Washington vacation

For my birthday I decided I wanted to go visit my family and friends in Washington. Jesse had to work on my birthday (Friday the 19th) but we decided to head out that night and go halfway. While he was at work I packed the bags and got things in order so we could leave as soon as he got home. Before we left my mother in law went to the store and bought us some snacks for the road. Since we were leaving she bought me some cookies instead of making me a cake. Oddly she bought my favorite store cookies so I was VERY happy!

As you can see, the Joker was also excited to eat some pink cookies.
We made it to Baker City, Oregon and decided to call it a night. We packed some food in our cooler and used the microwave to cook our dinner. We got a crib for Zeke to sleep in but one of the wheels was missing so we had to stack some phonebooks under one side. It was pretty ghetto, but I can't complain!

The next morning we woke up really early (Zeke was hungry) and instead of going back to bed we decided to head on out. Rosalee was passed out asleep but as soon as she woke up she was ready to go. In fact she hopped out of bed and waked over to the door telling us it was time to go. She refused to eat her breakfast so I took some apples and muffins from the hotel lobby for her to snack on.

We made it to Prosser, Washington and decided to stop for some food and gas. When we got out of the car we couldn't believe how nice the weather was! It was only 9am and it was already almost 50 degrees. This isn't much but compared to below freezing Idaho, we were in heaven! The morning was so nice we ate outside and even let Zeke roll around on a blanket for a bit. I'm glad we decided to do this because the kids both slept the rest of the way to my parent's house.

Right before going up the mountains to White Pass we saw a lot of elk off the side of the highway. We decided to stop and take a couple of shots before driving on since the kids were passed out.
The next day we went to church and after (because of the great weather) we decided to go out into my parent's back woods to look for frogs. The night before we could hear them so we decided to see if we could find any. Just my luck though, my camera battery died so I charged it and used my mom's instead. (The pictures from our outside adventure are in my last post.) After playing in the woods we came inside and my dad made me some birthday ice cream! He makes THE BEST homemade ice cream and I haven't had some in a few years now. The best part, he made my favorite flavor- butterscotch toffee bit. I think I was 17 or 18 the last time I had it so I was VERY VERY excited!!! It was fun watching him make the ice cream with Rosalee and Alyssa (my cousin's daughter). It reminded me of when we were young helping him make the ice cream. Only our girls are better about not trying to steal tastes of the ice cream while he's mixing it together.

Gooey goodness!!!!!

While we waited for the ice cream to set Jesse and Zeke hung out watching the Olympics and Rosalee and Alyssa played. I enjoyed helping my brother make ribs and steak.
On Monday my dad needed some help getting firewood from the woods. He drove the farm truck out and I followed in his old station wagon. Rosalee sat on my lap and helped me steer the car. *NOTE- Driving stick in rubber boots with a child on your lap IS NOT EASY!* Rosalee especially loved going over large bumps and sticks, she kept giggling the whole time. Right before we got to the down tree my dad got the truck stuck in the mud!

The kids had fun watching us run around and try to figure out how to get it out of the mud. Rosalee was our helper and gathered some twigs to use under the wheels for traction.

Eventually we got enough sticks under the tires that we thought we could get the truck out. Well, it didn't work. So I got to pull that huge truck with my dad's old station wagon! There were several times I thought I was going to kill the transmission but like a beast it pulled the truck free. Again Rosalee was laughing and clapping the entire time.

On Tuesday we went out to lunch with my friend Chantel. It was free pancake day at IHOP so we decided to go there. Rosalee was over the moon about strawberry syrup! She kept asking for more but I felt a soggy bright pink pancake wasn't the best thing for her to eat. Do you see the red spot on her chin? The little monkey was climbing around my parent's house and smashed her chin. Poor kid.

On Wednesday we went to my mom's friend's house and Rosalee got to play with Barbies! If you ask what she did at Carol's house her response will be, "I play with all the Barbies!" It's cute because they are the same Barbies I played with when I was younger.

