washington part IIII

The end of our stay in Washington included a three day family reunion with all my brothers and my Aunt, Uncle and Popi too. 

Henry adored his Uncle Nate, Vanessa and Ringo. In fact, at one point I went to play with Henry and Vanessa and he told me to go away. Seriously. He was obsessed. "Where are Uncle Nate and Vanessa?" was a common question. Luckily all my brothers really showered him with attention and he loved them all and still talks about them, asking to see them today.

About a year ago my parents were able to purchase the land right next to their property. It became available and they snatched it up before developers could and over doubled their land. Most of it is forest and a lot of it is overgrown but they have plans to clean it up and preserve the natural beauty. One project was to clear away 12 feet high berry bushes and plant small tree starts.

As part of this family reunion, each family got to plant one. There are also memorial trees planted for my grandparents.

Here is Steve planting our tree. He is a Douglas Fir so we naturally named him Doug E Fresh.

Henry watering the tree.

After the rigorous tree planting we headed to Seattle to eat brunch at Beth's Cafe. Beth's is famous for huge portions of hash browns and 12 egg omeletts. It is diner food done right.

After stuffing ourselves, we walked around Greenlake which as it turns out is 3.2 miles. And it was hot. Henry got VIP treatment by riding various shoulders. In the end it was a beautiful day but we were all ready to get in the car or jump in the lake. Too bad we didn't bring swimsuits as that would have been perfect.

We ended the night playing games Gallegos Style which means we ate lots while laughing.