Washington - Part 1

I am so glad to be back. Seeing family was great, but I feel like it's taking much longer this time around to recover from the traveling. Between going to/from SLC and to/from Washington, we spent tons of time in the aiport. Hopefully our travel hangover will wear off by the end of this week.

I'll start with pictures from the second part of the trip first, since my brother was kind enough to give me a CD of all the pictures he took during our stay. We flew in/out of Spokane, which is two hours north of my hometown of Kennewick, and managed to avoid Spokane's record snowfall both times. They've had a whopping six feet and K-Town got some as well, but most had melted by the time we arrived.


I know you're all dying of curiosity about the geese, so I'll start with that. Andy, Bekka (younger sis), and I decided to go on a run down to the Columbia River on New Year's Day. We arranged for Kaylee (18-year-old sis), Ben, Rikker, Kara, and Leslie (bro, sis-in-law, and their baby) to pick us up at Columbia Park and then we'd go feed the ducks with some stale bread. We were not prepared for what awaited us: A swarming mass of hungry, domesticated geese that stormed us upon arrival.
Ben loved chasing the geese around and watching them run away.

We did have one casualty: Kaylee's sweatshirt was attacked by a rogue seagull trying to get in on the food action.

Bekka and her adoring crowd. If you feed them, they will come.

Leslie taking it all in from the safety of Kara's arms.

Now that Leslie is walking, a baby gate was strategically placed so she couldn't escape outside or fall down the stairs. I love this picture of the kids looking forlornly from their prison. Ben promptly decided he'd had enough and climbed over the gate.

Andy's morning ritual: The crossword puzzle in the newsapaper.

My mom on New Year's Eve. Sadly, I was the party pooper and fell asleep at 11:30. Does anyone else think that New Year's is the most overrated holiday ever? The Tri-Cities has a minor league hockey teams, and we went to a game earlier that night. Ben loved the Zamboni and the rest of us enjoyed watching the 17-20 year-old Canadian NHL hopefuls beat up on each other.

Kira getting a little crazy on New Year's. A beverage in a red plastic cup? That's how we roll at the Dockum household.

Ben felt a little lost in the shuffle of all the wedding preparations. Every day of our trip he told us he wanted to go home to Ohio.

One of my favorite pictures of Ben. Rikker and Kara got a nice new Nikon camera for Christmas and the difference between a regular point and shoot is amazing.

Kaylee wrangling both babies - Super Auntie!!

Bekka and Ben decorating a gingerbread tree.

Leslie caught in action in her favorite playplace - the box of oranges.

No trip to Kennewick is complete without a trip to the local bowling alley. Probably because it's one of the few things to do in the winter. We got to the bowling alley and Ben saw that Kaylee had a wrist guard since she is on the school bowling team. Well he absolutely had to have one as well and we almost had a meltdown. Thanks to some quick thinking on Kaylee's part, she fished one of her glittens (glove-mitten) out of her purse and voila: A pint-sized wrist guard! Crisis averted.

Randy and Kaylee locked in mortal video game combat.

Kira and Rikker breaking it down on Dance Dance Revolution. Wouldn't you know it, Rikker has some fancy feet and won with his mad dancing skills.

The Haws bowling in tandem - pardon the unflattering rear shots.

Kaylee and Ben and their wrist guards.