Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Finally Camping!!



I love camping. I really do. I’m pretty sure. Which is why I was willing, excited even, to come home from my three week Seattle trip, spend one night in my bed and then set out on some camping fun at nearby Eklutna Lake.

With 3 kids, we are very blessed to have our super dee duper white trash motor home for our camping needs. It matters not that it has pink shag carpeting, a broken refrigerator and a colossal plumbing leak somewhere. It also matters not that he often needs some mechanical work done or that something weird leaks antifreeze onto the floor in the passenger seat.

We call him Rory and he is a member of our family slash fantastic yard art.

Rory has been broken for over a year though. Being a measly woman, I have no idea what was actually wrong with him, only that he sounded like an old man dying of a wasting disease whenever we fired him up. At the beginning of this summer though, we finally got that fixed thanks to our trusty new mechanic named Steve.

I thought all I ever needed from Rory was for him to drive us from point A to point B without dying. I don’t need a refrigerator or a shower, just engine reliability. As it turns out thought, there is one other thing I need.

Leak resistance.

I’m not even asking for leak proof. Just resistance. That way, when we start driving up the hill from our house, the flooded upper bunk doesn’t cascade rusty, nasty, foul water on all the unsuspecting passengers riding at the dining room table. It would also keep me from getting viciously motion sick as I flittered from one side to the other mopping up waterfalls and stuffing ENTIRE paper towel rolls into cracks and crevices to contain the deluge.

I’m just saying.

Anyhoo, back to camping.

We drove out about an hour to Eklutna Lake to meet friends. We camped, we canoed, we chatted, laughed and yelled at our kids. We made S’mores (with peanut butter cups, hello) we roasted hot dogs, caught inch worms, saw bears and sat around the campfire in the rain.



The lake was a short drive across the campground from our site.


It was beautiful!


The water level was extremely low so there was a bit of a hike from the truck to the shore.


My Bubba.


Exploring through marsh grass.


Finding rocks on the beach.


Seriously? Awesome Sauce.


My Doobie Baby.


This is my friend Lucy. She just had a baby. She’s just out camping. Lucy is the incredibly talented force behind LUMA Threads and she makes all the fantabulous hats for my photography business.


Heading out!


Aaannnd, heading back in. Too windy to control the canoe with three worthless helpers.


But nothing can stop their fun!


Perfectly content to sit on the beach with oars.


My Bugaroo


Love this turkey.


And this one.


Also this one.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Seattle Aquarium

Still plugging away at blogging these Seattle adventures!



One of the things we did was visit the Seattle Aquarium. The last time we’d been there, Jake was this small:


My friend Jenn and her husband and son met us downtown for some aquarium fun and we were pleasantly surprised to see that it had been hugely expanded. Well, I was surprised. Jenn’s family comes quite often with their family pass. Speaking of the family pass, we were able to get us all in for FREE! Which was awesome because it would have cost my family about $60 to get in. I kind of ruined the blessing by getting a $40 parking ticket though...


Right as you walk in you see a huge 2 story wall of water full of fish. This was new. And awesome.


The “dome” is really the highlight of the whole experience and we arrived just in time for the feeding show. Neat.






We goofed off a little bit near the otter and seal exhibits.


Posing and stuff.





Jenn’s sunglasses were a big hit.



The Daane family. Jenn and I used to teach dance together. She’s from Alaska. She moved to Seattle and then I moved to Alaska. Weird.


We topped the day off with some ice cream. My kids are not awesome at eating ice cream. So LJ gave us some tips.


Also Doobie has a big bonk on his noggin.


Three J’s and one LJ tearing up Seattle.


We had a wonderful day!

A Day At The Park


One of the things we do a lot of when we are in Washington is visit local parks. We love playgrounds. Also we love sunshine. This is a small little park near my parents house that we don’t visit often because there is a huge park just a couple miles away. But this little local park was recently enlarged and we had to check out the new fun stuff. It is now, officially, a Powers kid fave.





Zoomania

This was actually one of the first things we did upon our arrival in Seattle but the sheer quantity of photos I took deterred me from blogging it promptly. Especially since my laptop can only handle uploading one photo at a time. But now I’m home and it’s time to get this one in the books.


Promptly upon our arrival in Seattle, my bestie Kelly and I took my kids to the zoo. She was visiting from San Diego and we had only an evening and a day to catch up on four years of not hanging out. We started out with dinner the night before with some other friends at a Mexican restaurant. The next day was “Rachelle and Kelly Day!” and we took my kids to the Woodland Park Zoo. I love the zoo.

In the words of my absolute favorite photographer ever, Jasmine Star, "sheep just don’t do it for me." Loosely translated, it means, I don’t enjoy taking photos of things. I need people. So in this case, lions and tigers and bears just didn’t do it for me. So, there aren’t many pictures of animals. Well, at least not the type you may be thinking of. *smirk*



Entering the rainforest.


What a GLORIOUS day!


Being spiders on the spider web.


Walking and navigating with the zoo map.


Some giraffes.



I'm a hip-hop-opotamus.


Some crazy monkeys


Resting near the lion cage.


Yoga break.


Yay! Elephant.


Staring at the elephants.


A whole zoo of fascinating animals and we got sidetracked by ANTS.


Visiting with a monkey.









It was a really big day.

The following is a little montage I like to call, "Auntie Kelly Points At Stuff."