2024 Summer Trip - Washington visiting family - 2024/07/04

Time to continue our travel, this time to Washington to visit my brother Jon, his wife Jess, and their family! 

We're traveling on July 4th, so I thought I should wear appropriate clothing. On the plane I sat next to a professional dog trainer and had some really interesting conversations about her work. She also told me a few things I should see while we're visiting Oregon and Washington. 

Jon was waiting for us at the Portland airport to pick us up.

And it's Emma! Oh my, she's getting so tall now! 

They all wanted to sit together in the back. 

The kids pulled out some prizes they won from Chuck E Cheese that they got specifically for their cousins.

Washington sure is beautiful. 

Made it to the Flowers' house! 

Hi Isaac! 

A sign they made for the kids! 

Ooh, a large bowl of cookies. I'm assuming they're just for me. Why is Ian trying to take one of my cookies? 

Being the 4th, Jon was grilling burgers and hot dogs on the back deck. 

Yum! 

Alli fixing up her perfect burger. 

One of each! 

Jon and Jess have an excellent view of the city from their deck and invited lots of friends. That means lots of tasty desserts! 

T hanging out on the back porch playing the ukulele. 

And this little guy popped out of the couch to say hello. I almost expected him to pull out a banjo and start singing The Rainbow Connection. 

Fireworks are officially allowed after 9pm, but they've been going off for a few hours already. 

It's a great view from the deck!

Here's someone we haven't seen too much of yet. The Flowers' kitty, River. 

Not sure if she's loving all the attention. 

And speaking of wild animals, I love that their year could have lots of different animals going through it. Like this bunny. 

A mama deer and two fawns who still have spots. 

And another pair of deer. 

One thing we got out and did a lot while we were there was hiking! I'll have a whole separate post for that, but one of the favorites was Ape Cave, where we hiked 1.5 miles underground in an old lava tube! 

We took some time to visit the City of Roses (Portland Oregon) and the International Rose Garden there. Another post on that will also be coming. 

Right about the time I got my outdoor pizza oven, my brother was also getting one. We've traded texts about different recipes and other things that worked or didn't, so I was excited to finally get to try his pizza! 

One of the recipes I haven't made that he sent was for a white bechamel sauce for pizza. He used it on lots of different pizzas tonight and it was Theresa's new favorite sauce! 

- 486g milk (2 cups)

- 113g butter (1 stick)

- 18g AP flout

- 2g salt

- pinch of nutmeg

(add garlic if you like)

A tasty meaty pizza. 

One of T's favorites. Bacon and potato, then arugula on that. 

We had some extra Rotel nacho cheese sauce left over from the 4th of July. Guess what? It makes a tasty pizza! 

Dessert pizza anyone? Jon turned off the heat and the temperature of the oven cooked it, but didn't burn the marshmallows. 

Yum!

We're still using of Summer Fun Pass from Chuck E Cheese and this time to Washington Flowers are coming along. Can you believe Isaac has never been to CEC? 

Summer of Fun has... began? Why not begun? 

Always fun to find new games. 

Designed for people a little shorter I think. 

Winning on Tippin Bloks!

Yeah, it probably skipped on you. Definitely not your timing. 

A couple years ago I found one of these kiddie basketball games that was still paying 100 tickets for beating the high score. Haven't seen that in a while though. Now it only pay 5-10 tickets. 

Riding with Chucky. 

Jon and Isaac giving it a go. They beat the game, getting the 24th highest score overall. 

We'd be back again playing more games. 

Isaac can move on Piano Keys. 

Jon getting a high score and skeeball bonus with 43000 points. 

Then doing it again a short time later with 45000 points. 

Oh boy. The ball machine is letting them win balls pretty easily. Guess we're taking quite a few home with us. 

Jon and Isaac beating the game again, this time setting the 3rd highest score! 

Maxing out the milk jug and getting lots of tickets. 

Yes, I think we can squeeze into that van. 

Totally! 

Isaac - Uncle Joe, I don't think it should be making that noise. 

Yeah, that little bit of a grinding sound probably isn't good. Let's get out. 

Claiming the first 5 high scores on the machine. 

What happens when you go over 1000 points in 2 minute drill? The numbers start going crazy. 

Having a really fun ball fight with all the Chuck E Cheese balls. 

We enjoyed steak one night. Definitely eating well while we're here. 

Seeing Despicable Me 4 together. 

Back to CEC. High score on NBA Hoops. 

Grr. Almost. 

Hanging out with friends and playing on the slip n slide in the Flowers' yard. 

Pizza again? Yes please! 

Theresa's favorite. 

Ian with his plain pepperoni. 

With some of that leftover steak, Jon made a philly cheesesteak with provolone. It was so good. 

Time to head to the airport and start working our way East. 

Oh that's why it's taking so long to get to the airport. 

Thanks for the ride Jess! And good to see everyone in Washington!