A Bit of Vacation

We had planned on going to Salt Lake City and touring Temple Square while visiting family and friends, but it didn't work out. So instead, last weekend, we traveled a bit around Washington. On Saturday, we headed up north, thirteen miles south of the Canada border, and hiked up a short trail to take a tour of the  Crawford/Gardner Cave, which has one of the largest stalagmite/stalactite columns in the northwest. This cave is the third longest limestone cave in Washington. The girls thought it was really neat and were hoping to see bats, but the cave didn't have any. By the time we got down to the very bottom, Summer was shivering from the cold. She was glad to get back out! (Of course, we left our camera at home and our phones in the car, but we did get some after-the-cave photos.)

We noticed the visitor's center on our way home, but didn't stop because we didn't think we'd all fit in it.

On Monday, we headed south and west to Palouse Falls. It was a couple hours away. It was incredibly beautiful (especially the rocks  castle to the upper left of the falls--AMAZING!) but it was sooooo hot--in the high 90's. And there was hardly any shade!

We headed on a hike to the upper falls, got about five minutes into it, noticed Pippy's bright red face and sweat beads on her nose, and then Summer said, "It's too hot. I don't want to go." So we turned around and left.

We stopped at a restaurant to on our way out and decided to priceline a hotel in Seattle. Rhett got a good deal, so we took a spontaneous trip to Seattle! (Thank goodness for a few extra diapers in the diaper bag!) 

We got to my favorite part of the drive--the bridge over the Columbia River--and the sun was setting. It was a perfect atmosphere to reminisce about all our visits to Andrew and Maria. I got a little teary eyed. 

Our ETA was 9pm. The girls were doing great. We had a couple cd's of stories that Summer requested again and again. She sat and listened to the whole thing, asked what certain phrases and words meant. It was really great. Claire enjoyed them too. When we got to the pass before Seattle, we got stopped in construction and waited TWO AND A HALF hours! So we got to our hotel pretty late, but it was a nice hotel and the girls went right to bed.

The whole drive to Seattle, Summer talked about seeing star fish (I'm not sure why), so the next morning (after sleeping in), we decided to go to the Seattle Aquarium. We spent THREE hours there. The girls loved it. It was so amazing.

(Love this unintentional Little Mermaid pose from Claire!)

We also stopped at the outlet malls to do a little school shopping for the girls. We then headed home. Again, the girls did so great, listening to story after story. I'm going to have to find some more of these cd's!

We had a great time. And the best part, when we pulled into Liberty Lake at one in the morning, we didn't have anything to carry in but ourselves, our children, and a few groceries from Walmart we got along the way!