MyLifeas

Kelsey

The kids and I got to fly to Washington for spring break.

I had not flown alone with these 4 since Ruby was one.  Let me say, it was a breeze compared to previous flights alone with these 4.  This getting older thing isn't always so bad.  

Having a Nintendo Switch didn't hurt either.  


The point of the trip was to hang out with cousins, grandparents, great grandmas and more cousins.  We accomplished all of the above.  



I don't think these kids fought at all, they were in heaven.  




Meeting our newest cousin, Baby Jack, was an obvious highlight. 


Pop-Pop saved Christopher's old powerwheel.  It was a huge hit. 




We went to Marine park to find crabs.






Always entertaining.  



There was always lots of screaming and excitement when a large rock got turned over and the crabs starting scurrying in all directions.  




Always in the search for a tree to climb.  



We got to celebrate Easter with everyone.  





You can't beat Grandma B.'s backyard for an Easter Egg Hunt.  





Touch Tank is always a must visit Bellingham location.



Lots of Northwest Parks.


Utah parks don't quite have views like this.  






Or quite so many trees. :) 


And of course walks on the trails around my parents house. 


It was good to be back home, I think it was my longest absence yet.  My soul needed a little pacific northwest.  


and a lot of family time too.  


Glad they don't mind when we invade their space with our chaos.  

We made the Trek out to Pearrygin this summer.  As always, it was an epic/crazy/stressful time, that luckily was all worth it in the end. :) 

it always takes us days to get everything prepped. 



I had to use my new BYU bucket to mix The Pearrygin Lake Trailmix, since I do not have a bowl big enough to contain it. 




Before we even got to the Lake we had to stop at our favorite candy store in the world and get a picture and treat.  


The kids were non stop with the behind the boat activities this year.  



There was a constant line and Dave, Pop-Pop and Uncle Christopher were kept quite busy driving the boat.  

There was so much kneeboading this year.  

It was hot this year, which meant lots of time floating and swimming and hanging out in the shade of our awesome tree.  

 
There wasn't much "relaxing" floating this year.  There was always some kid that would notice you were alone and try to hop a ride on your floatation device.  






Shaunna and I spent most of our time standing in the water managing the kid's rides behind the boat and the kids floating in the water.  


We'd push the kids out and then pull them back with the ropes.  Thrilling times.  




And of course the kayaks got plenty of action.  
  




Paul and I even escaped one night and got to enjoy a few quiet moments.  





While boat drivers were having breaks and sun screen was drying, there was plenty on the beach to keep people entertained.  




Lots of games.  

We loved having the Great Grandmas there! They played lots of games with the big kids and finished an entire game of 5 Crowns with these 3.  





Napping.


book reading.  Although, I only got 3 pages read of my book.  Perhaps one day I might finish one again.  


Ruby was always on the look out for Nana or Pop-Pop to play or cuddle with.  


When Miles wasn't busy cornering people and sharing all known facts about bugs, you could usually find him with Teddi.  


So much cousin time, the whole reason we came. 




These kids had plans of how we could live at Pearrygin year round.  They had ideas for a better kitchen, warmer sleeping bags, closer bathroom, and even plans for us to homeschool them. :)






These 2 will be best friends one day, I can tell.  


The only downsides this year were Bugs and Wind.

My poor boy got eaten alive and swelled right up.  Miles also got stung by a bee on his wrist.  He looked like the nutty professor.  


We lucked out and it wasn't too windy during the day, but come dinner time that wind would pick up and we could not get the Roadtrip to stay lit.  

CJ and Shaunna had the genius idea to use the GTX as a wind shield.  Worked pretty good and we got to eat warm food.  The excitement of camping. 


Love these people.  

Always hard to leave them.



I love that my kids are getting to have the same memories, in the same place, that I got to have with my cousins and grandparents. 

The highlights of my childhood took place here and I know my kids are going to remember these trips.  Makes the insanity of the 15 hour drive, camping for 7 days in the dirt and heat worth it.  And I didn't have a complete mental breakdown, so that is always good. :) 

After doing some laundry and showering, the first item on our agenda was visiting Larrabee State Park to find some crabs.  

Larrabee never disappoints.  


My desert dwelling children though had forgotten about how slippery seaweed on rocks is, so they all took a turn or 2 falling. 


They were slightly more cautious after that.  


We found all sorts of treasures...hermit crabs, shells, jelly fish, barnacles, fish, and of course LOTS of crabs.  





