Snoqualmie Falls and Preston Park

Saturday, 3 of us were feeling pretty crummy (I forgot to mention that for Mother's Day, my kids gave me their cold. How very thoughtful...)

And my brother called and told us about how much fun they were having on the beach.

So we decided to go swimming.

We got all ready, packed the car with towels, inflatables, and changes of clothes, and drove down to our apartment's pool.

Which was closed for repairs.

We stood there for a minute, cold congestion and resentment building inside us. We thought about the beach. And about all the cloudy days we've been having. And we wanted a vacation.

So, we went home, put normal diapers on the kids (because you do not want to leave them in swim diapers outside the water...), and started researching hotels and getaways nearby.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of fun things to do around here.

We couldn't decide. Then we wanted to plan in advance so we could do more than one activity. Our enthusiasm for getting away was being replaced with indecision.

Finally, we decided that we really would have more fun if we planned a trip and were actually packed before 3pm.

How anticlimactic.

Sighh.

We've never done a trip on the fly before, and I was really thinking we'd do it this time...

Oh, well. So what to do with our day? We could not take staying home with that beautiful sunshine smiling outside!

Why, Snoqualmie Falls. (whose main lookout point was closed for construction... what was up with our luck on Saturday?!)

oooh. aaaah.

odd baby pose 3
(if you ask them, the rocks to climb were the best part)

aw, he's so cute, that one in the middle

more gorgeous green to play in...
i love washington

odd baby pose 4

As beautiful as cascading water is, I get miiighty nervous around precipices... especially when two small people dear to me are doing their best to wriggle through any protective fences to get a better look. I was glad when we'd "been there, done that" and could move on to safer areas. And no, I don't EVER plan on taking small children to the Grand Canyon. (If I made it back with my sanity, which is doubtful, the nervous twitches would render me useless.)

So, having made it safely back to the car, we stuffed our kids with a picnic lunch and headed home.

But it was kind of a long drive-- about two hours-- and the kids did not like staring into the sun.

Park needed.

We pulled off the freeway to follow directions to one park and ended up finding another, much better park. It has to be the coolest playground I have seen. Ever. I would love to meet the engineers who came up with some of the playsets. It had a 2 story and a 3 story slide, it had an outdoor metal piano, it had all kinds of twisty twirly things on which to run and spin-- it was amazing.
And, it was right next to a brand-new, fake-turf-and-dirt soccer field. (Imagine the BYU indoor practice field, only outside on a breezy, sunny afternoon. Aw, yeah.)
Adam and Nicole ran from one end to the other and played in the goals. It was the perfect end to a beautiful day. And you know what? It made us forget all about being sick. For then.