One down-2 to go!

Took my middle daughter to camp early on Monday morning. We left at 4:30 am because she wanted to be at camp when the gates opened at 7:30! I drove and she slept but not before remembering at least 4 needed items forgotten at home. We arrived at 7:38, behind about 200 others but she was excited. L. will be at main camp for almost 5 weeks. She was excited and a little concerned about the length of her session. The longest she has ever been before is 3 weeks. I reminded her how much her family has been "bugging" her and that now she was in one of her favorite places. I know she will be fine and have a ball. And we will have a break from the frequent and extreme mood changes of a teenage girl! Win-Win! She left me a sweet message on her computer thanking me for sending her to camp and telling me how much she loves me. So sweet and now I am writing her daily and sending funny cards. It is good to realize how much you appreciate someone once they are not around everyday.

( Mailed a sleeping bag, hairbrush, tooth brush and water bottle to camp yesterday. )

Wrapping up the family trip

On Thursday we headed to McMinnville, Oregon. Cute, quirky town in the middle of the Willamette Valley or wine country of Oregon. We drove through lots of interestingly named towns on the way, such as, Happy Valley, Boring, Clackamus and Zig Zag. Visited one vineyard on the way, Sokol Blosser, our new found favorite pinot noir. Beautiful estate and you could see Mount Hood in the distance. In McMinnville, we checked into the Hotel Oregon. Funny hotel that has live music almost every night, a roof top bar/restaurant and a wine cellar for intimate meal or wine tastings. Not every room has a private bath so everywhere we went, whenever anyone found out where we were staying, they ALWAYS asked if we had to share a bathroom. Of course, we had 2 room so we had a private bath for our family. But it was funny to always get asked. Did 2 geocaches as soon as we arrived. Then wandered around the main street area. There were wine tastings, ice cream, a local farmer's market and much more. The girls found a pizza/ movie house and had dinner with a movie that night. H. and I went to the rooftop bar and sampled some of the local microbrewery beers. We ate dinner while looking out into beautiful Oregon countryside and could still see Mount Hood. After we got the family back we went for ice cream at Serendipity. Delicious- ended up here 4 times in a 24 hour period! On Friday morning after breakfast we went to the Flying M Ranch for a horseback riding adventure! Just the 5 of us and a guide did a gorgeous trail ride. M. was "over the moon" excited!!! She had woken up at 6 am to make sure the ride was today! After riding we packed up the car and had lunch on the roof top again. Left McMinnville and went to one more vineyard and 3 more geocaches before going to the airport for the red eye home. Great family vacation. Filled with laughter (and some arguments) and lots of memories! Some of the most beautiful parts of the country that I have ever seen!!

Welches, Oregon

We love this state! Today was a "rest" day with really nothing in particular that had to be done. H. got up at 6:30 am to watch the US in the World Cup, while the rest of us slept later. We had a great breakfast around 11. I got crunchy french toast with hazelnuts that was divine! After brunch, I went to a local yarn store while the girls and H. headed to the pool. It was warm, over 80 and sunny today. Later H. and I sat on our back porch and enjoyed the view while reading. So relaxing and absolutely beautiful. They have this tree called a Cottonwood here that is now in bloom, which means that it looks like it is snowing all the time with little pieces of cotton floating around EVERYWHERE! Very weird since it piles up on the ground and blows in your car windows, really everywhere. Late afternoon we all showered and headed up to Mount Hood to the historic Timberline Lodge. We looked around awhile and H. remembered when he was there almost 20 years ago with his dad. We also hit a geocache on the way out. It was an easy find and had to have been the biggest we have ever found in terms of size. Next we headed to Government Camp, or "Govy" to the local for some pizza at The Ratskellar. Fun, easy day today. Tomorrow the girls are going to the spa and H. is going skiing at Mount Hood in the morning before we head toward McMinnville after lunch.

Oregon!

