Labor Day Weekend

We celebrated Labor Day weekend with a day trip to Mount Rainier. I can't believe that we've lived here for 5 years (and Justin grew up here!) and have not been yet. It's a truly phenomenal and gorgeous place. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

On the way there, we noticed the temperature dropping. Little did I know that this photo would not be the end of the low temps (at the lodge, it was 36 degrees and snowing! In August!) Can you tell by Justin's face that we were pumped up to get out of the house for the day?


Jack was decked out in his new Chuck Taylors (and a bag of cheese ritz bits, apparently) for the event. Must look snappy.


We stopped for lunch at one of the visitor lodges. The kids met a bear.

A short walk was taken, rocks were balanced on, nature was inspected.


The highlight of the trip was Christine Falls - absolutely gorgeous! Above the falls, the river comes crashing around a corner and has carved a graceful arc out of the rock. Really spectacular. I spent a fair bit of time freaking about how easy it would be for someone to fall off the cliff though, as Justin pointed out. Hands were held tightly.




It was a lovely day, we'd do it again in a heartbeat. Next time we'd like to camp out one night so we can spend more time there and see more! The wildflowers were still in bloom at the higher altitudes, so I'm sure in mid-summer the park is unbelievably beautiful when they are in bloom in the meadows.

Summertime / Storytime

My cuties...

Father's Day

We had a great Father's Day this year! Our tradition on Mother's Day & Father's Day is to do an excursion or day trip as a family... it usually involves one or more meals out and we try to go somewhere new. Today we started out early - we were on the road slightly before 9:00am which is a real feat for the four of us. We were heading to the Washington coast, so we stopped for breakfast at IHOP in Olympia, where they served up a scrumptious and inexpensive feast. The kids were ravenous and we enjoyed every bite. What's not to love about pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream on them?


Then, we drove west on a very scenic drive through timber country to the town of Westport, WA. Not much happening there - we barely got out of the car (kids did not). Turns out Westport is a fishing town and it was D.E.A.D. So we backtracked to Aberdeen and headed to the north side of Gray's Harbor to Ocean Shores. Now that was a cute beach town with a fantastic beach! There were a bunch of very cool gigantic "kites" (or windsocks?) that were being flown on the beach and the kids were FASCINATED. Even Jack saw them through the window as we drove in and started pointing and yelling. Leo had his first taste of the beach. Too bad we only had an hour to enjoy it before we had to head back! Justin did accomplish his one big goal for the day - to fly his own kite, with some help from his little assistant, Brooke.

Dad and kids on the beach - look at those kites!


Mom and kids - that's a rainbow slug behind us!


Brooke loved this penguin.


Justin and Jack - My two handsome young men


Kite flying from the back of the car!

Our kite!

Our plan was to go straight to a very cool new(ish) Mexican restaurant at U-Village and meet Justin's dad, Jim, there for a Father's Day dinner. However... due to the rollover accident on the freeway, we spent over an hour in bumper-to-bumper traffic and missed our reservation (we first called and moved it an hour later, then realized we were going to miss that too and the littlest family member was grouchy having skipped his nap). So we canceled it and met Jim at our house for Chinese takeout, which was delish.

A nice day indeed. Happy Father's Day!

Brooke loves to "drive" the car.

Jack enjoyed exploring the back of the car (and getting out of the wind for a bit).

Our guy, Leo, on his first trip to the beach.

Checking off the projects

I finally accomplished a few little things from my list. And Justin came home today! A good day indeed. I was expecting Justin at 9pm, so I was excited to get his early morning call saying he'd gotten on a 9am flight. I picked him up at the airport while the babysitter was at our house, and we had a delightful lunch of soup & salad at the Olive Garden, which my mom will cringe at. The funniest part was that there was a LIVE LADYBUG in our salad, which we brought to the attention of our server... and next thing we knew, the manager came over and apologized, telling us lunch was on him. They even comped our drinks! Wow, score. The ladybug really wasn't that big of a deal but it was nice that they treated us so well. After lunch, Justin accompanied me to the garden center where I picked up the remaining items I needed for my front porch pots (operation Front Porch Spruce Up continues!) and we headed home.

"Hi Mom! Whatcha doin'?"



I also managed to plant the 3 tomato plants I picked up yesterday in my garden. They are now its sole occupants... but not for long. I have a set of very ready cucumber and corn starts in the kitchen window, soon to be followed by pumpkin, rosemary and basil.


I also finished Jack's first birthday invitations - my first foray into rubber stamping in earnest. They turned out pretty good, not A work but they'll do. After I get some 1c stamps tomorrow I can send them out. I took some pictures but figure that would spoil the surprise....

Hot day in the sun

I just uploaded pics from my camera and realized I never blogged about our fun Saturday afternoon. Justin's mom organized a family birthday party for her husband, Jon, at a great park in Redmond called Ferrell-McWhirter Park. This place has farm animals so it was tons of fun for the kids. It was over 90 degrees and muggy... of course, we are major wimps when it comes to heat so we were all wilting but afraid to complain about it. It was the first time I've ever seen Brooke actually sweat. We ended up pouring water on the kids heads, which delighted them and seemed to help keep them cool. I really sympathized with one farm animal there - Dottie the pregnant sow, who was due in "early May" according to the sign on her pen - poor thing was big as a house, panting heavily and clearly miserable. I hope by now those piglets are out and wiggling around in the hay. Having been very pregnant last year at this time (Jack was born June 4th), I couldn't help telling her I knew how she felt!

A few pics...

My pretty girl:

My guys:

Isn't he a doll?

Climbing the big tree: