5 days of "Madd"-ness

Recently my kid sister Maddy spent 6 days, 5 nights consecutively with us. My mom just had surgery on her wrist so I thought I'd give her a break and take Maddy. Maddy got a taste of being a 'big sister' (she's the baby in our family), Gracie got a taste of being a 'sister' period, and I got taken to school! My class schedule: 'Patience 101', 'Just breath... 202', and 'This is fun 303'. My sister is a great kid and she alleviates a lot of pressure when it comes to taking care of Gracie. However, she is a kid - a 10 year old kid - so although she helped, at the same time she created different avenues for testing my patience. I'm not used to hearing things like, "I don't like that", "I don't want to", or "Why not?". Although, I had moments of sheer frustration (flashbacks of my mom and dad threatening to "pull this car over right now") the girls had a blast together!! We did many fun things and I'm glad Gracie got to spend so much QT with her favorite aunt (Sorry Bean, Cami, and Tia - you're definitely tough competition!) Here's the places we went and the things we saw...

Camano Island State Park

The girls are attacking Uncle Andrew and he's loving it!

Kiwanis Water Park

Backyard pool party

Washington Park

Mukilteo Beach