Auld Lang Syne

In our house we're saying the new year starts today. I know technically 2019 is a whole week old, but that first week of January was an extension of our holiday. And since Daughter2 doesn't go back to work until the 7th we're giving ourselves permission to start the new year then.

Happy New Year!

We squeezed in a cross country trip over the break so we could ring in 2019 with the cutest boy in the world and we didn't get back until Saturday so we're all dragging a bit.

The weather in Washington State this time of year is not quite fabulous, but the first day of January did happen to be gorgeous.

Sunny enough for a walk with the whole crew and not warm enough for just a t-shirt unless you're my son-in-law who did start out with a sweatshirt but ditched it pretty fast.

The mancub loves him some football. It's his favorite word to say and he shouts it with the same sort of intonation a game announcer would use.

We had a little outing every day including a trip to the nearby zoo and aquarium. There was a break in the drizzle that day so we managed to see some of the zoo animals outside before moving indoors to the aquarium.

Such a great location with gorgeous mountain views and sounds of The Sound as a backdrop.

Mostly we hung out at home, stacked blocks, read books....

....worked puzzles, and chased the Roomba, definitely a favorite pastime!

We sang songs, had dance parties, laughed and fed and bathed and loved every minute with this cutie patootie and his mama.

He doesn't suck his thumb a whole lot, but he also doesn't stop moving a whole lot, so when he's tired is when we snap pictures. 

These sisters are just the sweetest and they had such a nice time together. Not as much time as they'd like, but thankfully one of them gets married in 109!! days and there's also a shower in the mix before then, so not too long til they're together again.

It's a happy new year!

It's a bit o' honey life

These early school starts mess with my head. Why do kids (and their teachers) go back to school in the middle of summer? It makes August feel so much less summery, don't you think?

Well it's still summer in my book and I've got the houseguests to prove it. My sister and her family are visiting and since they live up north it's still summer in their book too. Also, summer doesn't officially end for another month. More actually, so why must we always be in a hurry to get to the next good thing? Let's smell the roses here today, k?

Somebody celebrated a birthday while we were visiting the Evergreen State. Y'all. He is the sweetest little boy I've ever known and we absolutely could not love him more. He walks and talks and smiles all the live long day. He reaches up his arms for me to pick him up and our current favorite thing is when hubs says, "Rock n' Roll!" and the mancub does a little dance that is too cute for words.

Daughter1 planned a sweet little celebration with a few friends and the sun shone and he enjoyed his party. She wrote all about the party on her own blog (here) but I will mention this adorable banner she hung across her fireplace mantle.

His picture each month of this first year of his life. So precious!

While my daughter and her hubs were traveling hubs and I manned the store so to speak. We tried to take a little outing every day because busy busy busy one year old baby boys need a little outing every day. Whew!

One of our favorites was to a nearby nature preserve on a crystal clear afternoon. As an aside, the PNW is not known for its fabulous weather EXCEPT summertime.

Visit in the summertime and you find yourself thinking 'wow, I should live here'.

It rained buckets in sunny South Carolina while we were away but not a drop fell in Olympia which is where this little gem is situated. We walked the trail around the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge and what a pretty spot!

We stopped to watch some heron play Go Fish...

We peeked through a duck blind...

We attempted binoculars which was really more about how they tasted than what you could see, but still...

Grandparenting helps me remember what it was like to be a young mom. 

Answer me this-why is a one year old better at the art of selfie taking than a grown woman? He is giving me a thumbs up here though. It's like he's saying, 'Yay Nana! We're both in the picture and that's something. Next time we'll work on your ridiculous facial expression and where to put your head in relation to the camera so it's not ginormous, but yay Nana!'

Of course before leaving town we did what all good grandparents do...

We gave him his very first taste of ice cream. If these pictures had sound you would hear mm-mm-mmm!

 Life is full of sweet things baby boy-

You most of all.
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My Favorite Mountain

Although most of our time this trip was all about the boy any trip to Washington State is also always a little bit about the rugged beauty of the Pacific Northwest. 

Before Daughter1 and her hubs went out of town we managed a day trip to my favorite mountain. 

