Vacation!

Doug and I went to the Washington Coast for the weekend. We left the boys with Ashlee and Konrad. We stayed at the Kalalach Lodge right next to the ocean. It was a pretty good place to stay. They didn't have a TV, phone, internet, microwave, or fridge, things you usually find in a hotel these days. At first we were a little worried what we'd do after dark since there wasn't anything to do outside of the hotel and we didn't bring books or anything to keep us occupied. But we luckily had games in our car, in the stow and go. I ended up being glad we didn't have tv or internet access. While we were there we went to the ocean and saw tidal pools and sea stacks. We also went to the Olympic National Park to the Hoh Rainforest and went hiking there. We also drove through Forks to see the Twilight attractions there and to get lunch on our way to the rain forest. There wasn't really anything exciting to see though, I didn't think. We did see Bella's high school and her truck and a ton of stores. But I really wanted to see a Beware of Vampires sign or something... We did see a Bella shops here sign and I thought that was kind of cool. We went a different way home and stopped by a lake and a waterfall. It was a fun vacation for us. The only thing that would have made it better was if it was warmer. It was so cold the whole time. Luckily we brought our coats. The boys had a great time with Ashlee and Konrad. Jackson didn't want to come home with us and today he wanted to go back to there house. I understand why though. It's more boring here without your cousins to play with. This was the view from out hotel window. One side of the room was just a huge window and we had a deck with a bench on it. I really liked our view.

Doug and I with the ocean behind us.

We went to the tidal pools the first evening we were there. They are small pools of water that are left between rock when the tide goes down. We went to them when the tide was almost at its lowest. It was crazy to think that just a few hours earlier the rocks were under water. We saw a ton of starfish and these green things. There were also a lot of black shells all over (maybe oysters?). We had to do a lot of climbing around on the rocks to see all the tidal pools. The beach we were at are supposed to have the best tidal pools and they were pretty impressive.

We found a sand dollar by the beach by our hotel. Doug had never seen one before and we were happy to find one that was pretty much whole. The cabins behind Doug are the cabins that were right in front of our hotel.

On our way to the Rain Forest we stopped by a giant tree. I think that it was a big Cedar Tree. But I could be wrong... It really was huge though. We could go inside of it.

The Hoh Rain Forest

We saw this bird in a pond on the way to our first hike. We weren't sure what it was. Maybe a pelican? It was pretty much the only wild life we saw which was disappointing. We saw some other birds and some fish but no deer or elk or anything else.

Someone offered to take a picture of us so here we are on a huge fallen down tree. There were a lot of fallen trees in the forest. There were all so big.

A lot of the trees were covered in moss which helped make everything look even more green that it already did.More trees with moss of them

Even more trees with moss on them.

Doug by the Sol Duc River.

This is a creek in the rain forest. There were a lot of them and the water was so clear. It was pretty amazing. We just couldn't believe how clear it was. It looked good enough to drink.

After the Rain Forest we went to see some sea stacks at a beach near us. Sea stacks are rocks that are at least partially covered by water when the tide is high but are just on the beach when the tide is low.

The ocean looked gray when the clouds were over it which was cool to see.

This is Crescent Lake. We stopped by here on our way home. It was so pretty. All the trees around it made it look good. The water was really clear and blue too.

The water was really calm and Doug thought it was prefect for skipping rocks. He's really good and skipping rocks. We did it several times during our trip, and I was lucky to get on skip our of my rocks but he got several skips out of most of his rocks. I have much to learn.

This is Madison Falls. We stopped here on our way home too. There were two waterfalls on our route home and we stopped at another one too but we would have had to hike for an hour and half round trip to see it. And part of it was steep. And we hadn't had lunch and we had a small breakfast so I was kind of hungry... And we thought the Madison Falls looked like they would have less of a hike to get to. So we didn't do the first one. We were right that the Madison falls wouldn't have much of a hike. We only have to walk for about 2 minutes to get there. There were really pretty. I learned that I really like looking at water. I loved watching the ocean, looking at the creeks, rivers, and lakes, and seeing the waterfalls.

We brought Jack and Jordan t-shirts from a rain forest gift shop. Jackson loved them both. Jordan didn't care about either of them. He was excited to see Doug though when we picked them up. He just kind of smiled at me when I came in, but when Doug walked in he said "daddy." It was cute.

Jack's wearing the other shirt we brought home in the picture. I thought they were so cute just reading their books next to each other. They're cute boys. We missed them while we gone.