Spokane Trip 2019

One of our favorite trips to take is visiting Kelson's family in Spokane. Sarah has asked constantly when we were going back since the last time we were there. We love visiting Grandma Judy, Aunt Barbara, and Dixie, and there are so many fun animals on their farm! We drove up to Spokane through the Tri-cities and stopped at the candy factory for lunch and treats. (Another of our kids' favorite things!)

 The 2-week old puppies were so cute! Chris was actually more interested in the car collection, though.

 We spent Monday night at Fish Lake, playing in the water and having a barbecue. My little crew of fishies was in heaven. Even Kate enjoyed the water.

 Checking out the chicks

 The kitten crawled into my lap and started purring. Chris wanted to hold him so bad, but the kitty wanted nothing to do with Chris.

 Lady, on the other hand, was determined to lay her whole giant self in Chris's lap. Chris just wanted the kitty. He was a little overwhelmed with all of the big dogs.

Having some fun relaxing on the trampoline

 Kelson spent the day rebuilding Judy's chicken coop. The hens had a nice new home by the end of the day.

 Highlight of the trip: Sarah got to ride one of Aunt Barbara's horses! She was ridiculously excited. 

 Chris was much less excited about riding the horse. By this point, he was just terrified of all of the animals. 

 Riding the horse with Dixie

 After the horse, Aunt Barbara brought out the 4-wheeler. Sarah kept begging her to go faster.

 Chris may not have loved the animals, but he was right at home on the 4-wheeler. He wanted to go again and again.

 Puppy!

 Thanks for the great visit! We love you!

We spent Wednesday morning playing in downtown Spokane. We went to Manito park, which has a big duck pond and a beautiful botanical garden. The kids loved the ducks. One duckling kept nibbling Sarah's fingers. 

 Then the duckling and his mother followed us along the path for a while.

 There were several big trees that had places to hide inside.

 This garden was so beautiful!

They had a playground with a really fun climbing structure. Sarah is pretty fearless.

 Kate and Mommy hanging out while the big kids played

 The next item on our agenda was to hike out along the shore of Lake Couer d'Alene and go swimming in a spot that we found the last time we were there. Unfortunately, it started pouring down rain ten minutes into our hike and we had to hurry back to the parking lot.

 We took shelter in this really cool swing at the park.

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 Kate wasn't bothered by the rain.

 The rain pretty much stopped by the time we got back to the park where we had left the car, so we played on the most amazing playground. 

Playing some music.

After the playground, it was still pretty drippy, so we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming at the hotel. The kids never complain about swimming time.

We drove home through Lewiston and down through the mountains of Idaho. In Lewiston, we stopped at the Lewis and Clark visitor's center, which was very interesting. The rest of the drive ended up taking much longer than we expected, but it was beautiful, and the kids were troopers. We were glad to make it home at the end of the day. What a fun trip!