5/365

The mill creek library is my sanctuary. I was able to read 54 books last year because of the library. I discovered new books that I loved and some I didn't even finish. Buying them all would have been more than my Starbucks spending. The kids love going to the library too. They love to go and and ask me if it's time to "pay". On occasion we find a new book for Mackenzie and Cameron to read too. Today I got 4 new books. I love putting books on hold, but I hate when they all arrive at the same time. I'm not sure I'll finish all these in 3 weeks.

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365 days, 365 photos

It's a new year. 2010. We have been busy as usual. This past year, we traveled to Redding, CA several times. In March, June and August. While in California during our August trip, we took the kids to Burney Falls, the Subway caves, Humboldt National Redwood Forest, and into Fremont for ribs at Emil Villa's. We took a few local trips including visiting Forks, WA twice to stay at the Oceanside Resort in La Push (great cabins on the beach). We went to the Olympic Rain Forest and then made a side detour on the way home to the Makah Nation and the NorthWest most point at Cape Flattery. We went camping for the first time at Lake Easton and stayed in a cabin at Hyak (near Snoqualmie Pass).

I realized we take our kids many places as well as visit many local sights and parks. I've decided to challenge myself by posting a photo for every day of 2010. Highlighting both the mundane and extraordianary things that we do. We are busy making travel plans for the upcoming year. My cousin lives on the other side of the country and we will see them before they move again. 

The current plan is to meet somewhere in the middle. I prefer to meet them somewhere warm. After a NorthWest winter, I want to see and feel the warmth of the sun. My current plan includes driving to California for my Dads wedding in March, then heading over to Santa Cruz. We will show the kids the California coast, a few sights in Los Angeles, a trip over to the Grand Canyon and a few days in Albuquerque (where we will meet up with my cousin and his family). We will then take 3 days to drive back home to Seattle. We are planning on taking 2 weeks. My other big trip will only be realized if my cousin isn't moving until end of summer. I would like to drive the kids cross country. Taking 1 week each way and spending 5-7 days with the family.

Our other possible plans include camping on the Oregon coast and a few trips over to Eastern Washington. We've lived here almost 7 years and have never been to the other half of this state. Maybe we'll be so global as to finally get our passports and head up to Canada. It takes as long to get to Calgary as it does to get to Redding. Here's to plenty of travels in 2010 and many photos.

our cousins

These are our cousins. We drove 12 hours to see these cousins. Well, actually, I made it from Seattle to Redding in 11 hours. We woke up at 4 am to see our family. We started driving at 5 am. I had to turn around to get my phone. Luckily I was only 1 mile down the freeway. We had a beautiful sunrise to enjoy that lit up Mt. Rainer as we headed for the Oregon border. I really enjoyed driving during the day and not into the night. This might become my new routine. We made it to Redding around 4 pm and were able to visit with my brother, Bryan and his wife, Robin. They drove up for the day to see us. I love them!

So we went to dinner at my cousins house and saw my cousins from Georgia. We haven't seen them since November 2005! Their two kids are the same ages as my middle two. It was a blast. I'm still trying to remember how we squeezed so much into 3 days. Really, 2 days.

My oldest, Miss M, stayed home with Dad to stay in school. She had a few school events that week. Mr C was very happy to get out of school for a few days and visit his family. We drove all day Wednesday and then had dinner with my Dad and cousins. There was myself, my brother and 3 of my cousins there. And then our kids, 8 in total. I love that these second or third cousins (or is it 2nd cousins - once removed), can play together and know each other so well. Little C will be 3 this July and he woke up in the morning saying "all my cousins are coming over to play? They will all play in my room again?" It's wonderful to hear.

On Thursday, we met up for Starbucks for breakfast and took the kids to the park. Redding has a great wood structured park with a spray zone attached for those hot days (and there are hot days!) Luckily, this visit, there were none. We went to lunch and decided to drive up to Burney Falls. Beautiful drive and even more beautiful waterfalls. Unfortunately it was raining when we got there, but I live in Seattle and always have umbrellas in my car. We hiked down to the bottom and took some pictures before hiking back up. I so need to work out. The hike up was very lung breathing unfriendly! We drove the hour back to Redding to attend my cousins 8th grade graduation. I said we did a lot! We all headed home after that to get some sleep.

