Christmas Vacation in Olympia

I know it would be a great disappointment if a vacation of ours were to begin in any standard boring fashion. Our latest trip will be no such disappointment! Shane and I planned to get up at 4am to start our 12 hour drive to Olympia, but at 2:50 we woke up and decided we might as well leave. After 30 minutes of loading the car with last minute food and such, we woke up the girls. 

 Now, you tell me...if it was 3:40am, pitch dark and you were going to be driving for 12 hours, how many of you would just fall back asleep in the car? For some reason, none of us are able to sleep in a car....everyone's day started by 4am!! The girls were not too happy about the flash from me taking this picture, but they were ULTRA excited about leaving for our trip to Olympia. Here they are at 4am –

Shane and I used to do this all the time pre-children. We would be on a trip in Canada with the plan of driving home to So Cal in two day chunks, but instead we would just drive 24 straight hours. This type of travel had been put on hold seeing that we have had to be responsible parents. But, we have rediscovered that this is a great way to travel, even with kids. 

We got to Olympia at 2pm, which was just GREAT! We had the remainder of the day to relax and hang out, an early bedtime and then fun times with Shane's family the next day. 

Christmas Eve was a great day of family and feasting and Christmas Day came and went FAST! Great visits with family and lots of yummy food.

Jill finally got a bike that fits her perfect. Dax at Greenline Cycles set us up with a bright orange 20” BMX bike.
Thanks DAX!!!  

Then, I was blessed with a BEAUTIFUL custom painting from a family friend at Kate's Paints.  Her art is amazing and I really wanted a seasonal picture to hang in our living room.  Those of you in the "know" might recognize this tree..

If you dont know, here is a link to Alli's Tree.  Katie, THANK YOU!!!  I already know what I want for my summer picture, if you are up for another custom paint job!

But, the greatest gift of all was from Matt and Stacy.....a CAN of crab legs, just the meat – already peeled – with a pan of melted garlic butter....nothing better.

There were a few days of laying low and then we were itching to get out and get moving. The weather up here had been really nice and there were days and days without rain so we just had to take advantage and get outside. Bruce and Sue live right by Tomie State Park so and Shane had gone running every day, even in the rain. 

After Christmas I started to run with him. Neither of us are serious runners, but it was a great way to get outside, get moving and enjoy the beauty of the pacific northwest. This park takes about 3 minutes to get to. It is like running through a magical wonderland, so beautiful.  

There are also some great bike trails around here. Shane and I took advantage of the Chehalis Western Bike Trail and took a ride by ourselves. When it is 38 degrees out and you are going 14 mph hour, you get REALLY cold!! Not Chico cold.. NORTHWEST COLD!!!


 There is another bike trail that runs from Yelm to Tenino where we took the girls to ride. Jill did great on her new bike, 5 miles all together, without too much complaining.

It was about 37 degrees, so the girls were bundled up, but you know how that goes. Somebody has hands that get hot so the gloves come off, then the hands get freezing but once those hands get cold, there is NO WAY to warm them back up....someday these girls will learn to just leave the layers on                                                      when it is nearly freezing outside.

There was a skate park right near the Yelm bike trail and the girls were SO bummed that we forgot their scooters, but they still went over to play and Shane and I watched from the warmth of the car. It was about 34 degrees out, but the girls didnt care and we had a GREAT view of Mt. Rainier so we stayed until they got hungry, which is usually the only way we can wrangle them in.

Another day, all us girls went to see FROZEN.  It was Alli and Jill's first EVER movie in a theater.  What a sweet, sweet movie to see. The story of true sister love!  It was so fun!  Walking out of the theater Jill says, "I wanna see that again, RIGHT NOW!!!"  

Next, we headed to Olympic National Park and Shane had PROMISED the girls we would stop at a skate park in Shelton, WITH the scooters. I dont know who had more fun, the girls or Shane!

They were all over the place, being pretty brave on their scooters and sliding down the steepest parts on their butts. Luckily, we had them put on their snow gear so the were sliding FAST! We kept giving them 5 minute warnings to go, but they were having so much fun we kept extending the time.

Once again, the only way we got them to leave was the promise of lunch when we got to our hike. The pictures cannot even show the beauty of this area. Words cannot describe the beauty of this area. Here are the pictures:

Our last hurrah, was a jaunt up to Mount Rainier National Park.

We for sure could have picked a better day, but it was the only day that was going to work so we went. It POURED on us.  Snow would have been so nice, but instead it was so warm that we just got drenched.

It didnt stop us from building a snowman and Shane always has to dig his snow cave.....The Adragnas toughed it out with us for about 30 minutes and we lasted a little over an hour, then we high tailed it out of there FROZEN to the BONE!!!

This picture doesn't look like it, but when asked if they had fun, it was a loud, resounding YES YES YES!!!!  Alli just said, "I had lots of fun, I just cant feel my fingers!"

We were spoiled for dinner that night with clams, oysters and shrimp. Nothing could have been better after a day spent in the rain and snow. Thanks Bruce and Sue, for EVERYTHING!!!  We had such a great time!! 

Today, Stacy and I FINALLY go to go out on our DATE!!! It is always WONDERFUL to get to spend time with you my sweet, sweet sissy-in-love.  I love you and already miss you, Stacy. 

 We are heading out tomorrow for 2 nights in Bend and then home sweet home. It has been a great vacation and I am so grateful to have had such a wonderful time with family.   Thank you for making us feel at home and joining us for our crazy outings.  We had a great Christmas and are excited for a WONDERFUL 2014!!

