Not intentionally, our little vacation became a personal education in rentals—costs, amenities, etc.  For comparison, our 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath cabin, on Whidbey Island, near great beaches, stores, restaurants, has never cost more than $150/night (and usually much less), plus $60 cleaning.  I stock the cabin with everything I want—condiments, tissues, conditioner, q-tips, extra razors and Band-Aids. 

This was the cheapest place at about $200, and it was 16’x20’ and super cute.

Two kids slept above Dwayne and I, and Piper took the couch.

The bathroom was usable, particularly if you aren’t overly modest.

Between the kitchen and table, we ate out in La Push that night.

We really used it just to sleep in, and so our few waking hours were enjoyable, but nope.  Can’t actually live in a tiny home with 5 people.  Especially if you actually want to keep food in the house!

But the kids loved their stay, and wrote happy comments.

After leaving Lake Quinault, we drove to our next reservation in Forks, via the Hoh Rain Forest, which is an odd thing to visit during the driest part of the year!

And when we drove past a sign that said “Big Cedars, That Way”, we went That Way.

Sorry, Sitka Spruce, cedars are both more beautiful and more impressive.

The kids just saw it as another climbing structure.

We made it to the Hoh Visitor Center.

We took just two of the shorter hikes, and it was so beautiful…with lots of kissing bridges we put to good use!

I told Wesley not to go up to his thighs, but I think he heard “eyes” because he managed to get pretty soaked, and I forgot to take a picture of him.  Actually, he’s a good source of exercise, because although he hates hiking, he loves running through the trails…and one of his parents has to keep up with him!

From Seabrook, we began our 3 day driving tour of the Olympic Peninsula.  I had always wanted to stay at Lake Quinault Lodge, and it was worth at least $150 of the $400 we had to pay for a single weeknight there (just a basic hotel room with no phone to call the front desk to ask for sheets to make up the pull out bed). 

I wanted to maximize our time there, so I signed us up for a 3 hour van tour that mostly circumnavigated the lake, and took us back through some of the wilderness.  This was not Wesley’s favorite, and a poor omen for future travel, but I thought the tour was worth it. The tour guide knew a ton, and included the kids every chance he could.

We had our picture taken in front of the world’s largest Sitka Spruce.

I think it won it’s title fairly.

The drive was absolutely beautiful, and I don’t think this bit of humor ruined the view at all.

We stopped by waterfalls, and fed salmon fry in the streams.  In spite of the heat and smoke, we still caught sight of an elk herd!

He just wanted to play Gobblers with Daddy.  And Daddy wasn’t available yet.  So what else is a boy supposed to do?  There’s a quarter on the floor, a phone plugged into wall, and nothing else to do but unplug the cord just enough to see what would happen if he put the quarter between the outlet and plug.

I think I’m stuck with this coin forever.

It seems that Seabrook is the place to go for Washington coast, so we finally went to see what the fuss is about.

Two of the best things about Seabrook are the architecture and the house names.  This is Clamalot!

The weather never got really nice, but we enjoyed the beach anyway.  The kids are old enough we can leave them playing at the beach while we go for long walks (that may or may not end at an espresso stand—spiced chai screams beach vacation!)

Guess how many days it took the kids to get all the sand out!

We were there for the Gnome and Fairy Weekend.

Besides making gnome houses in the woods, they had a magic show (which was REALLY good!). Obviously, the magician is the one who blew himself up in the giant red balloon. 

Then the Not-Its did a family concert in the evening. 

I’m implying that I loved Seabrook inside and out, but I don’t see us going back there for years and years.  The cost is ridiculous and I just got mad that the darling house didn’t have conditioner for my hair, olive oil or ketchup, or detergent.  It’s way more than twice the cost of our cabin per night, with none of the little touches that make it comfortable.  With no close grocery store, and very few food options, eating can be an ordeal and Seabrook has to do better than that.  Otherwise, hang out in Langley!!!.

Designed and created by herself as a special gift for her cousin, Amber:

I posted earlier that not only do I have few pictures of myself, I have very few pics of my friends.  Over the next few months, my goal is to change that. Kristin is one of my oldest friends—maybe 20 years now. She actually just gets more beautiful over time, but her face is what I admire least about my intelligent, intuitive, sassy, highly effective drug-and-alcohol-and middle school counselor friend.  She also has a cute niece who my kids are gaga over.

Love, you, Keeks!

We were just a month away from the grand opening of the new aquarium, but we braved the old stuff to hang out with Friend Kristin, and her wonderful niece.

I can’t foresee a day I will outgrow Sheruff Bones and his Wild West show.

From Bones to budgies, we couldn’t wait to feed the birds.

 

Regular readers of this blog will not spend much time wondering why Piper is scowling as she shares a statures with 3 others.

 

It’s become a tradition (meaning this is our second time) to head to the gentrified Ruston Way waterfront for ice cream and splash time.

   

I spend a lot of time being amused by Wesley while pretending I don’t know him.

 

Why is Piper turning her back on all her loved ones to sit in the rain, scowling, for an hour? 

While Kyla and I spend the day painting Kyla’s room, Piper had the kids’ computer for about 3 hours to listen to her Spotify playlist.  When Wesley wanted it to play Minecraft, we set the timer for 30 minutes and Piper spitefully pouted for more than twice that. 

Oh, well, I had plenty of painting to do, and happily left her out there.

Four years ago, we completely redid Kyla’s bedroom.  I loved the calming lavender and white color scheme but Kyla has outgrown it.

I woke up Saturday morning to Kyla moving everything (“but the bed, Mom!”) out of her room.  She’s my SuperMinimalist, which I love, and even when I thought she had nothing left to get rid of, she dug as deep as she could.  And when the room was cleared of everything, it seemed like an opportune time to repaint to a color she wanted.

It took her about 30 seconds to choose Retro Mint at the paint store, and approximately 2 minutes to confirm her choice.

She picked out the gold and white floor-length curtains and bought herself a new, more minimalist side table.

While I’ll admit that this isn’t my style, I can’t help but celebrate her as she finds her own groove.

Teenage years, here she comes!