Exploring the Pacific Northwest

We've just returned from a wonderful 2-week whirlwind trip! We decided to explore the coastal areas of Oregon and Washington. We crammed a lot of adventure into those 2 weeks - the short summary is that it was a great vacation full of hiking, sight-seeing, visiting with friends and family, and even a little relaxation. If you're in for the longer version, I'm going to do my best to capture the highlights here. We really had a wonderful time!

After an enjoyable airline delay (ha) that brought us into the house of our friends Tom & Kristen at 2 in the morning, we arrived in Seattle ready to start our journey. The very next morning, we headed out for a 3-day trip around the Olympic Peninsula. I had never heard of this area before this trip! But it turns out that the Olympic Peninsula is this beautiful, non-commercialized area that includes the Olympic National Park. To get there, you take a ferry across Puget Sound. This was a first for me - actually driving our car onto an enormous boat, and then getting out of the car to catch views of the skyline while you're ferried across the water. It's about a 30-minute ride, and then you simply drive your car off the boat and start your drive around the peninsula!

We spent that day driving toward our destination of Sol Duc Hot Springs. We spent 2 days there, staying in a cute cabin with a wooden porch swing. We went for a 6-mile hike through the park with Cassidy perched on her daddy's back in a special hiking backpack. She seemed to enjoy herself, constantly pointing to the trees, birds, and waterfalls and using various babbles to explain what she saw. Her Aunt Mel and Uncle Aaron joined us for the hike and Aaron even took a turn with the baby backpack! (At one point, the motion of the hike actually put her right to sleep!)

On our last evening at Sol Duc, we drove over to beautiful Lake Crescent and had dinner with Mel and Aaron at the lodge restaurant. While the dinner was lovely, I think Erik and I learned a valuable lesson about feeding a baby avocados when out to dinner. (Cassidy left a nice shade of green on every item within her reach - napkins, tablecloth, chairs, - you name it, she got to it.) Thankfully the night ended well when we walked out to the pier and saw a pretty sunset. There was a huge black lab out there jumping into the water over and over with his owner - Cassie was overjoyed - she's such a dog-lover! On our final night on the Peninsula, we stayed at Kalaloch Lodge which overlooks the Pacific Ocean. Again, very pretty scenery and a wonderful breakfast at the lodge - creme brulee french toast!

The next stop was Cannon Beach, Oregon. Cannon Beach is actually the reason this trip was planned in the first place - Erik's parents rented a beautiful beach house for the week and invited us to join them there. So on Sunday, we arrived at the house which sits right on the Pacific and just across from Haystack Rock. We spent the week relaxing, sight-seeing and visiting with family. Downtown Cannon Beach is really cute - lots of little boutiques and restaurants. Cassidy stayed back with Grammy and Grandpa on Monday night so we could enjoy a dinner out with Melissa and Aaron - we ate at a great little restaurant called Newman's. It was the best meal of the trip - fresh seafood, great dessert. It was such a treat! Another fun part of Cannon Beach is to walk down to Haystack Rock at low tide and see all the marine life that's revealed for those few short hours. The 6am wake-up call was well worth it - we saw tons of colorful starfish (magenta and bright orange!), sea anemones, and millions of little shelled barnacles stuck to every surface. It's hard not to keep snapping photos since it's rare to get so close to these guys!

It goes without saying that we enjoyed getting to spend quality time with Cassie's Grammy and Grandpa Brown and Aunt Mel and Uncle Aaron. Cassie just lights up around them all! But another fantastic part of the trip was getting to visit with so much of Erik's extended family who we don't see often. Aunt Belinda was there all week and we had so much fun spending time with her (we have to get that Quiddler game now!). Belinda's daughters (and Erik's cousins) Molly and Emma also came over, along with Molly's husband Daniel and their little girl, Annabell. Annabell is 5 days older than Cassidy, and those two had a ball playing with each other's toys and having their meals together. When they're in the room, no one else gets much attention!

We also had some fun celebrations - Both Erik's dad and Aunt Louanne are celebrating milestone birthdays this year, so on Tuesday we had a joint surprise party in their honor. Aunt Louanne and Uncle Jerry recently got a new puppy, which was great news for Cassie since Mini the pup made the trip to Cannon Beach! When Cassie went outside to meet Mini, Mini started licking - and since Cassidy likes to imitate, she decided to stick her tongue out and lick away as well! Made for some great photos. She loved every minute of it.

On Wednesday evening we had another family event, a big reunion with Erik's mom's side of the family. We just love Aunt Dee and all of her children and grandchildren. They're a comedic bunch and all very sweet! Aunt Dee is such a great cook - throughout the week, she treated us to large batches of her lasagna and chili - both very tasty.