Had a fun night in Portland and left for Welches and Estacada today. We had a lovely (depending on who you ask) drive this am on the scenic Oregon Highway 30. It had lots of twists and turns along the Columbia River Gorge. We stopped at several waterfalls along the way and "made" the girls "hike" to see the falls -no more than .2 miles! It was early, between 9 and 10 am, so they were reluctant to embrace the experience. I tried to snap one family photo but you see what the big girls decided to do! So this will NOT be our holiday card but it WILL be on the blog. We finally stopped for breakfast at Multnomah Falls. It is the 2nd largest waterfall in the USA! Great breakfast and beautiful falls! H. and M. and I walked up there after breakfast but K. and L. elected to wait by the car. We left and headed to Estacada to go on a half day rafting trip down the Clackamus. That was rally fun with class 2-4 rapids! M. was nervous but ended up having a ball and both K. and L. ended up "riding the bull" which means sitting on the front point of the raft with your legs dangling over during a rapid ride. We wore wet suits but the weather was really good, 77 and sunny! Great time! We all thought it was as much fun as the zipline excursion! Then we headed to Welches to our resort. Showered and changed for dinner. Great dinner. H. and I tried and LOVED a new Oregon wine from the Dundee Hills!! Tried to geocaching but we lost the light and will have to go tomorrow. There are 2 on the resort property to get tomorrow! Awesome day but sooooo nice to crash at a great place for 2 night in a row!!

Seattle, Washington- back in the US!

Travel day on Sunday. We got up early to finish packing and grab some breakfast before going to the ferry. We were taking a high speed (3 hour) ferry to Seattle today. Boat was full and full of all our friends at the conference so that was fun! We arrived around 2:30 pm in Seattle to dripping rain, cold and cloudy weather. It was our worst weather yet. Hope it gets better soon! We checked into our hotel and then grabbed rain coats and walked to the Pike's Market for a late lunch. Everybody got a little something then we all got cookies at Three Sisters' Bakery. We watched the fish get thrown, weighed and bagged at the market and got a real flavor of the place. Walked back to the hotel where the girls relaxed and H. caught the end of the US Open on Father's Day. The girls were dying to see TOY STORY 3 and we were beside a theater so they went to the 7 o'clock showing and H. and I ate a nice romantic dinner at 94 Stewart. We tried a good Washington State wine and and yummy cheese plate. H. got grilled salmon and I got a coconut tomato curry soup and salad. We geocached successfully on the way to the theater to pick up the girls. Monday morning I had a breakfast with H. downstairs at Margeaux because I needed to have a bowl of the Birkner Musili because I had it over 20 years ago when I stayed there with my family as a teenager. It didn't disappoint! Next we went to the Seattle Space Needle. Only M. and L. wanted to go up so we did while H. and K. went U of Washington. By noon we loaded the car and headed to Portland, Oregon. Had a fun lunch in Olympia, Wa. at the Spur Cafe. I got the "blue plate special" of grilled pepper jack with bacon and tomatoes! Delicious. Drove on to Portland. Tons of traffic upon entering the city but we found our funky hotel with no problems. It is called the Jupiter and is super trendy with 3 different bands playing tonight. H. and I geocached one around the area then grabbed the kids to go to Powell Books, the largest, independent book store in the US! Spent over an hour here and the girls all got a couple of books. Then we geocached one more before dinner. It was a micro around a bus stop with high "muggle" traffic. H. was able to spot it but removal was difficult. We scored and signed the log!! Quick dinner then back to the hotel to read. Big rafting trip tomorrow!

Victoria, BC

Last day in Victoria. H. and I had breakfast by ourselves since the 3 girls were fast asleep after our big day yesterday. We brought some back for the girls as they were STILL asleep at 10 am! Since they were slow moving we grabbed the weeks worth of "must do" laundry and headed to a laundry mat. It was not far and the day was warm and sunny. While the loads were washing, H. and I geocached around the area. Happy to report we were successful twice and got a beautiful walk to the water along the way. Finished the laundry and headed back to pick up the peeps and go to lunch and shopping. We walked up from our hotel to a hoppin' section of town with lots of cafes and shops. The big girls really wanted something from Roots so we went there first. Cute and warm pullovers for K. and L. and a hoodie for me! Went by LUSH, my 3rd store since arriving in BC. Ate lunch outside and saw/heard a Justin Beeberish kid standing on the corner with his guitar. The girls thought he was cute and he did sound good. So we dropped in some coins to show some support. Then we got a few Canadian souveniers for the scrapbook. While we were on our way to Knotty By Nature (a yarn store) and going through Chinatown we saw a really weird sight for downtown- an outdoor urinal for men on the street corner! L. did not believe it so she went to check it out and immediately did an about face!! Did try to geocache in Chinatown but we were unsuccessful. By late afternoon we went back to the hotel. Some of us went swimming, I got on the computer and started packing before we leave tomorrow morning for Seattle, Washington. Great week so far and looking forward to the next week too!