The highlight though was the giant crab Uncle fished out of the water with Macey's net.  


This crab put up a fight, but Christopher powered through and became a hero is these kid's eyes.  :)  

Don't worry we set him free and made sure he could swim safely away before we moved on to the next discovery.   



It was well worth leaving the Olympic National Park a day early so we could get a little extra family time in.  


And these little stinker cousins escaped outside when they were suppose to be in bed.  

The actual reason we came back to Bellingham for the 2nd weekend was due to this girl getting married.  


We've been best friends since we were 6 years old and I was so happy we were all able to make it.  

This is a little montage of pictures our moms made for us when we graduated high school.  




A few other Bellingham hightlights:  


- Getting to stay at Grandma B.'s and having her make breakfast for all of us.  



- Christopher took Paul on a real mountain biking ride.  


- We got to have a little birthday party for Crew.


 
- And this girl was obsessed.  She was constantly yelling "My Nana!" or "My Pop-Pop" and would then run in for a big hug. She was quite popular.  




All in all it was a pretty perfect trip.  

To pass the weekdays between Pop-Pop's brithday weekend and Adrienne's wedding, we decided to head down to the Peninsula and check out The Olympic National Park.  



We got many looks of "you are crazy" when we told people our plans of camping with 4 kids in a cold/wet rainforest.  



We also got many comments and looks from fellow park visitors.  Most were along the line of "your kids are so cute", "you've got your hands full", "We saw you guys yesterday...", and my favorite was while passing people hiking we got lots of, "how many of you are there?" :)  



We stocked up on rain gear, brought our winter clothes, boots, lots of socks, clothes to layer and invested in a very good tarp.  



The preparation worked and even though it rained everyday and night, we all stayed dry and warm.  Which resulted in very happy campers.  



This trip never would of happened without Paul.  I am not much of a camper, but he made sure we were prepared, he stayed calm when things got a bit crazy, and he got up and started breakfast each morning while I mentally prepared to exit our comfy and warm bed into the rain.  



Since most Washington schools were still in session, our camp ground at Lake Cresent was practically empty.  Gave the kids plenty of room to roam and explore.  

We had a pretty sweet set up.


I had brought cards and coloring books to pass some of our downtime with, but there was so much exploring to do we never pulled anything out.  




This is Miles being a gnome one night. It was very entertaining.  


We soon realized we were about 2 years early on perfect ages for this trip.  Meaning, Paul and I never got to sit down and relax, because Ruby always needed adult supervision and was everywhere.


and she tended to get a little cold at night, because she has a hard time keeping clothes on. :)  

All in all though, she was a pretty happy camper.  


We did some exploring around Lake Cresent (where we camped) and would of spent some time swimming and hanging out more if it was actually above 60 degrees.  


It was absolutely gorgeous though.  


And our view out the tent door, is kind of hard to beat.




We visited Hurricane Ridge, where it was snowing.




it was gorgeous and almost kind of erie up there.  Made sense why some people think Vampires could live in the area. :) 

We hiked to Marymere Falls, where it rained on us the entire time.  



This hike was a blast though.  Trees to hide in, bridges made out of tree trunks, and a river...all before we made it to the waterfall.  I don't think any of the kids complained, which is a first for us. 



Ruby loved touching the moss on the trees.  



 

We spent our last day visiting the Hoh Rainforst.  



Where is actually didn't rain, but when we got back to our campsite we learned that it had rained all day there.  


We could not get over these trees.  They were so tall and completely covered in moss.  


Slugs were a huge highlight of this hike.  Slugs are not something my kids are familiar with, so we had to stop EVERY TIME one was spotted on the trail.

We learned about Banana Slugs at Northwest Trek, so apparently that meant my kids thought all slugs were named after fruit. We found green apple slugs and blackberry slugs on the trail. :)


This was the trip of balance beam tree walking.  


The trees also proved to be nice resting spots too.  




The last stop was Ruby Beach. 


It was amazing.  


There was driftwood everywhere and the Pacific Ocean was just right there on the edge of the forest.    



Wish we were prepared to spend all day there.  


Next time.  





We had planned to spend a day in the Sol Duc area, but the weather was suppose to be perfect in Bellingham and the kids were really sad we didn't find any crabs at the beach.  So, we decided to head home a day early, skip Sol Duc, and find a beach in Bellingham to explore.  

It was a good choice.  But, I am hoping to make it back there again one day when kids are older.