September Happenings

 I can't believe September is already over! It has gone by so fast and it has been busy. With our weekend getaways, I have volleyball and mutual every week, school functions, and other church things, it seems like every week is busy and a lot of evenings I am gone. Nate has been a champ with it all after being tired from work and watching the girls while I go and get everything done I need to in the evenings. 

Labor day was beautiful. It was nice to have everyone home for the three day weekend. On Monday we went to the annual Black Diamond Parade and then we went to Flaming Geyser State Park with Dale and Margaret for a little hike and picnic.

Trees and undergrowth like this is why I love living where I do. There are so many hikes around here that are just so pretty and I love, love all the green.

These two are always up for an adventure!

 We have had a couple of good thunderstorms this month but there was one that was so incredible. It was lightning strikes every couple of minutes and loud thunder. We turned off all the lights and just sat by the windows and watched in awe. Baylor, who is always on the move, sat in front right at the window with her blanket for a good 30 minutes just observing. It was pretty amazing to watch!

 September has been all about getting into a routine after summer break. After getting everyone ready and Paige to school, it is just Baylor and I and I love it. She is silly and fun and does pretty good about playing on her own if I am doing something. On Mondays we usually go to the library for their story time. On Tuesday I like to clean up the house. Baylor gets her play vacuum and plays around while I vacuum the house. Sometime during the week we go grocery shopping which she is getting better at staying in the cart as long as she is eating a snack. She takes a nap in the afternoon and that is when I get some other cleaning done, read my scriptures and Come Follow Me, get stuff done on the computer, prep dinner if needed, or watch a show that I want to catch up on. Baylor right now loves to have books read to her especially the books with animals. Another thing she loves is look out the windows at the garbage truck and mail car. She really loves the garbage truck and if she hears it she gets excited and runs to the window and watches him get everyone's garbage. She loves any big truck and the buses at school. I also love that when I leave or when Nate gets home from work you can count on Paige and Baylor waving to you at the window and blowing you kisses. It is the sweetest thing ever!

Baylor is so full of fun and mischief. She has the cutest cheesy grin with the little gap in her teeth. She is also at the stage where she loves accessories. She loves wearing Paige's shoes, wearing backpacks or holding her purse, carrying around a baby doll, and she absolutely loves sunglasses. She loves her nails painted and wearing bracelets.

 Whenever I am making anything in the kitchen, Baylor will push a chair over and try to help. Sometimes she is too much help but she does love to mix anything and try anything I make. The other day I made some nachos and I was mixing the sour cream with a little bit of milk and she loved to stir and then got her own spoon and was eating spoonfuls of it. Then once I put the cheese on, she kept snitching the cheese and toppings. She is constantly messy with food and just eats by the handful. Also if you look close at these pictures you can see pen all over her arms. This is also a constant of catching her drawing all over herself with whatever she can find. 

Paige is her oh so sweet self. I miss her while she is at school. I love her creativeness and just how she sees the world. I love finding cute pictures and videos that she has taken on my phone. She is doing awesome in school and her teacher sent her a post card in the mail last week telling us how great of a student she is.

Some crafts that she did. Oftentimes after I leave her room at night time she gets to stay up for a little bit and she usually crafts and creates. She truly can create anything she wants.

 This past Saturday we decorated the house with the small amount of Halloween decorations that we have. Paige loves to decorate the house and Baylor likes to destroy whatever we were trying to decorate. It took creative planning and putting things out of Baylor's reach.

Another advantage of the big windows in the front of the house is that we get a great view of all the gorgeous sunsets. Pictures never do sunsets justice but there has been some pretty amazing ones that last few weeks.

Last night Paige played school with me. She has the most amazing mind and can remember so many things from school. On the computer she created three different areas in school for me to learn. We did a science one on flowers where we discussed different flowers and their properties (her words not mine.) Then we did three different math problems where we used three different strategies to solve the problems. Last was a writing assignment where she told me the different parts of a complete sentence- she typed it all out for me to see (starts with a capital letter and ends with a period, finger space between words, and it makes sense). We corrected bad examples and wrote good examples. Like I said, she is pretty amazing with remembering all of this stuff and being able to create her own ones on the computer for me to do. Last we did a family art project that she came up with. She said they did it last year at school so we painted autumn trees with Q-tips. 

 September was a pretty great month! We did lots of fun activities as a family and enjoyed the small moments of life together. Each month brings new adventures and more fun times and memories made!

Anderson Island

Last weekend we were able to get away to Anderson Island. Margaret and Dale rented a place on the Island and invited us to join them Friday and Saturday. We loved every minute of it and it was such a gorgeous place!

Friday we headed down to the Steilacoom right after Nate was done working. The ferry there goes to Anderson Island, which is in the Puget Sound off from Tacoma. We were there extra early since we were worried about getting on with the big gaps between the ferry times. Since there was no one in line yet there was a park right by it and we stopped and played there for about 45 minutes before getting our place in line for the ferry.

We had to wait in line for awhile so Baylor stayed in the car with Dad and loved climbing around the car and waving to puppies as they walked by. Paige and I walked down to the water and looked at some of the boats and some fish in the water. We then ate a quick picnic in the car before getting onto the ferry.

Ferry ride over to Anderson Island. It was such a pretty day and the views were incredible!

Our house for the two days. It was such a perfect setting. It was in its own little bay and the view of the water was so pretty. It had lots of space to explore and we spent most of the time outside enjoying the water and the view. 

Paige and Nate first went out on their own little row boat. It was cute to watch them. Paige definitely has the love of exploring the little things around her from her dad. She enjoys the little things and came home with a bag full of rocks and shells.

Then it was nap time for Baylor. I put her down before heading out for some more exploring and water fun.

