Orcas Island

 Hey there! Here I am with your best friends on Orcas Island. They are the best! We had a really great time on the island, and they are just the sweetest people ever.

Here we are on top of Mt. Constitution, the highest point on the San Juan's. A great view and fun medieval tower to climb.

Getting there was a whole day of ferry riding. I had reservations on both the Pt. Townsend - Whidbey and the Anacortes - Orcas. Of course I was super nervous about not making the reservation times, so we left super early. We got on earlier ferries at each port and ended up waiting about 10 minutes for the first ferry and 30 minutes for the next. Your friends scheduled a later ferry to Orcas and it got delayed. They ended up waiting like five or seven hours for theirs?? Crazy. They pulled into the house around 1 am, and we'd been there since noon... yikes! The ferry ride from Anacortes to Orcas was just beautiful!

Here are the kids during our "long" 30 minute wait for the ferry!

Our first day there was pretty low-key.  The kids loved Ruby, of course. She is so sweet and delightful. She played super hero legos with Archie.

 She played sandbox with Ivy.

Parker was such a good baby and super cute, of course.

Here are Chad and Jason hamming it up after I made a joke about what cute dads they were :)

We explored lots of the island. We found a purple starfish and one dock!

 Then we found purple starfish cookies at a coffee shop, must be an Orcas Island thing!

 Josie got in lots of Parker time.

One day, we took a ferry to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. That downtown was neat.

Here's Archie showing off his mussel. We ate so many oysters, mussels and clams. You would LOVE the food!!

 There was room to play at the house, so we spent a lot of time relaxing there...

Smore's Patrol!

 Here is the whole gang in mustaches for you before they all ditched me. Do you think they left because I look too much like a man in my mustache? It's possible.

 

  At least Ivy and baby Lisa were cute in theirs!

They last day with the littles was really fun. We went to park on the lake, swimming and biking.

 It was lovely.

We spent our last day ferrying home. It wasn't quite as smooth as the way up, but it was still beautiful and fun with the kids. Aren't they so cute? 

Overall, it was a really lovely week seeing friends and beautiful part of Washington. Before I even left, I was already daydreaming of bringing you back there next summer. You will love it!

Goodbye, Wilson and Leo!

 Here's Wilson leaving on his big adventure. Boy was he excited!

I was so happy that Wilson got a couple weeks of the summer out of Silverdale and with your family.

Next up, Leo! Here are all the kids at the exchange. Leo was the main event, and boy did he love it. I loved seeing him feel so special, too.

And, they're back! Fast forward a week and we picked up Leo. He had such great behavior that he got a lego trailer prize. He was so proud.

Hey, Wilson! Gang's all here for a fun play date when we went to pick up Leo. I don't have many pictures to post of their special weeks, but I think you saw and heard enough about them from me, the boys and your fam. It was a really positive experience for both of our big guys!

Whaling days!

Why have we never been to Whaling Days before? I think we must have been out of town for it - - get ready to hit it next summer with us because it was FUN.

The highlight for us was doing the kids run. Look at these athletes ready to race!

The races were seriously the cutest thing ever. Ivy was first and faced off for 25 yards against her age group. Here she is at the start line checking out her competition.

Here's how far she wandered before I had to go get her and lead her across the finish line... lol!

Up next, the flash! I mean Archie, but he told me he was going to run like the flash...and he did! 50 yards for 4-5 year olds.

Go Archie Go! He was so funny and kept sprinting even when he was past the finish line... lol!

Here comes Leo with the 6-7 year olds in the 75 yard dash! He did great.

Wilson was in the 8-9 year old group that ran 100 yards. He told me next year he should probably not wear sandals...oops!

At the end they all got ribbons and orca whales. So cute! No one could love stuffed animals as much as our kids do.

We had a lot of fun at the races and then stuck around for the parade. That was surprisingly fun, as well. We had to bail after an hour and a half to get home for Ivy's nap... long parade!

See you next summer, Whaling Days!