Kalaloch

Drats. I'm behind in posting again. I guess I'll start with this last weekend. Braydan actually took off Thursday and Friday (shocking! He usually works insane hours to avoid taking days off) and we headed to the REAL coast over by Forks, WA. Braydan had this spot reserved for months. I looked for vampires, but didn't see any. However, we found lots of other "creatures" as Kaleb liked to call them. I almost didn't go because of my grumpiness on the last camping escapade. But, at the last minute Braydan invited me and said he would miss me, so I half-willingly packed a bag. He, however, packed everything else. He loaded the trailer and car, planned all the food (sort of. . . ), set up camp, cooked, cleaned up, got up in the night with our freezing kids, etc. . . .
I did help . . . a little. I wasn't trying to prove a point about how much work it is. I was just experimenting. I was wondering if he would still have fun after doing all that work.

And he did! He loved running from the waves with the kids (Eliza was really afraid of them),

picking up starfish

lining up dead crabs,

making an awesome driftwood teeter-totter,

exploring the tide pools,

admiring anemone.

I think catching the otters in action was his favorite.

Every time we said "we're going to the tide pools," Kaleb thought we said tadpoles and would look for frogs.

A little present from Eliza :)

It was a really beautiful place. Despite getting all our clothes wet in the first hour and the freezing rain Friday morning, it was fun. Only one more ward camp out left to go! Maybe we'll just go for the dinner :)

Deception Pass Camping Trip

This past weekend we camped at Deception Pass with the Dyers. She wrote a cute blog about it here.

I think I could live by the ocean. It's so peaceful and calming to watch the tide go in and out.

Despite our awesome campsite, it was at least a mile from the beach. It didn't deter the kids though. They ran most of the trail there--Kaleb always in the rear trying to keep up (and me in the furthest rear trying to catch my breath!)

Braydan eying a crab below. He finally couldn't resist and climbed down to grab it with his bare hands. Not surprisingly, he climbed back up empty handed.

We headed for the bridge, scaling rocks and wading through water. I really didn't like Braydan carrying my baby up and down the cliffs, but Kaleb was in heaven. He had no fear.

A perfect driftwood fort

It was a great trip . . . if I leave out the last couple hours of it. I was a complete grump when we left to go climbing at Mt. Erie. It was a combination of a bunch of things---tired, HOT, scared my kids were going to fall off the mountain, tired----I was not a happy camper, literally. So, Braydan --for good reason--has forbidden me from coming on the next camping trip unless I promise to be happy the whole time. Maybe I will stay home!

silly babes

Kaleb can finally ride his bike! He refused for the longest time because he got so frustrated on his other bike. I got him a "new" one and he took off! Don't worry Mom, he usually has his helmet on. He loves to ride to the park with the "big" boys in the neighborhood.

He has an obsession with cutting paper. He goes through all the mail and loves to cut piles and make projects with it. Again . . . don't worry Mom, he hasn't cut Eliza's hair . . . yet.

He recognizes all his letters and some sounds. He loves to boss Eliza around. I'm constantly saying, "I'm her Mom, not you!"

Eliza is so funny. She goes around asking people, "where's your tum-tum?" And then she lifts up her shirt and shows people hers.

She can tell you and point to all her body parts. She knows lots of animal names and their sounds. She's got quite the attitude and is the stubbornest thing I've ever seen! She's loving nursery and they say she's good, so hopefully they're not lying.

Goals Accomplished

Finally running a 5k

Braydan: Climbing Mt Rainier

I know, they seem a bit uneven. But a 5k was a big deal for me. Emily and I couldn't have picked a bigger race to start with--we did the Michelob Ultra Torchlight Race to kickoff Seafair in Seattle. There was over 6,000 runners!

An awesome video of the bathrooms

It was a blast running the streets of downtown and slapping little kids' hands that were on the sides. There were tons of people watching (I read over 300,000 people were there waiting for the parade to start, which followed the race). It was a rewarding experience and we got lots of free stuff after ( No michelob lights, if you're wondering . . . :)

I asked Braydan to be more descriptive about his Mt Rainier experience, but he just says, "it was cool. We could see all over." Well, duh! I know that. I want deeper stuff, like it changed his life or he'll never face a challenge the same way or something dramatic like that, but mostly he just says, "it was hard work." Regardless of his lack of imagination, the pictures do the trip more justice. Plus, I got to hear stories from the other guys.

Exploring some crevices

My favorite story is of the black birds. At high camp, they decided to walk down somewhere and left their food out. Suddenly they see this bird fly by with a bagel and next, a bird with a bag of candy bars. They ran back and discovered the birds took about 10lbs. of precious food. It's kind of funny, but they didn't laugh.

There are too many sweet pictures of their trip, but I'm tired so these will have to do. Goodnight blog.