Trip to Washington State Day 1 and 2

AStacey called me on the phone in August and announced that for one day only we would be able to fly for half off Southwest prices.  I went on line and found I could buy plane tickets for our entire family for the same cost as the budget we had for gas to drive.  A few clicks later we had gone from a painful long car vacation to a worry free airline vacation.  We were thrilled with the difference and the kids couldn't wait to fly in an airplane.  Only Ali remembered the event.

Ontario Airport is perhaps the easiest airport to fly out of and the day of our flight was no exception.  We woke early, dressed quickly and had 3 very excited girls in the car ready to drive.  Our flight included a short stop in Sacramento and then we were in the air bound for Seattle.  

Samantha (my brother's fiance and soon to be bride) picked us up in a gas guzzling suburban that was perfect for the entire group.  We enjoyed a visit at the park and then a bite to eat before returning to the airport to pick up Mom.  We arrived home and David had beat us there from work.  (He had to work all week so Samantha spent most of her time playing tour guide to us.  She is the best bride for getting all her work done ahead of time so she could play with us!

The best part of arriving at David's house was seeing these plugged in waiting for us.  Cameron and I finally joined the smart phone craze and purchased these little guys and had them delivered to David's house to make sure we got them as soon as possible.  We spent a little of the afternoon trying to make them work but we managed it without connecting to a computer or going in the iPhone store!

Really David and Samantha's house is great.  He lives on an acre of land and has a cute house.  It had four bedrooms and so we all had a place to sleep.  They even went to the trouble of getting us a bed so we had a place to sleep.  

Later that night we met Samantha's family at a restaurant for dinner and got to know each other a little better.  It was a great restaurant and it was the one that David and Samantha had met at the very first time so it was also a little sentimental.  

The next morning we decided to drive up towards Mt. Rainier National Park and see the sites.  It helped that Mom has a "get into any National park free" card and that we could all arrive together in the big suburban.  Our first stop was to an impressive waterfall that we walked down to see.  

 Next we arrived at the visitor's center.  It was beautiful although a little smokey from some distant fires.  We ate lunch outside where we could enjoy the views.

 After lunch we went on a hike up to another view point of Mount Rainier.  It was a paved trail that was very steep.  I understood why they had to pave it because no dirt trail would last with as steep as they made it.  We enjoyed the hike anyways.

After the hike we drove back to David's house and then Cameron and I with our kids went to Dad's house and had tacos.  I love his tacos and they remind me of being a kid.... yes I did put ketchup on them in case you were wondering.