That Time The Cousins Came

My sister, April, came to town which meant non-stop fun for five whole days.  Marcus and Ethan had a great time with Megan, and Landon and Parker played hard with Max and Sam.  It was cousin heaven.
Their first morning here I took them to Alki Beach in West Seattle to check out the tide pools and cash in a Groupon for some fun family-style biking.  The weather was cloudy and cool which was perfect for not sweating as we biked along the beach.  Once the sun came out things warmed up fast so after a delicious lunch we headed into Seattle to play on the playground and run through the fountain.  That evening we walked through the beautiful nearby forest of Beaver Lake Park where April and Toby decided they needed to move here because we have it all:  lakes, ocean, and forests.  I couldn't agree more!
I can't keep the rest of the photos in order of events and honestly, who cares?  We spent a lot of time swimming and paddle boarding on Pine Lake and Lake Washington.  After the lake, the kids swam in the hot tub and played in the yard.  We also kept the vacation life in balance with fun and relaxation because we spent one afternoon napping.  It was glorious!  Especially since the adults all woke up at 5am to go to boot camp.  We rock!  Life is good here in Sammamish, WA and even better when family comes to visit.

Roasting s'mores and playing in the backyard the first night

Max and Landon are 9 months apart in age and both are ridiculously short so they have a common bond

Sam and Landon racing the jeep through the yard like mad men

Ethan was proud to make a giant cookie for everyone.  He makes them all by himself!

The ocean!

These two have been best buds since they were tiny

The kids found a hobo camp.  Also, Landon is obsessed with hobos and wants to be one when he grows up.  I don't get it but it sure is funny!

Tickling anemones

Ethan found a stick (no surprise there)

Biking in style and thankful the hot sun wasn't out

"Check out my muscles!"

They only went off the curb once or twice but luckily no pedestrians were injured

That's a lot of flowers!

That little clump of rocks is a little seal pup.  A huge section of beach was closed off and we were told to whisper so as not to disturb the little guy (insert eye roll here)

Blue Moon Burger will be in my dreams for a long time.  Yummy! 

Our sweet rides to Blue Moon

We changed around who was riding with who.  Basically riding with Uncle Toby was a win!

Stopping traffic

Dabbing at the fountain.  (this whole dabbing thing is getting old)

Dabbing on the hike

Our beautiful, well-behaved children

Proof April and I were on this vacation.  Together.  And that's Lake Washington behind us.

Baking in the sun, and disappointed with the amount of goose poop and sea weed at this beach.  So we left and went to another one.  Take that nasty beach!

Best buds

Tossing the football before landing in the water was a favorite pastime

Triple XXX Root Beer Floats

Marcus trying not to puke after drinking 2 of them in a matter of seconds!

Forget the root beer, let's dab on the toys!

We left at 5:30am to hike to Snow Lake before Randy had to go to work

Beautiful!

Alpental Ski Resort looks different without all the snow

Snoqualmie Falls

The little guys at the skate park and they got some high 5s from a few of the teenagers for their awesome "scooter fails"

Chism Beach on Lake Washington is awesome.  Especially if you get there before the lifeguards ruin all the fun with all their rules.

Megan checking out the bald eagle flying right over our heads

Bean cruising by a sea plane and some mansions

Where there is sand, there we will dig

Marcus pretending to be a life guard

the "hot tub"

More digging.

Max learned to kayak

Ethan making sure Megan never misses a shot

Swimming after the life guards leave means diving off the dock and having a ton of fun

Paddling at sunset

We have friends with fun toys

Paddling off into the sunset on the last night of vacation....