A Weekend Getaway...

There are so many fun things to do in Washington!  We had a fun whirlwind first week and were so excited to get started on another adventure.  I have always been intrigued by volcanos and earthquakes. I actually took a class in college called "Earthquakes and Volcanos."  So naturally, we decided to go to Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier.  We woke up super early and got on the road by 5:45.  It took us about three hours to get there.  The boys, FULL of energy, were rarin' to go!  

Our first stop was the Mt. St. Helens Visitors Center.  TJ and I were worried that the kids would be bored with all of the exhibits and following us around while we read all about the Mountain.  They loved it though!  There was a movie and interactive exhibits-they really enjoyed them all.  Because Mt. St. Helen's isn't a National Park, there were a bunch of different lodges and visitors centers all run by different organizations.  All required separate payments.  This was the only downfall to our trip to Mt. St. Helens.  We drove to the Johnston Ridge Observatory first-which was the closest one to the Volcano.  There were some spectacular views!  We couldn't resist pulling over to just about every scenic view area on the way there...

While at the Observatory, we saw another movie, the boys got to jump up and down on an exhibit that showed their jumps on a richter scale.  They LOVED that one ;)  We took a small walk to see even better views and met some nice people on the way that were willing to take pictures of our little family.

These pictures don't even come close to showing the grandeur of this mountain and the devastation-still you can see it 32 years later.  P.S. funny side note...The Mountain blew just 5 days before I was born and my parents were watching a special about it and other natural disasters when my mom went into labor.  Sooo... naturally I was their own little natural disaster!

We also visited another lodge that was geared more toward kids and is owned by Weyerhauser, a logging company and also the parent company to several builders that TJ works with funny enough. We had a great time discovering all of the fun things there.  

That night we headed back to Olympia, had a nice dinner at the Olive Garden and the boys hit the pool.       We woke up early again to get a start on Rainier.  We had a nice breakfast at our hotel and then took off!  It was crazy trying to get there- there are no straight shot roads in Washington.  You have to drive on several different highways, go on a bunch of windy, curvy roads and drive through a bunch of towns so you're constantly changing speeds.  It didn't help much with my propensity toward carsickness!  Mt. Rainier was pretty spectacular.  It's almost twice as tall as Helens (post eruption) and it's considered the most dangerous.  You can see it for miles around and when we got up close, we were blown away!  

We first visited a place called Longmire-named after an explorer who drew a lot of attention to Rainier. It was a small little lodge with some cool features.  There was a cute little hike through an old forest and around a bunch of hot springs (just like Yellowstone).  This hike was so much fun, we just acted like goofs and laughed the whole way around.  

We found this old, old dead tree stump with several smaller trees growing out of it.  The boys couldn't believe it, hence the photo ;)

Cute pictures of the boys in front of the tree with eyes ;)

Cam next to his brother tree- both have bends in weird places.  Click on it to see Cam's bent pinky finger!

Eli is rarely up for a picture, and this was no difference.  He would rather try to grab my lense than sit and look cute!  Can you imagine that?!  I do think this picture turned out pretty cute though.

We found this cool section of an old tree at the Longmire Lodge.  This was fascinating to me- it was cut   50 years ago, but it started growing in 1293!!!  The red arrow I added is when the Declaration was signed- and that's near the edge of the tree.  Crazy!!

The boys posing in front of an old Rainier Shuttle.

After Longmire, we took a shuttle up to Paradise Lodge.  It was spectacular.  We were right where the snow and ice were melting.  The kids even got to play in the snow.  We had lunch up at Paradise, explored the different lodges, watched another video ;) and took some fun pictures!

                              It was SO bright up on the snow!  I love all of our squinchy eyes ;)

We had a great time exploring this amazing place.  TJ and I were both pretty stoked to be able to see both Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens.  We're nerdy and completely fascinated by the whole volcano-y, geology, earthquake-y type stuff ;) so we absolutely love this trip.  I was blown away by Mt. Rainier's height and the glaciers and the big question mark of when will it blow.  I was amazed at the power of Mt. St. Helens, humbled by the devastation it's eruption left behind and awed by the images and footage of the eruption.  We had such a great weekend, we're so glad we were able to go!

