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on his way, Russia -> USA - 20th January 2008
By: kristl
Today we all said Good Bye to Charity Bear who has finally started his journey to the USA.
Here's his last photo from Moscow - he's at the post office with Bumba, who was leaving us too - to visit Drakie in Honiton.
Have a nice journey, dear Charity Bear, we'll miss you!
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Posted Jan 21, 2008, 3:21 pm
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Monroe, Washington, United States - 2nd February 2008
By: sararingham
Hey Mom! Just so you know I have arrived, and photos have been taken although I haven't really gone out. My host just arrived yesterday and has been very tired from jet lag, but she plans on taking us out soon just for a walk around town or something!
I got to meet Leo Lion, Cronus and Benni. They're very nice! They've been with my host for a few weeks and got to see Australia a little bit already, so they we're telling me how hot it was there and everything! I can't wait to see it for myself in a few weeks when I'll travel back with my host! I'll post again tomorrow with photos!
I hope you're doing well!
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Posted Feb 4, 2008, 5:51 am Last edited Feb 11, 2008, 6:12 am by sararingham
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Monroe, Washington, United States - 3rd February 2008
By: sararingham
Hey! I thought I'd do a bit of an update from what we did yesterday! We didn't do much as it was rainy and cold outside so Sara didn't want to get our fur all messed up, but we saw a little bit and had a bit of indoor fun!
First here is a group photo of all of us, Kooka (on the far left is a kookaburra from Australia - he's not a toyvoyager but he's really fun!), then there's Cronus and Benni, then of course me... then Leo Lion who is one of Sara's TV's thats going to see the world a bit with other hosts when we get back to Australia. :-)
Then we got to meet the kitties! They're very nice cats, and suprisingly although they look like brother and sister they're not they we're born a day apart! The one standing back is called Jethro, and the curious one giving us a sniff was Ellie. They're both really nice!
Then we went outside to see if we could see any mountains, all the mountains are extremely cold and snowy right now and are having a lot of avalanches lately, so we won't be going up there unless it gets more safe, hopefully it will... :-) But this also shows you how rainy and cold it looked yesterday!
Then we went inside and made a pavlova! It was so yummy!
Then it was time for everyone to have a rest and just watch what everyone else was doing today! It may not seem like it, but it was a very big day for all of us!
I hope your doing well! Talk to you later!
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Posted Feb 4, 2008, 6:55 pm Last edited Feb 11, 2008, 6:13 am by sararingham
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Kirkland, Washington, United States - 7th February 2008
By: sararingham
Hey Mom!
Sorry it's been so long since I've updated. I haven't done too much, Sara's been feeling under the weather some days and sometimes she just forgets to bring the camera. But me, and the other TV's have been attached to her hip more or less. :-)
On Thursday we went to her sisters house, she's got 4 kids, Garrett, Jonathan, Alissa and Conner. Alissa LOVED to play with me, so I got a picture of all of us together, but she was careful! She loved my fur so much! But then she was off to school for the day, this is a group photo of all of us together...
I also got introduced to a few dogs, two of them we're a bit rowdy so one of the cats got really scared... this cats name is 'Tank'. What a funny name! Sara said he's only 9 months old, so he's still pretty young!
See how scared he got? Also I got to meet a little 9 week old "hot dog" dog, isn't he cute? He was pretty calm and loved to cuddle up with everyone, although Sara was really careful because he is still playful!
It's been raining a lot the last few days, so we haven't really gone out but hopefully tomorrow we'll go out more with the camera. It's been very busy busy around here, not much sight seeing yet, but I'm having a lot of fun! Today we went to a hobby show expo thing at the show grounds and they had a lot of planes flying around, Sara wishes she brought the camera to show you but it was REALLY fun!
Oh and last night, we got to eat some Salmon! It was really cheap since it is actually caught in Seattle and in Washington and lower Canada... it was really really yummy!
I also got to make a lot of people VERY happy! I was so excited to do that - all four kids LOVED me so much! It was a wonderful feeling! I'll update again very soon mom! Take care!
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Posted Feb 9, 2008, 9:56 pm Last edited Feb 11, 2008, 8:32 am by Isobel&Neil
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Monroe, Washington, United States - 9th February 2008
By: sararingham
Hey! Straight after I updated yesterday Sara took me, Cronus, Benni and Leo Lion for a little walk. We went down the street and visited Lake Tye since it was actually cloudy but not raining so we took some advantage of it... first stop off we made was to have a bit of fun at the park... but sadly it was all closed off, this shows you how much rain we've been having lately... isn't it shocking?