I'd never been to the Evergreen State before my daughter got married and moved cross country, but from the very first trip we made here I knew I'd need to see this mountain up close and in person one day.

Mt. Rainier is the highest peak in the Cascade Range and somehow those enormous mountains manage to look dinky when viewed beside THE mountain.

 Even baby boy can't believe its size.

We set out for a hike with daughter1 toting her son on her back. Did I mention the trail here is steep? Very! And he's half her height and nearly a third her weight when you factor in the carrier, but she was a trooper and so was he, all comfy cozy in the pack.

So comfy cozy in fact he dozed off on the way back down.

Everybody stopped for a minute to watch this hoary marmot scamper across the path. Apparently they're found in abundance here but we only saw one.

There's a nice Visitors Center where you catch the trail and you'll find restrooms here along with visitor information and a cafe. We brought our lunch in a cooler and there are plenty of picnic tables too.

There's also a charming inn (Paradise Inn) with a restaurant and lovely gift shop where we browsed and bought Christmas ornaments because we always do when we travel anywhere new. The Inn is currently under renovation but according to their website has some limited availability during the process.

The day was warm and crystal clear which is important if you want to see the mountain. Not so much the warm part, but the clear part definitely matters. Daughter1 had been to the park with her husband in mid-June and the trails were still covered in snow and the skies so hazy they couldn't see the mountain top. Hard to imagine but true.

It feels a bit like you're in Europe here, maybe Austria or Switzerland. Just stunning!

There are a number of stopping points on the drive up through the park, hiking trails, waterfalls, and scenic overlooks (what's not scenic here???) and on the way back down we stopped to see one of the most photographed spots in Rainier-Reflection Lake. Named I think because at certain times of day the mountain is perfectly reflected in the alpine waters of this crystal clear beauty.

We stopped to take a peek at a couple of waterfalls too, but didn't linger long as we had a one year old with us, it was hot, and we'd already had a pretty full day. Hubs would love to go back one day and hike up to the base camp and spend the night. We'll see if maybe he can make that happen.

We could not have asked for a nicer day and if you're in the Seattle area I highly recommend you spend some time here.

 She's a beauty from a distance, but up close is truly spectacular.

Blogging Letterman Style

I got home late last night from a trip to see my daughter in the PNW. My son-in-law was on an out of town work trip so I flew west to keep my daughter company. Also to spend time with my grandson which is always a treat, but really I was so excited to have five whole days with my girl. She and I both said we couldn't remember the last time it was just us, sans boys.

Other than the boy I mean. But he rolls where we roll so he's easy.

Anyway I thought I'd post a top ten list kind of like David Letterman used to do back when late night TV was funny. I don't think late night TV is all that funny anymore. I don't mind a little political humor, there's always been that and I think politicians are fair game, but it feels like that's all it is now so I just don't watch. Also I'm usually sound asleep by 10 PM so there's that.

Whatever. All this has absolutely nothing to do with my trip west except to say when I started thinking about a recap I thought of a top ten list which sent me down the late night TV rabbit trail.

In no particular order here are ten things I loved about my week in Washington-

1. His face when he sees me. It's like Christmas and my birthday and shooting stars across the sky.

2. Dance party with the baby boy while we belt out old Taylor Swift. Daughter1 and I agree we don't hate the new Taylor but we sure do miss the old Taylor.

3.  A cup of tea and homemade coconut raspberry scones mid afternoon.

4. Working a jigsaw puzzle with a Paris scene. Ma fille et moi aimons tout ce qui est francais!

5. Bathtime. Is there anything sweeter than a freshly bathed baby?

6. Shopping at Nordstroms.

7. Their mischievous puppy dog successfully vomiting up the two baby socks he swallowed when I turned my back for a literal split second. Just keeping it real people.

8. My daughter cooking dinner while I stack colorful plastic cups then laugh and exclaim uh-oh as baby boy knocks the tower down. Also, reading my favorite board books, making animal noises, and chasing the mancub across the room as he makes a bee line for the dog's water dish. He's fast y'all! Almost as fast as the dog going after a baby sock. Almost.

