Wallace Falls State Park

Here we go again. Another hike to check off our list. This one was important for Summer and Mason as they knew that if they proved to us they could handle this one, they would earn their own kids hiking backpack.

Wallace Falls Trail

Lower Falls & Picnic Shelter: 1.8 miles

Viewpoint for the Middle Falls: 2.2 miles (climb of close to 1000 feet)

The plan for this trip was to hit the lower falls and picnic shelter, have a light lunch and then continue to the viewpoint of the middle falls as long as the kids were doing well. I didn't feel like bringing my good camera on this hike so all pictures were done through our phone cameras.

Setting off on hike #2

Summer crossing the bridge.

Me & my girls!

Made it to the Lower Falls.

The shelter area here was pretty full so we set out a blanket we brought and had our picnic. This was nice so we could lighten the load in our backpacks :) After having a mini rest stop to eat and sit, we decided to go that last 0.4 miles or so to the middle falls.

Middle Falls

Such beautiful sights and I could've sat and watched the waterfall for awhile but the kiddos were ready to head back down. So off we went and as we got closer to the end of our trail, we came back upon the stream that we told the kids they could go in on the way back. This is the kind of stuff the kids look forward to!

Summer always has a crazy pose ready for me :) 

It was a warm day so they dipped their heads in to cool off!

We had a great time on this hike and it pretty much wiped the little ones out. Here is what I saw in the van as I turned my head a short time into our drive back home. . . . . 

4th of July

The last couple of years we have celebrated the Fourth of July with our good friends, the Sanders family. In fact, one of the first things Summer asked us when we first talked about moving was if we would still be able to have the Sanders family over on the 4th of July. This made me very sad :( Hopefully we will be able to visit many of our friends in Illinois again as we miss all of them.

Thursday, July 3

This year the kids and I started things early and drove to the Seattle Aquarium on Thursday. There are so many things they'd like to do in Seattle, but this was one they could all agree on and it was very easy to get to.

This octopus was very active while we were there.

Kids look tiny compared to this shark!

Our favorite! Watching the sea lions.

Friday, July 4

Started out our day relaxing in the morning and then heading to Bothell for the big parade.

Anxiously awaiting for the parade to start.

Once the parade was over, we stopped back at our place to repack what we wanted to head over to the concert in the park celebration where there would be music, wine/beer garden and food. We were able to just hop on the trail behind our apartments and walk to it since the park area is not even a full 1/2 mile away.

Selfie in the wine garden area :)

Concert in the park

Our warrior kids!

It was such a warm day that the kids and Sean hit the pool after we finished up in the park. It's almost a daily occurrence for the kids now that we have access to two of them in our apartment complex. And when Sean is with them, there are always flying kids! Check out the video below :)

And then it was finally time for fireworks! It was a little chilly by the time evening rolled around so we had on sweatshirts and brought blankets to cuddle in.

Stay tuned as the next post will be on our second hike we took to check out some waterfalls nearby.

Big Four Ice Caves Hike

One of the first things we did the first weekend here was hit the REI store to get a few hiking backpacks. We plan on doing a lot of hiking as a family and wanted to start investing in things that we'll use a lot. Summer and Mason wanted their own, but we told them they had to first prove to us that they could handle doing a few hikes first :)

We made our way to Mountain Loop Highway and Sean decided to take us on the Big Four Ice Caves trail. It was a great kid-friendly trail that was only 2.2 miles round trip. Perfect starter trail for the kiddos.

Fun in the parking lot area!

Entrance to our trail :)

Not long after we got started we see this sign . . . .

If you can't read the sign, it says "Avalanche Danger! For your safety, do not go near the base of the mountain."

We took some pictures along our way to the ice caves. The kids enjoyed all of it.

Crossing a stream. 

The stream.

Lots of tall trees & wreckage of avalanches.

Avalanche zone time.

And we are getting closer :)

Kids checking out the stream water. I guess it was really cold!

After crossing the bridge in the picture above, we finally hit the ice cave area that we wanted to see. The kids thought it was pretty cool. The closer you got to it, the colder it was. Even Noah wished he had a jacket.

Standing right in front of the ice cave (very cold there!)

Look close. The family is still in front of the cave, but
 this photo captured more of the size of the cave.