If you thought her chin was bad... here's the story on this one. Late Wednesday night Rosalee was in bed, suppose to be sleeping. She has a cat at the farm who LOVES her and snuggles nightly with her. Out of the silence we heard Rosalee scream and then start crying rather loudly. I ran up the stairs to see her sitting up in the bed rubbing her eyes. The cat was still on her lap, purring even, so I assumed she had had a bad dream. I asked her, "What's wrong?" to which she responded, "I got a scratch!" I pulled her hand away and look at her eye which had blood on it. Next I asked how she got scratched and she told me that Koshka (the cat who was still purring) had done it. I was confused because this is a VERY nice cat and the cat seemed happy. So I asked her what happened before the cat scratched her. This is Rosalee's story-
"I give Koshka kisses and she scratch me!"
"Kisses?"

"Yeah I give her kisses on the leg and then she scratch me!"

"Were you giving nice kisses?"

"Yes... No... I kiss her and then lick her and then I eat her hair."
I then notice and good amount of cat fur stuck to the side of Rosalee's lip. This prompted me to look at the cat's leg and check for signs of destruction. I found a wet spot on the cat's leg about the size of Rosalee's lips...
"Did you bite the cat?"
"No, I bite her hair!"

"Then what?"
"I bite the hair and she scratch me. She no like bites."
Next Rosalee started crying hysterically about how Grandma was mad at her and told her to "stop it" when she was crying. It turned out that my mom was yelling at the cat on her bed but happened to yell it right when Rosalee started crying from being scratched. I felt bad for her, but as soon as she understood Grandma wasn't mad she went right to sleep.

On Thursday we went to the Rainer Room at Clover Park Technical School and had DELICIOUS food! I had scallops, Rosalee ate a prawn sandwich, and Jesse had turkey tetrazini. It was amazingly delicious and the best part- cheap because it's cooked by students! I think it's one of the best kept secrets of Western Washington.
On Friday we hung around the house and Jesse went down to my mom's work and helped out. He likes going to the vet office and helping with things. He even got to teach my mom and the vet something new. I'm not sure of all the details but it deals with ovaries, dissecting them, and being able to tell how many pregnancies the animal had. All I know is when I called to see if he needed to be picked up I was told he was "having fun" and "wasn't ready to leave yet" so I let my mom bring him home.
I guess Shannon (the vet) was impressed with Jesse because early Saturday morning she called up to talk to him! She told him that her cat had killed a flying squirrel and wanted to know if he'd like it for observation. Of course he said yes so later that day my mom brought home a dead flying squirrel for us to examine.

Jesse didn't want to actually cut the little guy up so we just looked at it and then took it out to the woods. Rosalee was excited and kept petting the tail. She asked if she could keep it but we told her no. I can't blame her though, the fur was soft and the thing was pretty cute looking.
Saturday night we had dinner at my aunt's house. I was having too much fun to remember to take any pictures though. I was introduced to spaghetti squash and I think it's something I'll be adding to my diet. Rosalee had fun running around with Alyssa and Zeke was happy to be loved by everyone. Next we stopped by Chantel's house and she gave us some toys for the kids. NOT that we needed more, but Rosalee LOVES what she got so I'm happy.

I decided to make a quick video of the frogs before going to bed. I took this video from the back porch because I didn't feel like stumbling around in the mud in the dark. All of the sounds you hear (minus my voice) are frogs. I think we have 3 or 4 different varieties in the woods so it can get pretty loud. If fact I'm talking only slightly quiet but the frog sound covers my voice and makes it seem like I'm almost whispering.

On Sunday we got up really early and decided to drive all 12+ hours back to Idaho. This was the sunrise over the Cascade Mountains.

Right before White Pass we found more elk! We thought maybe this was the same herd from the east side of the pass but those elk were still there. This picture is from the town of Packwood. The elks were ALL over! They were walking down the road, in parking lots, eating flowers at the church, it was INSANE!

It took us 14 1/2 hours to get home. The last 5-6 hours Zeke was OVER being in a car! To make it interesting Rosalee wasn't feeling great so she had to stop to use the bathroom every 45 minutes. I'm impressed that she was able to hold it, but not so happy that every time the car stopped Zeke would scream like his leg was broken. It was one of the rare times when we fought over who would take Rosalee to the bathroom! But we made it home safely and are looking for an excuse to go back to Washington as soon as possible!