My Kid, The Dancing Queen

Most of you know that my amazing kid has been dancing for years now. From an almost 2 year old in baby ballet to today, it’s been fun watching her learn and grow. This year, she decided that she was ready to step it up a notch and try out for the Platinum Dance Center Mini Elite Team. We decided that it wouldn’t be too much of a commitment, so we went along with the idea.

The tryouts were held on a one night basis and all of the potential dancers went through a full audition, including learning choreography and a routine for the parents to see that night. It was a bit intimidating for us as first timers, but a few of the other parents calmed us down pretty quickly. At the end of the night, a stunning team of 8 Mini-Elites was chosen and our kiddo happened to be one of them.

I’m sure there are going to be many more adventures with competition dancing on the horizon, but for now, our little mini is so happy that we had to have a quesadilla for dinner at our favorite Mexican place downtown, Las Tres Marias, while she showed off her new accolade.

A Trip Back In Time: Trains, Lakes And Old Towns

If you haven’t figured it out yet, taking day long road trips is one of our favorite things to do. We ventured out to Skykomish this weekend to see the Railroad Museum. We love that little roadside town out past everything on Highway 2 east of Monroe. Not only is there some fun stuff for kids, but there are some decent stops along the way and a few different scenic routes to drive home on.

To start our adventure, we hit the Sultan Bakery for breakfast. It wasn’t the best food on the planet, but the baked goods sure did look nice. I’d recommend hitting there for a cup of coffee and a pastry and moving on for lunch. The breakfasts were decent, but not really worth it, or the wait. There are quite a few other options for fast food along the way, but save room for lunch instead.

From there, it was a quick drive east to Skykomish to see the trains. The coolest part about this place is the fact that you can ride around on scale models of real trains with the kids. It’s a totally fun time and completely free to visit. There’s also a full museum onsite and knowledgeable volunteers that staff it regularly. The stories you’ll hear are worth the trip alone!

After a nice trip (or 10) around the rails, we ventured further east to Lake Wenatchee, which is no short haul, but it has a great park to run around at and a gorgeous lake to visit, regardless of the time of year you hit it. During the winter, it’s an empty area where the snow park people visit for lunch or to meet up before heading into the hills. During the summer, it’s a bustling crazy-ville with more people than you know what to do with, but it never seems ‘that busy’.

We continued the drive east and south and visited the town of Plain, which really is a blink and you’ll miss it type place. Wondering around though, you find some amazing things like this old bridge that is now closed to motor vehicles. That won’t stop you from pulling off the road at the roundabout and walking across it for some gorgeous views though!

We wrapped up the day with a drive home back on Highway 2. It’s always a blast to see where we end up on our little trips, and this one was no exception.

Spring Break At Cama Beach

Celebrating Evie’s first official Spring Break from school, we ventured out to Cama Beach for a few days to stay on the beach in one of their waterfront cabins. We had checked them out back in February, but actually spending the night there just seemed like such a great idea.

The cabin sleep 3-4 pretty easily, and more can fit if you snag one of the double bunk bed options. We opted for the 2 single beds, which worked fine for us, but families should consider the fact that if you get the higher capacity rooms, you won’t have as much room to breathe if the weather turns. Our little room had plenty of space, and a nice heater to keep us warm on the colder spring night.

Cama Beach has plenty of trees to climb, beaches to walk and hiking paths to explore. There are also volleyball courts, paid showers and a restaurant on site for when you just don’t want to cook in your private kitchen, which is known as a microwave and small fridge.

 

The day’s were great at Cama. Filled with running around, kite flying, and a new found favorite, Geocaching. The nights were where I really had an amazing time. As darkness fell, the beach turned gorgeous shades of red, orange and blue. And then it was time for some campfires. Cama features burn rings that cabins share, but due to the fact that it was a bit early in the season, we didn’t run into any major issues with people borrowing our heat.

Another remarkable part of Cama was the evenings on the beach. As the stars came out and the temperatures fell, I was able to check out planets, stars and just really enjoy the evenings after Ara and Evie headed inside to warm up. Just a simple cup of coffee and a starry evening does wonders for keeping me happy.

Cama Beach was a great way to spend Spring Break, and it is definitely on the short list of where we will head back to next year. The cabins are comfy enough for colder stays and the the perfect weather we had this time around sure makes me want to try it again.

