Vacation Roadtrip 2014 Days 1,2 & 3

 I finally feel recovered enough from our drive that I can share about it. Man that was a long drive!

The route we took

 We left at 4am on Friday and began our trek to Josh's dad's house near Houston. As soon as we were into Eastern Washington Elli began asking if we were in Texas yet. She was not happy when we explained she had a day and a half to go.

Eastern Washington

We seemed to be traveling ahead of some storm system. Just as we were leaving each region we would get a weather warning on our phones for that area. We experienced nearly every type of weather possible. Rain, hail, lightning, thunder, sunshine, SNOW, fog and high winds were some we drove through.

I love wind turbines! These are in Eastern Oregon. Pay no attention to the crack in my windshield.  

Josh and I took turns driving and basically changed seats at each fill up. Although I think he did more night driving than I did. I don't do well at night. 

Wyoming

 When we crossed through the mountains (around 10pm PST) of Wyoming I was trying to sleep and for some reason I woke up really nauseous, so we ditched the plans of trying to make it to Denver and got a room for the night in Rawlins, WY. I am so thankful we did that. We got one room and all squeezed in. Everyone slept well, we got a large free breakfast and we were back on the road by 11am PST.

Elli playing the game she got in her Chick-Fil-A meal

 Anyone who really knows me knows I do not eat fast food, but on a road trip it's hard to stop and eat at a good restaurant. There are 2 fast food places I will make an exception for. At home it's Taco Time and I only get the salad. On this trip, it's been Chick-Fil-A! On day 1 we stopped for lunch there just outside Boise. Day 2 found us eating a late lunch there in Denver. Josh really loves their food and I find it doesn't make me sick like some other fast food places, so we'll be eating there a lot on this trip.

Josh crashed as soon as we got to his dad's

We pushed through on the second day/ night and got into Houston around 9am EST on the third day. Needless to say we were pretty tired and took our turns taking naps throughout the day.

The Tasty Kake Fairy Visited Josh while he slept!

While Josh was napping, Elli and I ran to the store and found some of Josh's favorite treats that we can't get in Washington. He used to get these all the time when he lived in Pennsylvania as a kid and I used to buy them for him online, but when I tried last time they didn't sell them online anymore. He was so excited to hear they had them in Texas. I think we may be taking a few boxes home with us when we leave. 

Kids in the pool

Josh's dad's house has a pool out back, so once we were rested a bit we let the kids play until it was time for dinner. The kids are loving it here! I'm having fun, but can't wait to get back to my home. I feel so out of place down here. I'm pretty sure the locals can sense that I am not from here. LOL

I'll share the rest of our adventures soon...Stay tuned....

He's a Sailor now

The Price men are notoriously dreamers and adventurers. They enjoy learning,  trying new things and living life to the fullest. Josh's latest dream has been sailing. He went sailing once on a trip with his dad in the Virgin Islands and recalls it fondly. Being that I am not a swimmer we have never done much with regards to water, as I don't want to drown and die. 

But after talking with "the guys at work" who are sailors there was no holding this dream back. Josh wants to sail! 

Elli on the small boat we looked at back in March

So for the past 2 months we've been looking at sailboats for sale. Trying to figure out what would suit us. His work friends all suggested starting small (and several tried selling him their boats, so they could buy bigger ones), but we quickly learned that when you're 6'5", have 4 kids and a wife who can't swim a small sailboat doesn't really suit you. We started looking at bigger boats and we think we found the one that will fit us well. 

Josh's work friend Jim took us sailing! 

Eagles at Blaine Harbor

We are hoping to find one soon. Josh would love to take his dad and brothers out for their annual camping trip to the San Juan Islands. We also would use it for crabbing and fishing for the family.

It's a good thing I don't believe in luck because I'd have to change the name of this boat! 

Last weekend we took a little day trip around the Puget Sound to look at some sailboats for sale. Josh had already researched boat makers and decided that a Catalina would be the boat for him. He sailed his friend's 30' and liked it, but he was too tall to stand down below. So we looked at some 36' and some 42'.

Riding the Seattle-Bremerton Ferry last weekend

FYI... there are some pretty nasty looking marinas in Bremerton!

It was a little too windy for Elli's hair this day

While the 42' was the nicest boat we looked at (it had 2 bathrooms!), we liked the 36' the best. Josh could stand up inside, it had room for everyone & then some and (the deciding factor) a berth at the back with a bunk big enough for Josh and I. Now we wait and watch the market for our future boat! 

Happy Sailing Friends!

Life's a beach

Last Sunday evening we were sitting here in our apartment, bellies full from a big Sunday lunch, trying to figure out what to do with the rest of our evening. The sun was out we could take the kids to play at Boulevard Park (or any other park) and walk the boardwalk... Which we do quite often. Go out to eat, but we weren't hungry. Go to a store and look around.... What to do? Then Josh suggests, why don't we drive out to Lummi, buy some fireworks and build a fire on the beach. Um, ya, lets do that! The kids will love it!

I walked around gathering beach glass, I ended up with about twice as much =)

Gabe is having fun... This is his happy face. ;-)

 Hello little ferry boat, I think it's about time I go ride you again and check out that little island you go to.

Beautiful sunset over Gooseberry Point. 

Our new pet birds

 Not really ours and not really pets, but I still enjoy seeing them out my backdoor.

Elizabeth needs to learn that you can't hold a goose like you can a pet chicken.

