camping in Darrington

We had a wonderful time on our four day camping trip to Darringon last weekend. My friend owns property that backs up to a campground so we had the perfect spot. Dense, lush forest, two acres fenced so dog and kids can run wild, river on the property and a five minute walk to the bathrooms and water at the campground next door. It was Elliott's first camping trip, and Oliver's first in two years (we didn't go last year since Elliott wasn't walking yet) and the boys couldn't have been more excited! One of their favorite things was "trying" to fall asleep with their daddy in the tent. Two naked boys running around wild in the tent, with Nick laying in there with them lead to many hours of roughhousing and not so many hours of sleeping. I'm pretty sure they are still catching up on lack of sleep. We went on two beautiful hikes and Nick and I each wore a kid when they got tired so we could actually hike some as well. Oliver tried fishing for the first time and didn't seem too disappointed that the trout weren't interested in the piece of hot dog we put on the hook (didn't have bait).

The only downside to the trip was the amount of mosquitoes and bites I received. I came home with over 100 bites (not joking!) so before we go back next weekend, we have some serious mosquito bite prevention research to do. In researching mosquitoes Nick discovered that 10% of the population produces a pheromone that mosquitoes love, and I apparently fall into that 10%. How did I get so lucky?

Anyway, here are some of the pictures from our trip:

nap attempt, cuddling accomplished

all the hiking and swimming wore Miss P out

boy with a stick

relaxing

fire time

the boys built a teeny tiny fire, probably 10" in diameter

on a mission with the shovel

exploring

looking cool!

hiking in the river bed

attempt #2 at fishing

she loved the water!

the river

feet in the river

playing with dirt

boy in the water

Oliver's funny faces

playing fetch

always trying to escape through the fence

beautiful hike to Boulder Falls

mixing mud

family photo attempt

cutest hikers ever!

day out with Thomas the train

We had a wonderful time at the Day Out with Thomas event at the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie yesterday. They have this event for two weekends every summer and I had been contemplating taking the boys this year, but the ticket price was expensive and Nick wanted to skip it. Much to Oliver's delight, I happened to win a family four-pack of tickets just three days ago so we just had to go :) The boys were the perfect age for it and Elliott was equally as excited to be there.

boys in engineer hats

Oliver's tongue is always out when he is concentrating

this is what he was looking at

there were plenty of train tables to play with!

hard at work

aboard one of Thomas' coaches, Clarabel

taking it all in

he was smiling all day

too many things to look at besides the camera

my little engineer

the cutest engineers ever, posing with Thomas

4th of July, 2013

Here are some pictures from our 4th! Keeping with tradition Oliver spent much of it in the sky riding the scissor lift up and down. His friend Tessa and her dad Matt joined us for the fun and Oliver was able to convince Matt to sit in the scissor lift with him much of the night. He's not allowed to drive it by himself so as soon as one adult gets off he quickly tries to find someone else willing to go up with him. We enjoyed beautiful weather and excellent food. Oliver was so excited when he got home that he could hardly stop talking about the fireworks. I missed the show as I left early to put Elliott down and to hang out with Penny in the basement so I could feed her treats every time the fireworks went off. The 4th of July is definitely not her favorite holiday.

Someone is soo excited. Look at the huge smile on his face!

 Hammock time with Daddy. This is where Nick spent much of the evening :)

 Elliott loved the swings! It was low enough to the ground that he could practically touch it while sitting on it by himself.

 A quick family photo! We haven't had one for a while.

 Trying to get a picture of the brothers together, not an easy task! I had to practically bribe Oliver out of the scissor lift so I could get a few pictures.