While mom is away...

The kids will still play.
Or not.
Brigg us filling in on the 10u tribe this weekend at state. He has been GIDDY for over a week.
So anxious to play with canon again.
They got there today and games r postponed. Apparently a killer storm is passing thru.
I wouldn't know.
I'm in Dallas.
Possibly laid over for eternity. :)
And it is HOT here.
I prefer the pacific nw weather over this ANY DAY!
Anxious to get home and watch these boys tear it up at state....
(Seriously...they r adorable!)

Washington

Decided Saturday that a last minute trip to Seattle was needed.

Booked a flight for Tuesday.

This how it works with 2 busy friends who live a million miles apart, see eachother once a year and have lots and lots of busy children between the 2 of them.

I left Iowa at 7 pm and arrived in Seattle about midnight (seattle time...so that means 2 am on my internal clock).

The airport was insane and Jody lives quite a distance from the airport.

She pulled up to the curb between the mess of cars and a jumped in.

Conversation went a bit like this

Jody: HI!

Me: HI!

Jody: The airport is a MADHOUSE for midnight on a Tuesday.

Me: Seriously...this is like another country.  It appears you can only fly in once or twice a day.  Midnight is very popular. I cannot believe I haven't seen you in a year.

Jody (looking at me): You look exactly the same.

Me: Yeah...so do you.

Typical conversation.

We got to her house and climbed into bed at 2 am Seattle time.  Yes...4 am on my internal clock

We were on her dock sometime the next morning...

 Looking at this amazing view and paddle boarding and rafting.

We felt like we were 10 years old.

Lots of giggles.

Lots of catching up.

 Suddenly someone yelled from her house, "MOM! We need to go to basketball!"

I looked at Jody and said, "Seriously, you need to get in there.  WHO IS IN YOUR HOUSE? There is a MAN yelling from your window."

Or Dawson.

Apparently 13 year old boys DO change in a year's time.

We got the kids where they needed to be a decided to "hike" The Dungeness Spit.

We started here...

 Came across several of these along the way...

 Stopped for a couple timed photos, none of which turned out fabulous...

 My favorite part of this area is all the landscapes in one place.

Mountains, ocean, beach, evergreens.

I absolutely love it...

 And how can you not love this gorgeous drive on a sunny day?!?

Amazing views everywhere.

I was in awe all day long.

We found a super cute bistro on our way home.

We sat in a garden and giggled some more.

I drank organic beer.

And Jody tried to capture a bumble bee on camera for me.

Fun times.

Never to be replicated.

Remembered forever.

Love being in this amazing place with this amazing person.

We are "doing" Seattle today.

:)

And I leave in the morning.

Ugh.

A year is much much to long....

Day 4 - Kayaking at Burback Family Beach

it was decided that today would be a day of kayaking/relax on the burback family beach day.

whoever decided this was GENIUS.

we simply plopped down in lounge chairs in our back"yard" and chilled.

all.day.long

 we had all the kayaks out and ready to go.

different people would go at different times.

 ayla...my flower child. :)

 wow...that is a lot of kayaks.

 at one point becky said "hey cas...what time is it? i'm guessing 3:00."

nope.

5:30.

we hadn't even considered supper.

so we cleaned out the fridge.

paul started a fire and we roasted the rest of the hot dogs.

seriously.

best.day.ever.

so relaxing.

great conversation.

laughter galore.

everyone just gelling perfectly.

i wouldn't change a thing about today.

and i'm going to avoid mentioning that tomorrow is our last full day.

ugh.

we are renting a pontoon tomorrow.

stay tuned.

could get interesting in the U.P.

Day 3 - Au Sable lighthouse

we found our way to a closer path to the light house and took off.

we are quite the crew on these hikes.

too funny...

 it was still very cold...but gorgeous.

the lake seriously could have been confused with the ocean.

look at those WAVES...

 the hike was 1.6 miles in.

when the light house came into sight, the kids started sprinting towards it.

the blue skies and green trees were almost too much...

 and then we saw the light house.

pretty.

we thought we were going to get to tour.

um...nope. they weren't open.

 i had to post this photo.

lani did this and yelled "hey mom! does it look like i'm holding up the light house?"

ha! no...not so much, lani.  but i LOVE you!

 the kids were pretty bummed about the light house tour kabosh.

so we continued on the path a little ways and decided, once again, it is best to blaze your own trail.

 and thank goodness we did.

because we found the most beautiful beach in michigan.

i am CERTAIN of it.

 this beach called for another family photo session.

and more of my favorite pics from this trip.

 we stayed there for quite some time...until the baby informed us it was time to GO.

on our way back to the car, i saw this sign...

 right.

would have been nice to know a couple days ago.

but thanks.

we decided it had been a long, chilly day and we all needed a night at home to relax.

and that we did. 

we set up shop in our back yard...forever known as the Burback Family Beach.

paul and i sat there and listened to the kids playing and laughing for hours.

we ate supper outside.

soaked it all up.

because heaven knows reality is going to set in SOON.

day 3 was another great day.

i can't tell you the feel this vacation has.

so thankful.

feeling so refreshed.

Day 3 - The Log Slide

so day three was COLD.

like 50 degrees cold.

we decided it would be a good day to travel to a lighthouse that was 40 miles away.

our first stop was the log slide.

and these two were adorable...

the kids marched right up this sand dune, yelling from the top that they wanted to slide down the other side.  they thought it looked fun.  we considered it.  we walked up to look over.

once at the top we realized you really couldn't see where it went.  so we decided against it.  someone had said it takes seconds to slide down but hours to climb up.  we thought they were exaggerating, but used our better judgement and decided not to allow it.

we then read this sign.  in short...don't slide down. resue is difficult and may take a long time because of the location.  the last line is the best...DON'T BECOME A STATISTIC.
we started laughing and they children wanted to know exactly what a statistic was.

we told them  to come down...we weren't going to become a number and we headed down the path to walk to the lighthouse.

the baby was super excited about it all...

 we came to another lookout where we could see what was actually on the other side of the log slide.  the actual "slide" that we considered letting the kids slide down.  oh my goodness.  we laughed HARD at this.  seriously...this could have been the day trip nightmare.  thank goodness we said no! pretty sure our crew would have needed rescuing!

this was also the point where we realized the lighthouse was 3 miles in.
6 miles round trip.
yeah...we got in our car and drove a little closer before we started that hike. :)

And the sun sets on Day 2

We took the party to the Dirks' house on Day 2.

It was more laughter.

A gorgeous sunset.

S'mores.

Wine.

And a little bit of Benedryl for Becky! :)

the photo above is my favorite so far...totally captures the feel of the whole trip. love it!

I think about the kids looking at these photos in the future and laugh.

Brigg is going to die looking at himself.

Those socks and skinny legs and arms.

That necklace thing.

It will be funny.

Day 3 to come....it was a GOOD one. :)

More Day 2 - Memorial Falls

After leaving Miner Falls, we decided to hit up another waterfall.  Why not?

We are on VACAY! Nothing else to do!

What...your legs itch, Becky and the kids are tired?

Sorry! SUCK IT UP! ;)

Another drive and short hike later...we found ourselves here...

 I must say...pretty proud of Brigg.  He set the timer a LONG ways away and ran to be in the photo.  One shot.  Turned out pretty good.  The whole crew.  Becky has some great pics on her blog as well.  Check them out HERE.