Washington Part Three

Yes, yes, these are pics from the third and final part of our Washington trip that we took back in June. I can't have just part of our trip documented in our blog book, so I had to share this trip before 2012 slips any further between my fingers.

While we were in Ellensburg visiting Grammy and Pa, we took a day trip over to Seattle. We usually do a day trip like this, but usually head right into down town Seattle to visit Pike's Market, the Aquarium, etc. This time we changed it up and we're so glad we did. It was so fun to explore something new.

We headed a little further up north to Mukilteo to catch a ferry to go to Whidbey Island... one of my top 10 places I've ever visited. (Don't ask me what the other 9 are... I don't really know. ) But Whidbey Island would have to be on that theoretical list, for sure.

I have gone on ferries before as a child, but it has been a while. And neither Ben nor the boys had gone before so it was super fun for everyone.

(Minus the panicky fear I had about accidentally dropping one of my boys over the edge into the ocean. How demented is that? I don't know where these thoughts come from. It's the same fear I had at the top of the Rockefeller. :)

Our ferry was The Kittitas

And 20 minutes later we were driving off the ferry and onto Whidbey Island to find a grocery store to pick up chicken for a picnic at Double Bluff Beach. Yum!

The weather was PERFECT the whole day for us. Not a drop, and it was warm enough to wade and run around on the beach without jackets. We planned to be at the beach during low tide so it was great for exploring.

The boys had a blast digging their fingers and toes into the wet sand, searching for seashells and trying their darnedest to build a sand castle.

The final product. I think my knees were beautifully exfoliated after helping Lo with his grueling construction job.

I took Lincoln way out in the water and he just bawled his eyes out. Cry baby ;)

He was finally content after going on a seashell hunt with Ben.
(He was so little 6 months ago!)

A little soccer time

Haha - Poor Logan... this what you get with me as your mother.

As we were leaving the beach I saw a sign at the edge of the beach and thought it would be perfect to have a picture of Logan next to the name of the beach we had just visited.... but did I actually read the sign? Nope.

Therefore, here you have a photo of Logan standing on what is clearly a "hazardous bluff".

But just to give myself a little credit, the only reason I laugh about this is because we had just walked up this "hazardous bluff" which was not really hazardous at all, thank you very much.

I could have stayed for another 2 hours at the beach, but we were trying to see as much of the island as we could, so we headed north to see Admiralty Lighthouse. It was a smaller lighthouse, but still fun to explore.

And right next to the lighthouse is Fort Casey which is now just a state park. It is made up of a bunch of really cool bunkers and tunnels and inlets to climb and crawl around in.

This is the same gun as the picture above, except Lo and Ben are on the top ground level. To the right is the bluff and the ocean, and to the left is the fort and a huge lower field open area. The bunkers were all in front of and behind Ben and Lo.

The boys and I are on that same level here as Ben and Logan in the pic above, just further behind them.

Some of the tunnels were sealed up, but lots of them were still open for walking through. The funnest part was going down in one hole and seeing where you would come out.

Here's Ben and Lo going down ...

And a few minutes later they came out over here... See that dark cement in the background of the picture? That's where they went down. Crazy!

There were also lots of paths to walk on to the side of the fort. Here was a sweet little covered pathway that we went on. It reminded me of something out of Anne of Green Gables.

After Fort Casey we decided to go on a long drive to let the boys sleep in the car for a bit and we drove on a scenic road to see this amazing bluff.

We ended driving all the way north to the top of the island where it's connected at Deception Pass bridge.

From there we headed back to catch the ferry, stopping at Coupeville along the way. Once back in Mukilteo we ate at Ivar's before heading back to Ellensburg.

The best part of our excursion? Seeing all new things. The worst? We later found out that we have good friends that actually live in Mukilteo and we didn't even know it. Boo. Sorry Haupts! Next time eh?


After staying in Ellesburg for a couple more days, we drove back to Spokane on our way back to Utah.

This picture exhibits two wonderful things so I had to share:
1.Proof of the value of the dvd player we had installed in the van right before this trip.
2. Proof that little boys and their belief in superheroes is so... (for lack of a better word) Magical? Sweet? Action-packed? Yes.

(We found that Superman for just a few dollars at the Thorpe Antique/Fruit stand. What a gem of a find it was.)

And we just stayed in Spokane for one or two more days.
While there I couldn't resist trying on my wedding dress again. Lucky for me, it actually still fit
(alright, alright... I suppose the honest phrase would be, "I could actually still squeeze into it)".

And Logan had to try on a wedding dress as well. Classy.

And then my sister came over and hopped on into her dress as well. We were a bit giddy at this point. Ha.

Pa J and Linc-o

Flying kites in the field behind the house.

Me and Linc spectating

And a shot of the temple we were married in - isn't it wonderful? Ok... I'm biased.

And just think... in only a short 6 months we'll be back in Washington! Can't wait!