Going camping

In preparation for our trip to Seattle, we spent a large portion of our REI dividend on important things like sunglasses, harness, rain coats, and swim suits for Small People. Still didn't manage to spend it all, but since we seem to have already lost her sunglasses, I'm sure we'll get around to it. Or course, she then had to spend the next couple days *wearing* her swim suit.

The flight out was pretty uneventful - lollipops are a great distraction for takeoff and landing. She even knows that she has to wait until the seatbelt sign goes off, although that final taxi in to the airport is a bit much for wiggly-squiggly. We then picked up grandma, tucked Isabella into her car seat (where she promptly fell asleep) and drove up to Aunt Barb's.

Isabella wasn't too keen on Keisha, the little dog, unless said doggie was lying down and not moving. Spent lots of time carrying her around because she was terrified of a dog that came up to her knees . Isabella did enjoy have a "PJ party" with grandma - the best part being that I didn't get kicked all night long!

It was actually *hot* in Seattle so we went down to the lake for a bit of water in buckets and sand. She was very intrigued 

by the kayaks, and not too happy about getting really splashed. But poring water out of buckets and throwing rocks was a real plus. We then went to pick up Dad from the airport - of course, Isabella fell asleep on the way down there...

The next day we went to visit friends while Grandma took Isabella to the children's museum. That was a big hit! She's still asking to go again, and seems to think Grandma should be at all children's museums :). 

The next day we spent a few minutes in downtown Seattle - we were going to go to the aquarium, but Isabella didn't want to go and it was rather expensive. So we settled on riding the carousel  at the pier a few times. I think she spotted it before we even got in the building...

We had one minor glitch on the way out - Magick the doggie knocked the truck out gear, and we ended up sitting on the freeway for a while until we figured out what happened. I thought Isabella would be not too keen on the car seat, but she had plenty of entertainment and seemed quite happy to be there. I bought some silly putty on a whim - best $1.50 I've spent in a while! Although poor Nana had to keep taking the dog hair out every time it got dropped on the floor...

We spent the first day and a half at the beach, which had rocks to throw, water, sand castles to step on, tree logs to walk along... the campground started out pretty empty, but was starting to fill up 

the next day. It was a bit cold, so we had a fire going most of the time. 

The next day we decided to drive all the way through to the next place and just stay there. Said place had a hot spring - we spent part of a morning splashing around in the wading pool. Isabella was happily imitating a little girl who was a bit older than her - walking on her arms in the water and climbing in and out of the pool. 

We went on one mostly flat hike from the campground to the falls, a good 6-7 miles round trip. Isabella hiked a good 2-3 miles of that mostly on her own. She loved jumping up and down the "stair steps" made out of logs. I think she jumped on, or over, everything in the train. On the way back down she discovered running ahead, hiding behind a tree, then jumping out and saying "boo".  

She also enjoyed helping to build the fire and petting Magic. She seemed quite fine with him running around and just going up and petting him. She "helped" take him for a walk several times - which involved a dance of holding onto the middle of the leash while keeping Magic from wrapping said leash around everyone. 

She's a bit fearless - we went over a couple narrow bridges and up a steep hill on one hike. She did it all by herself. The trick was to keep her from *running* back down the steep hill.

There were a couple deer that stopped for dinner right near our campsite the first night. We spent a long time looking at them, and she kept wanting to go see them again.

We also went for a longer walk up to Mink lake, which was covered in snow. She had a harder time walking on that one because it was so steep. She did enjoy throwing snowballs at anyone and everything, although the very large spider that landed on her while she was in the backpack did not go down well.

We went up to the top of Hurricane ridge where there was plenty of snow. We have lots of pictures of wide-open mouth - seems to have replaced the "cheese" smile. Somehow she managed to get a pine needle in her underwear, which led to some unhappiness. "A tree in my underwear, that's silly!"

She didn't sleep so well in the tent - it was hard to keep her in her sleeping bag and on the thermarest, so I think she mostly got cold. So she'd end up sleeping on *my* thermarest, and there really wasn't enough space for all three of us. Nana kindly volunteered to take her in the camper, where she slept much, much better, as did Dad, who also decided to sleep in the camper (which was warmer).