Category: Travels


We drove over to Idaho to attend one of Darrell’s cousin’s wedding. When we were over there in July, Darrell offered to play bagpipes for them if they wanted and they said yes. He spent most of the summer practicing and was excited for it. Just before we left here to go over there, we found out that one of his uncles was going to get married there the night before. We stopped in Pullman to visit some of our Humboldt friends who just recently moved there. Overall, it was a fun, quick weekend and we enjoyed visiting the family again.

At Adam & Linda’s

IMG_2988IMG_3074

 

Bruce & Karen’s Wedding:

IMG_3373IMG_3371

IMG_3490IMG_3386

Logan & Kasey’s Wedding:

IMG_3007IMG_6733

IMG_2934IMG_3461

IMG_3508IMG_6749

Athabasca

We headed towards Athabasca Canada on Thursday morning (Aug 8) so we could attend one of Darrell’s college friends wedding celebration. They had eloped last year and were celebrating twice this year. Once in California (where they live and where the bride if from) and once in Canada (where the groom is from). We knew more people at the California celebration, but Edward wasn’t even a month old and we weren’t ready for a trip like that yet so we decided to go to the Canada one.

It was quite a drive up there and took two days. We stopped at a lot of little cities along the way for feeding and letting Edward play. Thursday night was rough as we were hoping to make it all the way to Jasper, but we only made it to Blue River before Edward had a breakdown. He did so well until then but we had been in/out of a car for 12.5 hours already and we were hoping to make it another two. We tried to get a hotel in Blue River, but they were sold out, so we ended up driving to Valemount for a hotel which was another hour. Poor Edward ended up crying himself to sleep as when we got him out, there was no consoling him. The boob, rocking, clean diaper, toys, nothing was doing it. 🙁 I felt like a bad mommy. We found out the reason the hotels were sold out was because there happened to be a big festival in town that weekend, so we got one of the last rooms available in Valemount.

IMG_6567

IMG_6552

Luckily, Edward woke up his bright cheerful self in the morning and was ok in the car. We made sure to stop for an hour at a time to feed him, change him, and let him play/stretch before getting back on the road. We made it to Athabasca and stayed at the Groom’s family cabin with them. We had a lot of fun and everyone we met were really nice.

IMG_2710IMG_2835

The wedding celebration was also during the Groom’s family reunion, so there were a lot of people. It was a blast! I did end up stuck in one general area because of Edward, but I made sure it was by the bar where most of the other people I had met the night before were hanging out at.

IMG_3051IMG_2770

The trip home was pretty uneventful. We saw a Black bear walking along the highway, Edward slept most of the time in the car and woke up when we were close to where we were going to stop to feed him. The only small hitch was that when we were going through Jasper National Park, there was construction and we were stopped for almost half an hour. Edward started to wake up and get fussy right before they let us through. If we had sat for any longer, we would have needed to pull to the side to get him out of the car.

IMG_2870IMG_2740

Overall it was a fun trip. Darrell wants to go back up to Jasper National Park to just spend some time as it was a beautiful park. We also might go back there sometime in the future. Maybe once Edward is a little bigger.

 

Darrell and I usually go to the zoo in whatever town we are in. It has just been something we have done since we got married and is a nice little walk around area. We knew we wanted to take our children to the zoo many times a year so we went ahead and bought memberships and took Edward to the zoo for the first time. We were joined by Doug, Julia & Colin. It was a nice day outside and there was a lot of people there, so we just slowly meandered around and stopped to feed Edward every now and then. It was a nice little afternoon and we only saw about 1/4 of the zoo (if even that) so we know we will be going back a few more times. Right now there are Jaguar cubs, Lion cubs and Otter pups at the zoo which is probably a big draw for the zoo right now. The Woodland Park Zoo has Zootunes every summer where they have performers come out and play. We weren’t sure if we were going to be in town but were excited that Trombone Shorty was going to be there on Wednesday (today). Unfortunately, by the time we realized it, the tickets were already sold out. 🙁 We got to see him in New Orleans and he is amazing if you ever get a chance to see him you should go.

