The Squires Family: Trip to Washington!

Chris had another “out” rotation for the Army and for Residency interviews at

Madigan (Tacoma, WA), so we came along the last 2 weeks!

It was a lot of fun and Washington is SO beautiful!

Here are some scenic pictures of Northwest Washington!

While we were there we stayed in Lacey about 12 miles from the base in a Holiday Inn that had free breakfast each morning, we also were able to sign up for their rewards program (great idea from Tasheena!) and at no cost to us earned 2 free nights at any of their locations that we can use for our upcoming San Francisco trip! So I too highly recommend signing up for the points during your out rotations cause we have gotten even more free stuff!
Madigan had Chris work a lot and didn't give off weekends like Hawaii so Chris worked extra to have a few days off while we were there visiting.
The first trip we went on was to downtown Seattle and it was recommended from Colonel Neilsen to take the ferry from Bremerton to downtown Seattle and it was great! We got to see such beautiful views and take a ferry ride!

The drive down to Bremerton

The Sound

Mount Rainer

The Bridge to Bremerton

Katelynn, Me and Carter in Bremerton

The jellyfish in the waters that surrounded Bremerton

Kasen, Carter, Katelynn and I on the ferry in the sound

Katelynn

They had a snack bar with popcorn and they love popcorn!

Carter, behind him the view of downtown Seattle

We had to eat at Ivars! The clam chowder and fish and chips were delicious!

Carter and Kasen

Then we went to Pike's Place Market and saw the fish throwing and looked at all the shops and tasted the yummy fruit and bought souvenirs

Carter and Kasen

Then we went to the Aquarium and the kids loved petting the starfish, enmities, and the other fun creatures they had!

Carter asked so many questions and is quite intelligent!

Kasen was a little more apprehensive and they were so sweet to get a bowl and put a little starfish in it so Kasen would actually touch them!

Katelynn had no problem and wanted right in!

Kasen was intrigued with the octopus and asked lots of good questions!

Then we took another tour in the sound because they were trying to fill it and it was half price! It was a really good tour and they shared the history of
downtown and were really comical!

The view from the ferry

Heading back on the other ferry!

Carter, Chris and Kasen

Mommy and Katelynn

Carter's Birthday!

(He got to open most of his presents at home before we left so we didn't have to pack them!)

Kasen helped pick this out! Carter loves it!

Presents from his aunts and grandmas!
Carter wanted to go on a hike and see the volcano, so we headed to Mt. Rainer. It was a beautiful a day and Chris had found a Railroad scenic tour of Mt. Rainer, we thought perfect it will give us beautiful views and then we will take the boys on a hike! So we get there and the train rides are sold out till 3pm, so we thought ok we will wait, and the 3 o'clock one just happened to be a little longer one at stops at a lake for a bbq, but they were all out of tickets so we went and ate at this train car restaurant across the street (which was terrible and expensive and took a while, but they sang to Carter).

Then we drove to the base of the mountain, but had to turn back to catch the train so most of our day had been wasted, but I made Chris stop so I could get my camera out of the back and take a picture of the beautiful scenery. On the side of the road as I am getting my camera Chris spotted this...

Carter with the deer behind him!

More beautiful scenery!

When we get on the train and it takes us through dumpy back yards and no where near Mt. Rainer, go figure, "the Mt. Rainer Sceneic Railroad tour"! So we tried to make the best of it. Here are some pictures of the pretty parts of it:

Daddy and Katelynn

Carter

The meadows

Katelynn and Mommy
The lake it stopped at for the bbq reminded us of the movie RV and the dumpy RV area's with little lakes, but it had a little hike that we took the boys on and let run around!

The Lake

Carter, Dad and Kasen

By the lake

By the time we were back from the railroad tour the boys were hungry so we headed back to Lacey and Carter wanted Olive Grden, the drive was an hour and a half and by the time we got to Olive Garden it was an hour wait, poor Carter we just couldn't get it right for you! Thankfully there was a Chuck E Cheese that we ate and played at!

Carter and Dad

Kasen

Carter

Chris and Carter

Kasen and Carter going down the slide!

The Base

Here is the Madigan Hospital

The officer housing on base

While we were on base we stopped to do a game of bowling, we love the

military rates and discounts!

Carter and Kasen

Carter took bowling very seriously and had to do his best!

Kasen

Then we went to the playground to play!

Kasen

Katelynn, Kasen and Carter

There is a water park too, but it was too cold for that!

They had a skating rink on base that Carter absolutely loved!

Carter and Kasen
The roller skates were harder for Carter so he switched to roller blades which were a lot better for Carter, but they didn't have Kasen's size in the roller blades, so he was stuck with the roller skates....

and spent most of the time on the floor! He tried so hard, probably why he didn't like it all that much!

He loved the rollerblading best!

Then we got to go visit my cousin Danny, and his wife Kim and their 5 fun boys that live in Puyllup and go to church with them there! Our boys had a blast! They love football and playing wii so our boys were in heaven! Not to mention the delicious home cooked meals and delicious desserts that Kim made, she is a great cook! It was so fun to be with family and talk and play!

Marcus, Kasen, Micah and Carter
One night the adults went out for Thai (delicious) it was our first time and the boys babysat our kids, yes even Katelynn! Katelynn and 7 boys! She cried most of the time and Mitch would wheel her around to help calm her down!

Mason was always trying to play with her and make her laugh!

Our family

Danny and Kim

The Crazy boys!

We did get them to calm down for a minute!

What a fun time we had!

Then we went to a children's museum to get out of the hotel room! It had a lot of fun interactive areas and lots of toys and creative things to play with.

Katelynn picking apples and putting them in the bucket

Kasen and Carter in the construction area!

Then Tyler (our friend from Med school who is also on a rotation in WA) took the boys for the evening so we could go to dinner, wasn't that so nice! So we went to Duke's Chowder house for a nice view of the sound and yummy seafood and chowder!

Chris and Katelynn

Our view from our table!

Then I took the boys to Northwest Trek. It was beautiful and we got to see a lot of neat animals up close! It is real close to my cousins so we stopped by to play afterwards and have dinner!