After spending the day at the zoo with Kristin, we went home by way of another completely out-of-the-way location—Traci and Eric’s house.  (Yes, I know calling someone else’s hometown inconvenient is a bit like like the pot calling the kettle black, but who’s writing this blog?) 

 

 

 

 

Just telling Kyla and Piper that we are going to see Cousin Traci gives me total credit for bringing them all of life’s good things.  Piper does her especially cute jumping up and down, clapping her hands, and exclaiming, “Did you hear that, Wesley?  We’re going to see Cousin Traci!  She’s the Funny One!”  Which does a great disservice to Cousin Eric for being the human jungle gym they climb on and plot to take down for most of their visit.

I laugh more in two hours with that family than I do in an entire week.   We love them.

Do you know how, in May, summer stretches out ahead of you as you make plans—supposedly just little dots on a large, blank canvas of free time?  And suddenly school is about to start and you’ve made just a dent in your Top Ten summer plans? 

Kristin and I have been waiting for summer so we could spend more time together—I’d bring the kids down and we could stay a few nights and do this and that….  Finally, last night, the kids and I drove south, so we could spend the night and go to Point Defiance Zoo the next day. 

And what a day!  Through impeccable timing (never underestimate dumb luck), we got to the exhibits just at feeding times or during training or lectures. 

And Point Defiance has one of the best animal-shows I’ve ever seen.  Evil Dr. Dolittle had a special ray gun to make people want to go indoors and she spoke in rhyming couplets.  There were caped superheros (both the human and canine variety) and lots of animal antics.  I enjoyed it more than the kids (to be fair, I wasn’t scared of the ray gun and smoke machine).

 

It’s a small enough zoo that we saw everything, even though Wes was beyond wiped before we were done.

 

Why, yes, that is a beaver strolling through the zoo.

 

Hey, kids, did you have a good time?  Oh, watch out for that shar….. oh, never mind.

We’ve always loved our W&C Galas, but we’ve always done them around Valentine’s Day or New Year’s Eve.  But between our middle child’s birthday, and the fact that there are too many children in our group to make hosting it in winter an option anymore, we hosted our first Summer Gala.  It was more casual, earlier, outside, and a ton of fun!

I was hoping to get pictures of everyone, but I mostly took them from the vantage point of the grill, so I missed a lot of the kids.  My apologies—next year I’ll put others in charge of the photos.  And my husband in front of the grill!

The shot of the day?  Piper and Anya after a trip to the chocolate fountain.  They both had to be changed. 

And because I realized I had taken all the photos, there wasn’t a single photo of my tres cute dress, Dwayne took this, perhaps a few hours past photogenic time.   But I loved the dress.

Thanks all for coming—I loved it!

We like our checkered picnic basket—settings for four to have mac-n-cheese, grapes, and juice.  We even wear some clothes when we pull out the “good” plastic.

We had to head over to the island today to get a few things for the party, mow the dandelions at the cabin, and what the heck—spend as much time in the afternoon at the the local fair. 

SO FUN!

 

I think I will quit our home, move to Whidbey just so I can learn to hula with this club.  So graceful and beautiful!

I want move like this!

 

The midway only had a dozen rides, but it was candy land for the kids.  Wesley was excited about the ship that he could fly and shoot from.  I wanted to add a bit of machoism to Wesley’s latest reports.

 

The best part of these sort of adventures is seeing the pure delight on my children’s faces.  Kyla and Piper loved the swings.

So much so, that they did it again. 

 

Wesley wanted to go on the trucks until he realized that he wasn’t on the flying gun ride (it’s a logical fallacy we are working on). 

 

There were fun shows to watch—like the guy who padlocked a chain around his straightjacket. 

 

We explored every single building of the fair (the kids got to fill their fair passport with stamps everywhere we went) and I found the pig judging hilarious.

 

What does one judge pigs on?  How good the bacon is? 

Turns out, that’s pretty close.  The best in show is the one that is the one most ready (and not overly) for butchering. Yeah, no kidding. 

 

The fair is only 4 days long so we will need to figure out how to get Dwayne to join us next year.  And you should come to!

We had a birthday party for cousins on Saturday, with best friend on Sunday, and then two more birthday parties on Monday.  The kids were exhausted, but had a huge streak of FUN!

Thanks again, Tad!  Batty Birthday!

 

Sarah has equines and had a Horsey Birthday. All the kids got to ride!

