Northwest Vacation 5 of 5

After spending a week with the Caplinger family, we had a couple days left to hang out with my family before heading back to Colorado. It was fairly low key, and a lot of time was spent figuring out how to re-pack everything into our 1 free bag per person, and catching up on laundry. We took a long walk to a park, had a fire on the patio and roasted marshmallows our last night.

Caleb and Doug racing down the slide in Gaston

Is Joel flying out of that tiny slide, or is he stuck?

The tiny slide is a little more Caleb sized

Rachel starring up at the trees on the park bench

Driving the Gaston fire rescue truck/structure with Grandma

Erin and Caleb on the patio at my parents house, with the fire pit going

Caleb's first smore/roasted marshmallow

Caleb is an excellent helper when it comes to husking corn

Up in the old playhouse with Joel, pounding in bolts

Northwest Vacation 4 of 5 - Washington with the Caplingers

Following Rachel's baptism we headed north for almost a week to spend time with Doug's sister's family. We spent a few days doing things around their house in Gig Harbor, a long but fun day at Remlinger Farms, East of Seattle and then a one night camping trip on the Lewis River, in Southwest Washington. Rachel's baptism the day before we left was our first time meeting their new baby boy John, and their first time meeting Rachel. It was great getting to spend so much time watching the 4 cousins together. Caleb and Anna did pretty well together considering they are toddlers, they enjoyed chasing eachother everywhere and having screaming contests.

Jen, Anna, Caleb, Doug and Racel on our first night in Washington, after dinner we went to a pier in Tacoma, we saw some starfish and Caleb and Anna loved chasing eachother

Caleb and Anna on the first ride of the day at Remlinger Farms, an Indian inspired canoe ride, complete with Duck decoys, which Caleb insisted on catching and keeping them in the boat.

The miniature train that went around part of the park, Caleb, who is obsessed with trains was so excited by the steam, the whistle and just about everything, until we had to get off...The poor kid did not understand the concept of going for a ride getting off and going on a different ride, he had a meltdown everytime there was a change of rides.

Posing in a flower, one of many faceless artwork stands in the park

On the miniature ferris wheel, both kids did great even stopping at the top to let other kids on at the bottom you can see them exchanging screams of excitement and laughter. This was the first ride that parents couldn't go on or be right next to them the whole time, but I guess it made me more nervous than them.

Jumping off the straw bales into a giant straw pit, he had a great time running through the maze of stacked straw bales, but that was a little difficult to get photos of

One of probably 5 times that Caleb went on this rollercoaster, by the last time he started putting his hands in the air when we went down hills

Family photo on the old fashioned car ride...lookout Caleb is at the wheel

The four cousins, Anna the goat, John the sheep, Caleb the horse and Rachel the cow

Auntie Jen, helping Caleb feed a goat

Caleb and Anna running laps and racing around the tennis court at John and Jen's house

Racing tricycles down the fairly steep sidewalk around the culdesac, Caleb actually wiped out on this race, and started putting his feet down a little to slow himself down afterwards

Doug going off the rope swing into the Lewis River, with John and Anna watching below

How do you get two high energy toddlers to stay out of your way while setting up camp and making dinner? Portable DVD players and cartoons are amazing things

Rachel and "John Baby" as Caleb calls him, on the bank of the river

Caleb's "say cheese" face

John Baby and Rachel, Rachel is 5 weeks older than John

Full view of the two babes

Caleb riding a wooden horse at John's parents house in Battle Ground

A photo like this is near impossible to get, here is the best one of all four cousins just before parting ways

Northwest Vacation 3 of 5 - Rachel's Baptism

Sorry this third vacation post has taken a while, we have been really busy and I was gathering all the photos from the trip to make sure I put the best ones on the blog. Following our week at the beach we officially made Rachel a member of the church, we were so lucky to be able to have all of my immediate family as well as Doug's immediate family in attendance, what a special day for Rachel to be able to look back on, since she won't remember a thing. We had a private ceremony in the back of the church that Doug and I were married at, unfortunately it was right during nap time, so Rachel was either crabby or a sleep for most of it. Following the ceremony we had a celebration at my parents house with around 50 guests, most of them meeting Rachel for the first time.

