Saturday's Hike

We hiked part of Shannon Ridge Trail, in the Northern Cascade Mt. Range, on Saturday.  

The kids, at the trailhead, of course they found something to climb on. 

 They also found a cute, little waterfall by the trail. 

 

We had to overcome several obstacles on the trail, such as fallen logs and branches and stream crossings.  The trail was well shaded, with mountain on one side of us and trees on the other.

 Finally, we caught a glimpse of a view through the trees.  

 The trail wasn't too bad.  It wasn't that steep, but it was a constant climb.  No rolling hills to give your legs a chance to rest. 

 

The kids acting silly and James waiting for them to get on with the hike.  The kids started wanting lots of rest breaks.  Then they really started complaining.  They weren't into hiking that day, for some reason.  (The next day Logan suffered from a stomach flu.  That may have had something to do with it). 

 We tried to encourage the kids to keep going, "just until we can see the view." 

 But this is as good as we could get before compromising and turning around at the 2 mile point. 

 This view is from a nice spot on the drive.  

 Mt. Baker.  Another view from the drive.  

Even if the hike itself wasn't stellar, the drive certainly was.  What a beautiful country we live in!

Mission to the Moon

Were you aware that NASA had a space mission to the moon this summer?  Here's a picture of the astronaut who landed on the moon, just this week.

Okay, maybe he didn't make it all the way to the moon, but he did make it to Cub Scout Day Camp.  The camp's theme was Space Odyssey. 

 Trying on one of the "jet packs."  

He was in a group of 6 boys.  They decided to be "The Space Ninjas."   The boys decorated their flag all by themselves and then took turns carrying it and leading the group to each station.  

 Logan was very excited to do archery,

 and BB guns.  He'd never shot a BB gun before. 

He loved it. 

 He also participated in a flag ceremony,

 and wood working. 

 He'd seen some boys with wooden, fold-able stools.  He couldn't wait to make his, but it turned out they were just for the Webelos.  He's not a Webelo.  He's with the Bears now.  So his group made toolboxes.  He was very disappointed at first.  Now that it's done though, he's enjoying his toolbox.  
 

I volunteered to help with Logan's den, which meant that Taylor got to participate in the Tag-Along Program.  They all wore bright yellow shirts and had all kinds of fun crafts and games to do while big brothers and/or parents worked at Day Camp.

Taylor and the other Tags got to look through the same telescopes the scouts looked through during one of their stations.  The telescope Taylor is looking through is a special one that allows you to look at the sun! 

Taylor loved Day Camp.  She was so excited be able to go to her own camp too.  

Day Camp was only Monday through Thursday, so today the kids spent all morning at the dining room table singing camp songs and making construction paper projects. 

I'm glad they had so much fun at camp. 

 

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July!  Hope you had a great holiday!  

We went to parade on the 4th. 

Flags of all the states.  That was really cool to see. 

Besides the firetrucks, 

tractors and 

 army trucks, 

 we saw go-carts,

a pirate ship and

a DeLorean (this last picture is especially for you, Dad)!  "Do you know what this means?  Do you KNOW what this means???  It means this thing doesn't work!"  

 

After the parade Logan & Taylor marched in their own parade up and down the backyard.  

They had a great 4th of July because they got a little bit of candy at the parade that I actually let them eat right then and there. 

That night we pulled out the camp chairs and watched the fireworks from the privacy of our own backyard.  We had a great view of them going off over the harbor.  

Then we all slept in this morning.  

Yesterday, James only had to work a half day, so we went on a family hike to the Samish Overlook on Chuckanut Mountain.  Still love that name... Chuckanut.  

Anyway, it's a steep hike, but it has a spectacular view!  Worth the climb.  You can see the Northern Cascade Mountain Range with Mt. Baker and Rainer too, I think.  They don't show up in any of my pictures though, they're too far off in the distance.  

 Arriving at the plateau of the overlook.  
 

