Lake Whatcom
We were introduced to a new a new park up in Bellingham this summer! The girls played ALL day in the water with friends and I got to hang out with my friends on the shore!
Mommy and Me Camp
July 17-20 was our annual Mommy and Me Camp at Deception Pass. We had such a great time and our theme this year was “WEIRD”. We had great weather and fun times on the sandy beach of the lake and playing in the waves in the ocean.
We did crafts…like make these cute t-shirts. They said “I ‘heart’ being weird”.
The girls even helped do the dishes this year!
Here is the beginning of hole digging.
I built us a fire a couple nights. This is our new favorite campfire treat…”Wacky Taffies”. They are melted caramels between two Ritz crackers. We like these WAY better than smores!
We also made Banana Boats one night…bananas cooked in the fire with chocolate chips and marshmallows!
We took walks in the morning down to the beach.
And played in the sand and water in the afternoon. Here is the final HUGE hole that Kelby dug...Tegan had one too. They are dedicated to their holes!
Amazing Race – Hike #4
We are still happily enjoying our “Amazing Race” hikes. The girls have taken the challenge each time and have been rewarded with a beautiful view and feeling great about accomplishing the challenge. This hike was out along the water on a steep bluff…so beautiful. We really have a ton of great places around here that I didn’t even realize were out there! This hike was 4.5 miles long.
Youth Mariners Game
The church youth group went a Mariners game and I got called upon to be a driver! I enjoyed watching the kids watch the game and eating stadium garlic fries!
The girls have spent plenty of time out in the yard swimming and here is a cute picture Mike caught of them on the trampoline…their other favorite spot.
Amazing Race – Hike #5
This hike was very challenging, but totally worth it! It was 6.6 miles with a 1500 ft elevation gain. We made the hike up fine, but spent about 45 minutes searching for the treasure box. It was tricky, but we finally found it…way down in a hidden cave. There were waterfalls cascading down these mountains.
Great Camping Vacation – Glacier National Park and Silverwood Theme Park
This year our camping vacation took us out to northern Montana and Idaho. We had thought about going to Disneyland in September, but the girls said they’d rather go to Silverwood...cheaper and closer...a no brainer! They love the water!
Our first two nights were at a $6 per night campground near Superior, MT. We were in the middle of no where, but we loved it there.
Mike was looking for fishing and the camp host gave us some trails to hike. This one was only a .5 mile hike to a little mountain lake. It was so fun and beautiful. The kids swam, I read, and Mike fished!
Kelby tried her hand at fishing too with her new fly rod and even tied a fly with dad.
It seems that Anika likes to steal the camera and be a clown!
On Sunday morning of our trip, we packed up and headed north to Glaicer. Our first evening we stopped at these falls and then drove the “Going to the Sun” road to the top.
We reached the top as the sun was setting and saw some adorable mountain goats with babies!
One of these little goats got lost from it’s momma and ran crying over the mountain sides. It was the most adorable little thing and saddest things I’ve seen!
The next day went back in for a full day at the park…after the sign picture we always have to take.
We went on a 4 mile hike in the morning to Avalanche Lake. Note the beware of bear and mountain lion signs! No worries, we didn’t see any.
The hike was nice and the girls are excellent hikers now.
The view was beautiful…with waterfalls cascading down the mountains. It was a little bit like our last “Amazing Race” hike, but even bigger!
A friendly passing hiker offered to take our family photo!
After finding a cool pool of water to play in and fish for awhile in the afternoon, we drove up the “Going to the Sun” road again near dusk.
This time we found the daddy mountain goat.
We decided take a 3 mile hike out to “Hidden Lake Overlook” that evening. It looked like it would be just over the rise…but then it there was another rise, and another. We hiked over snow patches and got nervous that it would get too dark, but the view when we arrived was amazing!
This hike was my favorite! Mike got this panoramic shot. It was so beautiful!
The next day we packed up the trailer once again, but before leaving town, we stopped in the Discovery Cabin so Tegan and Anika could become “Junior Rangers”.
We did one last hike on Johns Lake loop that wasn’t very spectacular…we’ll need to get book about hikes in Glacier next time! (and there will be a next time.) Then we were off heading back to Idaho. We made one last stop for a Huckleberry milkshake and saw our first bear of Glacier.
We did not have reservations for any campground for the next two days of our stay in Idaho, so we were kind of just hoping we’d stumble on something. After a couple wild goose chases, we found a “Travel America” right behind a gas station. It wasn’t full and was very quite. It was also quite cheap, so we were pretty excited. We slept better there than at the KOA at Glacier. This one was only 25 minutes from Silverwood, so it made a great basecamp!
The next day we set off for Silverwood. We started off the day riding rollercoasters. I went on Aftershock which I had refused to go on last year…and loved it! I kept my eyes closed the WHOLE time, but it was fun! After a couple more rides, we went and spent almost the rest of the day in the waterpark in the wave pool. Everyone was so happy there! I didn’t take many pictures because I didn’t want to have to worry about my camera, so I put it in the locker.
Here’s me…a happy camper there next morning. I love our little tent trailer. It makes these types of trips so much easier for me! We didn’t have to hurry up in the morning too much, but we did get the camper packed up and took it with us to Silverwood this time.
Here are a few more pictures the next day. I made sure to take some before putting away my camera! See how much fun we had!
That’s Anika doing hand stands in the water.
Yummy ice creams!
I love the Lazy River ride!
The water park closes at 7 pm, but we pooped out there by 6 pm the second night…finally had too much sun and water. So, we spent the rest of the evening on some crazy rides.
That night we had a spot reserved at a state park in Idaho only 8 miles away from Silverwood. It is hard to get a spot there, but it was a neat spot and would be totally worth staying there again sometime if I plan earlier in the summer. We were abpel to sleep great there. We are not big fans of noisy folks at campgrounds…so it is always a risk! The next morning we explored the state park for a bit before heading off toward home.
In hopes of avoiding Seattle traffic we took a back way home on hwy 20 through Wintrop. It took us to Grand Coulee Dam where Mike and I went on our very first anniversary! We stopped to take a picture and luckily I bent down to let the water out of our tank so it wouldn’t weigh us down over the pass…
And this is what I saw! Wow…are we glad that it didn’t blow out while we were on the road. We were so thankful that we didn’t even complain about the short detour to get new tires on the trailer. It was amazing that we just happened to be in a town and only one mile from a Les Schwab tire store. The road from there out was pretty empty with no cell service, so thank you, Lord, for protecting us from a disaster that could have spoiled our trip!
So, we made it home safety Friday night and had an easy going rest of our weekend. Now we have two more weeks of regular summer before Mike and I get to go to San Francisco for a week! I am looking forward to that. I better do all the back-to-school shopping this week. I think we’ll be doing our annual “Skat Bus” adventure day on Tuesday. We are having fun and doing great!
Love you all!
Shawna
