Always An Adventure!

So it seems like about every 6 weeks or so we get a bug to travel. Last month it was Yellowstone.. this month Washington! This past Thursday we went up to visit my sister Tracy and her wonderful family in the little town of Ridgefield, Washington (north of Vancouver). I swear, Tyson has traveled more in his short 16 months than I did in my first 20 years! He did surprisingly well on the plane.

Side note/irritating story: We get on the plane and of course as we all know with Southwest, there is no assigned seating. We start looking around the cabin for a place with two seats together, preferably a window seat (I'm thinking what an AWESOME distraction for Tyson.. the window!). Of course we have an armload of items - diaper bag, camera bag, coats, etc. - and I spot two near the front. Unfortunately, there's this ornery-looking woman sitting in the aisle seat. I think to myself screw it, she sat on the end, she'll just have to move. Then I see she has a walking cast on her right leg. Great. I chose the one flippin' aisle on the plane with the gimp sitting in it. Oh well, I'm invested now and she's already moving. So we just get settled in the seats and she mutters "I'm going to give you more room for the baby." Pssshh. Whatever! She just didn't want to sit with us because of the old stereotype that all babies cry on planes. Visions of Bill Cosby's Himself come to mind and the whole "Jeffrey" story (If you haven't seen this, you MUST!!). Anyway, fortunately for us there was a very nice woman who came along right after her who said, "I love babies! I'm a Mom and I don't mind sitting here." So in the end, we had a great row-buddy and when we landed I seriously debated on turning around to the original Bitty and sticking out my tongue at her.

Beautiful Mt. Hood (I think) from the airplane

This is what we woke up to Friday morning. A beautiful fog rolled through the hills.

Friday we drove up to Chehalis to meet up with Catrina, a friend of mine through work. We had never met in person so it was good to get to meet her and her adorable kids, Gaven and McKayla. She's originally from Utah and a VERY cool person!

Gaven and Kailee were fast friends!

We spent some time with two of her horses Bijou and her foal Onyx. Tyson LOVES horses and after getting to see Bijou up close even got to ride her!


While we were out playing with the horses, Kailee decided she wanted to come out and ride also. She ignored my sister's advice to avoid the super muddy area of the pasture, however and got herself squarely stuck in the mud. She was very upset about this.

This is the result of being stuck in the mud. She cried SO hard about her sock, wailing how dirty her foot was. It was hilarious.

This is her very sad face at being stuck in the mud. Hilarious, I tell you!!

The great thing about being nearly four is that life's problems dissipate quickly. Two minutes later she was up on the horse and happy as a clam. Tyson loved riding Bijou, pointing to everything and talking up a storm.

Tyson and Kailee - Blackmail photos!

There was even some time for wrestling with Uncle Doug. The kids all ganged up on him and tried to take him down.

Tyson and Kacee - so sweet and worn out from attacking Doug.

Oh and I forgot to mention that during our visit we were forced encouraged to help decorate for my sister's Halloween party. We spent the entire day cleaning and decorating the house and deck for the big bash. She has this awesome deck that runs the length of the house that we turned into a miniature haunted house for the evening. Complete with a fog machine, strobe light and scary props. We did have a blast carving pumpkins with the kids though. Surprisingly, Kacee was grossed out the most by "gutting" the pumpkin, while Princess Kai dug right in and pulled the guts out by the handful! Who'd have thought??

My little Vampire and Minnie - Are we sure they're not siblings??

Tracy dressed up like this ghoulish character from the dead and scared the wits (among other things) out of all the kids as they came through the haunted deck one by one.

Side note: During an attempt to take pictures/video tape during this, apparently Tyson got forgotten left alone and managed to find the cupcake tray. When I popped into the room he was in, I discovered him with gobs of chocolate frosting/evidence all over his face and hand and a guilty/fiendish look on his face. CLASSIC! I captured it on my video camera so eventually I'll have to post it.

With my awesome sister!

Beautiful fall colors on the property

Sadly, Monday we had to come home. It was a great visit.. I just wish we had more time to spend with them. It's so hard having family live out of state. I feel like every time I see them they've changed by leaps and bounds. Such is life I guess.. we just carry on and do the best we can.

Oh, and for the record: Tyson didn't cry on the way home either. He slept the entire flight, clear through the landing. Hope that Bitty reads this!!