Everett, Washington

Gymnastics Competition Season ended with the Regionals Meet in Everett, Washington. We left Thursday night and drove halfway up through Montana, then on Friday we headed West through Washington.  We met up with one of my friends from college, Ben Webster, and his family and had dinner before heading the rest of the way to Everett.

Keeping her hands busy on the long drive.

A beautiful rest stop in Washington.

We stopped to stretch our legs at this Columbia River Overlook.

Ben and Me at the Red Horse Diner in Ellensburg, WA.

The gymnastics meet was at 8am Saturday morning. Calin took 1st place on Rings and 6th place All Around in his division; this is for the entire region covering Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. We're pretty dang proud of him!

Calin is hidden behind the tall gymnast in blue.

These meets aren't very fun for her but we enjoy having her along on our trips.

1st on Rings

After the meet we had the rest of the day to explore the area. We took our car on the ferry and headed over to Whidbey Island and drove north through the island. We stopped to check out Fort Casey. Holy cow, that place was amazing, probably my favorite part of the trip. The kids had so much fun playing tag and hide-and-seek in those abandoned cement hallways. The entire place had this beautiful haunted feeling. I absolutely loved it, which is obvious in the amount of photos I took.

Disappearing Guns

Fort Casey

The guns lowered into the fort until they were ready for use.

Most of the guns were removed, there were only 2 remaining.

This is where a gun used to sit.

There were so many tunnels and ladders and passageways, so fun for the kids!

The sun came out for just a few minutes, at the exact same time it started to rain.

We took refuge in one of these things and listened to 2 musicians who were playing.

The acoustics were amazing and the music beautiful.

That's the fort in the distance, it completely disappears into the hillside and cannot be seen from the water.

Admiralty Head Lighthouse.

We left the fort and continued our drive north and stopped at Deception Pass State Park to check out the beach.

She wanted to see how cold it was. Brr!

View from the hotel room.

It was nice trip, exhausting, but nice. I do have to mention one more incident we had on the drive to Washington. It was nearing dark, and it was hard to see the road. Darin was driving and we came upon a truck (out of nowhere) that was stopped in the fast lane. The other lanes were a bit tricky due to a cop who had someone pulled over. It's hard to describe what happened, all I really know is that he managed to swerve around the stopped truck and avoid hitting a semi and all the other traffic. It was a bit terrifying. I did a lot more driving on this trip than I typically do, and I'm not sure I could have avoided an accident the way he did. Darin has the spirit with him when he's driving in a way that I've never experienced, I am so thankful he was the one driving at the time. I'm grateful for a Heavenly Father who watches out for my family and keeps us safe.