I spent a good deal of time trying to decide if I wanted to hire a photographer for our family photos this year. I even researched photographers in southern CA to do them on our upcoming trip but I never really found someone that was good enough for my standards and within a reasonable price. I decided to just bite the bullet and take our family photos myself. I wanted to go somewhere totally unique and remembered our adventure to the Painted Mines earlier this year. I knew that would be a perfect place where I could get even light and not have to fight big crowds. After procrastinating for several weeks in July I finally picked a day where the weather wasn't too stormy. We got extremely lucky because the afternoon thunderstorm that was projected never happened and when we got to the spot I had planned on doing our photos, another photographer was just finishing up a photo shoot. We had the small cavern to ourselves. The kids were well behaved and we got all the photos we wanted before the light started to fade. I was so relieved to find so many photos that I liked, especially because this family photo would be the one up on our walls for the next 3-4 years while the boys serve missions. I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to take our family photos and the best part was I didn't have to pay a dime to do it!

When I was a child, I loved riding the Seattle Ferries to and from Bainbridge island.  I mean, just look at the photos below. It's one of the great things to do on this Earth. I just love standing out in the wind, watching the city grow bigger and bigger. On clear days, you can see Mt. Rainier and its just perfect. On a beautiful summer day, the Pacific Northwest is the best place to be on the planet. I was so glad we could be there.  

One of my other favorite memories is the Big Country Breakfast at Salish Lodge. I used to go there with my mom. I remember going there with our whole family when Jacob was a baby and my mom gave him whip cream without Kim knowing. It was a great moment. The hot chocolate there is divine. The meal takes 2 hours to get through. By the time you are done, there is nothing to do except sit fat in the foyer of the hotel and take a nap. Sometimes, we'll venture down to see the waterfall, but sometimes, you just sit fat. It's a beautiful thing. If there is a heaven on Earth, then it is breakfast at Salish Lodge. I'm so glad my boys enjoy good food. It makes it a lot easier to plan fun excursions. 

Once we were done, we drove over to the Japanese Gardens. It's always wonderful to just enjoy the peace and quiet of a Japanese garden. We love the winding paths, the ponds, and the stepping stones. It speaks to our love of adventure, exploring unknown paths, and enjoying peace and quiet.

With time winding down before our flight back, we headed back downtown for Ivars one last time. We also took in the Aquarium, which was pretty cool. Again, it was nice to see stuff without a lot of tourists. It made the whole experience a lot better. Once we were done with the Aquarium and eating our fill of clam chowder, cod, shrimp, and fries, we headed back to SeaTac and hopped back down to Denver. It was an incredible trip with some incredible kids. I'm so glad that they are a part of our family.  

Written by Mike
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We woke up in Forks. And yes, they still sell Twilight T-shirts there. We packed up our gear and headed back down the road to the Hoh rainforest, another magical place that never disappoints. While there are grand hikes to be done there, the little nature hikes are pretty great. We are definitely hiking in the woods people. Especially, when it is green and majestic. It's crazy how much more green everything is when you live somewhere that's super dry like Colorado. It's also amazing how being out in the woods brings out the best in the boys. They instantly gravitate to climbing up and down logs, crawling through gutted out trees, balancing out over the water, and enjoying everything that the woods has to offer. It was the perfect morning to be there because it was sunny and warm, instead of cold and rainy.  That is a rare treat in one of the wettest places in the United States.

After the rainforest, we went back to the beach. We headed this time to Rialto beach which is also super cool. When we got there, there was quite a line of cars waiting to park in the parking lot. We witnessed a great moment when some Seattle dad in a minivan, cut around the guy in line in front of him and stole the next parking place. The other car (a Subaru) being driven by a bunch of Millennials (the dude was like 22 and had his toe nails painted) went and talked to the guy and he told them some long story about the rules of parking lots in National Forests and in the end, they just sucked it up. We went and talked to them afterwards to get the full story. It was a fascinating study in Human Behavior. I wish we had it on tape.  

Once we got parked, we walked down to the beach and then over to these little islands that are only accessible during low tide. We tried to climb around to the far side, but the danger factor was pretty high.  I wish we had our kayaks!  It was so much fun to explore the tide pools, walk across the logs and rocks (to get there you had to do a 1/2 mile walk across old logs and rocks, it was so fun!). I really enjoyed watching Peter spring board off this log that was sticking out over the water. It was just a cool place. Too bad we don't have something like that in our backyard!

After we were done at the beach, we drove over to Sequim. We had dinner, and then we stopped by our good friend's house, The Turellas. In case there was any doubt, the Turellas are the coolest people ever and so incredibly talented. They have all these amazing devices to 3-D print stuff, laser cut stuff, and so forth. Their Halloween costumes are unreal and their ability to make cool things super fun. It was really fun to see what they have been up to and just to reconnect with friends from days long past. It was honestly one of the great highlights of the entire trip. Thanks Turellas!

After we left Sequim, we headed over to Bainbridge island to stay near the ferry terminal. We did so much in such a short time.

Written by Mike