Spooky Creatures Walk

Tonight Franchi and I took the girls for a little Halloween outing.  A friend had told us about the Spooky Creatures Walk at the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island.  It's an event hosted by the West Sound Wildlife Shelter to promote wildlife education through a walking tour with live animals at various stations.  We signed up for an early tour since the girls wouldn't be able to stay late and we didn't want to be walking in the dark with toddlers.

The other fun part about the event is that kids are encouraged to dress in their Halloween costumes, so it was a perfect "test run" for them.  Here I am with the two girls before the walk - Ruby is a gorilla (this is part of our family costume theme for Halloween) and Valentina is a Navy cheerleader.

Valentina spent most of the evening riding on Franchi's back.  Ruby was in the Ergo carrier for approximately 2 minutes before she wanted out. 

Our tour included about 14 people - kids and adults.  We walked through trails with tour guides who took us from station to station.  There were probably 8 or so stations in all.  Each station had a volunteer with a wild animal from the wildlife shelter.  Although the presenters did a great job at telling us about the animal, Ruby and Valentina weren't really that interested and I often had to pull Ruby aside to keep her from shouting or running around.  This often involved picking up leaves or mulch.

Anyway, the animals were pretty amazing.  Most were birds, but there was also an opossum and a some reptiles.  Oh, and we saw a family of deer grazing nearby.  Anyway, here are a few of the animals:

This is a type of kestrel (a small, female falcon), who cannot fly due to a busted wing.

This is a horrible photo, but was one of my favorites on the tour.  I think it's a northern saw-whet owl (I can't completely remember since I was pretty much chasing after Ruby at this point).  The owl is very, very small (but is full grown) and was found in a local barn with a broken wing.  

This is a barred owl, who was stunning.  I learned that this one only weighs 1.5 pounds, although is looks so much bigger!  Gorgeous!

Second Child Syndrome

I hear it from everyone: the second child never has it as good as the first.  The first one gets all the accolades, the new stuff, the leather-bound baby book with every little detail of his or her first year of life.  Well, the jokes on them because I haven't finished Ruby's baby book (oops).  Seriously though,  I'm already seeing this type of thing happen with our family.  We announced this pregnancy later than we did with our first (much of that was due to morning sickness and just feeling crummy).  With Ruby, I started taking belly photos around 15 weeks, whereas today was the first time I had an actually belly pic taken (I'm almost 19 weeks!).  And this baby doesn't even get a "real" nursery since we'll be moving this summer and we want to keep our guest room as is until then (the baby will be bunking with us).

But, I'm determined to try to fight second child syndrome as much as possible.  I want to celebrate this pregnancy and this growing baby.

I'm starting with the belly photos.  I tried to do them myself today with the tripod outside.  It didn't work out so well.  I was having focusing problems and kept coming out with shots like this:

That's not gonna work (not only is it completely out of focus, but Gunnar snuck in there behind my shoulder).  I was pretty frustrated after several shots like this (it makes me realize how much I have to learn about photography...sigh....someday...).  I had grand aspirations of taking belly photos different outdoor backgrounds, like our yard, nature trails, water, etc.  My idea was sparked from looking at amazing belly photos online.  Pinterest has pins with elaborate chalkboard backgrounds, fancy fonts included with photos, or little signs and notes about the week's progress of the growing baby next to the perfect belly shot.  After looking at these pins and reading some really cool blogs, I started to view that as the standard that I have to keep up with, especially if I want to fight second child syndrome.  In my mind, I start to think that I'm a horrible mother for not making everything picture perfect.  But the reality is that I just can't pull off something like that with the way my life is right now - between work, Ruby, and other commitments, it's just not going to happen.  Still, I can't let life stop me from keeping things special for this baby - like I did with Ruby.  This baby will be celebrated and documented -  I just need to let myself be real and not worry about everything not being perfect.

  

Tomorrow marks the beginning of my 19th week of pregnancy and I was determined to get an 18th week shot (not a blurry one) no matter what.  I have to take the opportunities when they come.  Tonight we planned on visiting Noa at the hospital since he's on call.  I decided it was just going to have to happen at the hospital.  So, on the way out the door, I grabbed my camera and had Noa take photos in the hallway of the Family Practice department.  It was totally not ideal, but to our surprise they didn't come out too bad with the horrible lighting and pale walls.

Here's the official first belly pic at 18, almost 19 weeks!  Boom.  Nailed it! 

Meanwhile, Ruby was running around and laughing.

She recently learned to point to my belly when we ask her, "where's the baby?"  It's pretty cute.  She's blurry in these photos, but you get the idea.

