Fun in the Sun--or in the Dark, Part II

(Now that it's been over a month since we left Washington, I'm finally ready to catch up and give an update from July through August! WARNING: Very long post!)

We had a great last several weeks in Washington. When we weren't inside a cool, dark theater watching a free summer movie, we were out in the sun again. Our last Saturday we went to a water park in Moses Lake. We had gone to Moses Lake once before for a 4th of July celebration with LOTS of cousins. Eric has another cousin who lives there and they have a house right on the lake. Mierae was in the lake most of the day, and was in the little pool with Jolie or going down the blow-up water slide the rest of the time. Eric got a chance at kayaking, and we all ate some great food. The celebration ended with a patriotic pinata.






Mierae cracked us up as she kept calling Moses Lake "Jordan River!" :)

So our last Saturday in Washington was spent at Moses Lake's "Surf-n-Slide." Eric did a little surfing, we all did some sliding, and we relaxing a lot on the lazy river.



To cope with the 107 degree days of our last week, we spent several mornings at our bishop's house, where they have a pool they open up to the ward! We had some cousins in our ward and LOVED the times we got to play with them, especially at the pool.



And because we kept driving past Sonic wherever we went, we told Mierae we'd get the chance to eat there, and ended up having our last dinner in the cool 100 degrees of the evening. :) We had a great time. We rediscovered tator tots, and we couldn't pass up the burger and shake for $2.99!




After another L-O-N-G day of driving, leaving Washington for Utah, we were VERY excited to stay with my sister Rosie (since my parents' house was being remodeled after their flood in June and they were staying with my grandma). Mierae and Julia played and played with Julia's dollhouse, slept in the same room together, danced to "Kung Fu Panda" on the keyboard, and got their nails done by Aunt Kristen.


Ethan was Jolie's best friend and he took such good care of her. She loved getting piggy-back rides from him, hiding in cardboard boxes with him, and watching movies on Julia's new video MP3 player.


We always have so much fun when we get to be together! We were there for August's $2 Tuesdays at Thanksgiving Point, so we snatched up the chance to go to the Dinosaur Museum together. It was SUPER crowded, of course, but the kids were able to squeeze their way into the sand and water tables and fossil digs as we toured the museum.









We also had one more taste of waterparks when we went swimming at the new Scera pool. It is always better with cousins!


And one of the funniest outings was when we went to BYU. We caught the last day of the "I Spy" exhibit at the MOA and went to the Creamery on 9th for donuts and chocolate milk (our family tradition). My sister took these photos and posted them on her blog. I had to post them here as well! Hilarious!

(Waiting and waiting...)



YUM!!



One of the most anticipated things of this visit before leaving for Ohio was my younger sister's baby being born! But baby Daphne was just NOT ready to come (and never did want to, even after 41 weeks). So we didn't get to be there for baby Daphne's birth (and I still want to hold her so bad!). But, we did get to go to a baby shower and have a sister's night out with Charlotte. The girls really enjoyed the shower--they didn't even take the time to eat, they were playing so hard!



And we continued a new tradition by getting ice cream at Coldstone, just the sisters.


With all the busyness of being with family, we never get to see friends while we're in Utah. So, this trip I made it a point to see my mission greenie and good friend Ange. I had never met her girls before, and we had a great time catching up!


It was hard to say good-bye when we had to leave, knowing we wouldn't be popping back in anytime soon. We loaded up the van with the Expedit bookshelves I bought at IKEA over Memorial Day Weekend, and threw in a dollhouse my sister Rosie had just found at a garage sale for $1 that was exactly like Julia's! My Dad took this picture just before we drove away.



Our trip went pretty well, not as well as on the way west, but we made it through. We had a fun stop at Eric's sister Sarah's in Colorado, and then camped in Kansas. The girls loved that part of the trip: swimming in a reservoir, drinking hot chocolate, and sitting outside under the stars.




But, because the girls had slept so much in the van that day, they did NOT want to go to sleep! That was the worst part of our trip. I had to take Jolie to the van to scream twice. I'm sure there was more than one tent-full of people not happy with us that night. We were glad to get on our way to St. Louis the next day and stay at a hotel with a pool and a free breakfast (and shower after that hot and muggy night before). We took the time in the morning to go to the St. Louis zoo (which is free!). The carousel was free first thing in the morning, and the girls were so excited to go for a ride right when we got there.


I loved seeing giraffes and hippos since we don't have those at the Columbus zoo.


It was a great diversion in the midst of traveling. That night we arrived at my sister's in Cincinnati, and it felt great to be in Ohio again!

Moving into our new place was a harder than we expected. We hadn't thought about reserving a moving van, and when we called on a Thursday, of course EVERYTHING was gone for a Saturday move. We waited until Monday and were so grateful for all the help we received!! We were so happy that night to have our beds again. :) And we took the rest of the week trying to get settled and dealing with two sets of washers and dryers that had issues. That's a whole other post, though...

So, without further ado, here's our new apartment...


...where Mierae is incredibly happy to walk out the door and ride her bike everyday...


...and Jolie is content to eat sidewalk chalk


The bedrooms are big, we have a front and back door to the outside, a carport, and a washer and dryer! What luxury! We are happy to be home.