Simpsons in Seattle

A few weeks ago, my grandmother passed away at age 98. We drove down to Portland for the funeral and it was nice to celebrate her, visit with family, and explore Portland on our downtime. The kids don't remember visiting with her but I do! She would come visit in LA when we were younger, but a standout memory for me is when Scott met her for the first time. My parents, aunt and Grandma were going on a cruise that left out of New Orleans, and we decided to fly over and join them for the weekend before the cruise. It was our first time to NOLA and it was so fun! And, walking down Bourbon Street with your grandmother late in the evening is not something everyone can say they have done. Anyway, Grandma Lim had the smoothest skin and was always upbeat and joked a lot; she had a really infectious giggle. Rest in peace, Grandma. New Orleans at night. Evie's first vacation was Portland! Evie is only 1 month old here. Another trip to visit Portland, this was in Aug 2015. While in Portla

Another weekend, another hike!  This week, we went to Heather Lake - billed as a popular, short but steep hike where you're rewarded with an alpine lake filled with fish, flanked by huge cliffs and wildflower meadows. Sounds idyllic, no?  The description was pretty accurate! The hike about 5 miles r/t, with a 1,000 ft elevation gain so there was a steady incline up the mountain. We went through a lot of old forest growth and had LOTS of roots and rocks to scramble over. It made for a hike that was never boring and if anything, you had to be really careful or else you'd turn an ankle. We also passed by lots of berry bushes and grabbed salmon berries and some huckleberries.  The lake itself was very picturesque - it was in the shadows of some very tall mountain peaks, and there was snow still in many crags and several waterfalls cascading down the cliff walls. The sound of the waterfalls, the greenery, the mountains and snow all reminded me so much of Switzerland! We just needed

A few weeks ago, we survived our first family backpacking trip!  Scott had been planning this trip for a while so we were all geared up and ready to leave early on Saturday to Greenwaters Lake Trailhead, which is about 1.5 hrs away towards Mt Rainier. The kids were mostly excited about the trip, especially Nora. In fact, she had been sick with a fever and I was adamant she couldn't go if she was sick so she woke herself up super early on Sat and got herself dressed and ready to go to prove to me that she was fine.  The trail we picked was very pretty, fairly flat and a lot of fun in that it took us over 6 streams and 7 bridges. We found a great campsite about 2.5 miles in that was right along the river and plenty roomy enough for our party of 8.  For meals, we each packed in sandwiches, ramen and MREs from REI (we each had fun selecting one!). We spent a lot of time poking the fire (yay for being early enough in the season that campfires are allowed), playing in and along the river

Hope you all had a nice Fourth of July!  We had a low key weekend since Evie was sick for a good chunk of it, and Scott wanted to get in shape for his upcoming Seattle-to-Portland ride.  I found out last minute on Saturday that there was fireworks in Issaquah so Nora and I rushed down to see if we can find a good spot to watch. We went to this little park along the waterfront that I've never been to before - it's a narrow stretch of woods in between two neighborhoods and was surprisingly spooky when we walked through in the twilight hours. Nora was clutching my hand and I made sure to sing loudly to scare away any animals! When we got to the beachfront, there were only a handful of other folks there so we spread out a towel to sit on the ground and got a nice view of the fireworks show. The walk back to the car was a little easier since we followed another family through the trail and didn't feel so alone. Nora said that she loved our adventure and would go again next year.