... but thankfully I was able to swing on the swings a little bit, too bad they're so big for me, but I did my best... you know, it's not the size that counts. :-)
... and then we finally got to Lake Tye... there actually were a few people there, but we did our best we still had a lot of fun but there sure was a big chilly wind that seemed to go straight through you...
... this is obviously straight facing the lake, now I turn around... and this is what I see...
... although it's cloudy isn't it just SO pretty? Who would know I would get much closer to them today!... I'll update that a little bit later though!...
These were some of the ducks at the lake, they were all really close to each other while they were swimming no matter what... maybe they were family, Sara told me it looks like there are three males, but maybe one female? So probably a family of ducks! How cute!
We went on a hike to Wallace Falls today although sadly didn't quite make it up, but I'll post those pictures very soon!
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Posted Feb 11, 2008, 5:22 am Last edited Feb 11, 2008, 6:13 am by sararingham
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Gold Bar, Washington, United States - 10th February 2008
By: sararingham
Hey again! So today we took a hike up to Wallace Falls, in Gold Bar, Washington which is just a neighboring town to Monroe, Washington... maybe a 15 minute drive up to the Wallace Falls State Park. It was very pretty and pretty cold initially but it quickly warmed up once we started walking...
This is a view from the very beginning of the trail, isn't it beautiful? It's so cloudy and gross looking but it's still gorgeous, it's got a lot of snow and had a very cold wind coming down from the mountains... but it wasn't too bad after a bit of uphill walking. :-)
Here's the river that comes off of the many falls that are around where we were walking. We walked the wrong direction for a while, but we finally found our way... it was pretty crazy!
Here I am next to the water, isn't it nice looking? Oh but it also looks SO cold!
... and here I am next to another set of falls, much smaller but it sure was nice to look at all the surroundings!
Now this is the direction we went the wrong way for a while - this hill got extremely steep and very hard to climb. Only at the top was when everyone realised we were going the wrong direction... Oops. :-)
Here are the rest of the photos from the trip up and back down. We didn't fully make it, because of a past injury Sara had we had to turn back early, didn't help she sprained her ankle and bruised the bottom of her feet pretty good... but saying that, we have plans to do it again - and make it to the top this time. It's a 2.7 mile walk up to the top of the falls. We'll be doing it again hopefully before we go back to Australia! :-) So you'll see this all again hopefully soon!...
On the way home we stopped and got some dinner at a BBQ Bus in a Reptile Zoo car park. It was really yummy, and pretty unique! :-)
There was another bus that was right next to it that had tables to actually eat your food in... very cool! I really enjoyed it and the food was awesome!
... Almost home again, we stopped at a river right near where we live for the time being in Monroe, it was very cold and getting dark... the water looks like it was freezing, and again, a cold breeze, but even colder than earlier!...
The last photo is of a railroad track that used to be there a few years ago but they tore it down because people were getting injured on it... cool photos though, we didn't stay long because it was freezing we finally went back home and rested our feet!
No plans as of yet for more, but a bit of rest this week and back off to Kirkland. Expect another post soon! I hope you're doing well! Talk soon!
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Posted Feb 11, 2008, 7:15 am Last edited Feb 20, 2008, 6:23 pm by sararingham
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Kirkland, Washington, United States - 13th February 2008
By: sararingham
Hey! Went went again to Kirkland yesterday, although sadly didn't get many photos. We just bought up for Valentines Day, Sara says while she isn't with Daniel she's making light of the situation and got a few presents for him for when she goes back to Australia. How cute! :-)
So all of us ran errands with her around town, here's a picture of me next to the little area where all the shops are in an area of Kirkland called Kingsgate.
Sara says she knows this area very well, because if you look behind all the stores and you could see through the trees she lived in apartments behind there for a few years before moving to Australia. She told a bit about living in this area, and how it's extremely expensive to live there! Thankfully I don't have to pay bills or rent, that doesn't sound like fun at all!
We went and had teriyaki for lunch and it was REALLY yummy! No photos as Sara probably would have gotten some dirty looks taking photos when she was the only one in there with us... but later on we got back home to Monroe and got to see a very pretty sunset!
...the clouds are pink, Sara always says... "Pink sky at night, sailors delight... pink sky in the morning sailors warning" meaning if there's a pink sky at night - it'll be a nice day tomorrow, and in the morning means storms... so I guess it'll be a nice day tomorrow! It's Valentines Day tomorrow, I wonder what that will bring to us? :-) We shall see!
