Good Times July 2020

When we got home from Fallon, we wanted to stay away from our cohort for a while, just to make sure we weren't bringing any contaminants into the bubble,

so we packed up and went camping for a few days. 

The problem is...I didn't reserve a camp site this year. Covid just made so many things unpredictable, and I never pulled the trigger. 

We made the decision to head over to the Olympic peninsula and try for a first come first serve camp site.

 

We drove and drove and drove. Then we drove up a mountain toward Coho Campground.

About 5 minutes from camp, Evan PUKED all over inside the car.

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Let that sink in. 

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We pulled over and cleaned up the huge mess. 

How do you even clean up something like that? It's liquid. It's everywhere. Suddenly everything is a rag. Pillows. Blankets. Shoes. Lots of things got thrown away for good (like pillows and shoes). 

Anyway. I just hope you've painted a vivid picture in your mind how that went. It went like how you would expect a road trip in 2020 to go. 

Well, it gets worse: There were no open camp sites. Anywhere. 

We were refugees. We were a car full of kids and a dog with no place to lay our heads. 

There was no pay off for the hours in the car. 

All the anticipation of the tent and the camp fire sunk to the bottom of the sea with the rest of ship. 

Sink, sink, sink. 

Everything sunk right down to the bottom. 

We headed down down down the mountain. No campgrounds were available any any anywhere. 

So we chose a hotel that would allow dogs. It was so sad. It was so hard for me to get a grip. 

The night was restless because Koda could not settle.

I did laundry. Evan took a shower. 

But mercy showed up early the next day,

starting with the fact that the entire hotel room full of children and dog slept in until EIGHT OCLOCK.

Mercy.

We packed up and went to explore Ocean Shores, not sure what it would be like...

Mercifully, it was amazing. You could actually drive your car on the beach and park wherever and do whatever.

It was so freeing.

We hesitantly crawled our car on the sand, unsure of what the "rules" were. 

There were no rules.

We parked and played and played. 

And here is the best part of this "best case scenario in a worst case scenario":

As we were playing in the waves, I looked around and decided this could be redeemed if we had a beach fire. All we needed was some wood, and I could run to a nearby campground and buy some.

Then Jim walked a few feet and found a pit dug and a fresh bundle of wood left by someone. 

It was sitting there, waiting for us. 

A gift. 

I just about cried.

We lit a fire and ate our hot dogs and made our s'mores. 

It was SO PERFECT.

Then we drove our refugee car home. 

the end

***

One evening, Gus came to the door and asked if we wanted to join them on a bike ride to the bay.

So of course we joined, and it was one of my top favorite summer evenings so far. 

We rode to the state park campground, and I saw it through the eyes of one who just got done driving 5 hours to a campground that had no vacancy. 

It was more beautiful than I remember it being. 

If I didn't live here, I would drive 5 hours to visit it. 

We stopped at the camp store and bought some ice cream. 

Then we rode back to the beach to watch the sun set. 

Bea was towing their doggie Groot in the bike carriage. 

But then she forgot he was attached to her bike, and she rode up the grass berm...and Groot's carriage tipped and rolled and rolled three times. 

It was so funny. We died laughing. Poor Groot. That dog is so patient with all the shenanigans. But he is hopelessly devoted to Bea, no matter what crazy things she does with him. 

On our way home, we stopped by the Blacks to say hi. They were in bed. haha.

Bailey came out and was Juliet to our Romeo. 

the end

***

We go to the beach one, sometimes two, times a day. 

The kids are getting so brave at jumping from different dock heights.

Lindsay took a lot of these great pics. 

Andrew wore the seaweed and said, "hello ladies". haha.

the end

***

How do I reconcile the desire to have a well trained dog,

and the desire to not have a dog at all?

I don't know. 

But here we are at dog school. We did it. We graduated. 

You have to take a test to show that you know what you're doing. 

A score of 170 passes.

Koda got a 170.

I was mortified. I was NOT READY for the test. I would like a redo.

And I have redone the test on my street multiple times, and I feel better about her abilities. 

Either way we are heading into advanced off leash training in a month. 

If you ever lose your mind and get a dog: get a prong collar. It will change your life. 

the end

***

a mountain/Kelli selfie

an Andrew/Jessica selfie

the end

Monte Cristo and More

One day, met The Blacks up at Monte Cristo. 

They stayed the night there, and we brought our dumb bikes and our dumb dog and it was insane and poor planning and one dog is crazy, but two dogs is just unmanageable. 

But at the literal end of the day, when we got home from the full day of wrangling near the mendoza line,

we decided that we would still rather go out and adventure 

than not. 

About four miles in there is an old mining ghost town. 

It was so neat. 

I sat and ate celery and peanut butter. And shared it with Koda. 

On our way back, exhausted,

we stopped at a restaurant and ate and it was so fun and we licked the plates clean. 

It was a good ending.

Here's what else has been going on around here: 

This summer is just WEIRD. 

It's great, but so weird. Much like this weird world we are living in.

We just do the same delightful things round and round

with our delightful bubble of covid friends. 

One day we were invited over to the Blacks for a "craft day".

Hunter "invented" it as a holiday.

But it was so great because the kids entered the room with tables filled, and they began creating. 

There was no instructions or guidance...and they were busy for hours. 

Bikes. Pump track.

Fishing with the young men.

Oh yeah, this.

One day the kids were by the dock swimming, and I let Koda play around in the water by the beach, and then she started swimming out to the kids.

When she got to them, she tried climbing on them, so I had to jump in the water fully clothed and "save" Koda and Avery. 

One rainy Saturday, Jim and Joe took the boys and the dogs up to Galbraith and got super muddy on the trails. 

Trail run. 

Well. I have more to talk about in July, but I need to upload more pictures and stuff and that might take another week. 

So I will push publish on this masterpiece now. 

But before I go:

Have you ever heard the term "salad days", as in:

"Well it looks like my salad days are over."?

Jim just used that expression, and I had never heard it, so I looked it up and it just delights me that he knows this phrase and we have been married for 18 years, and I've never heard it before.