A Trip Through The Cascade Mountains

Normally, this time of year, taking a trip like this requires about the same amount of preparation as a deep sea diving adventure. That being said, normally we wouldn’t even try it. Since we’ve had such a mild winter, and 60 degree temps in February, we figured we would hit the road and do some shooting with the trusty old HTC One M7. This was the first shot I took heading eastbound on Highway 2 out of Monroe.

There wasn’t much snow to be found anywhere, but I did manage to squeeze some into a front facing camera shot with myself.

We drifted down the road to Leavenworth and stopped at the 59er Diner for lunch. Frito Pie was on the menu and soon was in our belly. Great place to stop for lunch and an even better place to stop for milkshakes!

The diner has some oldies on the jukebox, so bring your quarters to fire it up.

The littlest touches make the 59er special. Like bringing the check on a 45!

The mountains around Leavenworth were gorgeous. Sunshine and warm temperatures made for a great walk around the town.

Of course, no stop in Leavenworth is complete without seeing the Santa Store! We even got lucky enough to catch Santa in the air.

There are quite a few little details around Leavenworth that are worth photographing, so keep your eyes open. These are the street lights near the center of town. Very cute and really pretty under the right conditions!

We were lucky enough to find this little beauty a block off the main drag. The Gingerbread Factory has some gluten free options and some pretty darn tasty cookies to boot!

The road headed south over Blewett Pass was just as clear and just as nice. A bit more snow was piled up on the sides of the roads, but nothing like it should have been.

As we finished up our nice long drive, we almost got to enjoy a double sunset, but we made it over the pass a bit too quickly. Sounds like we will head south west for our next adventure – Poulsbo, WA.

A Weekend Road Trip To Birch Bay State Park

We began our search of summer camping locations early this year as most of the awesome spots tend to book out very early in the year, if not the year before. What we’ve found is quite a few places where we have the camping that we love and a summer beach to hang out at.

Birch Bay State Park was the third or fourth place on our list due to the fact that it was pretty close to home (about 2 hours away) and it had 75+ spaces available for a stay. There were no cabins like Cama Beach, but it had better beach access than Camano Island State Park. So, it was a bit of a mix of the two.

The weather at the beach was windy enough to do a bit of kite flying, but not so bad that it was freezing. This shot was actually done while I had the kite tethered about 3 feed from my head and I was trying to shoot it while it was moving all over. It was a challenge, but I like the result, especially with the sun behind the rear of the kite.

The beach front gave plenty of area to play in the sand, though much of the water line was rock. It appears to be one of the best places for clamming around as there were quite a few people out digging for them in the time we were there.

The sand didn’t lend itself to making castles, but we did a pretty good job making some driftwood and rock houses to entertain ourselves.

Off the path away from the beach, there is a small ‘river’ that runs between the campground and the beach. A small bridge allows direct access from the edge of the camping area right over to the recreational area at the bottom of the hill. It’s a short walk to get there and couldn’t be much easier. Overall, Birch Bay is on our short list for summer stops.

We didn’t stay late enough in the day to see the sunset, but we could only imagine how amazing it must be to see it over the water. It brought back memories to our road trip last summer and the gorgeous sunsets we saw on the Oregon coast.

Overall, we can’t wait to make Birch Bay State Park a stop on our summer road trips again and will probably be booking a camping site here later in the summer!

Halloween Night: Friends And Family Edition

One night of the year we can become kids again, dress up and enjoy a night of being a candy collecting 10 year old. Well, not exactly, but pretty close. Fortunately, Evie is pretty creative about nights like Halloween and she had a plan. Our family would go as the characters from Little Red Riding Hood. This included herself as the Wolf, Mama as Red and me as Grandma. Yes, that’s me being Grandma up there…

Our night stated off with dinner at our friends. We met up with more friends and ended up with three littles ready to get their candy collecting on. We had the Zombie/Vampire thing going. Our wolf thing was also on. Then we had one of the best Anna of Arendales that I have ever seen. Well played guys!

The darkness settled in and we were off and running. The first house went off without a hitch with all the girls figuring out the system pretty quickly. It was Jozy’s first Halloween night, so it was a bit of a learning curve for the oldest in the group, but she had it down in no time. We then moved around the neighborhood at a good clip trying to beat thee weather.

Some of the houses really did Halloween up. This one felt more like Christmas than Halloween, although the creepy blow-ups were not exactly Santa and his reindeer. Still the kids loved it and it is definitely on the list for next year.

Around the corner, there were more houses done up with the front yard decor. This house had an amazing ‘graveyard’ scene going complete with Slash from Guns N Roses and a decapitating skeleton. It doesn’t get much better than a skeleton holding a severed head on Halloween does it?

