Olympic National Forest

Maybe you thought I forgot to post about the rest of our trip... or maybe you thought we got stuck somewhere.  Nope, I've just been distracted since we've been back... more posts to follow.

We drove through Amanda Park on our way to Kalaloch... so naturally, we took a picture.

Enjoying the beach at Kalaloch

It was cold, but luckily the sun was out

Me & El Tigre

On our nature walk in front of a tumor-filled tree
Termites, maybe?

We ate lunch by the river -
and Jane always wanted to be carried by Jared :)

At the tide pools

One of the rangers at Kalaloch (we still don't know how to correctly pronounce it) suggested we check out the tide pools on Saturday morning.  So we headed down on a rainy Saturday morning and were not disappointed with what we saw.  We were at first excited to see a starfish or anemone in a little pond - but as we walked further out it was so fun to see them covering rocks.  We got there at just the right time (thanks to the ranger's tide chart) and were able to see a lot of sea life that is usually hidden in the ocean.

feel free to add your own oozing sound effects

For all of the Twilight lovers out there

We left Kalaloch after seeing the tide pools and drove north to Sol Duc - the hot springs were tempting after the cold, wet weather.  We drove through Forks - which apparently is in the Twilight books (haven't read them).  It seems that they've been able to generate some tourism from the books (there were multiple stores and tours based solely on these books - crazy).

Hiking to Sol Duc Falls

Sol Duc Falls
this photo doesn't do it justice

Next up... Canada.... but I left the rest of the pictures at home, so there will be another delay before the next post.

Sunnyside/Seattle Part I

Once we left Portland/Vancouver, we took the beautiful drive along the Columbia River until we turned off where we were met with wind.  Serious amounts of wind.

Beautiful drive along the Columbia River
moving to the dryer part of the state

Crossing the river from Oregon to Washington

 We finally reached Sunnyside and were happy to see the Weaver's.  Jared had to fly to Cleveland the next morning, so Britt took us on a tour of Sunnyside.  It's a cute little town and somehow not quite what I expected.  Jane and Luke were instantly attached to Jared and were sad he had to leave for a week.  Jane asked me almost daily when my boyfriend was coming back (or sometimes, where did my dad go).  One night, Britt had a sitter come over so we could go to dinner in Tri-cities with some friends.  Before we left, the sitter was playing with the kids in the front and started tickling Luke.  As Luke was fighting back he said, "I wish Jared was here - he's a master tickler."

Jared with his shadow, Luke

Kent & Jared
Kent lives in Sunnyside and his wife is good friends with Britt.
His mom & Jared's mom were good friends as they grew up in Rexburg.

Jane... looking beautiful

E-bot
Ethan's talent show

It was so fun to be with Britt and the kids for the week.  Derek was out of town at a conference, so it was great to have some sister time - probably more than we've had in the last 10 years.  We went for runs in the morning, took the kids around town to play with friends, went to lunch with her girlfriends -The Real Housewives of Sunnyside ;) , got a pedicure, picked asparagus from the farm, went to the boys' swim meet.  It was a great week!  Another highlight of the week was going to the last day of school festivities for the kids. Ethan was planning to do the "robot" for his talent show (we thought it was just for the 4th grade - but it was in front of the whole school - 700 students).  He did the robot to Daft Punk ... for 4 minutes ... it was really cute to see.  And apparently he became "the celebrity of the 4th grade" - he signed autographs... he was renamed "E-bot".

playing in the backyard after dinner

this was after Luke told me I'm the only "mom"
he knows who gives shoulder rides :)

Me & Baby Joe

Me & Britt
before driving to Seattle

The Weaver's in Seattle

At Pike's Place Market

At the Space Needle

On Tuesday we drove to Seattle to spend the day and pick up Jared from the airport later that night.  We walked around Pike's Place Market, played at a park, checked out the REI flagship store (it's pretty impressive) and then went to the top of the Space Needle for dinner (it was the kids' reward for doing well in school this year).  Unfortunately, Jared's flight didn't get in early enough to join us for dinner - but I was excited to see him after dinner.  So was Jane.  When Brittany told her we were leaving to pick up Uncle Jared she started in with her new song... "Uncle Jared, I like him, I love him!"  But we couldn't get her to sing it for him.... she was a little too lovestruck shy when we picked him up.  That night we all piled in the RV and stayed at a local RV park.

The next morning we headed out for Olympic National Park.  The kids opted to ride with us in the RV (surprise, surprise) and as we were driving through Olympia, Jared pointed out the capitol building to them.  Jane (being the little drama queen that she is) said "Oh my goodness, I cannot believe it.  I'm so excited!"