Twilight and Forks, Wa.

Big day but oh so tired! Just got back from a 12 hour Twilight tour with 5 girls. We left Victoria, BC this morning by ferry to Port Angeles, Wa. USA. Cleared customs and arrived around lunch. Beautiful ride over in the Olympic Peninsula. Rented a minivan and then we found a really bad Mexican restaurant to eat lunch at. The girls all enjoyed it but M. and I did not. Next we headed to Forks, Wa. -the location of the Twilight books. We were there to see Bella's truck, high school, home, the Cullen home and La Push, the beach where Jacob reveals his true self to Bella. There were organized tours all over the place and plenty of signs about Twilight and lots of Twilight stores selling EVERYTHING you can imagine with a vampire or werewolf on it. Overall, the town was a little disappointing but the drive to Forks was amazing. Lake Cresent was the most beautiful place I have ever seen!!!!! We did get passed by huge logging trucks every 3 minutes for an hour on the way to Forks, the logging capital of the world. So sad to see all the deforestation. La Push was interesting with rocky shores and huge cliffs rising out of the water but the whole area is an Native American reservation so it is rather poor. We then traveled back to Port Angeles to have dinner at Bella Italia, the restaurant Bella had dinner with Edward. This meal was fabulous!! Then on the way to the ferry I tried to geocache( just one) but was unsuccessful after looking for over 30 minutes. The girls were sure I was going to make them miss the ferry. We all crashed on the ride home. Fun day with beautiful scenery and lots of laughs!

Victoria, BC

Travel day yesterday so didn't get a chance to blog. We got up early and ate at our hotel then took 2 cabs to get to the bus station. Boarded the bus at 9:30 and drove onto the ferry at 11:00 am. Got off and explored the ferry until 12:30 when we reboarded the bus to drive off the ferry and to the bus station in Victoria. Luckily our hotel was right across the street from the hotel. We arrived around 1:30 pm and were quite surprised by how big Victoria was. We checked into the lovely Empress hotel and then M. and I headed to the pool while the big girls took naps and read. We had a reception in the rose garden that was gorgeous! Later that night, H. and I did 2 geocaches around the area which was fun. I found the first one and he found the second one. We attempted a 3rd in the rose garden but really needed some light so had to abandon that one. Today we had a yummy breakfast with fabulous croissants. I had 2 and L. had 4!! Then we visited the "minature" museum which has tons of teeny, tiny exhibits of wars, fairy tales, trains, the circus, wild west and many other. The girls, especially M. enjoyed this one! Next we went to the BC Museum to see an IMAX film. We ate lunch in the cafe and then H. joined us to see "Under the Sea". It was so good that 3 of us stayed to see another IMAX called "Hubble". Then L. and M. and I walked to Fisherman's Wharf to see and feed the harbor seals. Such a fun activity. The girls were a little squeamish about handling the fish but after the first bite quickly forgot how gross that was! We have a boat ride to get to dinner tonight which should be a lot of fun because it is a gorgeous day! May even geocache later- I am up to 7 in BC!!

Vancouver later

It doesn't get dark here until about 9:30pm which is awesome! All 5 of us went to a restaurant that overlooked a popular street around the corner from our hotel and had drinks and food. We people watched and had a great time with each other. Later the girls went back and H. and I geocached around the area. Turns out our hotel has one. Score #3 for today. We then went to Stanley Park, watched the sun set and geocached another one. That makes 4 for today! Yipee!!! Afterwards, as it was getting dark we walked to the Central Bistro and had a yummy dinner and sampled some BC wine. Great evening in Vancouver!!!