Our visit was short, but sweet.  We brought Noa did favorite fast food (Taco Bell).  Ruby brought her daddy a picture she made today with markers and stickers and then had fun playing around with him a little bit.  I think her favorite part was running up and down the halls into his arms.  This photo makes me melt.  She is so happy.

I'm looking forward to sharing more photos of this pregnancy and talk about the growing baby - even if it's not Pinterest-worthy.  It's special to us and that's what really matters.

Birthday Getaway to Eastern Washington

We celebrated Noa's birthday last weekend with a family road trip to eastern Washington.  Noa was going to travel out that way for a work conference anyway, so we decided to use it as a good excuse to get out to that part of the state since we've been wanting to see it anyway.  Thursday, after we both worked a full day, we all hoped in the car for the five hour drive to Spokane.

Ruby was a pretty happy camper that night, but I think it was because we stopped at Burger King on the way and she had never been there before.  She didn't really eat the food (and really, can you blame her), but she loved the crown.

 It ended up being a long, tiring drive (although I can't complain entirely as Noa did the actual driving), but we made it to our hotel a little after midnight.  We stayed at the beautiful Davenport Tower.

The next morning, Ruby and I spent the next day exploring downtown Spokane while Noa was in his conference.  We spent much of the morning at the Riverfront Park, which was within easy walking distance of the hotel.

One of the highlights in the park is this giant Radio Flyer wagon that has a long slide as the "handle."  Ruby and I did slide down it several times, but it wasn't until later that I was able to get photos. 

Since there are waterways (hence the name of the park), there were several bridges connecting the different parts of the park, but this one was by far her favorite.  She would stomp along the wood planks and threw a leaf or two into the water.  I liked how scenic it was, especially with the clock tower  in the background.

 After exploring the park, we stopped at a few shops, but we ultimately spent the rest of the morning at the downtown shopping center, River Park Square.  We found a toy store and Ruby spent over a half an hour just playing with the train table.  I tried to distract her with other toys, like the dolls and puzzles, but she was content with this.  She was so focused - it was adorable.  Now I need to get her a bigger train track.

Afterwards, we grabbed pizza for lunch.  No, she didn't cut those pieces on her own, but she wanted to.

After our afternoon nap (yes, I took one too), we headed to a playground and Noa ended up meeting us there.  Then it was slide time for the next 30 minutes.  Just the slide - nothing else.  Ruby loved every minute of it and we loved watching her smile and laugh every single ride down.

We took Noa on a little tour of the park since we got to know it so well.  We showed him some of our favorite sites and explored a couple of new ones, like this suspension bridge over the river.

And, of course, we went back to visit the giant wagon with the slide.

We decided to try taking Ruby on the Looff Carousel at the park.  It's a pretty traditional carousel - horses that bob up and down, music, lights, etc.  She seemed pretty interested when we were just standing and watching it, so we decided to try putting her on one of the stationary animals for the ride.  During the ride, Ruby's eyes were as wide as saucers and although she doesn't seem happy in these photos, she LOVED it....

...until it stopped.  And then she had a major meltdown.  She screamed leaving the ride.  She screamed and flailed on the ground outside of the ride.  She cried riding in her stroller.  She was so upset that we decided to forgo dinner out and ordered in instead.  Thankfully, she eventually calmed down and we had a fun evening playing together at the hotel.

The next morning, we checked out of our hotel and drove about 30 minutes away to an area called Green Bluff, where we were told we could find farms with all the traditional fall activities, like apple picking, hay rides, pumpkin patches and the like.  We weren't disappointed.  An easy-to-drive loop takes visitors around to many different farms with lots of fall activities and events.  We stopped at one of the larger farms first called Harvest House and Orchard, where they were hosting a fall festival. 

 The line for the famous pumpkin doughnuts was just too long for us to tackle with a toddler, so instead we had Aebleskivers (Danish Pancake Balls) with huckleberry jam and whipped cream for breakfast.  They were delish!

Next we trotted through the pumpkin "patch" (really just a giant area with lots of pumpkins).  Ruby liked climbing on them and didn't really want to participate in any photos I tried to take, although I really like this cute shot of her and Noa, even if she's not looking at me.

We were most interested in going apple picking.  So, we grabbed a box and a wagon and headed to the orchard to pick Fuji applies (our favorites, Honeycrisp, were sadly all picked already!).

Ruby didn't take long to learn how to pick apples off trees.  First we had to convince her to actually take them off the tree, not from the ground.  Then we had to show her that she had to use a little muscle  to actually get them off the branch.  After that, she was an apple-picking expert.  She seemed to really catch on and loved filling up the box with "her" apples.

Well, truthfully, she also loved the wagon rides around the trees as well.

I grew up picking apples in the fall, so it was so important to me to have Ruby participate in something like this.  I'm really glad it was a fall activity she enjoyed!