THANKSGIVING VACATION 2013

I havent written about it, but I am teaching a Pre-Calculus class for CORE (the homeschool center the girls are "schooled" through).  It is a REALLY, great and convenient job for me to have right now.  I teach Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 1 - 1:55.  It is a 5 minute bike ride for me to get there and the girls are with my parents (they live behind us, we have a gate that goes to their house!).   My dad used to read to them every night from the Bobbsey Twin series, so we just shifted the time he reads to the afternoon, so it is a win-win situation for everyone!

Anyway, Shane and I both had the entire week off and took FULL advantage by making the most of our family time together.  

Our first stop was a trip to Williams, Oregon.  Last year, my friend Noel bought half a pig from the MUIR family.  On her way home she was generous enough to give us a pound of bacon, sausage and pork chops.  This was THE BEST PORK we had ever tasted, so we wanted to get our own the next time around....Ready for pick up the Monday of Thanksgiving break, PERFECT!!!  Let's take a road trip.

We stopped in Shasta to have lunch and stretch.  The girls found this dog just wandering around, it was the friendliest dog ever.  Of course, the girls refused to eat because they HAD to play with the dog.  Jill had brought a tennis ball just in CASE there was a dog at the ranch house in Oregon.  How perfect!  This dog loved playing ball and of course wanted to give Shane some love.

The ranch house was SPECTACULAR.  You can see in the photos, this place was just magical.  One of the coolest things about this trip was that it was so different than a normal vacation for us.  Usually, we are on the move, hiking and biking and just GO, GO, GOING!!!  This trip we were MELLOW. 

We played cribbage and did yoga.  Basked in the sun and read our books (Shane - 5th Game of Thrones book, Me - Grain Brain).  The girls colored and played outside.  Shane watched Jeremiah Johnson and a James Bond flick.  The girls watched HOURS of Christmas movies and stayed up until 9pm!!!(a tradition we started last year - one weekend of Christmas movie marathons). And I caught up on the blog.  It was so out of the ordinary for us, but so enjoyable.   If you would like to spend a MAGICAL weekend here, or get in on this awesome pork, send me your contact information and I will pass it along for you!!  A huge THANK YOU to the MUIRs for this memorable and magical family vacation!!  Find and LIKE them on FACEBOOK by clicking HERE.

More pictures from Oregon:

We headed out on Monday to ROGUE MEATS to pick up our pork.  We were quite concerned about an entire 300 pound pig fitting in our car/ice chests....but it worked out pretty good.  The hams (4 - 30# hams!!!) did not fit in the coolers, but they stayed frozen for the entire 4 hour drive home!!

Our vacation mentality oozed over into our days leading up to Thanksgiving, which was wonderful.  We are blessed in that our girls can play for HOURS without needing anything from us, so we were able to continue our lazy mornings playing cribbage and drinking coffee, reading our books and blogging.  It was impossible to pass up our beautiful 70 degree weather, so we went on bike rides each day, hiking or on the girls' famous scooter adventures (This is Shane's activity with the girls...I really need a picture of him on his PINK scooter....)

Thanksgiving started with the AMAZING breakfast, found HERE....except that I bake the (grain free) "pancake" in the oven and then slice it like pizza (I am not a huge pancake fan...they require too much time standing in one place!!).  Let me just say, you will never taste this DELICIOUS of bacon if you are just buying your standard bacon at Trader Joe's....this bacon is OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!!

I dont have any pictures from our dinner, I think I was too busy!!  But it was Delish, followed up with a great evening sunset hike in Upper Park.

Black Friday always involves decorating for Christmas. Of course we have to have proof for WHOSE TURN it is to put the angel on top of the tree.....followed by some sort of activity. This year we biked 3 miles through the park and ended with some frisbee for Shane and I, and some make believe play for the girls.  Look at this beautiful tree...

This is what Jill looks like on a 20" bike!!  She wants to ride this bike so badly (it is Alli's from last Christmas, but she has grown out of it.) But Jill is just not tall enough.  I need to skate next to her so I can help her stop.  What a cutie!!




Shane and Rich spent Saturday kayaking and the girls and I did the transport for them.  

Lucky for me, they are easily entertained.  3 hours after dropping the boys off, they were still happily playing at this sand bar. I was able to spend the time writing up an entire blog post I am SO excited to share soon about some powerful changes I am making in my own life.  

That is for a later date, though......

The boys made it to the pick up boat launch at 5:20pm, headlamps on, frozen to the bone and happy as can be.  Gotta love this type of FUN!!!

REALLY, another picture of food...so sorry, but yes.  This is again THE BEST PORK EVER!!!!   I cooked some of the sausage up for breakfast.  The directions said to drain half the fat and then saute the apples in cinnamon and the remaining fat.  Holy cow, there was no fat!!!  This is the leanest, best, most fantastic sausage I've had in my life.  I cannot say enough fantastic things about it.  THANK YOU ALLIE MUIR!!!  We will be buying a whole pig for ourselves next year!!!

So, if you can believe it, DECEMBER 1st is here and we spent the day kayaking down the Sacramento.  The girls were MORE than disappointed that they did not get to go kayaking, so Sunday was the family kayak...

 Of course Hazel gets to come!  And I have to take a picture of our food.  The girls worry now if I dont take a picture that maybe the food isnt good.  I guess I better get that in CHECK!!  But, just as proof....we are able to still maintain our healthy eating even on the go....

And the closing shots of our week off...The girls pulling is through a section of Chico Creek.  It is running LOW this time of year...I dont recommend this passage to anyone...It was NASTY!!!  Bring on the RAIN!!!!