Whidbey Island

Darcy didn't have school on Monday because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and she also had Tuesday off for some kind of teacher day. We decided to run to my mom's on Monday since we miss being able to do that any time we want. When we got there they were talking about taking a spontaneous trip to Seattle/Whidbey Island that day and the next since Ashley had those two days off also. I really wanted to go with them, but I was having a really hard time convincing Drew that he should come too. He had really good excuses with important meetings at work on Tuesday, but after some real begging on my part he decided to throw caution to the wind and come. So he ran home, packed up all our stuff and met us in Mattawa. We had a late start, with lots of people to organize but it all worked out eventually. I drove our car with Haley and the two babies. We had lots of great conversation (mostly about parenting) and both babies slept the whole way!! It was so awesome. Drew and Brian rode together with Ezra and Matthew who were happy to be together. According to Drew, he and Brian had lots of good conversation too (mostly about business and football). Darcy's wish was granted because she got to ride with my parents and Ashley. Nick and Alyssa had a nice romantic drive just the two of them because they were thinking they had to be back earlier than the rest of us the next day (they ended up staying after all).

We stopped in Northbend at the outlet mall. I honestly had so much fun shopping with my mom, sisters, and Darcy. Darcy had her first taste of shopping with the girls in my family. She loved coming out of the dressing room to have everyone assess her outfits (Especially in her case there was always lots of positive feedback). We found lots of fun stuff and then headed on to our hotel that was closer to the water for the night. The kids fell asleep in the car, but were so excited about being at the hotel that they were awake and hopping for a while again once we got there. We didn't get a whole lot of sleep that night.

We got up early and went down for continental breakfast which was another hit for the kids. Drew ran to WalMart to get a tube to fix our stroller, and then we all headed over to the ferry. I will attempt to tell the rest of the story with a million pictures. It was such an awesome, beautiful day for the middle of January!

 Ezra was so impatient waiting in the car to get on the ferry. He kept telling Drew to, "Just go! Go dad! I wanna go on the boat!" When we finally got to drive onto the ferry he was so excited and had the cutest look on his face.

 Haley, Jase, Brian, and Matthew. We didn't remember the ferry ride being so short. By the time we got everyone out of the cars, got upstairs and took a few pictures it was time to run back down to the cars to get ready to get off. It was soo cold on the way over!

 We had our picture a little farther into the boat where it was slightly warmer. We really struggled to get any good family pictures this whole trip. We were lucky to get a couple people looking at the camera at the same time.

 We drove off the ferry and over the Camp Casey where a few of us had gone for our school's 6th grade field trip. It was cool to be back there and we all decided everything seemed smaller than we remember it. :) Darcy was pretty nervous about being up there on that small catwalk with my dad.

 Ezra was a little nervous about it too, but he was a good sport for his picture with my mom.

 I didn't know where Drew and Parks were for a minute and then my mom pointed them out to me exploring this little tower a little ways away from us.

 Alyssa wasn't sure about coming down from that perch either. :)

 There were big ledges that dropped off way down that about gave me a heart attack with all the little kids running around.

 It was such a beautiful day for pictures. This was probably our best one with only Parks looking the other way.

 Haley and Brian kept showing off with their whole family looking at the camera! :)

 There were a couple deer there that were completely unafraid of us. Ashley and the kids decided to see how close they could get.

 She walked right up to them!

 Jase

 Ashley and my mom

 Drew and Parks

 My mom and dad

 Brian and a little kid I can't identify down by the water. It was a long ways down there!

 My dad spent some time untangling these crazy seaweed things and then whipping them around like the man from snowy river (his hero).

 Parks on the beach

 Ashley found this cute little red heart-shaped rock.

 Ezra spent a lot of happy time throwing rocks into the water and getting his shoes wet.

 Jase and Parks

 Haley and Jase

 Alyssa and Nick

 I loved that the little kids had this big chunk of time to run around and explore. They all did great making it up this big set of stairs and walking around everywhere.

 Our gang

 Darcy and Ezra were so mad about having their picture taken at this point. I struggled to figure out if they needed a lesson in obedience (they were throwing ugly fits) or to be let off the hook. Looking back I would have done it differently, but here is there lesson in obedience. Ha!

 Ashley, Mom, and Dad by the lighthouse

 Darcy was really struggling after that last picture and I really believe she was so tired. She had been running and hiking all over the place and had had far too little sleep the night before. I gave her a biggy-back ride to the car and asked my dad to take our picture. He helped her find her happy place again when he told her he was taking her picture but had the camera pointed the wrong way. Oh Grandpa!

 Then he flipped the camera around and captured her sweet happy face that I love.

 After Camp Casey we went to find somewhere to eat. We drove through this part of Whidbey Island that is the part that has stuck in my memory all these years so I had to take a picture. We ended up finding a cute little Italian place to eat called Ciao. They seated up all upstairs by ourselves which was nice for us, and probably nice for all the other customers. I didn't love my food, but Haley had the same thing and liked it so I guess it just depends on the person. Darcy's mac n cheese was amazing and I think other people liked their food too.

 After lunch we headed over to the cemetery where relative on the Jenne side are buried. Jacob Jenne hass a big secret garden type grave there with a gated entrance. I remember this being really big when I was in 6th grade.

 My great-grandma and great-grandpa Jenne and buried there.

 I loved the descriptions of my great-grandparents.

 After the cemetery we headed back to the ferry. It was much warmer on the way back.

 Alyssa and Nick did a little Titanic reenactment.

 I have tried to get some scenery shots here and there, but for the most part I really prefer pictures with people in them. Of pictures that I have taken this is my first exception. I thought these were really pretty. I took them just as we were driving off the ferry onto the mainland.

 This one is my favorite.

We all drove over to DSW and had a wild time shopping in that big store with our very energetic Ezra. Wow that boy keeps us on our toes!!!!!! (That emphasis was needed Luke.) Parks also soaked through his diaper which was icing on the cake. I think most of us found something good there and then we headed out for dinner. Dinner fell apart because, oddly enough for a Tuesday night, everywhere was packed and had long waits. Our kids were tired and cranky (and so were we) so we split off from everyone and headed to McDonalds which the kids were really happy about. We went through the drive-through and headed home. We drove the 2 1/2 hours to Mattawa to get Drew's car and then the last hour home. I was sure we weren't going to be getting home until midnight so 10:15 seemed pretty decent to me.

I seriously loved this trip.I hope we can do things like this more often.