Here's our family selfie by the apple tree (I still can't believe Ruby looked at the camera for this) :

After apple picking, we headed back to the car to go to another farm.  This time we chose a smaller farm called Knapp's Family Farm.  We started out at the animal enclosure that had mini horses, donkeys, and geese.  The mini horses were super friendly and Ruby eagerly touched their furry noses.

Then we went to the giant hay pile.  Ruby discovered a new found joy by throwing hay in the air.  I think we may have to buy her a personal hay bale now.

Even more exciting than the hay throwing was the hay maze.  Noa and I were reluctant to even go in it at first, since we were afraid that Ruby may be scared in it.  I mean, she couldn't see over the hay bales, but we decided to give it a try and we were surprised by her reaction.  Ruby laughed loudly and ran through the maze with wild abandon.  There were older kids there that were jumping on top of the bales and she'd stop and watch them in awe.  Then she'd run and laugh.  It was absolutely adorable and nearly impossible to move on to the next thing.

But we did manage to eventually leave the hay maze.  Ruby kept running around.  She looked like our little farm girl as she ran through the open grass.

As we were walking towards the pumpkin patch, Ruby noticed a horse and carriage.  Well, the carriage was real, but the horse was just a statue.  Ruby immediately wanted to go on.  It didn't move or anything special like that.  Literally, it was just a statue of a horse with a carriage behind it.  But she kept pointing at it and moving that way, so Noa climbed up with her into the driver's seat.  Again, this kid surprises us daily.  She was so happy up in that seat.  She didn't want to go down.  Noa, being the good dad that he is, obliged her and sat there for several minutes while she enjoyed being in the carriage.  What a funny kid!

We finally moved on to the pumpkin patch - a real pumpkin patch this time. 

Noa scouted the patch for a pumpkin while Ruby investigated each leaf and every sign of growth (seriously, she kept picking up these half grown, green pumpkins), and I tried to take photos.  We were quite a group.

Noa ended up finding one that Ruby could somewhat handle. 

But on the way to pay for it, she found a pumpkin that she liked better, so we added it to our stash.  We also picked up a couple of spaghetti squash.

After hauling our pumpkins into the car, we set off for the long drive to the Cascade mountains.  On the way, several hours in, we stopped at the Grand Coulee Dam, which interestingly enough we had read about in one of Ruby's board books about Washington.

A fun fact about the GCD is that it is the largest electric power-producing facility in the US.  It also helps with irrigation and flood control of the Columbia River.

They had a nice little visitor's center there with lots of interactive displays.  We had a fun time exploring it with Ruby, although she didn't like waiting for me to read all the placards.  It was a nice break from the car.  

And then, we were on the road again.  After another hour or so, just when we thought we missed apple country, we found ourselves driving through mountainous apple orchards.  They were so interesting since so many of them were growing on the sides of mountains, not just in flat fields.  The sun was just starting to set and it was absolutely beautiful.  I'll admit...I wanted to go and pick some more apples.

A few hours later, we finally made it to our destination: Sun Mountain Lodge.  This year-round resort in Winthrop, WA is pretty awesome.  The main lodge is on top of the mountain and there are also cabins at the base of the mountain which overlook the lake.  The area is abundant with deer, which we saw on our drive up, and they offer lots of outdoor activities, like hiking, biking, skiing (in the winter), horseback riding, fishing, etc.  We got in pretty late and we were starving, so we headed straight to the restaurant with our fingers crossed. You see, by that time Ruby had just about had it with traveling and was getting pretty fussy (it was after her bedtime after all), but we just couldn't go to bed without eating.  Besides the restaurant at the lodge, there weren't many dinner options (remember, we're on top of a mountain).  After a little bit of a wait, they finally seated us and we planned to order, box up the food, and get outta there so that Ruby could go to bed.  We laugh now because Rubes always seems to surprise us. After getting seated, she began playing quietly with her crayons and place mat and then flirted and waved to the people nearby.  When the food came, she ate almost everything, tried to use her fork, and was pretty much perfect dinner company!  So, we ended up having a nice dinner after all and then headed to our cabin to call it a night.

The next morning, we spent a little time exploring the grounds and grabbed a bite to eat.  The area was so beautiful.  Ruby looked like such a big kid, walking around with her backpack on (she's our little traveler!).  I wished we could have stayed longer.

That's our cabin the background!

 Then, once again, we packed up the car.  This time it was to head home.  We drove through the Cascade mountains, which were beautiful.  They did have some snow on them already but we only stopped once in order to get home at a decent hour.

Yes, you can see a bit of a baby bump in the next photo!

Such a fun family trip!  I'm so, so glad we got to see this part of Washington.  Now, we can cross that off of our "To Do/See" list and plan for the next adventure in this beautiful state!