Saturday, June 13, 2009

Spokane on the long side

Just 2 weeks after we moved to Salem, it was back up to Spokane for a bit of a family reunion. With my cousin Jenna graduating high school and heading off to school, the Cabe's decided to take a road trip. Del and Darla and the four girls saw the sights from Ohio to Salt Lake, UT, where they were joined by their eldest, Chris and Cameron, for the drive up to Spokane.

During our time in Milwaukee, we were able to spend some holidays in Ohio with the Cabe's (my Mom's brother and family). We visited for Thanksgiving 2005, 2007 , 2008, and in April '08 just the boys and I went to see Jenna and Julia in the musical "Meet Me In St. Louis." We had such an amazing time getting to visit them, there was no way I was going to miss seeing them all in Spokane! Chances of all my family getting together again with them are probably pretty slim. Plus, the only time Chris was in Ohio when we were, Travis wasn't there, so this trip would be their first meeting!

Friday we drove up, and on the way we stopped at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River so the boys could meet Herman the Sturgeon.

Avery really liked this jumping fish fountain

Follow the fish (I love when they hold hands!)

There were 2 really giant sturgeon in the sturgeon pond, I don't recall if this
one was the biggest. Whichever is the biggest is actually Herman II. Herman is
about, or not quite, 11 feet long, 500 pounds and 70 years old. These white
sturgeon can grow over 20 feet, over 1700 pounds and live longer than 100 years!

By the trout ponds

The beautiful view driving out of the fishery

When we arrived in Spokane we all met at my parents' house before heading downtown to Riverfront Park (site of the World's Fair in 1974, Expo '74). It's a huge park with a lot of great places and sites. First stop, the giant Radio Flyer with a slide handle:

Right next to the Radio Flyer are these giant children's blocks.
That's the famous clock tower behind us:

Carson being silly with MaKenna and Sarah:

The famous Garbage Eating Goat! Unfortunately, the vacuum wasn't working...

Stopping to feed the geese:

On to the Looff Carrousel which will be celebrating it's 100 birthday July 18th.
All the horses are still original! Here's Avery riding "Miss Liberty"

After the carousel, Avery tried to convince us we
needed to go in the fountain, but it was time to eat!

All 17 of us walked over to the Olive Garden where Avery didn't
care when Jenna confiscated his kid menu to do the word search:

Saturday morning the boys went for a dip in the hot tub. Carson didn't manage
any more than this, though he did enjoy leaning over to pop bubbles.

Avery, of course, loved it.

Then it was time to head to Newport for cousin Logan's graduation:

Avery thinks he's pretty cool with Chris' sun glasses:

After the graduation, there was a big BBQ party for Logan.
Here's Chris, being Chris (YouTube, PureVolume), in the middle of a game:

The kids had a lot of fun with silly string. Chloe managed to spray herself.

Carson trying to spray himself, but just couldn't get the button pushed.

I think Avery was mad because we wouldn't let him have
any more silly string, but Chris' imitation was very funny.

Emmett hung out with Julia a lot

Cameron gives Carson instructions:

The attempt:

Assisted success!

The Grandkid Train, by age: MaKenna, Sarah, Julia,
Jenna, Cameron, Chris, Morgan, Laurie, Cyndi.

Grand & Great-grandkids, *mostly by age: Emmett, Avery, Chloe, MaKenna, Sarah,
Aaron, Julia, Logan, Jenna, Cameron, Chris, Morgan, *Jace, *Carson, Laurie, Cyndi

Del, my Dad and Mom were funny sharing a plate, they actually
wanted a picture of them taking a bite simultaneously.

That evening, back at Grandma Cabe's, Avery and Cameron went for a walk
where Avery enjoyed bashing dead trees and sticks with a wooden bat.

On Sunday, we all went to church with Grandma. Quiet Sister Cabe with all those people!

After church everyone enjoyed playing with some remote control trucks my
parents bought for Avery and Carson. Carson's favorite was being a bridge:

I don't know where the hat came from, but next
thing I knew Chris was creating Gangsta Avery:

Here's some video of it. For another funny Chris
influence on Avery, go HERE for another video of them.


Then we took the party to Grandpa Cabe and Great Uncles Albert and Charlie. You can spot
Avery on his knees there at Grandpa Cabe's headstone. Avery was facinated with the place.
Crazy Chris and Jenna

Back at Grandma's we took some pictures. Here's the whole gang:

Attempting a family picture with Great-Grandma Cabe:
A lot of pictures were taken on that step and Avery was trying to avoid it like
the plague. Then the chocolate chip cookies I made were brought out and we
couldn't get him to move. Classic "Don't bug me when I have cookies" syndrome.

Sarah, Mmm Cookies!

After pictures, the kids headed out back to play.
Carson was really not sure about the tall grass:

Sandbox time!

Avery couldn't get enough of digging and burying:

That was our last evening with the Cabe's and we had to say goodbye. The next
morning, Morgan came over with Chloe and Jace to say a last goodbye. I didn't
take this picture, so I barely just noticed Carson peeking through the chair!

Then it was time to drive home. At one point Avery
had to have me take his picture hugging Monkey.

What a great visit, I'm so glad we all got to get together!

1 comment:

morgan said...

okay, I wish I had time to go down the list and comment on each picture! You sure get some great shots. The Cabes were SO much fun. All the kids sure think Chris is super cool, and crazy. Chloe will randomly say, "I bet Chris misses me because we're both silly crazy". Next time Chris is around maybe Avery will evolve into a drunk gansta hehe...