9. Grabbing hold of the teeny tiny pockets of sunshine for walks and talks and Vitamin D.

10. Knowing they will be at the lake in less than a month!

California Dreamin'

We got home late Wednesday evening after spending nearly two weeks on the west coast, and then somehow I'd scheduled a full day and evening of activity for Thursday, which meant grocery shopping and errands Friday morning so here it is Friday afternoon and I've just now finished uploading photos from two cameras onto the computer.  Hi! Come on in and see my vacation pictures!

While I'd never say that in real life, this is blog life so Hi! Come on in and see my vacation pictures!

Hubs and I are determined to see a little bit of the northwestern part of the US while my daughter and her family are living there, and decided this visit we'd drive up the Northern California Coast, follow the shoreline all the way up through Oregon, and then cut over to Tacoma for a few days with our grandson. Hey, when you're in the neighborhood, right?

Not being too familiar with the geography, the distances one can reasonably travel in a day on the coastal roads, or the best places to stop for a night, I began reading and asking questions on the Trip Advisor travel boards. Everyone there was so nice and made me feel less anxious about the fires and our chosen route. We jumped on the coastal road early and had no plans to veer into Napa this time around, so no smoke or fire issues at all on our trek north.

Pinterest was also a great resource and in fact was starting to overwhelm me when I happened upon a fantastic blog called California Through My Lens. Y'all I feel like I need to send this blogger a case of beer or a dozen roses because he had the most wonderful, easy to read, helpful posts on the exact trip we were taking.

His relaxed way of traveling fit with our own relaxed way of traveling and we followed an itinerary very much like the one he followed when he went up the coast and into Oregon. He listed mileage and the hours it took to drive those miles, his favorite stops and some he thought you could skip if you didn't have an endless amount of vacation time, he shared great places to eat that we'd likely never have run across on our own, and best of all he suggested we bring shoes that could get wet (more on that later). Thanks Josh!!

I'm going to post old-school style here with a day by day recap because I've got a lot of pictures and they need to go somewhere. Don't worry... I have a lot of words to balance it out.

Day 1. Which was really Day 2 because Day 1 was a full day of travel from South Carolina to Atlanta to San Francisco. We picked up our rental car and no we didn't opt for a convertible because it's the Pacific Northwest in October and a convertible seemed crazy
even for us. Also, we almost always rent from Hertz, but their prices were double that of Alamo so we went with Alamo and had a great customer experience from start to finish. We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott close to the airport and got on the road bright and early Day 2.

Day 2. San Francisco to Mendocino. Also this post may actually be Day 2 hour one only, because it's already so long and we haven't even gotten on the road yet. Buckle up...

We decided not to spend any time in San Francisco this trip, we've both been to the city and while we'd love to go back and linger there we opted to get on the road early and start making our way north instead. We did stop at the Golden Gate Bridge, because you've got to cross it to get out of town, and also because the sun was shining and we both had that wonderful anything is possible feeling a road trip stirs up in your soul. Road trips are my favorite.

Can you tell it was breezy? We had absolutely gorgeous weather the first five days of our trip, but you will see my hair acting a little crazy in some of our pictures. I just couldn't worry about it so decided might as well embrace it. Also can I just tell you that after 33+ years of marriage hubs has not lost hope that he can improve my sense of direction? He still insists on telling me routes and showing me maps and pointing out where the sun is in the sky until it makes my head spin. We're going north, right? Or 'up' as I like to say. That's basically all I need to know. I was happy I'd ordered honest to goodness laminated maps, the kind you can fold and unfold and hold in your hand and that allow you to see the big picture.

Seeing the big picture helps, on road trips and life in general.

The first stop we made after crossing the bridge was at the Muir Overlook. We almost missed it thanks to a detour, but initially we ignored the detour because we weren't sure it was for us. Turns out it was but if we hadn't driven up the road to check we would have missed this amazing little corner of the world.

Stunning! I will use that word many times in describing both the California and the Oregon Coastlines because it fits.

There are some old base stations here that were set up following the attack on Pearl Harbor to allow soldiers to watch for potential attacks on the San Francisco harbor. They're no longer in use of course, but interesting to see and think about.

The views here are incredible and it was the perfect start to a trip filled with the beauty of creation at every turn.

Okay, next post-Day 2 for real.