Sara's 2nd Birthday Camping Trip

I can't believe it's been two years since Sara was born. Where has the time gone? I can't believe I'm actually saying that after such a rough start :-) We'd been debating on what to do for her birthday this year since we don't have a huge group of friends yet and wanted to celebrate her big day with family. We had thought about having some family come over and celebrate on one of the weekends or heading to Yakima. It just so happened that Uncle Jeff and Auntie Jen (Ryan's bro and wife) were taking a road trip up to see us last week. So what a perfect time to celebrate. We turned it into a family camping trip with my sis and her family last weekend. It was our second time taking out the trailer and it was a success once again...LOTS of work but still a success!

Back up a week. Jeff and Jen came out last weekend with their two dogs and we had a blast! Unfortunately I couldn't take them to all of the cool places we like to explore but we made due and we got to show them a lot of the area and they got out on our mountain bikes and stand up surfboards and got to do some exploring on their own.



The weekend was supposed to be raining all over the state so we were a little hesitant on the trip but decided to go for it anyways. We went over the mountains to the east side and camped right on the Columbia River. It was gorgeous. We had some rain Friday night but by Saturday it was so nice. Mid 70s, no wind and partly cloudy. My sister brought their boat so we all loaded up and headed across the river to a private beach that was perfect for Sara. A perfect wading beach with sand and shells everywhere...who would have thought there'd be shells on the river! We brought some food and chairs and camped out for the afternoon. Unfortunately I'm still a gimp and was only able to sit on the beach but it was fun watching everyone standup paddle, wakeboard, and surf behind the boat. That afternoon Ryan's aunt and uncle surprised us and helped celebrate Sara's birthday where we grilled hamburgers and ate yummy birthday cake. It was a perfect party for Sara!



I can't believe that she's actually two! It's amazing how fast the second year of her life has gone compared to the first. She has grown into such a sweet little girl. She's no long stingey with her hugs, she loves kisses, and is so excited about life and exploring her world. She's also pretty animated with her fits...although I must say they could be a lot worse then they are...I've seen it :-)


Some of her favorite things right now are to jump, (off of everything) throw rocks in the water, dance with her tutu on (which she has to wear ALL the time...we now have four of them so we can clean them), find shells at the beach, swimming, dancing to the Wiggles.


Sara has quite the vocabulary now, some of the things she says we can't believe she knows. Her little brain is absorbing everything. She's a pack rat. I swear, I find things in every box, purse, compartment in the car, stroller, shopping cart. And the funny part is she knows exactly where everything is. I asked her where her barbie's shoe was (and it's tiny) and she went into our bedroom found one of my wallets, unzipped it, and there it was. She's 'obsessed' with shoes...especially slippers (flip-flops).


People keep asking me if she's a girlie girl or a tomboy. That's a hard question to answer because it depends on the day. She's definitely a girlie girl with her tutus, skirts, purses, a million pairs of shoes, and dancing to twinkle twinkle. But she can hold her own physically too. She can throw a ball better than most ten year olds (and me for that matter), she kicks pretty darn well too. And she likes to play with matchbox cars and trucks.

We never realized 'pre-kids' how much you a could love a child. She is the center of our world and makes us both so happy. We love you Sara!

The pictures are not in any particular order because I got frustrated with the formatting so bear with me...

Birthday girl...

With cousin Emily hanging out in their camper...they look amazingly similar

For her birthday today we went with our friends to feed their cows and goats. It was like our own personal petting zoo.

My friend Marla held her because I couldn't hop over there while holding her. She was a little unsure but eventually loved listening to them 'moo'.

Our awesome friends, The Fennells, gave her a really cool doctor kit. I'm not sure if Ryan likes it more then her though :-)

New sit and spin...it makes me nauseous watching her.

Ryan and I got her this cool bike! It's a bike without pedals and the theory is that they'll learn to balance the bike first and later learn to pedal. I guess they're pretty popular in Europe and we all know the Europeans know how to ride a bike :-)

Being silly...in one of her handpicked outfits :-)

Hanging with the cousins.

She wasn't super stoked on the lifevest.

She LOVED the beach while camping, it had shells, sand and shallow water.

She got a little overwhelmed today so we'll finish opening the rest of her presents tomorrow. I'm sure she'll be asking for more presents anyways :-)

Sara's First Camping Trip

Last weekend we set off on our first camping trip with the new trailer. And let me tell you, it was a source of some heated discussions before we made the decision :-) Who is their right mind would take a new trailer, a wife/mom with a broken foot, and an almost two year old on the first camping trip to a VERY remote spot? Ryan. And no, he's not in his right mind. But....thankfully it all worked out and we made it safely home all in one piece.

The place we went is called Neah Bay which is in the very northern part of the Washington coast. We spent the week trying to outfit the trailer with all the necessities (which is SO different then our usual tent camping where we brought some clothes, food and a sleeping bag). It was not an easy task with one leg but thankfully Ryan did most of it. I got the food prepared and all of Sara's stuff and he got all the big stuff. Unfortunately while we were taking the trailer out to load it (which is another blog in itself, let's just say the first time we parked it, it took almost two hours to jimmy it into it's spot) Ryan was running across the parking lot and stopped to say something to the neighbor and his knee popped out. We think it's an old injury and will likely have to have surgery on it, especially because he still can't straighten it. But that will have to wait until I can walk again. Did this change his mind about camping? Nope. But I digress.

So Friday after work we loaded up and headed south to the ferry terminal. We rode the ferry over to Port Townsend and drove to Sequim for the night which was about an hours drive. Gotta love those Native American names. We had planned on staying at this "nice" RV park for the night but when we arrived (almost 2 hours after Sara's bedtime) it was so ghetto. Crackheads that live there full time. Abort that plan. We had heard from a friend that you can stay in the Home Depot parking lot for the night so that's where we ended up. We had a beautiful view of an open field with Costco on the other side :-) It was quite hilarious but served it's purpose and was

actually pretty quiet for the night.

We met up with some friends and then ventured on to Neah Bay. It took about three more hours through windy, curvy roads, much like the road to Hana if you can imagine that. The drive gorgeous along the Olympic mountain range with views of the Straight of Juan de Fuca. Once we arrived we were not disappointed. We camped in a big open field that was a couple hundred feet from a gorgeous beach with little surfable waves. The best part of the beach was the hundreds of sand dollars on a low tide. Sara LOVED finding the "sandies". She has this gift of finding shells, even half buried ones. I managed to bag my foot up and hobble across the dunes out to the beach.

Sara was such a trooper on the trip. The first morning and the drive out to the beach was a bit rough since she missed about two hours of sleep but her nap and sleep that night was better then home. She actually took a nap, which hasn't been happening these days. It must be that fresh saltwater air. We had a bonfire that night and roasted marshmallows and just hung out. It was nice to get away from it all, including our cell phones :-)

All in all, we had a great time. We're still trying to recover from the trip but we're excited to do it again.

The incoming "feddie"

The only "store" in Neah Bay where we had to buy a reservation card to be on the Indian Reservation.

Our little campsite, where I spent the majority of the time :-)

Tyla sure enjoyed herself. There were plenty of other dogs to keep her entertained. She was pooped when we got home.

"Sandies"

She would get so excited to come bring me all the shells and sand dollars she found.

This was on the ferry. She always says "cheese" with her big cheesy grin whenever we take her picture :-)