A Fun Fourth of July!

After our first weekend here in Washington, we were happy to have some more relaxed days at home.  I did laundry, cooked and practiced with the two older boys. I also spent a lot of time chasing this little monkey around.

The cabin isn't the most baby proof of places.  We have a system in place though, until he figures out how easy it would be to get where he really wants to go.  We have positioned a gate in front of the smaller flight of stairs, but it isn't set up between two walls so he could easily climb up the side of the stairs.  But it's not that flight of stairs that I'm concerned about, it's the one in the distance (shown in the picture below) and the one that leads to the basement.  The little stinker flies to whichever one he can get to.

For the fourth, we headed out early to go see a Rangers baseball game.  It was the perfect day!  It just so happened that this particular 4th of July, was the the first one with Sunny, clear weather in 10 years. Lucky us!  The Baseball game was so much fun.  It was a family day so there were lots of families and kids.  We even got a free hotdog and drink with our ticket.  

Our seats were behind home plate and they came with a great birds-eye view of the whole field and stadium.  And we caught our first glimpse of Mount Ranier (WOW!) as well. 

The nice thing about our seats was that they were shaded...the bad thing about our seats was also that they were shaded- it was cold!  Toward the end of the game we moved over to a sunny spot.  Cam befriended some nice guys and they gave him a dollar- he was pretty excited.  Eli finally crashed after refusing to up in the shaded area.  It would have been nice to have him as a heater up in the shaded seats ;)

After the game, we headed up to Snoqualmie Falls.  The drive there was beautiful!  We passed Samamish Lake and drove through some beautiful communities.  I didn't realize the amount of water that is this area.  There are rivers, streams, ponds, lakes, waterfalls-EVERYWHERE!  We cross over so many rivers while out and about.  It's incredible and so, so beautiful.  I was also surprised by the trees- I probably sound ridiculous, but really.  There's know way to see the Metropolis and sprawling city around you because of the all the trees.  They're spectacular though- they're huge, and moss covered and so densely packed.  

After the Falls, we went to dinner with TJ's aunt DD, uncle Jim and Grandpa.  We went to a fun seafood place called the Crab Cracker.  So yummy!

TJ took the boys to a local fireworks show near our cabin.  I stayed back with Eli, but apparently it was a hit!  All three boys loved it.

What a fabulous day!  We enjoyed every minute of it.  

After our fun Fourth of July, we had another down day of practicing, cooking, playing games and so forth. 

Eli enjoying his lunch

Watch for the next post- Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Ranier!

Washington!

I'm back to blogging!  I've taken way to long of a break and will do major updates later.   For now and for the next few weeks I'll be blogging about our time in Washington.  Earlier this year, TJ and I started tossing around the idea of getting away to another city for a month.  TJ owns his own business and has the capabilities to work from home, making it probable for this to happen.  TJ found a cute place and we booked it!  We left last Thursday-June 28th.  It was a pretty uneventful drive, except Eli had to ride naked for the better part of the drive because of a malfunctioning diaper.

We broke up the 13 hour drive with a pit stop in Boise.  We stayed with TJ's sister Janelle and her cute family.  It was so nice of them, we had so much fun with them!  Janelle made us a fabulous dinner and then woke up extra early the next morning to make us a yummy breakfast.  Thanks Nelle!  We had fun playing games, laughing and catching up.  The next morning we got up early and got started on the next leg of our Journey.  We stopped in Kennewick for lunch at McDonalds (to the great enjoyment of the boys!)

After another few hours and some beautiful scenery we finally arrived at our "Chalet" (that's the official name!).  The owner was there, finishing up a few things for us and was so, so great.  She showed us around, including things she'd added/done especially for our stay.  She made this cute welcome gift- we were so excited to see this-yum!

After we said goodbye, we ran around checking out the place.  We were amazed by the views from the back of the house!