On Thursday, it was time for us to move on to the final leg of our trek. We headed back to Seattle, back to the Ewers house (staying for more than just a few hours this time!). It was such a nice way to end our trip - relaxing and spending time with friends. It was also very nice to know we were finished with the task of lugging all of our junk in and out of various lodges and cabins - of course it was all very well worth it, but still quite a task! Tom and Kristen treated us to lovely dinners on their back deck (Kristen is an amazing chef). Erik lent a hand with some yard work, getting a small taste of what it might be like to own a yard someday (can't say he's that anxious!) and Kathryn and Cassidy had a great time playing together. We took a trip to Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, and our first exhibit was "Butterfly World" - one of Cassie's favorite little animals. Wouldn't you know it, a bright orange butterfly perched itself on top of her head for about 30 seconds - we were all snapping pictures while she was wondering what the heck was going on. The next day, Erik & Tom took on a challenging hike through snow-covered trails, but were rewarded with an amazing view of Mt. Rainier.
I have to admit, we were a little worried about how Cassidy would handle all the flying and driving on this trip - she's used to a certain routine, so you never now how she'll respond when that routine gets disrupted. But we really felt that this trip had the added bonus of making Cassidy very adaptable. She was forced do things like take her naps in the car (or skip them altogether), delay bedtime by a few hours, eat on one of our laps with whatever food options we had. All things considered, she managed quite well. Of course, now that we're back home, she's settled right back into her routine (which is generally how we like to have it, for her sake and ours!) - but it's nice to know she can easily roll with changes as they come up. In fact, this trip has been a great example to both of us that you just have to force yourself to get out there and enjoy some adventure even if you have kids in tow. It's easy to decide to skip excursions like this because the idea of bringing kids along is a little overwhelming, but in the end we realized that it's worth every bit of energy that we expend - we'll always have great memories from our trip out West.

4th of July Celebration

We just returned from another fun weekend! We spent the past few days in Rockford as we celebrated Cassidy's birthday at Grandma and Grandpa Reder's along with the annual 4th of July party that we always have there. We were so excited to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Tracy and Uncle Steve and Cassie's cousins, Kelsey and Ethan. (We missed you, Burkholder family! We hope you had some great Texas fireworks!) We arrived late on Friday night - before making the drive, we stopped by the 1st annual 4th of July BBQ at the Derry/Kraus household. We loved seeing their beautiful new home and Cassie particularly loved chasing after their dog, Dublin (who kept dodging Cassie out of fear, poor thing - Cassie loves to pull hair these days, no matter whose it is). It was definitely a fun way to kick off the weekend!

It's tradition at the Reder house to have a fireworks display in the front driveway on the 4th. So even though we got in late, we still made it in plenty of time to see this year's event. Ethan helped man the show this time around - lining up the next cardboard tube for Grandpa, Steve or Erik to light. They put together a great finale with shooting lights, pops, and whistles. I thought for sure Cassie would wake up wondering what the heck was going on, but not even a murmur came through on the monitor. I think we tuckered her out that day!

On Saturday, we had fun relaxing by the pool with the family. Grammy & Grandpa Brown even came by for an afternoon visit and dip in the pool. Cassie really loves the water - she is content to be splashing around, or lounging in a baby float, or practicing swimming strokes with her daddy. Grandpa Reder even had her laughing on the huge alligator raft for a while. As long as she's in the water, she's a happy girl.

After a day in the sun, we had a great dinner with some summer salads and chicken on the grill. Dessert was butterfly birthday cake in honor of Miss Cassidy! This time, she stared at the plate in front of her until Aunt Tracy came to the rescue with a baby fork. A fork? It never even occurred to me, I thought babies were supposed to just dig in with their hands and try their darndest to make a mess! Just like last time, she approached the cake very delicately - she preferred to have cake pieces placed onto her fork rather than jumping in with fingers. This time, she nearly polished off her whole piece. That's more like it! (With her last cake, she only managed a few bites!)

Once Sunday arrived, the girls headed out for an afternoon shopping trip while the boys (and Cassie) stayed back for another dip in the pool. We watched the entertaining Wimbledon match as well as the victorious Cubs game - a great day for sports! Surprisingly, the traffic wasn't too bad on our drive back home and we had enough time to pop in a movie before bedtime. It's always nice to relax before another work week begins.

So we've unpacked, and now it's time to pack up again - we leave on Wednesday for a 2-week trip to the Northwest - heading to downtown Seattle, the Olympic Peninsula, and Cannon Beach, Oregon. We'll be visiting with lots of Erik's relatives - some who have yet to meet Cassie - in addition to the Ewers family. We're looking forward to a really fun trip!