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Posted Feb 14, 2008, 6:54 pm Last edited Feb 15, 2008, 4:41 am by sararingham
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Monroe, Washington, United States - 14th February 2008
By: sararingham
Hey! It was a pretty busy day today, didn't get too many photos, but none the less it was still fun, more fun ahead for tomorrow I've been told... :-) But we'll go into that a bit later. :-)
You know I told you that we bought a heap of stuff for Daniel? Well here's what's on the list to come back home to Australia with us, not much as of yet, but I'm sure the pile will just keep growing...
There's a lot more kool-aid than what's shown but we all helped pick out what we thought Daniel would like for his very delayed Valentines Day he's going to have... yummy candies! :-)
... and here's me with the candies we all got today, each of us got a little lollypop to suck on, even though it's almost as big as me, I guess that means it'll last longer. :-)
Well tomorrow we're off to Redmond (Famous for being the home of Microsoft) and Bellevue maybe... :-) Maybe we can see a bit more.. then probably Saturday will be something exciting! Lots more pictures to come! :-)
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Posted Feb 15, 2008, 5:55 am
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Snoqualmie Falls, Washington, United States - 16th February 2008
By: sararingham
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Posted Feb 20, 2008, 6:15 pm Last edited Feb 20, 2008, 6:19 pm by sararingham
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Leavenworth, Washington, United States - 17th February 2008
By: sararingham
So Sunday was the big day, we went through the Cascade Mountains and all that snow and got to see the Bavarian town called Leavenworth...
First stop, Lake Wenatchee for a family picture... that was a bit broken up and sadly no real good photos turned out (Sara said anyways) but she sure had a good slip in the snow and was bleeding a lot so we didn't stay too long, here's a photo of me at Lake Wenatchee.. isn't it pretty?
As you can see in this photo, 95% of the lake was actually frozen over. Sara's brother Todd was out sitting on the lake for a while before the family photos had started. Me and the other toyvoyagers just sat in the snow and waited patiently (as patiently as you could) for our photo shoot to have happen. Then we were put back in the backpack where it was SO much warmer... I think Sara told it it was 23'F outside where we were sitting... brrr!
Next stop was just a little mountain on the side of the road, I think it looks pretty cool. Sara didn't stay out with us very long though since we were only half way to Leavenworth - still a ways to drive, and a lot more snow to get through before we get there!
...and finally we are in Leavenworth... most of the time we were here we just visited shops and looked at all the interesting things they had, there was so much to look at - we spent a few hours walking through the main parts of the town... here are some of the photos Sara took...



By the time it we were done it was almost time to head home. We had a late lunch at a restaurant called King Lear's. Sara had a German sausage and her dad had a Bavarian Bratwurst... they were really yummy they said... the other two had just a hamburger and soup, so nothing really fancy for being in a little American German town... hehe. :-)
On the way home we stopped at a little shop before we got fully into the Cascades called The Alps, and this is a view from the shops... there was SO much snow, no wonder they've been having avalanches... there were a lot of road signs fully covered by snow... that's a LOT!
Well more updating later... we still one big day to go after updating Friday (when Sara gets the photos off of her dad hopefully tonight)....
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Posted Feb 20, 2008, 7:17 pm Last edited Feb 20, 2008, 7:23 pm by sararingham
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Orcas Island, Washington, United States - 18th February 2008
By: sararingham
Hey... Monday was another HUGE day for all of us... we woke up at 6am and were on the road to Anacortes by 630am. No stops along the way we had to make a ferry by 830am. When we got there one ferry had just left to another route so we just missed a picture opportunity, little did we know how many picture opportunities we were heading towards...
This is me standing way back from a ferry dock. We docked at a dock right next to this one... but this is the one the ferry took off from when we arrived there... there wasn't too long of a wait and our ferry arrived...
That's the view we had from the car waiting to drive onto the ferry, they're HUGE! Sara says there Washington States biggest attraction! It was very exciting to be on something so huge, and so nice!
The moment the ferry took off from Anacortes Sara took all of us outside to the front of the ferry, it was REALLY windy, so windy when Sara took the lens cap off of her camera it blew out of her hand and onto her bag... thankfully it didn't blow into the cold ocean, that'd be no good! So we didn't get a lot of outside photos for fear of loosing us... here I am...
...and here I am in front of the front of the ferry, the captain of the ship looked at Sara a bit funny when she saw her holding us up for some photos, hehe... this ferry's name was the Kaleetan. :-)
Here's some pictures Sara took from the ferry - it was around an hour ride until we arrived at the dock in Orcas Island...




...and now we have arrived at Orcas Island... how exciting! Time to go to the car as were ready to start docking on the island...