The best part of the backyard though- other than the amazing views, the privacy, the sounds of a rushing river, etcetera, etcetera.... is the spa!!!  Here are the boys giving it a try ;)

There is something about sitting in a car for two days that makes you so tired, so we slept gooood that night and felt well rested for the next day!  We got up and packed a lunch and set off to go on a hike to see Wallace Falls.  I (via my husband) was under the impression that this 5 1/2 mile hike to the falls was going to be a nice easy loop, one easy enough to take a stroller on.  Eh!  Nope.  The park guide told us definitely not (it ended up being quite steep-it had a 1400 ft. gain!!!!!)  SO, we packed Eli up in the hiking backpack and took off.  It was a gorgeous hike!  Once we got into the thick forest, we were blown away by how gorgeous it was!  It is so lush, thick, great and just beautiful.  

 Sorry for the double pics here- but I had to include the bottom pic because of E's superman pose!

After the hike, TJ took the boys to a reptile museum while I took Eli grocery shopping.  The closest grocery store to us is 45 minutes away so I had to STOCK. UP!  

The next day-Sunday, we went to Church in a small town 30 minutes away.  Afterwards, we went and had our packed lunch by a lake.  Then we drove into downtown Seattle and visited Pikes Market

After that we visited TJ's aunt Linda in the hospital.  She was about to have surgery and wanted to visit with her and wish her well.  She is so hysterical.  She had everyone around her laughing, nurses, doctors-EVERYONE!  

So, our first Weekend in Washington, was a ball.  We had a great time exploring!  The weather was rainy, cool and cloudy.  I happen to enjoy this kind of weather so I've been loving it.  Stay tuned as I catch up the next few days.  I have many, many more pictures to come.

Can I just get 1 picture?!

Drew's first day of school was a couple of weeks ago, but Cam's was this week-so.....technically I'm not really late in getting this post up ;)

Drew's first day of school was just one week after Eli was born...and the school he goes to decided to do their back to school night on the first day of school. I left Eli at home with TJ, while my sister and I, Cam and Drew headed off for school and back to school morning.

I only had a few seconds to snap a picture of Drew before the flag ceremony, because we were running late, of course, and this is the face I get:

Really?

After some prodding, begging, kicking, screaming and yelling ;) I finally got a picture I was happy with:

What a handsome boy!!

Here he is waiting in line with the other kids in his class. He made me stand next to him, insisted on holding my hand and that I stay with him until the very last second. When that last second came, I gave him a hug and was about to go in for a kiss and he swooped and ran. Well, now I know what to do to get him to move quickly...

Fast forward a couple of weeks, Drew's well into his school routine and Cam's ready to start his second year of pre-school! He gets to go three days a week now (yay for mom!!!!) and is SOOO excited. His first day of school, was actually an orientation. He was less than thrilled that his first day would be so short. I snapped a picture of him and Drew right before Drew took off for school.

Then I took him over for his own, first day of school photo shoot. Even though it was completely overcast outside, it was too bright for this little boy to open his eyes. I told him to close them until I counted to three then to hurry and open them, and I got quite the forced smile. However, the tight-lipped-emphasized-chumple (chin dimple) is pretty standard Cam smile these days. The smile in the photo above is as about as good as it gets ;)

I tried to get some more natural looking shots, but just got a bunch of squinchy eye shots!

The next day-his ACTUAL first day of school- I took this picture, in hopes of getting one with his eyes open, with a natural-ish looking smile. I think I got a pretty good one....don't ya think?

I did all the "right" things to get a good shot of my two school boys. I took pictures in the shade to avoid bright spots, I took pictures out in the open on an overcast day for great skintones. These pictures were going to be works of art!! At the end of the day, I got pictures that tell a story about my kids and I'll remember them for that, not for how perfect the smiles were, or how well I set up the shot. Squinchy eyes and all, I'm happy with what I got!

Not to be outdone by his two older brothers, this little guy let's me take all kinds of pictures ;) He's definitely a keeper!