My Dad invited all his children to join him on a family vacation to the San Juan Islands for an entire week, and we had a blast. We rented a beautiful house right on the ocean complete with a fire pit right on the beach and this cute little swing. 
This trip Olivia basically lived in our hiking backpack. She was in there for hikes, shopping, getting through the airport, and tromping around Seattle. The first part of the week we spent on San Juan Island. Practically every morning began with a hike. And practically every morning we hiked to the top of Young Hill (which is the tallest little climb on the island of San Juan). In fact, the third day that we hiked Mt. Young, Kylie, Derek, and I decided to run to the top just to mix things up a bit. It has the most gorgeous view of the islands at the top and for that reason this hike never got old.
We also did a few hikes to some of the lighthouses on the islands.
Other activities including some amazing seafood and dining experiences. To celebrate all the birthday's we had while there (mine, Mike's, Leigh Anne's) we ate at the fabulous McMillan's right on Roche Harbor at sunset. Every night at sunset, there is a flag ceremony where they lower the flags at the end of the pier and play the associated anthem (American Flag with star Spangled Banner, Canadian Flag with O Canada, and English Flag with God Save the Queen). Kind of neat to watch. This particular night the sunset was incredible.
One night we went deep sea fishing and crabbing. We caught tons of fish! (And now would probably be the appropriate time to remind all my family that I caught the most and the biggest fish). Derek caught a shark. Olivia loved the fish, but not her life jacket.
That picture doesn't do justice to the amount of wailing that was going on because she was in that life vest. By law she had to wear it, but it didn't take long for our boat captain to decide that if anyone was going to enjoy this fishing trip we could to take her out of it, but just keep it close at hand in case a coast guard boat came by.
We planned to have a "bounty of the seas dinner" with whatever we came home with. Unfortunately, all the fish we had to toss back because they can only be kept during certain seasons, and we had just missed the deadline. We did catch some Rock Fish that we could have kept but they have poisonous fins which you would have to avoid and no one was too keen on that idea. And, all our crabbing pots got infested with giant sea stars (which eat crab so...no crab dared to climb in the pot with one of those). Needless to say, we stopped by the grocery store on the way home and picked up some fillet mignon to grill for dinner instead.
The last couple days we spent in Seattle. The first night we hit up a Mariner's game. And even though Grandpa is a HUGE Giants fan (in fact he presented her with yet another Giant's outfit when we met up in Seattle) he was nice enough to buy her a Ichiro shirt for the game.
We also walked through Pike's market (the backpack was a lifesaver there--I cannot imagine trying to push a stroller through that place), did a little shopping, had some more great meals, and then before you knew it...we were off to home again.
One more pic for good measure: Olivia soaked up all the attention she received from her aunts and uncles. I snapped this cute picture of her and Auntie Kylie.
And, I don't think I even got one picture to document this last event but this last weekend I ran the Hobble Creek Half Marathon. My goal was to finish in under 2 hours, and I finished in 1 hr 56 mins. Can I get a whoot whoot?!?
4 comments:
That photo of Kylie and Olivia is so cute!
I'm so jealous of all your traveling and hiking and running and all that fun stuff! I miss the northwest so much, looks like you guys had so much fun!
That Livie is the cutest and getting so big!
Dang! You guys keep busy! Olivia is getting all grown up . . . she is darling (and you'll get a whoot, whoot from me on that half marathon--how do you do it all?!)
Let us not forget, I caught the first and possibly biggest LingCod
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