Kids playing in the snow a little.

After freezing our tails off in front of the cave, we walked across the way and let the kids have a quick snack so no one would get grumpy on the way back :)

Then I snapped a few shots of them running around and enjoying nature and our surroundings.

Mason following his big brother, Noah!

Summer running to catch up with the boys.

Pretty!

We had driven about 50 minutes to get to the trailhead for this trail and it's always nice to hear the kids say it was worth the drive. Although 50 minutes isn't too far to go, just remember that these kids just completed 30+ hours in a van the weekend before and just didn't want to get in the van to do anything!

And to finish off the day, some nice couple offered to take a picture of our family. What a great way to start off our time here in WA!

Road Trip: IL to WA

Finally getting to my road trip post! I'll start it off by saying that Sean and I greatly appreciated the army of friends that turned out Tuesday night (June 17) to help load the truck.  We got most of the big stuff on the ABF truck and then we finished things up on Wednesday. If any of that crew makes it up here to Seattle area, we have your beer tab covered.  :)  We finished off the evening by watching Madison's final softball game in Normal. She started off a little slow, but finished on a great note!

That's my girl pitching :)

Top: Purple Thunder Team
Bottom: Madison & her friend Molly

Normal, IL to Manning, IA

Thursday, June 20 we set off on our journey. We started our trip off at 7AM mass and Monsignor Powell gave us a traveler's blessing during mass. It was definitely sad to say goodbye to Epiphany, but fitting that the first person to welcome us to Epiphany was also there to send us away with a blessing.  We'll definitely miss Monsignor Powell, as well as the entire Epiphany community.

One last picture in front of Epiphany Catholic Church

We arrived at my mom's house mid afternoon and dropped off our bags and gave Marley a little love (my mom has been taking care of him for us). From there we headed to my brother Rodney's house for one last family get together before we headed to the Pacific NW.

Snapshots from our farewell party w/family

Manning, IA to Gillette, WY

Friday, June 21: This was our first big day of driving. We were out of the house before 7 and Mount Rushmore was on the agenda for the day. Along the way we thought we'd take a family selfie in the van as we've seen so many do.

A few hours into the drive we picked up disposable cameras for the kids to take their own pictures along the way. Note to self: never hand a camera to a child until you want them to be able to take pictures or they just snap, snap, snap, snap! And before you know it they only have a few shots left for when they really have something they want to take a picture of.

Mason w/his new hat & his camera

Family picture at Mount Rushmore

Gillette, WY to Butte, MT

Saturday, June 22: It was another day where we expected to be in the van for too many hours with the kids, but we managed. We didn't do our original plan of heading to Glacier National Park since the Road to the Sun was still not cleared of snow for the summertime, so we went to Plan B. Sean found out about Beartooth Highway after doing some research the night before so we decided to take that route through the Beartooth mountains. It was BEAUTIFUL!!!

On our way up

On our way down

These are a few pictures we took, but none of them seem to do it any justice for how beautiful it was. So glad we got to experience it. The kids' favorite part was the snow! They loved getting up high and being able to jump out of the van and onto the snow to run around for awhile.

The only way to get back on track to our route to WA was to go through Yellowstone National Park. We will definitely be making a trip back there when we can stay for an extended amount of time!

Butte, MT to Woodinville, WA 

Nothing too exciting about our drive this day as that is basically what we did. We drove and drove and drove. We did stop at a pretty great restaurant for brunch, though. It was called Susie's Home Cooking and was located in Couer 'd Alene, ID. As you can see, Madison enjoyed the place :)

Yes, both those plates of food were for her. She
couldn't finish them herself though. 

As we were getting a little closer, we stopped at a scenic pullout to take a look at the Columbia River Gorge. And as you can see in one of the pictures, Mason decided to let loose a little energy and ran along a path for awhile :)

After the Columbia River, we climbed up and over the Snoqualmie Pass and then dropped into the Seattle area, finally.  It was fun to be on the road seeing so many beautiful sites, but we were definitely ready to be out of the van and "settled" in our new home. This was 3 weeks ago, but seems like forever ago.  Ever since we've been moved in, we have been drinking in all that Washington can provide as far as hiking, beaches, wine, beer, aquariums and zoos.  We'll include pictures from those in the coming weeks as time allows.