Simpsons in Seattle

We can't stop laughing when we look at these pictures from when we were playing around on my phone a few weeks ago using an app that swaps faces. They are both funny haha and scary haha. See for yourself! Is that Evie or Nora? Can you guess? Mom and Nora Mom and Evie Daddy and Nora Daddy and Evie May and Scott. SCARY!  

A few weeks ago the girls convinced me to buy a strawberry and mint planter from Costco. They have been diligently making sure it gets watered and that each berry gets some time in the sun. It's very cute how much they want these little berries to grow. They were very excited when we saw a few start to turn red the other day, and they each picked one to test out. Of course they declared them the best ever even though they weren't fully ripe and probably a bit tart. Well, you can imagine how shocked and upset they were to find out that the deer came into our yard and ate up all the berries!! It's such a sad plant now with only green nubs left, and the girls have to wait for those to (hopefully) grow and ripen. Oh well, we've gotten plenty of really tasty berries from the market.  

What do backpacking and Van Gogh have in common? 2 things: they both involve nature and we explored both last weekend! First up: backpacking! Scott's been keen on backpacking for a while. He went bike camping for his birthday and has been testing out his new gear with Nora in our backyard. He finally convinced her to go last weekend on a backpacking trip with him. We researched quite a bit on where to go - he wanted to hike to lake so they can try fishing, not require reservations, and not be so far away that Nora would tire out with a big pack on her back.  We finally settled on Lake Talapus and Lake Olallie in the nearby Snoqualamie Mountains. They are two lakes on the same trail and both allow for camping along the shore. Lake Talapus is closer and only 1.5 miles out so was rated as a good place for families and beginning backpackers. True to the description, it was a well maintained trail that had just enough incline to feel like a nice hike and we saw a lot of backpackers (inc

 Another late post! Back in June, we checked out Sol Duc Hot Springs in the Olympic National Park. We've been to ONP a couple times now but for whatever reason, we've never made it to the hot springs! We remedied that with this trip where the sole purpose was to go check out the springs. It was a cloudy, misty weekend but we still enjoyed ourselves. The damp weather didn't stop us from doing two waterfall hikes nearby and also made for a pleasant dip into the hot springs since it wasn't too hot out. We spent the night at the lodge there, which was rustic but totally serviceable and while spendy, it allowed you unlimited access into the pools (versus paying $20 pp for a 1.5 hr spot).  Enjoy the photos! Stop first in Port Angeles since it's on the way there. They have revitalized and redone the waterfront so it's really nice. Lunch spot next to the Sol Duc River. We heated up food on our camping stove. Waterfall hike to Sol Duc falls. This isn't the falls yet,

Our Evie pie is now a "rising" middle-schooler and officially 11 years old! She turned 11 almost a month ago, but it's taken me forever to post about it. We celebrated in a variety of ways with a busy few weeks! It started afternoon tea with just us girls! It was super fun and something that I want to make a tradition. Then, she had her dance recital where she did a lovely lyrical jazz dance to "time-after-time" as part of the dance class she's been going to for the past 6 months or so. On the day of her actual birthday (June 9), it was pretty low key. Grammie and Grandpa were in town to help us celebrate, and that meant Evie got to have her absolutely favorite dessert : Grammie's apple pie! The day after that, we drove out to the Olympic Peninsula to soak in some hot springs (more in another post later). Then last week was all of the end-of-year and end-of-elementary school celebrations like her 5th grade "camp" day, a graduation party for the