Vancouver, here we are!

Got up early, around 7:15 am, to go geocaching with M. and H. We all had gone to bed by 9:30 pm last night because we were exhausted so got plenty of sleep. The big girls, however, slept in. It was a rainy morning in Whistler. We got coffee and headed out to find Bob's Bench. Well it took us over and hour and we walked a LONG way and had to climb a mountain. But I am happy to report that we were successful! We made it back to the village a little wetter and a little tired but met the big girls for breakfast. Afterwards we all showered and packed and drove to Vancouver. Beautiful drive and the rain was left behind. We first went to the Olympic Village, where all the athletes lived during the games. Okay this was a little disappointing because the place was deserted except for the "sales" office trying to rent or sell the places as condos. The only house identified was the Canadians. And the street was named "Athletes Way" so this was the only remnants of the 2010 Olympics. Weird! Next we headed to Chinatown for lunch. On the way we found a cool authentic Chinese garden that also had a geocache! Score!! That is 2 for today! Mom was a happy girl! M. decided to meditate in the zen like garden. Lunch was very good but took a long time. Afterwards we headed to our hotel on the oceanside of Vancouver. Great old hotel with a huge suite so everyone had a bed for themselves. The girls are planning on hanging out tonight so we may have date night and go out to dinner alone! Tomorrow we get a cab to get to the bus station that will take us to the ferry to cross to Victoria. Planes, trains and automobiles. Great day 2 so far, more tomorrow!

Whistler, BC- Day 1

We had an uneventful trip to Canada. Arrived in Seattle at 1 am then rented a car and drove to Whistler. Crossing the border was a little weird since the guard was not nice and highly suspicious of our family (it was about 3 am and we were giddy but not guilty of any crime). We ate our first breakfast at 2:30am then after a brief nap in the car at 4:30 am because we simply could NOT drive any more!!!! The drive from Vancouver to Whistler was absolutely breathtaking at dawn!! We arrived around 7:30 am and checked into our hotel in Whistler Village. Everybody showered and freshened up then we headed out to the Village for our 2nd breakfast! After breakfast, M., H. and I went geocaching around the village then got K. and L. and we did an eco-treetrek zipline tour of the rainforest. It was AMAZING!!! It lasted about 2.5 hours and we did about 5 zip lines, each getting progressively longer with the last being the length of the Eiffel Tower. They crisscrossed a beautiful river. Every one of us LOVED this experience. Especially M. who had no fear and said after the first one "are there more of these because i love this"! We then took a peak to peak tour of Mt. Whistler and Mt. Blackcomb in gondolas. The view was incredible. We ate a yummy lunch of southwestern corn chowder at the top. Here are a few of the 300 photos I snapped today! And we saw a bear!

8th grade graduation

Big day for L.! She is officially a high schooler now! OMG!! I now have 2 in high school- does that make me old? Of course not, because my youngest just finished FIRST grade. Yeah! The ceremony was about 3 hours long but was good and touching. L. enjoyed it but found it hard to say good bye afterwards. Hard to believe she has been here since fourth grade. Great experience and so many wonderful friendships formed. Good bye Lincoln. Hello Page!

L. also got glasses today after failing the eye exam at her 14 year old check up on Tuesday. She looks fabulous in them!!

First Swim Meet of the Summer

M. had her first swim meet yesterday. IT started at 5:30 (she had to be there at 4:30) and we finally left at 10:30 pm but the meet did not end until after 11 pm!!! We had to stay so late because M. was in 4 events this year!! She swam freestyle, back stroke, butterfly and the first leg of the 100m free relay! It was quite exciting!! Today at practice our coach gives out white ribbons if you beat your own time. This is a BIG deal for the team (the ribbons from the meet are just put in your box and you go collect them with no fanfare). Well M. beat her time on freestyle so she was pumped- and earned a pack of silly bands form me! From the meet, she got 3rd place in the relay and 5th in the butterfly. It was the first time she has done the butterfly competitively so we were excited she could get from one end to the other. The summer has officially started!!