Friday brought adventures by the boatload and the first was picking up a rental minivan so that all seven us could travel together. From there, we headed into the mountains. First stop was an old mining cave where everyone but me grabbed flashlights and headed in to explore. Why not me? Because I don't do well in enclosed spaces. They were happy, wet, muddy messes when they emerged. :)
From there we headed to Big Four for a picnic lunch and a bit of run around time. The view was amazing and as the clouds parted it became downright warm.
From there we headed further into the forest and parked at what is now a trail head but when we were kids was the road into one of our family's favorite camping locations: Twin Bridges.
We started walking and was met with sign after sign warning of danger ahead. The river flooded a few years back and washed away parts of the road and bridge #1 and completely shifted the river bed. The camping sites (two of them) were completely destroyed. The only way to access the area and Monte Cristo (an old mining down) is by hiking in. (As children, we backpacked from Monte Cristo up the mountain to Silver Lake)
It was a really good, but long, hike. And I have to say, it was surreal to be back at a place where I spent so much time as a child. I swear, when I closed my eyes I could hear the 5 of us as children, playing in the river, catching frogs while my dad was up river fly fishing and my mom was at the campsite working on word search puzzles. For a brief moment in time, I was a child, safe with my parents and my siblings.
We headed out as the day was getting late. We had planned to go to the Ice Caves but decided to table that for another time. Instead we headed back down the mountain to swap the rental car for our own cars and head to the Stanwood-Camano Island Fair. The kids were beside themselves with excitement.
After all that fun, James needed to have a massage.
It was 9pm when we headed back to James and Cara's house but the night wasn't over yet. There was still hot tubbing to be done. After about 15 minutes we put three very tired kids to bed so that we could get up again and have another fun filled day.
The next morning we headed over to Lannon's where we spent the day with family and celebrated Parker's 5th Birthday and Lannon's 48th birthday. It was a drizzly day so the fun had to be mostly inside but we all had a good time. My nephew, Patrick, and his fiance were there and it's been years and years since I have seen him. It was a really good day and much laughter was shared.
It was quite the big weekend which I can tell for sure since Kelton and Kaylen were asleep by 7:45 last night and I was asleep by 8pm.
It was the perfect weekend and really allowed me to leave the stresses of my life behind for a few days and just live in the moment. It was just what I needed!
2 comments:
Sounds like a great weekend. Glad you were able to get away. The pictures are wonderful.
sounds like it was a wonderful weekend. love the pics--what beautiful scenery.
hope you're feeling better!
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