The kids did great though.  It was an awesome family outing, as are all family hikes.  

Hiking is a great way to spend time together as a family, get in some exercise, see the beauty of nature and keep the kids from going stir-crazy in the house.  They love hiking.  They love being told how far they've gone and how high they've climbed, even if they don't really know what that means.  Our family hikes are usually around 4-5 miles total.  

The rest of our weekend looks to be a relaxing one.  James has a friend who came up to ride with him, so he'll be getting lots of bike riding done. 

We hope you are all having a great time with friends and family this holiday weekend. 
 

San Juan Island

For my birthday, we celebrated by spending yesterday on San Juan Island.  The kids had never been on a ferry before and we'd never been to any of the San Juan Islands, so we were very excited. Here's our San Juan Island trip (mostly in pictures).  

We got up at the crack of dawn, well... it felt like the crack of dawn, to get on the ferry.  This picture was taken while we were in line waiting to drive onto the ferry.  This is Anacortes.

We had about an hour of waiting in this "driveway" like parking lot. 

We watched the ferry to Canada take off.  Our ferry would be next. 

 Driving onto our ferry!

So excited to be on the ferry at last! 

 

We had a nice view of Mt. Baker and the Northern Cascade Mountain Range as we left.  Thankfully the fog burned off by then.

Driving past a small community on Lopez Island...

a small community, with their own little airport.  

After about an hour on the ferry, we got our first glimpse at Friday Harbor, on San Juan Island.  

Pulling into Friday Harbor.  I took one last quick picture and then hurried back to the car.  It would be time to unload soon.  

So many boats.  Friday Harbor.  From here you can find boat taxis to take you to the smaller islands that don't have ferry service.  We didn't do that though.

Cool sailing vessel in Friday Harbor.  Had to get a picture of it.  

I only had two places on San Juan Island that I really wanted to see.  The rest of the time was just going to be looking around and seeing what we could find.  

One of the places I wanted to see is called Cattle Point Lighthouse.  We decided to go there first since it was closer to town.  Then we'd have lunch back in town before going to the other lighthouse.  

Parking is up on a plateau, overlooking the water, with Cattle Point Lighthouse being a little dot across the water.  

Finding a way down to the beach at Cattle Point Lighthouse.  

They made it!

All of us loved walking and climbing all over the rocks along the shoreline.  It was so much fun.  No plans, no timeline, no schedule, just wander until we felt we were finished (or got hungry, which is what happened).  

 

Getting closer.  

  Taylor lead us over a meadow of wildflowers to the lighthouse.  

 After Cattle Point Lighthouse, we headed back to Friday Harbor and walked around until we found a place to eat.  Then it was off to Lime Kiln Lighthouse.  I couldn't believe how fast the day was flying by. 

Lime Kiln Lighthouse is known for it's whale watching.  They actually have a biologist on location, tracking and recording all kinds of data, such as water temp. and number of boats on the water, besides whale sightings. 

Speaking of whale sightings, we were told while we were there that there had not been any whales for several days, and then they all of a sudden just showed up the night before and then again at about 11am that morning.  

Awesome.  We were at the other lighthouse at 11am that morning.  If we would have gone straight to that lighthouse first, we would have seen orca whales, up close.  

We were bummed, but how were we to know.  We had no way of knowing.  They said that they expected them back that evening, but we'd be back on the ferry at that time.  

  We had so much fun.  The whole day was great.  We got some ice cream cones and salt water taffy and said good-bye to San Juan. 

 Back on the ferry again. 

"Good-bye, we'll miss you!"

View from the ferry on the way back.  Why do ferry rides always feel like they take twice as long on the way back?  Maybe it's just that I was hoping it would take half as long, and I ended up disappointed in that. 

Well, it was still the best family day ever!  It was exactly what I wanted for my birthday.  I couldn't have asked for better!  Thank you to my family for a fantastic day.  I love you all so much!