Family time

The beautiful Pacific Northwest is so majestic and lush.  Michael and I love that we have the opportunity to go home for Christmas every other year, but there is something special about visiting during the summer. We were looking forward to visiting the multitude of parks and participating in the many outdoor activities that Whatcom County has to offer, that you just aren’t able to do during the winter.

We broke our time in PNW up into two sections; family from my side first, and then on to Lynden for Michael’s family.  I’m from Bellingham, where my parents and two of my brothers live.  We were fortunate enough that my sister from Colorado Springs was in town for a wedding, and my oldest brother was up from Olympia.  It was so wonderful having everyone together. 

Here are some pictures of our time together in Bellingham.

 

Road Trip Day 3

Oh, how I love waking up to a nice cool morning mist and a Prefontaine trail to run on.  It's simple a great way to start any day!  I forgot how much I miss running on trails vs the road.

We were all pretty excited about day three and the fun stops we had planned.  First stop, walking around Autzen Stadium.  What a cool stadium.  Josh was pretty disappointed that there wasn't any football practice at the time, but he was soon forgot when we walked into the gift shop for a souvenir.

From there we ventured to the Salmon Creek area just outside of Vancouver to visit Caitlyn and her family.  Caitlyn was a RCS classmate of Josh's that just moved to the area. It was nice to see her and her family again and give the kids lots of time to play together again and catch up with their new life in Washington.

After a fun lunch with the Mercurio family we headed to NW Trek in Eatonville, Washington. NW Trek is similar to the Wild Animal Park in San Diego, but showcases animals of the Pacific Northwest area, i.e. grizzly bears, bald eagles, badgers, mountain lions.  It was a gorgeous day and not a lot of people were at the facility.  Infact, there was so few people there that Josh was baffled.  He kept looking around and turning to ask, "Where are all the people?" 'Isn't it supposed to be crowded?"  Haahaa, I guess this is what someone that visits the San Diego Zoo would expect from any other zoo-like area.  He had us giggling with how bewildered he was.

In front of Autzen Stadium

Carter's U of O football player

Caitly and Josh playing

At NW Trek

Male elk resting

Sweet boy

Brotherly love

Beautiful boys

After NW Trek we headed straight to Bellingham.  Michael and I were so amazed with how the boys did on out trek up to Washington.  They were GREAT!  I think we can do more road trips in our future.

Road Trip Day 2

The end of day one ended with enough time for the boys to hit the pool and for me to hit the treadmill.  Both excellent ways to burn some energy and help you sleep well at night.  Needless to say, after a well rested night in the hotel we woke up and ventured out to the Jelly Belly Factory.  Surprisingly neither one of the boys were very excited about this stop, but that's okay, I had enough excitement to cover all of us.  I LOVE Jelly Bellys!!  We had heard that during the summer the line for a tour can be up to two hours long and that was definitely not going to fly with a six and three year old, or for that matter Michael and I (ages do not need to be mentioned).  With this first hand knowledge we ventured to the factory to hit one of the first tours of the day.  Not only did we have a front parking spot at the factory, but we just walked right up to the start of a tour. Can you say, "WOAH!" (like Joey).

The Jelly Belly factory is pretty neat, but our tour guide could have brushed up on a few important facts of the history of the company. Overall, it was lots of fun and and the boys now like Jelly Bellys, yippee (although that means I have to share, shoot!).  My favorite part is when they allow you to pick from a variety of different flavors at the end of your tour because you'll never guess what flavor Michael picked out?!  BOOGER! Seriously, Michael! Buttttt, my mind got to thinking, "What if it's a trick? And what could it possibly taste like?"  Well we are both here to tell you, "It is by far the most disgusting thing we have ever had."  It took the entire day for us not to taste it in our mouths, uhhh.

The rest of the day was Interstate 5 and rest areas.  Not too much to highlight over.  The boys opened a few more gifts and we played a couple of games.  We have a favorite rest area (yes, you can have that) that is right along a river before the Oregon boarder it has a ton of shade and large grassy area. We got out the baseball, bat and gloves.  It was nice to just relax and play a little ball for a while.

We ended day two in one of Michael and I's favorite cities, Eugene, Oregon.  Our hotel was right across from the Matthew Knight Area of the University of Oregon campus.  It was the week of Freshman so the campus was buzzing.  Boy, are kids entering college at a younger age?  They look so much younger than they used too, huh? Heeehee!

Well we got in pretty late that night, so quick dinner and right to bed!  Tomorrow, day three, will be filled with more fun stops and reaching our final destination of the first part of our trip, Bellingham!