Settling In

We're getting close to feeling settled in to our new place. It's hard getting 1800 sq ft of stuff into 900 sq ft. Especially when before 600 sq ft of that was just storage. We know have a saw in the dinning room and closets full of tools and outdoor stuff that we just couldn't part with. Elizabeth has finally stopped saying "we're home!" when we pull into church each Sunday and the boys are getting adjusted to having to be quiet for the sake of the neighbors again.

We did a little walk about our neighborhood trail and I thought I'd share the pics with you. I borrowed my mom's fancy camera for taking pics of the boys' football camp (pics are on FB), so I've been making use of having it... taking lots of pictures!


Someone got creative planting the grass in the roundabout




My Babies




Learning about the native plants to our neighborhood

We're starting to like being in this neighborhood again. Everything is so close by. But, we wouldn't mind having just a bit more space. ;-D

First Day Of Spring

How did you spend your first day of Spring this year? I had lots of ideas going through my head on what types of special treats I would make for our Spring Party this year, I blogged about them here. But, when the time came around to start prepping for the party, I just didn't have the time. It's been a CRAZY week around here!
After church we let the kids do a little egg hunt and just as we were headed outside... my camera died, so I resorted to using my cell phone...

Like the lovely photos it took? This is the best one, most of them just say resolution error on my online album. =(
So, as you can see... Josh BBQ'd while the kids looked for their eggs, we ate lunch outside in the beautiful sunshine and then started some seeds for our garden this year. (Hopefully we can get something to grow this year and not be eaten up by the local wandering deer.) To save time I just made the kids' favorite box cake mix. I don't know why, but my kids love Pillsbury Funfetti cake mixes... Really I do know why... It's yummy and full of sugar, who wouldn't love it, LOL! Then it was time to head back to church for a special meeting. All in all it was a fun time, I got a little frustrated when my boys informed me they didn't want to touch the dirt while gardening. What little boy doesn't like playing in the dirt? Apparently all 3 of mine! LOL! But, I got over it, this having a yard thing is still kinda new to them anyways.

If you did something fun yesterday, blogged about it and would like to share link up over on Offering Hospitality's Spring Party post!

NW Trek

All the kiddos with their stuffed animal souvenirs

We took our first field trip of the season, back on February 19th. The week before I found out that NW Trek was having their annual Kids & Kritters event on Presidents' Day weekend, where kids are free with a paid adult! So I quickly arranged to go with my mom, sister and her girls. 

Mr Billy Goat Gruff

The kids had a great time seeing all the animals in their exhibits and going on the tram ride through the area where the animals roam amongst each other. The favorites were the river otters, cougars and the fisher.  

Buffalo

 Tomorrow is our next field trip to Pacific Science Center! Post forthcoming!!

Fall Celebrations

So, last Thursday was the first day of Fall and I thought it would be fun to do a little celebration like we've done for Spring and Summer. One problem! Our Spring/Summer celebrations usually involve picnics and lots of outdoor activities. What do we do to celebrate this season without being out in the pouring rain that likes to sporadically grace us here in the PNW? Here is what I came up with (with some help from my facebook friends).... P.S this would have been posted sooner, but I was having the most difficult time with the new picture uploader. Anyone else, that uses blogger, have that problem?

We started our festivities at lunch, Tomato Soup with pumpkin and leaf shaped cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches. I really needed to go to the store, but challenged myself to use what I had on hand and I'm really pleased with the results.

While the boys cleaned up from school and lunch I whipped up these yummy pumpkin muffins. Find the recipe over here. Super easy recipe that used mostly Bisquick and a can of pumpkin.

The rain had cleared up a bit, so we headed out on a scavenger hunt walk around the neighborhood. I have them a list of things to find like, pretty flowers (in the pic above), different colored leaves, an apple tree, an animal and a few other things. Surprise, surprise our animals we found were our resident deer. Eating up all the fallen apples off a neighbors tree.

With our leaves we made these pictures. It's one of rubbing/tracing kind. The boys loved doing this and I guess I hadn't shown them how to do this technique. Now they want to do a rub tracing of everything. It's quite cute!

To bring an end to our special outing we had our muffins with some hot cocoa or in my case a homemade Carmel Macchiatto. YUM! Do you do anything to celebrate the seasons with your family? Got any ideas or suggestions on how to celebrate the first day of Winter that's coming up? Please share!

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; ... "   Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Woodland Park Zoo

Today we went to the Woodland Park Zoo with some of our friends and we had a great time. The weather was great today with the sun shinning and just a little breeze. My friend has a large van so we were able to all ride together, which was fantastic.

This guy was just hanging out by the picnic area eating everyone's dropped food. He was literally close enough to eat out of my hand. I had to fight every urge to pick him up! LOL

Joshua's second favorite lizard: The Komodo Dragon

(his first favorite is the bearded dragon)

We went into one of the bird exhibits where you can purchase a feeding stick that the birds will land on and eat off of. It was a big hit!

My friends daughter was able to get one of these Cockatiels (?) to land on hers and Joshua spent the whole time trying to get the Macaw to land on his, but it would just bite off all the seeds and stay on it's branch.

I just love Zaccheaus and all his goofy expressions!

All in all it was a great day and the boys are already planning their next trip. LOL!

Good Morning...

...From beautiful Lake Whatcom!!!

The lake was so beautiful this morning! The sun was bright and shining, the birds were singing and the breeze was just cold enough to wake you up, but not make you freeze. Spring is here!

Oh how I'm going to miss this view whenever we move away... I hope you all out there in blogland are enjoying what ever weather has been brought your way today. God Bless!

First Snow!

The lake is alway beautiful in the morning...But, I think evenmore so when there is snow everywhere!

The houses are all covered

Looking across to Blodell

Looking out over the church to the lake...So beautiful!