Visiting Battle Ground Washington with family - 2022/07/11-20

We're in Washington visiting my brother, his wife, and their four kids, but it could be more... Earlier in the year we already knew when we'd be up here and we suggested that everyone in the Flowers family should come visit. Jon and Jess were more than willing to let everyone stay with them and so just a couple days after we arrived, Megan, Patrick, and Avery hopped on a plane. 

Along with Mickey and Sheila! 

Avery is going over the safety briefing.

We arrived shortly after they did. Hi Gram! 

So good to see everyone! 

Hi Avery!

Playmates! 

And Jess has made some tasty loaves of bread for us all to enjoy this morning. 

Gram saying hi to the new kitty. So the kitty got her name before they adopted her. And her name is... Daisy. Yep! Daisy Flowers. Why even change it. 

Cousins hanging out together. 

Daisy wants to come outside and play too. She's a rascal. 

Pop Pop took the kids to shoot the BB guns. 

And the twins are figuring out how to shoot left-handed like Uncle Patrick. 

I love their new house. So many comfy places to hang out. 

The kids made sure we brought their swimsuits so they could go on the slip-n-slide again. 

Go Avery go!

For dinner, Jess, Jon, and Josh have something special planned. Jess and Jon made homemade noodles. 

Those are always preferred to dry boxed noodles from the store. 

The day was spent just hanging out together. Playing 4-way Mario Kart. 

Strumming the guitar on the back porch together and singing. 

Napping. 

And around dinnertime, Jon got some chicken thighs on the grill. 

While Josh got a homemade alfredo sauce cooking. 

We are eating so well here. 

Yum! That's a tasty dinner! 

Because we are all together, this is a great time to catch up on some celebrations we've missed out on. Tonight we decided to give the twins their birthday gift early! What could it be? 

New BB guns! They've been wanting these! A little more powerful that their Daisy BB guns, and these ones have a scope!

Those cans don't stand a chance now. 

And now we can have 5 shooters. We ended up picking a single can target and shooting it until we cut it in half! 

We did quite a few puzzles in the sunroom. 

Daisy is "helping". 

Thankfully not helping too much. No missing pieces. 

Beautiful sunsets from their porch. 

Playing the guitar around the fire pit. 

I loved gathering around in the evening to sing together and talk. It's been a long time since we've all been together. 

Mornings were a good time to go on a hike. 

Or just hanging out in a swing on the back porch drinking coffee. 

We happened to be there for the Battle Ground Washington Harvest Days parade. 

There were so many floats and groups walking down the road. 

Ooh! Apples!

There were plenty of local groups and political groups. I was excited to see part of the 501st Legion. 

Love those people who spend the time to dress up and come out. 

Great detail in the uniforms too. That sign in the background. Vote YES FIRE!

The favorite part of many of the kids was the candy that was being thrown out by the various groups. Emma was with us and collected as much as she could. I thought it was funny that one of the political groups had people passing by saying "the people at the back will have candy" and then no one in the back had any candy. 

While we were downtown, Jess took us to one of her favorite taco truck. They were indeed tasty! 

That morning Jess also decided to make everyone a special treat. 

I'm used to her making these for Christmas morning, but really, any time is a good time for these. 

Homemade sticky buns!

Thanks Jess! 

Oh Daisy. 

More puzzles. The littles are sorting pieces and figuring things out. 

Then the adults got in on it. 

Everyone who did the puzzle gets a picture with it. 

Daisy was just sitting on the side supervising this time. 

For dinner, Jon had a brisket and a couple pork butts smoking all day. Between the sticky buns and the smoked meat, the house was smelling amazing all day. 

It's been a full day. The couch was perfect for napping on.