Pre-ceremony photo while she is still happy

A close up view of her beautiful dress made by Grandma Janet

Sooooo tired, I don't think she is going to make it

Caleb is not one to pose for pictures, it takes too much time out of running around

The start of the ceremony with Father Bill, Rachel has started crying

Drying off her head after the father, the son and the holy spirit graced her...she stopped crying for this part

After the ceremony with Father Bill, us and Rachel's god parents, Joel and Erin

With my parents and Caleb, who wants badly to escape

With the Brannan side of the family, who all traveled to attend

With her godparents

The VanDyke grandparents, or as Caleb calls them the airplane grandparents, since we have to fly to see them...

Outside, with Grandma Cindy, Rachel is still asleep

With Diane and Grandpa Jim, now she is mad about being passed around

The BBQ celebration/welcoming party afterwards at my parents house

The party started outside, but became an undercover and indoor party as the rain continued to get worse and worse as the evening progressed

Northwest Vacation 2 of 5-The Beach

We spent a great week in Oceanside, Oregon at a wonderful beach house right on the beach, as I said in the last post the weather wasn't as good as we would have liked, but at least the house had great views for storm watching and we were in the heart of the olympics, if you have to stay inside at least there is something good to watch. It was a busy week of playing on the beach, surfing, hiking, crabbing and playing ladder golf (flingy ball) as my brother calls it. Now that we are home, Caleb still talks about running from the water. The only planned thing we didn't get to do was take a charter fishing boat out due to a winter like storm with high wind and seas.

Grandpa with "sunshine and sparky" the first night

Caleb sabotaging the flingy ball game on the deck of the beach house

The vibrant sunset between the arch rocks from the deck our first night

Caleb and I walking on the beach our first morning, which was misty and cool

Grandma with Rachel

Auntie "Rin" and Caleb before he adjusted to the new environment

Erin , me, Caleb and Grandpa running from the waves, Doug is off surfing at this point, but I didn't get a photo

Monday evening, at low tide, Caleb showing grandpa the starfish he found, Caleb is now obsessed with starfish

Tuesday morning we did a 5 mile hike out to the tip of Cape Lookout, just before the big storm hit that cancelled our fishing trip

Doug with Rachel's head growing out of his chest

Grandpa and Caleb inside the trunk of a big tree on the trail

A stop along the trail for some snacks and photos

Our family photo at the end of the hike, Rachel is sleeping, Caleb is really dirty...pretty typical

Caleb with Grandma and Grandpa looking West back toward the beach

Doug and Joel (black spots) surfing out the storm on Wednesday. Happy 29th birthday Doug, perfect surfing conditions... Ha Ha Ha

Late afternoon Wednesday the storm broke and everyone in town ran out to the beach, Doug and Grandpa couldn't build castles fast enough for the "terror on two takedown"

A great action shot of Caleb running through the water

Video of Caleb running from the waves

A funny face contest with Great-Aunt Jeanna at the crabbing trip Thursday

Joel's girlfriend Christine showing Caleb a shore crab which he promptly started to ribbit at, thinking it was a frog...anyone could make that mistake

Now checking out the real crab that you eat, Great-Uncle Mike keeping those pinchers shut tight, we had a great crabbing day with about 30 people and over 100 crab caught and eaten.

Crabbing isn't quite Rachel's thing yet, but cuddling with Grandpa and chewing on her fist is

Our last full day at the beach, and of course the nicest day. A view of the house we stayed in from the beach...The Anenome House

Doug, Caleb, Erin, Joel, Grandma and Grandpa soaking up the sun and playing in the sand

Doug posing with his NASCAR track

Caleb and Auntie Rin running from the waves

Grandpa holding Rachel for her first feet in the sand and water, she was fascinated by the sunlight glimmering on the water ripples

A perfect sunset to end a perfect last day at the beach