So Much To Say

I'll try to break this into manageable posts, but since I have a week's worth of information, this could get ugly!

Last Sunday, SIL & BIL and DOG arrived. We went out to dinner at a nearby brewery and ate outside to take advantage of the good weather. The next day, Hubby took the day off and we drove with SIL & BIL (DOG stayed home with our dogs) to Seattle. BIL hadn't been to Seattle, so we went and did the touristy stuff. We had lunch at the restaurant atop the Space Needle, which was nice. After lunch, we walked to the Pike Place Market. Hutton was quite the trooper, and made it nearly all the way without asking for a ride on anyone's back.

Tuesday morning, S, B & D left for Oregon, and we were back to the grind.

Wednesday, MIL arrived from Florida. Thursday, MIL accompanied the boys and me on the trip to speech therapy. While Hutton had his therapy, the rest of us went to the Bellevue Botanical Garden. MIL is a master gardener, so most trips involve plants in some way or another. This particular trip would be plant intensive it turns out! Later that afternoon, after lunch, and a trip to see my friend, we drove by the house of the daughter of a friend of MIL's from FL. The daughter is a big daylily fan, and as we drove up her driveway, we saw hundreds, no, thousands, of daylilies of every variety edging her large yard. The daughter's late husband cross-bred most of them, and they hadn't been divided in several years. The daughter said she was going to clear out a spot in her yard for different plantings, and we were welcome to any we wanted. I gladly obliged, and MIL dug them up for me, and planted them the next morning. Sometimes it's nice to have a master gardener for an in-law!

Friday, after MIL planted the daylilies for me, and Hutton had his ABA therapy at home, we headed out to the Olympic Peninsula. MIL had made reservations for us at the Lake Crescent Lodge near Port Angeles. Another friend of hers from Florida was staying there for the Lavender Festival. We had attended the festival the previous year with MIL, so it wasn't something we felt terribly exciting about, but being the ever dutiful children we are, we made the drive, involving ferry rides, to the peninsula. It turned out to be a nice drive. We missed the turn for the Edmonds-Kingston Ferry, so drove up to Mukilteo to get another ferry to Whidbey Island. This route went by the Boeing Plant, which I had never seen before, so that was interesting. It is the largest building in the world by volume, so it's quite impressive.

We took the ferry to Whidbey Island, then drove up to the next ferry (no, this wasn't the most direct route!) that would take us further across Puget Sound to Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula. While we waited for this ferry, we got to watch many, many airplanes circling overhead. They were military aircraft practicing take-offs and landings at the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station nearby.

The ferry rides were pleasant, and the boys enjoyed themselves.

We drove west on the peninsula towards Port Angeles, then past it towards Lake Crescent. The closer we got, the more overcast it became, and I soon regretted the shorts I was wearing. As we pulled into the entrance to the lodge, I spotted the first deer of our visit. We would see another 4 the next day! We enjoyed a lovely dinner at the lodge with MIL's friend and her husband, then went to bed late. All 5 of us, together in a one room cabin with two queen size beds and a roll-away twin bed.

More on this later...