To the park

Rinnah hadn't been feeling well the last few days, so we've just been doing errands like grocery shopping and Walgreens. She seems to be on the upswing though. We went out to a nearby park this afternoon, and that was really nice. Here are a few highlights, starting with a favorite shot of Rinnah:

From Seattle

From Seattle

From Seattle

From Seattle

From Seattle

From Seattle

From Seattle

From Seattle

From Seattle

From Seattle

From Seattle

From Seattle

Everett

We made it to Everett, and so did my mom, and we're more or less settled. The campground is pretty nice by urban RV park standards. It's all paved, and there are tall shrubs between each site. It's not that big, and they only had pull-thrus so there is a lane in front and back of us, but we're toward the back of the park so it's quiet and my mom is parked pretty close by. We're also right next to the laundry machines, which is a plus.

The only downside is the wireless. Or lack thereof. They are supposedly still installing their system here, but the launch doesn't seem exactly imminent. They gave us a username and password for the RV park next door (nice, huh?) but the signal is pretty low and the network drops out frequently. Occasionally we can get on though, like now, and sometimes is better than never. I'm trying to decide what the odds are that the kids would behave if we tried to go to a library to get wifi.

It's a little colder and rainier here. We haven't seen much rain for months, but now we're in the Seattle area so I think it's to be expected. We're trying to decide if we're going to do anything more adventurous than grocery shopping today or if we'll hope for a little warmer day tomorrow. There are so many things to do around here! I hope we have a few warm days to walk around downtown Seattle.

On Sunday we're going to meet up with a friend from college. I haven't seen her since before we left for Thailand, and I'm so excited to catch up with her! Plus, she has high-speed internet, so hopefully I'll be able to put up some pics from this last week or two then.

Everett

We made it to Everett today! So weird to know that we're done heading west. That's been what we've been mostly doing since we left, but we're just about as west as we can get now!

The kids were pretty good in the truck today. We only had a few hours to drive. We were aiming to stop at a Target for one last chance at some free cheese and stumbled across another children's museum in our membership. Both kids had just woken up from a nap so it was a perfect time to stop and play for awhile. We spent a few hours there and the kids had a blast.

Now we're in Everett, just outside of Seattle. Looking forward to catching up with some friends, and my mom will be getting here tomorrow. It should be a fun couple of weeks.

Right now we don't have wifi, just the aircard, so no pics for now. Hopefully we'll find some wireless soon.

Pictures

Amber is an amazing photographer, and last night she did a portrait session for our family. I can hardly wait to see how they turned out! She showed me one picture today of Ian and it was so adorable! She has also been gracious enough to show me a lot of tricks she uses in Photoshop and she let me watch her process the picture of Ian to see how she made the colors pop. Very cool! I'm trying to 'repay' her by teaching her about coupons and checking her girls' car seats, but it sure feels like I'm getting the better end of the deal.

We went to the park today and I tried to use some of her tips on this picture I got of Rinnah. I like how it turned out-what do you think?

Park

We've spent the last few days with Amber and her girls, Eva and Sophie. Eva is Ian's age and Sophie just turned one, so she and Rinnah are pretty close too. I think Ian is getting a little crush on Eva. He keeps asking about her when we're not with her. Yesterday we got home and he immediately started picking up sticks in an area near our truck. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was making it so Eva's car wouldn't have to drive on the stick. This morning he was trying to decide what shirt Eva would like, and he spent awhile agonizing over which book she would like. We got almost to the park (he was pushing his bear in the little stroller) and he suddenly asked if we had his books. When I told him they were at home, he turned around and started walking back. There was no talking him out of it-we were not going without the book for Eva. He and Eva play very well together, and it's really cute to see them together. Rinnah tries her hardest to keep up with the big kids!

Here's a picture from the park today of Ian pushing Rinnah on the swing that I thought turned out okay. I still need to tweak the color but until I get that figured out here's a preview:

From Pullman, WA

From Pullman, WA

From Pullman, WA

From Pullman, WA

From Pullman, WA

Playdate

Today we spent the morning over at our friends' house. Ian and Eva had a blast together, and Sophie and Rinnah enjoyed chasing after the big kids. It was really nice and a little strange to be in a house again. I think the last time we were in a regular house was in Kansas City, way back in June. It's like college all over again to feel weird in a house. I think Ian thinks it's like a children's museum where you don't have to wait in line to play with the toys.

It was really nice to be able to relax and not have to spot the kids every 5 seconds since I knew they were somewhere safe. And I really enjoyed visiting with Amber. I think tomorrow we're going to take the kids to the park, as long as it's a bit warmer tomorrow morning. It was only about 50 degrees first thing this morning, although it warmed up to the high 70s by afternoon.

I think my sense of direction is getting better. I made it all the way to Amber's house today (only the 2nd time I've been there and first time I drove) making only one wrong turn, and that was turning the wrong way onto her street. And I even figured out how to get there a different way that avoided climbing the giant hill next to the RV park, thanks to taking a wrong turn on the way home from RiteAid yesterday. That made me proud, since I've always been a bit directionally dysfunctional. Frequent travel is definitely helping me improve.

Pullman

We are now in Pullman, Washington. It's a little town in eastern Washington. We needed someplace to stay for a week to break up the drive to Seattle, and one of my good friends from online lives here. She's a very talented photographer so I'm hoping she can teach me a few things while I'm here. We went over there for lunch today and the kids had a great time playing together. She has one girl the same age as Ian and another little girl who just turned 1 last week, so they're very close in age to our kids. Ian and Rinnah had a blast playing inside with all different toys, and we really enjoyed visiting with them. I think Amber and I will get together with the kids a few mornings this week. It will be nice.

It was sort of an adventure getting here this morning. It was only supposed to be about 45 minutes from where we stayed last night, but we learned an interesting quirk of our GPS. When it's on a state border, it tries to find directions staying in the same state. Even though we were in Washington and going somewhere else in Washington, the best route took us back the 2 miles over the border into Idaho to catch a major road, but our GPS wanted to go a different way. We turned around at the signs "Primitive road-no warning signs" and "Road not advised for trucks" and "Road not advised for cars in inclement weather". It looked like a one lane dirt road on the side of a mountain, not a place we wanted to take our 36 foot trailer. We did eventually get here safely despite our GPS.

We are kinda limited on the internet though, since we only have the aircard and we have to watch our bandwidth. I'll have to go easy on the pictures this week.