Overall, the night was amazing. We spent a good evening with great friends and the kids had a blast together. The night ended with tons of candy, so the last kids to come to the door got a nice surprise – an entire bag full of candy – and then some. Hopefully we can do it all again next year, but the question will be, what should we do for our costumes?

Our Last Visit To An Old Favorite Pumpkin Patch

One of our yearly traditions is to visit the Marysville Rotary Club’s Children’s Literacy pumpkin patch every year. It was where we purchased all the pumpkins for our wedding décor, where we took Evie since she was around and was just a fun place to go without having to spend a fortune for some fall fun. Unfortunately, when we arrived this weekend, we found out it might be our last time for this great place as the host facility, The Plant Farm, is closing.

The MRC does such an amazing job every year setting up the bouncy houses, hay rides, the little train, the petting zoo and even just having the best pumpkins placed out in the field. Then you add in the fact that they have a great little concessions area, amazingly low prices, some of the friendliest people around to help you and you can’t help but want to go. Of course, then the best part about everything, they donate the profits to help kids.

That’s right, this little gem of a place, where you ride the MRC train around the fields donates the cash they make to children’s literacy in the Arlington and Marysville area. Books, tutors and anything else that kids need to read are provided by this program and it is simply amazing that these folks keep it up year after year.

Evie has been coming here with us for 5 years now. In the 8+ years that the wifey and I have been together, I think we’ve missed it once, but I’m not sure on that one. We’ve taken friends’ children with us to The Plant Farm and even jammed a few friends in to the car to get them there as well. It’s the family tradition.

So, before all the little 2 for a $1 pumpkins are gone, and The Plant Farm is closed for good, take the family up I-5 to exit 206 and head west. Turn in and go past the crazy shopping area and visit the little pumpkin patch on the side of the freeway. Encourage them to find a new home and let them know what they do is amazing. It’s time for them to get a new home for next year and the best way to encourage that is to visit them right now.

Help Me Out By Shopping My Amazon Store!

Hey blog-following friends!

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All you need to do is shop via this link instead of the usual Amazon on you have bookmarked:

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So, get ready for that holiday shopping season, bookmark my Amazon page and help me get my online store growing!

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It’s Been A While…

So 2014 is so almost done, or at least summer is. I’ll be doing some make up posts that I should have made here in a bit, but for now, I wanted to share a bit of the first week of September with everyone. First up, there have been two device changes in the last few months for me. In May, I took a trip back to Android and the HTC One M7. After falling in love again with HTC’s gorgeous hardware, at the end of August, I was lucky enough to receive a brand spanking new HTC One M8 for Windows.  So keep that in mind when you start viewing the posts from those time frames.

The end of summer is usually started with the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe. We’ve been with Evie every year since she was itty bitty, but this was the first year she was tall enough to ride almost every ride in the place, by herself. After a few minor freak-outs on my part, I settled in and enjoyed the fact that she was able to ride the rides and have a blast doing it.

Moving backwards to the middle of August, and my birthday, we took a family adventure to the Experience Music Project in downtown Seattle. The exhibits they had for the weekend were about Jimi Hendrix’s London trip and the history of Punk/Grunge music. Both were pretty cool, but the downstairs ‘fantasy’ exhibit was even more fun.

The weeks before that were met with one of the most fun times I’ve ever had. We decided early in the year that our summer vacation would be spent taking a road trip to California to see the Redwoods and then a few days spent relaxing at the Oregon Coast. It was one of the most awesome times I have had on vacation and I can’t wait to take another road trip like that in the near future.

Evie turned 5 in July. I can’t believe how fast she has grown up. She’s already starting Kindergarten and loving it. I can’t wait to see how bold she becomes as she gets used to things like sharing and reading. It’s so amazing to see her grow. I just hope she doesn’t grow up too fast.

We spent the 4th of July in Bellevue at their Family 4th Event. Even with the weather not completely cooperating, the day was fun.

We spent Ara’s birthday on a road trip to places where we will cross of the list for a while, but it ended up with gorgeous night at Lake Tye to finish out the day.

In June, Evie completed her 3rd ballet recital. This was for her combo, ballet and jazz dancing class. She has come so far in the program and was actually picked to perform with the Petite Elite team this year, but we decided that it wasn’t the right time with so many new adventures to be had in 2015. 

That brings us back to Father’s Day, which was the last post that I had in the books here. I’ll update more on the individual adventures soon, but for now, I’ll sign off and get back to life.