SeaWorld San Antonio

 Scott took the four youngest kids to SeaWorld on Memorial Day. (It was a birthday present from Grandma Miller.)

Sesame Street Block Party:

Some of the rides (Heidi also went on some of the bigger roller coasters and water rides, which aren't pictured here):

Look how tightly Emma is hanging on

Shows:

Ocean Discovery: Beluga Whales and Dolphins

Sea Lion and Otter Spotlight

Orca Encounter

ImaginOcean

The high was 101, with a heat index of 109. The bright side is that there weren't terrible crowds, and the lines were shorter than they could have been:

Family Photo

 Taken when we were in Arizona in December:

Our Week (05/19 - 05/25)

 First swim meet of the season:

Owen's 5th grade promotion:

So many awards: A Honor Roll (all year), Chess Tournament Finalist, Music Award, Austin Regional Science Fair, Accelerated Reader (3rd place), Highest Performing ELA Student, Perfect Attendance (all year), Highest Overall GPA

William's 2nd grade award ceremony:

Spider Man Club (for being able to climb to the top of the rope)

So many awards: A Honor Roll (all year), Music Award, Spelling, Math, Perfect Attendance (all year), Top 5 Leaderboard for Marathon Kids

Liz's 8th grade promotion ceremony:

In front of the high school

Ward carnival/youth fundraiser:

Sisters Trip to Washington State

Reunion at the Phoenix Airport

Day 1, Quinault Rainforest:

Hugging a 400-year-old tree

Kalaloch Beach Trail:

We got to explore a tidepool, and we also saw some gulls, crabs, and sea lions

Hoh National Rainforest, Hall of Mosses Hike:

Forks, WA:

Forks is the setting for the Twilight book series; we stayed there one night because it was near our last hike of the day.

Sasquatch

Fry bread dinner in Forks, compliments of Mom and Dad

Day 2, Big Cedar Tree:

This big cedar is believed to be nearly 1,000 years old and fell in a storm about a decade ago

Sherry found a banana slug!

More of Kalaloch Beach:

Building cairns on the beach

The tree of life, called Washington State's most unique tree. (It's roots are exposed, and the tree almost seems to be suspended in the air.)

Fun fact: This part of Washington is the wettest in the continental United States. They get around 12-14 ft of rainfall annually! (For comparison, Phoenix gets about 7 inches per year, and Austin gets about 3 ft.) There are four rainforests in Olympic National Park, and we explored two of them. 

We found lots of nurselogs on our rainforest hikes:

Trees in the rainforest have relatively shallow root systems. Because of the abundant rainfall, they don't have to dig deep for moisture. The downside is that a big storm can topple a tree with shallow roots. "When a big tree falls it can provide a stage for new life. Hemlock and spruce seedlings unable to survive on the tangled forest floor absorb minerals, moisture and warmth from the decaying trunk. ... After their roots reach soil, new trees often seem to stand on stilts as the nurselog moulders away." 

Lunch at a pizza place in Olympia: