Orcas time with the Mackies

We decided on a last minute Orcas getaway before the busy tourist season starts to really get underway and our friends, the Mackies, were up for the hasty adventure! We had a grand time with them - the weather cooperated for the most part but even when it was a little wet and cold out, the girls LOVED playing outside and I got to stay toasty warm inside with their new baby, Cecily. We also got to tramp around on a hike and tried a new (to us) restaurant too. It was a good weekend in my book!

Love their expressions in this photo!

Snuggles with Baby Cecily!

Playing with the baby mat

Splashing in the waterfall with our rainboots was fun!

These goobers!

Her highness needed to be carried for most of the hike.

My Shrimp and Grits at the New Leaf Cafe was DEEEE-LISH!

Exploring West Beach

Look, Mama! A shell!

Bugs on a log?

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Happy new year!!

Goodness, it's already 2025! It's been a really long time since we posted! We had a very lazy new year. We flew back from LA on the evening of the 31st so spent the last remaining hours of 2024 cozying up on the couch and then fell asleep before it even hit midnight! On New Years day, we slept in, cleaned up the house and then did a quick hike the next day. All in all, a good start to the year! Nora's new blanket hoodie. Cold and muddy trails. We're not in LA anymore! We hiked the Primrose trail that follows Coal Creek.

1 week checkup

We took Nora to her one week check up today and guess what? We have a porker on our hands! She weighed in at a whopping 6 lbs. 5.5 oz. That's 2.5 oz more than her birth weight! They want the baby to be back at birth weight within 2 weeks so she beat that milestone pretty handily. Hooray! So far, she's been better than Evie at eating (she doesn't take nearly as long, although she falls asleep VERY often) but she's not as good as Evie at pooping. Poor thing always seems to have tummy issues - she's very squirmy and fussy when she doesn't burp or poop. The doc doesn't think it's a big problem though since she still has lots of wet diapers, but we'll have to keep a better eye on it now. We'll have another doctor check up (with shots!) next week.

Salmon

The other weekend, Scott arranged for us to get a private tour of the Salmon hatchery on Orcas Island. It's surprising that we've been going to Orcas for over 10 years now and never noticed this place before! The tour started down by the waters along Eastsound where Mike, the facilities manager, showed us where the Salmon come in from the ocean ever year. There is a fish ladder down there and a little dock that lets them catch the spawning salmon and they can quickly fertilize the eggs. Then we drove up to the main hatchery where he walked us through where the eggs incubate until they are little hatchlings before being moved to larger swimming pools. It was an interesting little tour to learn all about the life of the salmon. This hatchery focuses on Chinook (King) salmon, and out of the 800,000 baby salmon they release back to the water, about 800-900 come back to spawn. The rest are eaten up by whales in the Pacific ocean or caught by commercial fisherman out in the open w...

Simpsons in Seattle

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