On Friday, it rained! We met up at Starbucks after my kids got haircuts. We went to the Mt. Shasta Mall to play in the soft playground in the mall. It was dry inside. We had Round Table for lunch. Apparently there are none on the East Coast. It was delicious. We can fill up a room when we all get together. There were 6 adults and 7 kids (plus 2 teenagers), I should remember to not get outnumbered by the little ones. We decided to take the kids to see "Up!" and had an hour to kill. We went to the Sundial Bridge and walked across. The kids enjoy hanging from the cables like little sloths. We went to the movies and enjoyed 2 hours of kid quiet time. Afterwards we agreed to meet up at my Aunts house and think about dinner and just talk. My Dad didn't hear this part and ended up at my cousins in Anderson. He said he had a nice visit there too. We ended up meeting him in town for dinner. By the time we were done visiting (we weren't really, but it was late), I had to haul off my tired kids for baths and bed. It was 11 pm and we had a 12 hour drive ahead of us on Saturday.

Saturday ended up being a late start. I was in no hurry to get back home. We took our time. We left Redding at 10am and made lots of stops along the way. Going to the bathroom, running around and stopping for food. I paid for it at the end of the night when 13 hours later, I finally pulled into our driveway...exhausted.

Will I do it again? Of course! I love my cousins and had the best time. I hope that after this tour in Iraq (for James, my cousin) that we can go visit them. They will be moving for 3 years and then finding a new home. We are going to persuade them to pick Washington so that they are closer to us. Hint...Hint!

Forks, WA

We decided to go to the Washington coast before our anniversary and our weekends got crazy busy. We last visited Forks, WA 10 years ago. I had just finished reading the Twilight books, but this is not why we were going. Honestly, Forks is this little tiny town and I'm impressed that they are embracing their spotlight with this book series.

So, we left Lynnwood on a Saturday morning and drove over to Edmonds to catch the ferry across Puget Sound. We went inside (instead of sitting in the car like usual) and enjoyed the sunny 1/2 hour crossing. We stopped for some McDonalds and gas in Kingston, WA. You really need to get gas when you see it since the towns are far apart on the Peninsula. We drove the 1-1/2 up to Port Angeles, WA. We were in luck, the sun was still shining and I found a starbucks (I'm a serious mocha addict). The we drove off again. We drove around Crescent Lake (honestly, the most inspiring lake to drive along).
We were almost to Forks and turned right to head to La Push, WA. We had seen some cabins for rent on the internet and wanted to see if they were available (OceanSide Resort - La Push, WA).

The cabins are right on First Beach in La Push, WA. We parked and played on the beach. The first Twilight references were already spotted. There was a "No Vampires Beyond This Point" on a sign at the La Push boundries and then I spotted a "Alice Cullen was here" written in the sand. I knew we were in for a fun weekend of Twilight spotting. The cabins were just 50 feet off the beach. We rented a 2 bedroom cabin. They come with firewood, a living room, kitchen, 2 bedrooms and a bathroom. It was a perfect weekend. It was almost our 10 year anniversary, so we were celebrating with the kids.

We drove into Forks and had some dinner at a terrible Chinese restaurant. We found the only grocery store and bought some marshmallows for roasting on the beach, some wine (for after the kids go to bed) and some OJ and treats for the morning. We were racing the clouds back to the beach. It had been sunny all day and we wanted to see the sunset. The clouds rolled in the thick and blocked out all chances of seeing the sun set.
We bought a $5 fire permit and had a small beach fire and roasted all the marshmallows instead. The kids had a great day and took awhile to get to bed. Once they were asleep, Marc and I sat outside on the adriondack chairs to drink our wine. It was way too cold though. We went inside, started the woodstove and stared out our large picture window, catching a glimpse of the ocean.

