I just found more pictures to add to my previous posts, so if you want more farm pictures, go look at the August posts. Kaitlyn loved this Gator but took a while to warm up to it going by itself. She liked the big tractors better than this for quite a while.
Jeremy and I went into the mountains for a really beautiful and fun mountain bike ride on the Stafford Creek Trail in the Teanaway area. It was extremely steep and rocky so I walked up a lot of it. I was starting to think it wasn't worth it but kept walking my bike. Then we got to the top and it was incredible. Then after a rest, the way down was so much fun! I remembered what I love about mountain biking. I had started to think I was just not into it anymore after trying in the Bay Area for a while. I guess we just missed the fun, steep, technical, and fast biking we got used to in Utah, Colorado and Washington. It's too bad we cant find as many good trails where we live.
Jeremy's parents were really nice and offered to watch Kaitlyn for 2 days while we went on a little trip. We went to the San Juan Islands and took a ferry from Anacortes, WA to Friday Harbor on the San Juan Island. It was a beautiful place.
We explored the island by foot for an hour before being picked up for our sea kayaking, whale watching tour. They drove us to the other side of the island where our cell phones warned us we were roaming because we could see the Canadian border. The day was absolutely perfect and the ocean was glass. We could have water skied on that water forever. Kayaking was cool too because it was so peaceful. We saw and ate some kelp which was pretty good. We also saw a lighthouse, an eagles nest, lots of birds, and lots of jellyfish. We saw some sea lions and some porpoises, but no whales. We were a bit disappointed, but still had a wonderful day.
Eating lunch on the beach.
Here we are with Canada in the background.
We caught the ferry back to the mainland as the sun was setting and caught a great view of Mt. Baker.
We drove to Seattle and spent the night at our friend Angie and Bernie's house. They are newly married and it was so fun to spend time with them again. Angie is the one who set us up originally.
Then we woke up early and drove a few hours to hike Mt. Rainier. This was still 2 hours away and we knew it was going to be a beautiful day. No clouds on Rainier is very unusual.
Here we are before the hike. We hiked to Camp Muir which is the base camp for hiking the whole mountain. You don't need a permit to go as far as we did. It was 9.5 miles round trip and 4700 ft of elevation.
I have been to Mt. Rainier several times and only had glimpses in the clouds. We were so excited to have such a clear and beautiful day!
These little marmots were everywhere. They were all starting to turn white for the winter. We even saw one building a nest with its mouth stuffed full of grass. They are pretty cute and friendly little animals.
We got above the vegetation pretty quickly and hiked in the rocks for a while. There is a pretty big waterfall in this picture.
Some fog started rolling in and we were a bit sad about it. Luckily, it left and we only had clouds for a short time. This snow cave was pretty cool. Also these next two pictures are of the snow fall we hiked near. It was a warm day, so it was very loud with cracking and popping and creaking sounds. We saw a few rock falls and a pretty big avalanche go off a cliff. It was really cool hearing these rumblings and trying to find what was making the noise. Most of the time we couldn't find anything.
After hiking straight up the glacier for forever, we made it to Camp Muir. It's at 10,188 ft.
We could see a lot of the volcanoes around this one because it was so clear.
We made a little snowman for Kaitlyn. It's a lot of fun to hike with our ice axes.
The way down the glacier was a lot of fun because we jumped and ran and slid most of the way. At the end where it was the steepest, people have made slide tracks that were really fun and fast. Jeremy practiced his self arrest (where you stop yourself from falling with the ice axe). I loved those slides.
We went down part of the way on a different trail and I was happy we did because the views were stunning.
Jeremy and his family took me to this waterfall when we were dating. We couldn't see a thing except the waterfall because it was so cloudy.
After the hike, we drove back to Ellensburg and stopped for a few minutes at Clear Creek Falls which is hidden on the side of the road.
Kaitlyn didn't even care that we had been gone. She was having so much fun with grandma and grandpa. Cousins came to spend time too. Root beer floats are great.
Kaitlyn and her Great Grandpa Jesse Gibb. They were playing catch with a ball and Kaitlyn almost got him in the face, then when we tried to take a picture with all of us, Kaitlyn wouldn't have it. These were the best I got.
Throwing rocks in the canal.
She loved riding in the back of the pickup with Grandpa.
Kaitlyn loves tractors and all farm equipment.
Grandma let Kaitlyn pick flowers all the time to put in her hair. But the raspberries, strawberries and peas were the best.
We finally had to leave and make the drive back home. One of our stops was Multnomah Falls, OR. It was a great chance to hike a little and stretch our legs.
We got to Redwood National Park and guess what? There were no campsites left, again (who is camping in September on a weekday?!). We started to panic because Kaitlyn never napped and she was screaming at this point. We tried to find somewhere to stay and were really lucky that we found Florence Keller County Campground outside of the park. They were $15 cheaper than the campground we were planning on and we were one of 4-5 families there. They need to get on the map. It was a great spot.
We were all much happier in the morning and played and read books until we wanted to get up.
We spent the morning and early afternoon hiking around at Redwood National Park. What a beautiful place. Kaitlyn thinks she saw some Ewoks playing in the ferns.
After hiking and driving through the tall tall trees, we got to see the dry parts of California too. This lake was almost all the way dried up. This was an unplanned stop, but Kaitlyn really needed it. She even ate a little bit for us. Traveling means Kaitlyn stops eating except to avoid complete starvation or candy.
Kaitlyn was very happy to be in her "new house" and eat her own pretend food with mouse and doll.
Playing with Cormac Nicholson.
Helping to make chocolate chip cookies . . . maybe she just ate a ton of dough.
Swimming is so fun, but nerve wracking for Kaitlyn. She yelps and screams the whole time with a huge smile on her face.
This was a hike with the "Whompers" (the trolls from Frozen). She was convinced the rocks were really just Whompers and told us all about what they eat (popcorn is their favorite) as well as all sorts of things they do and like. She talked about them for at least 30 minutes straight. Then we even ate lunch on top of a Whomper!
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