Author: Faith

Olympic Game Park

While we were visiting my parents we drove to Sequim (skwɪm), WA. It’s located in the rainshadow of the Olympic mountains so it receives very little rain in comparison to the rest of western Washington.

The climate is excellent for growing things and when we’ve visited before we’ve picked raspberries and wandered around the lavender farms but this time we had one mission and one mission only: to go to Olympic Game Farm.

We’ve been there before but E was tiny at the time and slept through the whole thing.  I knew he and Mimi would love it this time around and they  had a blast feeding the deer/yaks/buffalo bread from the car windows.

The thing that most impressed me this time around was the smell of buffalo drool.  It was quite memorable 🙂

There are some pictures from our previous visit here.

Ahoy!

The kids and I stayed with my SIL and BIL Mindy and Ken and their kids for a few days last week.  They live north of Seattle and while we were there we took the kids to ride the ferry.

There’s a ferry terminal near their house so the outing was very simple.  We parked the car, walked on the ferry and enjoyed the 20-minute trip to the other side of the sound. 


E and Mimi both got a kick out of standing on deck and being out in the wind.  It was remarkably windy–Mimi would wrap her fingers through the grills on the railing and laugh and laugh as she was almost blown off her feet.

When the ferry docked at Kingston, the little town on the other side of the sound, we all got scoops of gelato/sorbet.  And then we caught the next ferry back.


It was a lovely little trip.

Arches National Park

Last week N and I decided on the spur of the moment that it would be fun to take the kids down to Moab. Neither of us had been before and it’s only about a 4-hour drive from our house.  So on Friday N took the day off from work and we drove down.

Despite our best intentions, it was after two in the afternoon before we got on the road (I know!) so it was already the kids’ bedtime by the time we got into our hotel.  But since it was a special occasion I took E to paddle around the hotel pool while N put Mimi to bed.

After E and I got back from the pool Mimi was still super jazzed about our little adventure and amiably refusing to go to sleep.  N and I took turns trying to get her to lie down in her portable crib and she kept crying every time we put her down.  We couldn’t let her cry since it would have bothered the other guests so we did this up-and-down-and-rock-and-shoosh dance with her until after ten when she finally conked out.

The next day we drove into Arches National Park to look around and do some hiking.  The scenery was otherworldly and magical.  The kids were troopers: E held his own on the hikes and Mimi chilled in the baby carrier.

After a late lunch we got back on the road and made it home in time to give the kids a much-needed bath and put them to bed at their normal bedtimes–success!

It really was a nice trip.  The drive wasn’t bad at all and Arches is amazing with lots of kid-friendly hikes.  I’ve love to visit again.

E’s new favorite song

So lately this Erasure song is E’s favorite thing ever.

The whole thing started with E playing a game on my iPhone that uses the song as background music. Then N showed E the music video. Warrior monks and magic gardens and evil demons to be vanquished?  That’s right up E’s alley.

So for the past week E has been asking to watch the “Always” video at least a few times a day. And being as how E is a quick study when it comes to learning songs, N and I get treated to performances like this one.

The little hand thing he does at 0:13 cracks me up every time.  I love this guy so much.

Hill Aerospace Museum

On Saturday we took the kids to the Hill Air Force Base Aerospace Museum.  My dad is retired Air Force and I have fond memories of going to air museums and air shows on base when I was a kid.  I knew that E would love looking at the airplanes.

E went nuts for the planes.  The museum has about fifteen planes / helicopters parked outside but it also has two big hangers with more planes and displays inside.  I especially liked the display of WWII pilot helmets.  It was interesting and a fun sort of creepy with all the disembodied mannequin heads.

The museum is just outside the base gates and is open 7 days a week from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm.  Everyone is welcome.  Best of all, it’s free!  (Donations accepted.)

There’s a gift shop but not a snack bar.  However, there are several tables outside so you can bring your own lunch and have a picnic underneath the wings of one of the planes.

If you’re planning on visiting, I would keep the weather in mind.  It was HOT on Saturday and while it wasn’t so bad when we were outside with the breeze, the hangers were pretty stuffy.  It must be difficult/costly to fully air condition such large spaces and by the time we were finished looking at everything we were all pretty sweaty.

The museum is in Roy, so it’s a little over an hour’s drive from our house.  On the way up we stopped for lunch at a new-to-us restaurant, Oh Mai.  They serve bánh mì and other Vietnamese-style sandwiches.  It was really good!  N and I got a few different types of sandwiches and shared them.  They even have a Korean-style rib sandwich with kimchi on it.  Yum!

Our Fourth

It wasn’t all out-of-control fires and mandatory evacuations around here this week: N and I got to see The Beach Boys in concert!

For our anniversary back in May I gave N tickets to Stadium of Fire, this big concert/fireworks show they put on every year in BYU’s football stadium. There were a few musical acts, including one of the American Idol winners (Scotty something) but they reason we went was to see the Beach Boys.  N is a big fan and I think they’re great too.

When I was a teenager I kept the radio in my car set on the oldies station and so it was incredible to actually see and hear them play all these songs that have been ingrained in my brain for so long.  A few of band looked a little frail, especially Brian Wilson, but they sounded amazing.

As part of our pre-concert festivities N’s mom helped E make a flag cake: 

It was awesome.