Mt. Rainier National Park & Seattle

Cameron and I took a trip to Washington! We started with a couple of days in Mt. Rainier National Park hiking then headed to Seattle. Neither of us had ever been to Seattle, and we'd always wanted to visit. Also, one of Cameron's best friends Brendan Blake lives there ad we wanted to spend time with them.

We started with an early morning flight and went straight to Mt. Rainier National Park. I don't know what I was thinking, but when I planned this trip I wasn't aware that there would be snow at all. About a week before the trip while I was doing final research, I realized the first hike we were planning to do was still about 90% snow. And the second day I had planned in the Sunset area had to completely be canceled because the roads are still closed. We decided to still go for it and bought poles and crampons so we could do the Skyline Loop the first day like we planned.

It was incredible! We're so glad we did it. The snow made it feel extra adventurous and we loved it.

Saw a fair amount of marmots!

Ironically, we never actually saw Mt. Rainier itself the whole time we were in the park--it was covered by fog. But we were really close to it here!

Going down the glaciers/snow was tricky. We eventually decided to slide down on our bums on a few sketchy parts. It was so fun and soooo cold.

We were so cold and hungry and wet by the end. We had so much fun! But we sure enjoyed that warm dinner at the Paradise Inn after.

This doesn't really capture it, but the Paradise Inn was so cool. This was the main hangout area. Very cozy with huge fireplaces, people playing cards, reading books, etc.

Such a pretty Inn

Day 2 began with an easy hike to Bench and Snow Lakes.

The views were incredible!

Narada Falls

The second hike we did on day 2 was the Rampart Ridge Loop. We were pretty tired at this point and this hike was more of a climb than we anticipated, but it was gorgeous. It was in the Longmire area (lower elevation) so we got the break we needed from snow.

We drove into Seattle late night of day 2, and explored Seattle starting day 3. We went to the Chihuly Museum and actually loved it.

Walked up to Kerry Park for gorgeous views of the city.

Did a food tour at Pike Place. The chowder was our favorite! The tour leader and a little too much razzle for Cameron, but it was otherwise great.

We walked through the Capitol Hill area on our way to dinner and--wow--some really interesting characters made for some great people watching. We met up at a yummy Vietnamese Restaurant with Brendan and Briana and had a great dinner that night.

We met up with Briana and Brendan for a morning at the beach the next morning.We went to Golden Gardens Park and loved getting to know their girls Nell and Laurel.

Brendan took us on a great bike ride through Ballard, Fremont, Gas Works Park (pictured here, such a cool spot!), and University of Washington campus.

View of Seattle from Gas Works Park

Brendan took us to see the Ballard Locks and Fish Ladder

We chilled in Ballard and explored. It ended up being our favorite area. Lots of fun shops. Also--no shortage of far left signs all over the city. :)

We hung out near Pike Place by the water that night. It was the most beautiful night. I know everyone says it rains a lot in Seattle, but we had basically perfect weather our whole time there! 

Our last morning we had a fun breakfast with Brendan and Laurel. I there realized I'd left my phone in our uber that morning and frantically spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how to get it back. (It all worked out and our driver brought it back to our hotel.) We still made it to the farmers market in Ballard and absolutely loved it. Coolest farmers market we've ever been too. We got berries, jam, and delicious Indian and Mediterranean for lunch. We visited Brendan and Briana for a bit at their house then Brendan took us to the airport. Overall it was a wonderful trip! We loved getting to explore a new city and part of the world.

Costa Rica, Part 2

We headed to the beach for the second half of our trip! We rented an incredible beach house near Tamarindo. We had a long drive there from Fortuna, so we stopped for some river tubing at Rio Celeste. 

It was hilarious and we had a blast. It felt like bumper tubes. The water was somewhat low so we hit our bums on rocks a million times and the workers had to work hard to keep us going and get us unstuck a lot. It was super fun and one of everyone's favorite activities of the trip.

You can't see it here, but this is at the end of the ride when many of us jumped into the water with a rope swing. So fun! Violet and Davis weren't up for it--maybe next time.

The drive was long to Tamarindo and our house ended up being more remote than we realized. But--the house itself was incredible. The kids basically lived in the pool.

We went to the beach every afternoon to try to cool off. Tamarindo in April is HOT. Like, unbearably hot. But the ocean was super pleasant and the boogie boarding was amazing.

Dinner in Tamarindo. We attempted the night market first and quickly realized we needed to sit down and be served. Also, the night market freaked our kids out a bit for some reason.

We did a fun estuary tour out of Tamarindo and loved it. Saw lots of cool animals!

Violet's tooth was very loose at the beginning of the boat ride...

And then she lost her tooth! She threw it at an alligator after and now has an epic tooth-losing story. No one in her class believes her that she threw her lost tooth at an alligator in Costa Rica. I think her new smile is just about the cutest thing ever. We still have a lazy tooth fairy in our family who has yet to make a visit to Violet.

Iguanas

Lots of gators!

More iguanas. We saw lots of cool birds too. We also got off the boat to visit some howler monkeys.

We got to visit a super nice beach club as an amenity for our beach house. It was so fun. We hung out there a couple of different nights after the pool.

Amazing sunsets.

The kids were always hunting for hermit crabs and other wildlife.

Buckets full of hermit crabs.

This gigantic grasshopper landed in the backyard one night and the little boys were in heaven. (Until Cooper and Davis found its leg in the yard the next day and were very worried about it. I overheard their discussion about it and it was very cute.)

BFFs hanging out in a cabana at the house.

Lunch at Lola's

Group shop in our matching apparel

Lindsey bailed on our swimsuit after pictures so she wasn't invited to this picture. Turns out it was actually a tricky suit to boogie board in and I ended up showing a lot of skin as I would tumble in the waves haha. Not pictured is the time I took a serious tumble and lost my expensive sunglasses in the ocean. And by some miracle Avery found them by her feet.

Everyone had a blast boogie boarding.

Beach club shenanigans with Uncle Jason

I went for a walk one morning and heard howler monkeys yelling at me! 

This guy was a full-blown stinker by this point in the trip. (Maybe the whole trip?) I think he was pretty tired. I was also super stressed at the house about him drowning. We had rules set up to keep him safe but I was pretty stressed, especially the first day or two.

Our last day decided to rent a private boat and go out on the water. It was a blast and such a nice break from the scorching Tamarindo heat.

Living my best life.

We loved hanging out, drinking unlimited drinks (the kids loved pina coladas), and looking for dolphins and sea snakes. We ended up seeing a ton of both! It was magical.

We headed to a private beach for exploring, playing in the water, and snorkeling.

Max and Cameron swam from the boat to the beach. Not pictured--the snorkeling at the beach was actually pretty good. But Violet and I ended up in shallow water with a bunch of sea urchins. She was super frantic and I was actually quite stressed too. 

They fed us dinner on the boat.

The kids kept this bartender very busy.

The prettiest sunset on the way home.

Lots of foot tickling when you were sitting up here.

Love this group so much and so grateful for this magical time we got to spend in Costa Rica together. It was the best trip.