Our good friend Isaac had a birthday and we might have had kinda of a good time. 

Okay—it was fantastic!  I got to do a lot of the face painting, which I love.

The Lion King himself!

 

His little brother is always a superhero. 

 

Sus did Wesley’s snake.  He loved it.

 

Kyla likes her tiara and jewelry.

 

Sus turned Piper into an antelope, at her own request.  Two jaguars and a lion around, and she wants to become prey? 

 

Susanne and I ran out of kids to paint, so we turned on each other!

 

Unfortunately, we had to stop at Target on the way home.  I held by butterflied face up high.

& P are turning the big “1” and “3”  this month, so we got to go to the big Cousin Birthday Bash for a Bountiful Brunch and Cake. (Julie’s blog covers this very well.)

Wesley looked the prettiest. Isn’t that the greatest sandbox?  The benches fold down to make  cover.  Keith built it himself!

 

There’s always lots of fun to have at the cousins’ house!

 

Seriously—how many kids can bring together a mohawk, lilac dress, painted nails, and dinosaur underwear thjs well?!

 

One should always attend any party Julie is hosting.  Her goodies are amazing!  Look how pretty the birthday cupcakes are. (As are her kids.)

 

If you give a kid a cupcake…

 

…you’ll want to pull out the camera!

 

Happy Birthday, P & C!

(Yes, Dwayne does spoil me, but to balance it out, I was pressure washing the front deck in the rain at 9pm—after the kids were in bed and I had a craigslist buyer come by.) 

Dwayne wanted a destination location for a romantic weekend away, and he found a little hotel called the Davenport.  He didn’t tell me where we were going before we headed to the airport or even once we were in Spokane.  Turns out the Davenport is a 4 Diamond hotel in the heart of downtown with more history than ballrooms (which is to say, a lot). 

The Davenport Hotel is a regional landmark and masterpiece of the acclaimed architect Kirtland Cutter. Its public spaces inspire visitors. Grand rooms like the Spanish Renaissance lobby or the Hall of Doges, Spokane’s oldest and most exquisite ballroom, draw tourists and architectural aficionados alike. Such extraordinary features have helped the Davenport Hotel earn a prized spot on the National Register of Historic Places.

During the hotel’s renovation in 2000, owners Walt and Karen Worthy spared no expense in having the hand-painted frescoes, ornate woodwork, and European-inspired marble meticulously restored. Yes, that is real gold leaf around the lobby hearth, and the fireplace remains lit year-round — a hallmark of Davenport hospitality since the hotel opened its doors almost a century ago.

We danced (to our own music with no audience) in the empty ballrooms. 

 

The hotel was wonderful, blah, blah, but what we really love is all the history and restoration.  The fact that this hotel was almost demolished in 1985 is cool, but that it cost twice as much and took twice as long to restore it as it did to originally build it really turned us on.  That’s probably why we married.  We just want to build bigger and better, and appreciate when other people do. 

The Hall of Diogenes was moved by crane from it’s old location (totally torn down) into a prime position near another ballroom.  We likey.

I didn’t remember to take pictures of our room because there were so many other things to enjoy.  So many highlights, the best was the Champagne Brunch on Sunday morning.  I had extremely high expectations of this, and they were surpassed.  The chocolate fountain is still making me drool. 

Maybe we will return to celebrate our 50th!

What we do when we have four days without kids:

*Walk all around River Front park

and finished up by getting Dwayne queasy on my favorite midway rides.

 

*Walk miles around Manito Park, going through the Rose, Lilac, Japanese, Perennials gardens as well as the conservatory.

 

But our favorite was the formal Duncan Garden—if God couldn’t make Dwayne a pharaoh, he really should have at least made him an earl.  We lusted.  Why do we even have a yard if it doesn’t look like this?

Hey, look, a pergola!  (We likey.)

 

*Drive around trying to find the building that has the gorgeous bell tower.  Turns out—it’s the county court house!

 

*Stop by one of the ten golf courses to whack balls (that is a generous term for how I hit golf balls) on the driving range. 

 

*Go to art galleries and fairs in Coeur d’Alene.

 

And, my favorite, eating wild salmon and rice pilaf covered in champagne huckleberry sauce.  And watching lots of episodes of  Life on Netflix while snacking on milk and cookies from room service. 

It is so good to be loved by Dwayne!