Our grand Olympic Mecca....Hoh Yes!

Our first family vacation of the year was to the Olympic Penninsula. And if you are thinking to yourself, "hey, that is the setting for 'Twilight', I wonder if they went to some of the places in the book" then my answer, after laughing self-consciously, is "of course not, do you think I am obsessed or something?" (pssstt...just wait for an upcoming blog post).

But really, we stayed in Port Angeles at this great hotel (we highly recommend the Olympic Lodge-- it was awesome!). This was our first hotel stay with a baby, and because we don't usually go to sleep at 7:00 like Anna, we ended up dragging our pillows and blankets into the bathroom and watching movies on our computer and eating lots and lots of candy and popcorn.

We spent most of our time during the day in Olympic National Park. We didn't have specific plans each day, so we took our time to stop and see anything that sparked our interest. This time, it was a baby dear and its mama.......

the deer and the doe were quite cute too :)

both Richard and I were kind of tired, and we thought that Anna needed to start pulling her weight, so we let her drive for awhile. She had a hard time keeping her eyes on the road though.
Anna couldn't reach the pedals, so her daddy helped her out with that one.
"excuse me, could we hurry it up here? I've got some milk to get home to!"
Richard really wanted to see the only rain forest in the United States. In an effort to save time I tried to convince him that he didn't need to shower because we were going to a rain forest. It did not rain the entire time we were there.

Anna liked the huge trees. This one was a 270 foot sitka spruce.
The happy family.
Anna is really liking textures right now. She wants to feel (and then eat) everything.

Baby backpacks are awesome. I wish I could ride in style like that.
This giant tree was just laying on the beach at La Push. I can't even imagine how huge it must have been in its heyday.
Despite the rumors about Washington, and the Olympic Penninsula in general being the rainiest part of the entire contiguous United States, it was sunny the entire time we were there.

The most beautiful part of the trip was the last day when we walked around Crescent Lake. The air was still, so that the water did not even ripple the whole morning. I have heard of lakes being "like glass" but this was my first experience.

Days like that make me think "Thank you Heavenly Father for making the earth so beautiful"
this lake is deeper than the height of the 47-story Wells Fargo Center, where Richard works. The water was very clear and it kind of gave me the heebie jeebies to see how it just kept going down and down.
Anna was in her proper form-- ragdoll mode.
This lake is just three hours away from Seattle, and possibly one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited in my life.
I know that Anna will not remember this trip, so it will have to be enough to have pictures to show her someday. We want her to see beautiful things all around her.

passed out.
Our picnic by the lake was a fitting end to our weekend adventure. It was like a scene from "the Last of the Mohicans" I half expected Daniel Day Lewis or Pocahontas to come kayaking down to the shore.


Some visitors came to join us.
Their names were Hughey and Louie. Dewey had a lunch appointment elsewhere

Anna loved these new "friends"

And yes, there might have been a few "Twilight" stops for curiosity sake only.....at least, that is what I tell myself.