First things first... time to get some breakfast, it's now 930am and we had a nice breakfast at a place called the Sunflower Cafe. It was yummy now were on our way to Mount Constitution... a very long and winding road later we were almost there...
... another 10 minutes of winding roads and we were there... besides a steep hike up a snow filled hill, it wasn't easy for Sara to get up from the fall she had had the day before, but we made it up, very slowly but none the less... and wait for it, these pictures are gorgeous!
Now that we're up at the top of the hill it's time to climb up this tower... it was around 300 feet tall in itself and the mountain is around 2500 feet from sea level, so it's the highest point in the San Juan Islands so we got to see everything, this is the view of the ground from the top of the tower...
...and here I am at the top, looking out over the islands...

In the first photo I'm looking out over islands and you can see Mount Baker in the background, one of the three volcanos in Washington state... and the next photo is a photo looking over part of Canada... :-)
Here are the other photos that Sara took at the top of the tower... not all of them, but some of them... :-) Enjoy!


It really was absolutely gorgeous... well with 40 minutes to spare after driving time we headed back to the ferry dock for our 115pm ferry... we got there, and it was full! Dang! The next ferry was 335pm. We had a long wait in the ferry line, instead we went and got some souvenirs and some postcards, and had some lunch at the ferry dock. Yummy!
Finally 3pm rolls around and we're ready to board the ferry to go back home... bye bye Orcas Island... here are some more photos on the way home from Orcas Island...



Well that was a BIG day for all of us... the next day was pretty lazy and slow but that wasn't a bad thing... not much planned as of yet, but on Thursday we're going to Kirkland again to see Sara's family... :-) I hope you enjoyed what you saw of my busy last few days! It was very exciting! I had lots of fun!
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Posted Feb 20, 2008, 11:15 pm
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Monroe, Washington, United States - 26th February 2008
By: sararingham
Hey! I've been so lazy lately, since we did so much running around and a lot of sight seeing last week, Sara, me and the rest of the toyvoyagers have just been lounging around the house not doing too much... it's not too bad though - I don't mind it so much! :-)
But saying that... today we got a new visitor! How exciting! :-)
Her name is Mel how exciting to meet a little koala bear, who would have known we would meet her in Washington?
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Posted Feb 25, 2008, 11:40 pm
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Monroe, Washington, United States - 29th February 2008
By: sararingham
I have been slow to update - since it's coming closer to the time were heading back to Australia there's much less going on... but today, we made a 7 layer cookie thing, it looks really yummy! We all helped as much as we could in the kitchen with Sara, but mostly we watched...
First the one cube of butter needed to be chopped up and put in...
We melted all the butter in the oven at 325'F until all the butter was melted and we then sprinkled graham cracker crumbs all over the top of it... yummy!
...and even more graham cracker crumbs!...
Then it was about time to pour the sweet condensed milk over the top...
All done... it's starting to look so yummy... but looks even more yummy very soon! :-)
Then we sprinkled the chocolate chips, and coconut over the top... mmm!
Then sprinkled walnuts over 2/3 of it, because Sara's brother doesn't like nuts, oh well, looks so yummy already though!
...22-25 minutes later...
Out of the oven, still very hot but looks SO yummy! This is a desert tonight after dinner... yum yum yummy! Sara said she wanted to give everyone the recipe too incase they wanted to make it too... so here it is:
SEVEN LAYER MAGIC COOKIE BARS
1/2 c. butter
1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 pkg. semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 pkg. (6 oz.) butterscotch chips
1 1/3 c. flaked coconut
1 c. chopped nuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 degrees for glass dish). In a 13 x 9 inch baking pan melt butter in oven. Sprinkle crumbs over it. Mix together and press into pan. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumbs. Top evenly with remaining ingredients. Press down firmly. Bake 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool before cutting.
That's not all we did, because we're leaving soon we helped Sara put together her bags for leaving, she reorganizes them a lot, so we we're seeing how everything fit, we'll be on the carry on so we won't be like these other poor saps...
...not sure if you can see, but under Cronus foot kind of is a stuffed toy, a few actually, and the big eye you see is a scarecrow wind sock that Sara got, isn't it cool? This is a huge vaccum seal bag that Sara puts everything in to fit it a lot better than what she'd normally be able to fit...
After all that was done we got a new sitting place for a little bit of time while we're not doing anything... aren't we all just so cute? :-)
Yesterday was our last day in Kirkland, it was all sad goodbyes and everything, but we made it - next stop is Olympia to see some other parts of Sara's family before we head back to Aussie land...
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Posted Feb 29, 2008, 12:18 am
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