Summer Continues - and Time at Karen and Frank's

Swimming is going great for Edison and Charlotte. It is great structure for the days, meets twice a week are fun, and the kids are excelling in the pool!

 We have a standing Wednesday night potluck with neighborhood families at the Civic Club which has been really fun!

 On Thursday the kids and I went up to Lake Stevens to visit Karen and Frank and see how they are settling in to their new house. They have done a lot of work to it and it is very comfortable - they especially have a great set-up with their backyard on the lake!

 

The kids had a blast on the trampoline and being taken around on the jet-ski by Frank.

 

Karen also had some little kayaks for them to play with. Reed is a natural! It was so nice to catch up with them and to relax on the water for the day.

Annual Sucia Trip with Matt and Lisa

We went on our annual trip to Sucia Island a couple weekends ago. We got the best spot on the island - Eben calls it "The Honeymoon Suite." It has a gorgeous view of Echo Bay and Mt. Baker.

We spent a warm Friday afternoon playing on the sandy beach at Shallow Bay.

 

Charlotte and Reed explored the China Caves that have been eroded in the sandstone cliffs.

We walked over to see the sunset and got to see three otters playing (river otters apparently as the sea otters here were hunted to extinction long ago).  One of them even caught a fish, dragged him up on a rocky ledge and ate it in front of us. It definitely dispelled the cute and cuddly otter notion. Charlotte and Edison named this one "Biter."

Matt and Lisa joined us the following morning and we took the boat down to Fossil Bay and did a hike out to Ev Henry Point. Here is a cool view of Fossil Bay from the trail with the Whaler in the bay and campsites along the shore.

I love the madronas out here!

We again went to play at Shallow Bay for the afternoon. Lisa brought her paddle board and we all took turns on it. It was a very fun toy to have.

 

 

 

One of the things that made this trip so great is that Reed is now able to entertain himself for periods of time. He really like balancing on the driftwood by the campsite and watching the people come and go from their sailing dinghies.  

 Another beautiful sunset - this one made the boats in our bay glow bright white as it went down. Ahhhhh - Sucia, we'll be back next summer!

The Kids' First Backpacking Trip on the Coast (Part 2)

The beach was beautiful. It had been a long time since we had been on the unprotected coast. It feels quite different than the beaches in Puget Sound. There was a random llama who called the beach home. He was there when we came on Friday and still there when we left on Sunday. We explored a bit, hung out at camp, played cards, read books, and played bocce. Eben used his hatchet to hack up a ton of firewood and we had toasty fires both nights. Edison and Charlotte took on the job of filtering the water from the creek. We tried to hike out to the haystack rocks at low tide, but the tide wasn’t quite low enough for us to reach them which was a little disappointing. But just walking and exploring the coast was pretty satisfying anyway.

 

 

After we hiked out Sunday morning, Eben and I kept telling the kids how proud we were of them for stepping up to the challenge of backpacking. Edison has requested more backpacking trips this summer. And all in all, it was a successful and rewarding experience. Not to mention a good shakedown to help us realize one of our tents (the one I had bought in high school) probably wasn’t worth hanging onto anymore! Reed hiked the whole time, though slow at times, and never quit, which is saying a lot for a three-year-old.

 

The Kids' First Backpacking Trip on the Coast (Part 1)

This was the summer to take the kids on their first backpacking trip. We took a recommendation from my Aunt Kirstie and Uncle Peter for a short (1 mile) hike to the coast on the Olympic Peninsula. The exact site is on the northern mouth of where the Hoh River empties into the Pacific Ocean. Edison used his new backpack and helped carry not only his own gear, but also some of our food. Charlotte helped out by carrying all of her gear plus Reed’s mattress pad. And Reed carried all his own clothes in his pack. The kids appreciated the challenge and didn’t complain during the hike which was pretty awesome and even a little surprising to me and Eben.

The site where we were camping was on the high dunes of the river delta and there were a ton of driftwood logs piled up everywhere. Previous campers (my aunt and uncle included) had contributed to making a fort with the driftwood. It had a kitchen with a counter and walls that functioned as windbreaks and an American flag stuck on one of the posts. We had a living room with a firepit and we added a lounge with a pole to suspend a lantern over a card table (read flat stump). It was pretty rad. We took two small backpacking tents which ended up being a little cramped, but served their purpose well.