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First day of school.

Christmas in July

Well snow in July anyway. This are pictures of Jackson's first snow experience at the top of Mt. Baker. His comment on it, "It's cold!" We enjoyed introducing him to sledding and snow ball fighting.

Jack's first gig

Jackson loved playing around in Joe's massive music room. Here he's singing along with Joe on the mic. Of course as soon as I turn on the camera he becomes shy, but here's a little taste anyways.

We left the San Juans to travel around the Olympic Peninsula. Unfortunately, there was a storm that rolled in and our views of the Olympic range were not to be found. Here are some of the beautiful wildflowers from along the roadside, though.



















We drove over to the coast before heading down to Portland, OR.

A Whale of a Tale!

We also went whale watching in the San Juans. It was a perfectly clear day as you can see in the picture with Mt. Baker in the background.

Lavender Fields Forever

On Orcas Island we went to a Lavender field and hiked up to Mount Constitution.

We decided to try our luck at crabbing for dungeness off the boardwalk. It was a spontaneous adventure which we were barely prepared for, but somehow we managed to get all the proper preparations together. We had about 2 hours to try our luck and we did finally catch one keeper!!! Jackson had a great time announcing to passers by what was in our bucket. Back at the house we had a regular Northwest feast with our one dungeness, halibut, salmon, and huge sea scallops. Yum yum!!

We hit the Saturday market in Bellingham where Jackson got his face painted like a tiger. After our glorious shopping adventure we visited Boulevard Park on Bellingham Bay. Rainy showed Jackson how to hunt for tiny crabs in the rocks.

Another clear day for our paddle back. Half way through the paddle Jackson needed to cuddle. He slept like this on my shoulder for an hour and a half while Joe and Storm towed the kayak with the canoe.

The weather was perfect on day 2 for a hike on the trail that follows the east edge of the lake. It was a clear day to see all the views of the peaks surrounding us. We hiked 5 miles to a beautiful waterfall. On the return we stopped by one of the campgrounds that had a dock and went for a swim. Jackson was both fascinated and disturbed by the little fish swimming around his legs that occasionally tried to nibble. The sun was hot and the water was freezing. Back at our campsite we hit the swimming hole again for another brisk dip. Great day!

Here's some photos from the first part of our Washington trip where we are visiting Joe's cousin, Storm. We explored the North Cascades National Park for 3 days. The weather was excellent for our canoe/kayak paddle of 10 miles up the lake to our campsite. Just a little overcast, but the wind helped push us along the 4 hour paddle. Jackson did a great job on the canoe. We kept him occupied with goldfish and he was very excited about the campsite. There was a lot to explore on the little peninsula where we stayed for 2 nights. There was a great swimming hole on one side, a huge pile of drift wood to climb on the other side, some other camper neighbors to say hello to (he loved that!), rocks to throw in the lake, and big sticks for kung fu!! We had a deer visit our campsite on the first night. We were a little nervous about just how close he was going to get, but all is well. He did not pass the clothesline. The overcast clouds starting clearing right at sunset to give us a glimpse of the snowy peaks surrounding the lake.

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Gotcha

ssshhhh

booo!!!

nature boy

looking for frogs

time warp

magic carpet ride