The Palouse

From Kingdom of Walsh

On our way back from Sandpoint, we stopped at my parents property in the "palouse". It's just on the Idaho side of the WA, ID border. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful spot. Benjamin and Emma could have run through the wheat all day long, but we had a long drive ahead of us.

Sandpoint, Idaho!

From Sandpoint, ID

For the first half of Tante Resi's visit we had fun in WA, for the second half we all drove to Idaho to stay with Ruth and Jake and visit with Mom and Dad.

Ruth and Jake have a beautiful place and we had a great time in the perfect little town of Sandpoint. We walked around downtown, did some shopping, and spent an afternoon up at Schweitzer where we rode the ski lift up to the top and hiked around. Benjamin and Emma loved it.

On our last night, Ruth, Resi, Mom, and I cooked another Indonesia meal. It was a great trip.

Tante Resi! Tante Resi!

From Resi at Home

Tante Resi came all the way from the Netherlands to visit us last month! It has been 8 years since we have seen each other, and we had a very, very special time.

Benjamin and Emma loved her and it was a constant struggle to keep her safe from "playing choo choos".

We went to Paradise at Mt. Rainier one day, where Benjamin would yell "Tante Resi! Where's Tante Resi!?" whenever Brian and him would take a different path than us. It was a beautiful view and we did our hike and got in the car just as it began to rain.

Tante Resi brought some amazing pictures of our "family tree", and she cooked a authentic Indonesian meal for dinner one night, it was delicious. (The most difficult part was finding an East Asian grocery store that wasn't overtaken with either rats or homeless people to buy all the supplies.)

We also had a BBQ at our house with Grandpa and Sherri and Aunt Sue. After that we were off to Sandpoint, ID!

More Fun on the Fourth of July

We had so much fun from bike riding to eating happy cakes and more food then thought humanly possible to consume. We also were able to stay for a night on Anderson Island in our parent's cabin. It was so nice and relaxing with no other distractions we were able to really focus on the kids. 

Happy 4th of July!!! We had a great weekend and we'll posting soon detailing all we did. Until then, here's a message from Benjamin at the 4th of July breakfast table.

Fun in the Yard

Point defiance outing

We saw Belugas, Puffins, walruses, and much much more. Benjamin kept us on the go. Whenever we were looking at an awesome sight such as the Polar bears swimming, Benjamin would say nice and loud "see more".  It was quite amazing we made it through the whole zoo in one hour.