum.  The girls had a great time with all of the exhibits and engaged in a lot of role play.  I love how they play together at times like this.  We ended the trip at our Mommy and Daddy's favorite restaurant for a quiet lunch before our two hour drive home.

We had a great time!  I marvel at how different my life is now in comparison to ten years ago.

Trip Down Memory Lane

While in Washington, Alex and I decided to go back and visit Washington State University (my undergrad and grad, and his grad school).  It had been ten years!!  The kids stayed with my parents and while we revisited our premarital stomping grounds.  We enjoyed seeing our old apartments, department buildings and, most of all, navigating our way through a town we lived in for many years.  Luck had it that our good friends from graduate school still live in the area.  We were able to crash at their place after a nice authentic Mexican meal and visit to our favorite pub.

Possibly, the most enlightening part of the trip, was our introduction to yard games.  Sue and Jon have many and Molkki, a Finnish throwing game, was my favorite.  We plan to incorporate it into our outdoor life at home - it was really fun!!.  Here are some pictures of our competition.