The next morning, we went back on the beach, but it was still cold and the little ones were done. I took them back to the cabin and we packed up. I'm looking forward to another visit to La Push to stay in the cabins longer.

We went into town and visited "Dazzled by Twilight". The store is so full of Twilight stuff. My kids bought vampire teeth for only $0.50 each. We went to the local grocery store to get lunch food and coffee (there is no starbucks in Forks). I spotted a specials board with Twilight specials for food and coffee. It was embarrassing, but I took the pictures anyway. The town was having an auction all weekend to raise money for high school senior scholarships. The cashier told me that a Twilight poster signed by Catherine Hardwick went for about $4000!!!

We stopped at the information station on the way out of town and took a picture in front of the "Bella truck". We were heading to the Hoh Rain Forest. It was cloudy and rainy, but we were hoping. Sure enough, as we got near the end of the 20 mile drive from the freeway to the ranger station, the sun starting to break out. We came across a herd of Roosevelt Elk. We got to the ranger station and the ranger recommended we take the Spruce hike and then go off trail about half way to throw rocks in the river. He said it was his kids favorite thing to do. So, we did and it was great. We were there about an 1-1/2 total. We got back to the car to eat snacks then go on the Hall of Mosses trail when it started to sprinkle. That was our clue to leave. It was a great weekend.

We got back to the ferry in Kingston and home around 8PM. After our showers and books, the kids fell fast asleep and I thanked Marc for a great anniversary weekend. ;)

first airplane ride

We survived a 3 hour flight to St. Louis, MO. The background story is my husband, Marc, didn't want to go. He says it's a hole and never wants to go back. I, of course, want to see everywhere and really want to go. 12 hours before our flight, my husband was still trying to cancel our hotel. Secretly and outwardly, I was happy that he was unsuccessful.

We went to the airport 3 hours early. We needed to check 4 bags, 2 car seats and walk with 4 kids (ages 7, 5, 3 and 2). We ended up using curbside check-in. Saved us a lot of time and hassle dragging our bags. It was worth every penny. We took a 11 am flight so we had enough time to grab some breakfast and let the kids run off some steam. We boarded last and had a great flight. We managed to snag a free upgrade at Thrifty to the new Town and Country mini-van. The seats turned so that the kids could face each other. It was great fun and entertainment for them. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza in downtown St. Louis. We had a HUGE room with 2 queen beds and a pull out couch. The best part was we had a view of the Mississippi River and St. Louis Arch from our room. We found a great breakfast place about 2 blocks away at Panera Bread. It was non-smoking (smoking is still allowed in Missouri restaurants) and had great bagels that we could take with us everyday.

The sites - there is a lot to see and we only had 3 days. Unfortunately the timing and weather didn't allow us to go see a Cardinals game, but we will be back for that. We spent the first day sight-seeing. It was the nicest day of the trip. We viewed the museum at the base of the Arch. It is small and easy for the kids to see everything. We bought a ticket to the top of the arch and had time to do a riverboat cruise first. It was a beautiful bright day to ride on a paddle boat. The Mississippi was smaller than I thought, but it has a fast current and the driver had fascinating stories and facts to share with us. The beginning of April is a great time to go to Missouri as everything was relatively uncrowded. We went back to the Arch and got in line for our ride to the top. This is NOT for the claustrophobic people. The elevator is tiny!! It has 5 seats (we held our youngest on our lap) and is small enough that I had to lean forward to not hit my head. It crawls up slowly to the top. The top is very small. I never realized that I was afraid of heights until we were up there. The kids loved climbing the walls and leaning out over the windows that look down at the water and ground. The views of downtown were impressive, but after 10 minutes, I was ready to go. My family got a thrill out of watching me stand in the middle with my arms crossed and panic trying not to set in.

We drove around town and into Indiana for the rest of the day. We stopped at the Cahokia Mounds in Indiana and walked around for awhile. It was closed and would be more interesting to see the museum. We made a pilgrimage to White Castle for burgers. The kids and Marc LOVE them, I think they were pretty gross and opted to eat a few fries instead.