IMG_2632IMG_2898

 

IMG_2906IMG_2641

 

IMG_2638IMG_2657

We headed up to Vancouver, BC to visit Darrell’s Grandad and Marie while Darrell attended an IEEE conference. It was a long week, but it was a nice first trip to Canada for Edward. We weren’t sure for awhile if we would be able to go as there were problems getting Edward’s birth certificate so we weren’t going to be able to get his passport without having to spend a lot of money for the expedited one. Luckily, we found out that if you are driving to Canada or Mexico, children don’t need a passport until they are 15 years old. They only need their birth certificates. Yay for us!

We left Seattle on Friday night around 7:30 and got into Vancouver around 10:30. It was quick and fairly pain-less. We crossed the border at the 539 near Aldergrove since it was only slated to be a 5 minute wait and I-5 was slated to be a 45 minute wait. Edward does not do well in his carseat in the car if the car is not moving, plus we would have needed to stop and feed him if we had to tack on another hour to the trip. Grandad & Marie had a nice room waiting for us and Edward slept great the whole time we were there. We got up early on Saturday and headed out to go catch the ferry over to visit Mary & Maurice at their place in Sechelt. It was a blast and they had a gorgeous view. We only stayed there for one night and then headed back to West Vancouver.

Darrell’s conference started on Monday in Downtown Vancouver, so he took the bus to downtown and spent the day down there. It was hard as it was his first long day away from Edward. Before then, the longest he spent away was a few hours when I would head out to do the shopping et al during the week. He was at the conference for 4 days coming back each evening. I took Edward into Downtown Vancouver on Tuesday so Darrell’s co-workers could meet Edward and we could hang out together. Tuesday was the day there wasn’t much that Darrell wanted to do on the conference list, so we had lunch and wandered around for awhile before heading back to go out to dinner with Grandad.

Darrell finished the conference on Thursday afternoon, so we headed back on Thursday so we could get home before any weekend traffic started up. It was fun hanging out with everyone and also seeing Grandad Ross (Great-Grandad to Edward) hang out and spend time with Edward. These are definitely the moments to treasure. 🙂

Ferry Ride/Trip to Sechelt:

IMG_2382IMG_2390

 

IMG_2385IMG_2397

Hanging out with Mary & Maurice:

IMG_2402IMG_2415

IMG_2413IMG_2424

IMG_2441IMG_2631

IMG_2451IMG_2459

At the conference/Downtown Vancouver:

IMG_2515IMG_2517

IMG_2700IMG_2709

IMG_2705

West Vancouver with Grandad & Marie:

IMG_2490IMG_2491

IMG_2628IMG_2650

IMG_2634IMG_2713

IMG_2679IMG_2729

IMG_2660IMG_2716

So I know it has been a little bit since I last posted. (I try, I promise) We have been really, really busy here. Since my last post, we went up to Vancouver, BC to visit Darrell’s Grandad and Marie; We spent a few days hanging out with some of Darrell’s friends from Santa Cruz (one of whom just moved up here so we will spend much more time with her); and went to the zoo for the first time (not last as we just went ahead and bought memberships).

I finally got all of the pictures on the computer again (over 700), so now I just have to sort through them and write up the posts.

My goal is to have the blog caught up in the next couple of days (before Wednesday) as we still have a couple items on our agenda for the remainder of the summer. We are heading up to Athabasca, AB for another one of Darrell’s UCSC friends’ wedding celebration and then we will be heading over to Idaho for one of Darrell’s cousins’ wedding. After these next few trips, I think we will be ready to stay home for a month. Nothing planned again until early October. I should easily be caught up by then.

During all of these trips we are enjoying watching Edward grow and learn. He has the smiling down pat and is slowly working on the laughing. It is a great thing to wake up to every morning!

Gonna run now since it is late, but will work on those posts more this weekend/early week.

Plugin from the creators ofBrindes :: More at PlulzWordpress Plugins