And on to Spanaway, Seattle, and Spokane

 

After Carson City, we headed over to Redding, CA through Lassen Volcanic National Park and then up Interstate 5 to Ariane's house.  It was such a beautiful drive.  I would love to go there again and spend more time exploring.  

While we were visiting Ariane's family, we all went to the Tacoma Children's museum.  If you're ever in the area, the TCM is definitely worth the trip.  Admission is donation-based, so they accept anything from 25 cents to $25 per person, or more if you want to give it.  This is the best children's museum that we have visited, especially for kids 3-12.

This area was really fun. There were waterfalls, spigots, shower-heads, and more fun stuff for kids to play in the water.  They had aprons to keep the kids (mostly) dry. All the children played for a long time here, but the boys spent an especially long time here. 

 

This giant bird flying ship was really cool.  On top the kids could flap the wings by pedaling,

 They could steer the ship out in front.

 And underneath the ship were some bunks (not pictured) and another steering wheel.  (I swear, give a kid under 6 a steering wheel, and he'll be happy for an hour or more!)

 Kydee really enjoyed building ramps and buildings and then sending balls rolling down the track.

 Elora was happy at every station. Here she is digging in the 'dirt'--recycled tire bits.

 I had a lot of fun with this thing-a-ma-jig. People put scarves in one hole and then can adjust the air flow to make the scarves go flying through the tubes and out various holes.

 Noah liked riding this cute little boat.

 All of the children enjoyed the art room with stencils, stamps, acrylics, and watercolors.

 There was also blocks (check out the castle behind Elias that some kids made),

 and a specimen examination station.

Lots of fun!

(I'll write about Seattle for my next post.)
Update: Here's pics from Ariane's camera taken by me and her.

 

Lake Tahoe

We have gone on a few trips this summer and I am slowly getting around to writing about them.  Dale's family had a reunion at Lake Tahoe (he grew up in Carson City, NV) and we decided that since we were so close (not really, but hey!), we might as well head on up to Ariane's house and visit her family before they move to Texas.  Here's a few pics of us with Dale's side of the family.  We didn't take very many. whoops!  I didn't even get a picture of Lake Tahoe, so I copied and pasted from Google.

Here's the kids at the Carson Rendezvous, jammin' out with the old-timey music people.

All the grandkids together, at last! (Kydee's face is covered, but this was the best photo.)

 We went to this cheesy little tourist town, Virginia City, that had all the old main street buildings still up and running.

 Another happy day in the car.

 

 And this is a picture of the prettiest place on Lake Tahoe.