The next day we went to City Museum. For anyone with kids, this is the place to go. It is 4 stories of exploring for kids. The museum uses recycled products to make everything. There is a giant whale for them to climb in to get to the 2nd floor. There are paths and tunnels and slides everywhere. The bad part is trying to keep track of where they are. It is not a place to carry a bag because you need to crawl and stoop through many narrow openings if you are trying to keep track of them. The top floor has an art studio and a train. There is even a circus performance twice a day. There was a great outdoors area for them to explore (if it had been open). Due to rain and chance of thunderstorms, the outside was closed. We spent many hours here though. Afterwards, we went for pizza and got my coveted St. Louis toasted raviolis. They were delicious. We went to the Union Station mall after that. It looked wonderful online and is very pretty to see a converted train station. But in the end, it was just a mall.

The last day was reserved for Forest Park. An amazing HUGE park that has museums and the zoo. We could have spent all 3 days here. We didn't make it to any of the museums, but we spent 5 hours at the zoo. The zoo is free after paying $10 to park. We bought wristbands for the children's zoo, caroseul and train ride. We used our local zoo pass to get 1/2 off. The zoo has the BEST penguin exhibit I have ever seen. Also the hippo exhibit. The hippos have a glass wall to watch them swim underwater. They were swimming along the glass wall and pushing off to turn around. This scared my 2 year old, but was awesome to watch for the rest of us.

We flew home on a Saturday on an 8am flight. We didn't have the luxury of curbside check-in because our car rental was off site. But the driver was really great to carry our luggage over for us. We managed to get everything inside in one trip and hold on to all the kids. We got checked in and had time to grab coffee and pastries from Starbucks at the airport. We managed to sit behind the same man going both to and from St. Louis. The kids must have been really good because our flight wasn't full and he didn't ask to move. We had coloring books and puzzles for the younger two and our PSP and Nintendo DS for the older two. The movie was the same both ways and wasn't geared towards children. The way home felt a lot longer, but they did good. I am looking forward to more flights and vacations with them.

The only thing I would change would be getting suites when we travel. It would be nice to put them to bed and go into another room to read or watch TV without disturbing them. They all had a hard time falling asleep with the TV or lights on. And Marc and I weren't ready to turn in at 8pm each night.

sledding

We got a few days of snow this year. The first few times allowed enough snow to fall, look pretty and melt. The last time gave us enough snow to go sledding on our hill.

Our first sledding day was at a rock quarry outside of Granite Falls, WA. I was trying to get to a snow park, but the road was so icy and covered with snow that we didn't make it. We turned around and stopped at the rock quarry where we saw a lot of other people sledding. The walk up the hill was nice, but the actual sledding was more for teens and adults. We're talking a 60 degree slope down the hill. My older 2 barely made it up the hill. They came down so fast that neither wanted to do it again. We hiked back down the road and played in the snow with my Dad, Brother , his wife and their 2 year old triplets.


Two days later, we tried heading out to the snow park again. This time the road was clear. We made it to the end of the road and walked down the slippery closed road that has a nice hill to slide down. This snow park is actually a closed road. There were a lot of teenagers coming down the hill (2 at a time). They would get going so fast. We kids hiked up the hill several times and came flying down. We had to jump into the left lane to pull them off their sleds (occasionally) because the older kids would double up (meaning twice the speed) and catch up to ours. There were a few accidents, but nothing major. The snow was so deep that our 2 year old lost his boots a few times. When the snowboarders arrived (with their sharp edges) we decided to leave. Great place (Deer Creek Rd outside of Granite Falls, WA), but their are no bathrooms (a bit of a problem for the girls).

Our last and longest day sledding was just outside our house. Our hill is steep enough to get some good runs in and short enough for the kids to hike up quickly. We taught them how to roll off their sleds if they got too close to the cars parked on the side. When our hill gets snow and ice, it's impossible to drive out. The poor DHL man drove down the hill to turn around and never got back out. My kids sled until it was dark out and were cold to the bone. Great winter!!!