There were swings all over the property. One up the hill a bit, one off a fruit tree, and two hanging with a view of the water. 

Then Nate and Paige went out on the row boat again and Paige caught her very first fish. She was pretty excited about it and we all thought it was pretty cool. I went out paddle boarding. I went on my knees for awhile until I got brave enough to stand up. It freaked me out a little being that close to the ocean water and every once in awhile you could see a harbor seal pop up and I didn't want one anywhere close to me while I was standing on a paddle board or I definitely would have ended up in the water. 

That evening after dinner we went on a walk to go see a chimney of an old homestead that used to be there 100 years ago. It was a really pretty hike and very green and lush.

We got back in time for the sunset and some smores  before heading to bed. Baylor slept horribly since she was sharing a room with us and was not used to that. She was in our bed for a long time and we are so not co-sleepers and she was so wiggly and I couldn't sleep with her in our bed and she kept poking Nate's eyes and nose. Three times I thought she was asleep and would go to put her in the pack and play and she would start to cry so it was starting all over again. She finally decided she wanted the space of being in her own bed and we all finally got a little sleep.

 The next day, Christy, Lylia, and Matt came to stay for Saturday and Sunday. We stayed until late on Saturday so it was fun to spend time with them and spend the rest of the day exploring the island. A little after lunch we went to this historic lot with some older building, an old apple press, a small museum from things from the island, and lots of pretty gardens. They have farmer markets there during the summer and it was fun to walk around and explore.

 We found an apple tree there and we got to pick quite a few apples from it and they were so delicious. 

We then went to a lake that is also on the island. Lucky people that live there- lake and ocean water exploring all on one small island. They had this fun public park on the lake that had a sand volleyball area and some fun swimming areas for kids. 

 Then a little more ocean fun and boating before we had to leave for home. 

 Paige caught another fish and I was there to witness that one and it was pretty exciting when that fishing line started to move. 

 Then Nate and I went out on the canoe and went out a little further into the ocean. It was so very peaceful but also makes you realize how small you really are on this Earth.

We caught the ferry back home while the sun was going down and it got dark while we were riding the ferry. It was another incredible view of the water and all the city lights on the coastline.

 It was such a fun little getaway for our family and we are so lucky to live where we do that we get to enjoy such amazing adventures so close to us.

Anniversary Getaway

 On the 13th and 14th, Nate and I took our 10 year anniversary getaway to Long Beach, WA. It was our first ever overnight stay away from both of the girls. We were worried about the weather since it said it was suppose to rain the entire weekend and we knew on the beach it was bound to be much colder. It rained almost our entire trip down and started raining again when we left. We were so grateful for the no rain while we were there and enjoyed every minute of our short stay on the beach.

I got this cute place on Airbnb. Our little one room is where those two French doors are. It was a perfect little place for just the two of us. It was small and quaint and I loved it.

Once we unloaded our stuff we walked to the beach. Our little house was just a couple of blocks from the beach and it was a beautiful setting.

After you got passed a couple of driveways you got to this grass area and you could hear and smell the ocean. It was exciting since you couldn't quite see the water until you got up a small hill.

 Then there it was- the Pacific Ocean! It was so gorgeous. The weather was perfect and there was hardly any wind. We pretty much had the beach to ourselves. We just walked up and down and put our feet in the water and it felt so good to walk around and feel the sand beneath our feet. The entire evening when we were out on the beach was so soul soothing and Nate and I both loved every minute of it.

I'm so lucky to have Nate in my life! He is the best husband a girl could ask for. He is so supportive and lets me shine. He is my sounding board and always knows what to say when I am feeling down or worried. He is always up for going on all the adventures I plan out even if some of the logistics aren't perfect. He is one amazing dad and often times I feel like he is a better parent than I am. He is understanding and loves me and our girls fiercely. 

One cute selfie of us and then the other one a wave surprised us from behind and came up a lot further than all the previous waves.

We then went into town. Long Beach is a very cute, small tourist town. It has a lot of fun attractions that we could have walked around more if we had more time. We ate at Hungry Harbor and we both enjoyed our burgers and then right next to it there was Marsh's Free Museum. It was a curiosity shop along with a gift shop and was fun to walk around and explore. Then we went back to Hungry Harbor for some twist ice cream cones before heading back so we could watch the sunset on the beach.

 The sunset was gorgeous. It was so peaceful to just sit out there and watch and listen to the waves.

We walked back home and video chatted with the girls before it was time for them to go to bed. In the evening we played some card games which was fun since we hadn't done that in awhile and then went to bed. The next morning we got to sleep in and I had packed some things for breakfast before we had to check out. Then we drove to Cape Disappointment to spend the rest of our time there. There are two lighthouses there that we walked around and a few other hikes down to the beach that we also went on. There were lots and lots of boats out fishing which was pretty cool to also see. It was a day filled with enjoying this beautiful world we live in.

 We had a picnic and then walked down to this beach to sit and watch the waves for awhile. There were some boogie boarders and also some fishermen fishing off the coast. One of them even caught a seagull which was pretty entertaining to watch. The seagull must have been going for the fish that he caught but also got caught itself. The fisherman had to wrangle with it for awhile since the seagull was trying to fly away. He finally got reeled in and the fisherman grabbed him and threw him back in the air and the bird flew off. 

 Our last stop before heading home was back to Long Beach. I wanted to go see the boardwalk right on the ocean they have. Then Nate decided that he wanted to drive on the beach and we ended up getting stuck. Our front wheels just dug right down into the sand. We are supposed to have four wheel drive in the car and that is why Nate drove onto the sand but I guess it doesn't work. It ended up taking six guys pushing us to get out. It was a great memorable moment to end our memorable trip.