Friday Harbor, San Juan Island

We got to go on multiple adventures with our good friends Ashley and Nate and their 2 daughters Paige and Kate. The first day they drove down to the Great Wolf Lodge and we got to play in the waterpark all day! "We were pretty much exhausted by the end of the day, but it was a lot of fun." (From Ashley's Blog)

Breanna was so much more excited this time then last time. She was swimming around like crazy (with a life jacket on) and going down the little slides and having a blast. Ethan was 100% more excited then last time. Last time he cried pretty much the whole time. This time he pretty much laughed, squealed, and screamed with excitement. He would put his face in the water, thought floating on his back was hilarious, and was a HANDFUL! Man, he wanted to go everywhere and do everything. He wanted to walk quickly around (very slippery - lots of falls) and just be a big kid. Rob and I took turns, but it was ALOT of work with these 2 kiddos, but they were so happy that it made it so much fun. I couldn't believe it either, Ethan took a nap in the waterpark (only 30 min.) but he was utterly exhausted from all the action.

Then the next morning we all went to the Space Needle. It was great, free tickets, but we have never seen such a big line, we had to wait forever to get up the elevator. There must have been some big event in Seattle that day b/c it was crowded everywhere!


"After the Space Needle, we headed straight for Anacortes, WA to hop on the ferry to San Juan Island. We had perfect weather the whole time and it was a great trip." (From Ashely's Blog)

Ferry rides are great for trips b/c the kiddos don't have to be seated/strapped. They are free to burn energy and have fun. We cruised over to San Juan Island and went out to dinner that night. The table next to us was full of older folks probably 15 of them and thank goodness they were loud, b/c our kids were ridiculous! Breanna was jumping up and down in the booth, playing games with Paige and Ethan, he was in a league of his own. He was trying to get knives, forks, crayons, all in his mouth, or banging on the table. He cried every time we took something away and when we wouldn't let him dump full cups of water all over the place :) Rob and I took turns taking him on walks outside the restaurant, which was right by the water and beautiful dock area. Thanks Nate and Ashley for taking us out, but next time, lets go without the kiddos :)

We went to bed after Rob wore the kids out even more by racing up and down the docks with them. The dock also had a cool aquarium with lots of things to look at. The kids went to bed really easy b/c it was 10:45 and they were exhausted (even though we were all the in the same room together).

Then next day we drove around the whole island and explored. We went to a lighthouse on a little hike, explored some lavender farms, saw a winery, flew kites and saw WHALES and a sea otter!

Rob did a campfire on the last beach we went to and Breanna was in heaven learning how to hold a stick to roast a marshmallow. She was so proud when it would get a tiny bit brown. Rob hung out with her while I kept Ethan away from the fire....not fun!! He was devastated that he couldn't be part of the action. But, I ended up driving him around so he could get a much needed nap (at 5:30PM) since he didn't take one the rest of the day!

We had such a fun adventure! We barely made it to the ferry on the way home, but made it in time to take the 7pm ferry home, which got us home (after a 2 1/2 hour drive from the ferry) at 11pm.

We were so glad to see our friends and have fun with their family! Fun times!