Today we took the kids hiking through Lund’s Gulch which is encompassed in Meadowdale Beach Park. The park entrance is only about a half mile from our house and the kids and I have actually been running alongside the park for a few weeks.
Aerial view of the park
The hike is on a wide gravel trail that leads down from the rather busy parking lot to a small playfield/picnic area and usually beach access. You drop about 400 feet over 1.25 miles as you descend into the gulch. Most of the trail is pretty moderate with a few steep sections, some of which have stairs. The kids managed to walk the whole way down, but rode pretty much the whole way up. Luckily they were fully rested when we got to the top (more than I can say for Amber and I) so they found the energy to swing and climb on the play structure.
Running down the hill. Lots of energy at the start.
Wesley and Jillian in front of a Douglas Fir on the trail.
Stairs on the steepest portion of the trail.
Amber looking beautiful as usual.
Wesley climbing what he named the "Monkey tree".
The trail is shaded most of the way and follows, more or less, the path of the creek. This time of year there are lots of different plants growing along the trail. We had to have a talk about stinging nettles. I’m sure it won’t be our last.
Bleeding Heart. These were everywhere.
A new fern.
Horse Tails. The trail was mostly dry but surrounding areas were damp.
Holding hands to keep them moving.
Almost at the bottom, Jillian decides she will go no more.
The face of passive resistance.
At the bottom, just past the ranger’s residence, we took a little break at one of several picnic tables and ate some granola bars and cooled off with some water. Jillian picked flowers and Wesley and I played Frisbee.
Even though the beach access is currently closed it didn’t stop a lot of people from climbing under, over or around the fence and heading down there anyway. We decided not to since it was closed to protect the salmon in the stream. What amazed me most is the number of people who got to the bottom and seemed surprised that it was closed. This despite the fact that it has been closed for months and the dozen or so signs at the trail head. It should open in June as they are able to dredge some of the creek without hurting the salmon. Upstream development has caused it to silt up to the point that they had to remove the trail under the train tracks that leads to the beach.
On the way back up the trail Jillian rode in the Ergo on Amber’s back. I carried the backpack and Wesley on my shoulders. We still passed a bunch of people, but boy was I sweaty. The kids were well rested and enjoyed swinging and climbing on this cool toy.
Hanging out in the "spider's web".
Hi Dad!!!!!
We had a very busy week celebrating Easter.
It started off on Sunday 3/28. We went to my mom’s house where Aunt Ashley and Grams put on quiet the spread. The their Easter buckets were overflowing with books, candy and toys.
Then on Wednesday Grams and Auntie Ashely came to play and decorated cookies with us.
All of our yummy cookies.
The day before Easter we did our Easter egg coloring. It was nice to have an extra adult to help the kids. Ashley worked with Wesley and I got to work with Jillian. Joshua did a great job documenting the process.
All set up.
- Hands…nothing gets eggs out of dye better.
We wanted to share the experience with Redmond too, so Joshua gave him a peeled egg.
But he is not sure what to do with it.
The kids broke open the egg and tried to force feed Redmond.
Easter morning the kids woke up around 8. That never happens during the week…
Easter baskets were waiting for them at the table.
Then we put boots on and started our search for the 3 dozen eggs.
We got more pictures of Jillian because she searched pretty slowly.
Look how full his basket is!
Then after all the eggs were accounted for, we got ready to drive up to Sedro-Woolley to spend the day with family.
Our first stop was at Grandpa Geoff’s house. No actual “Easter” celebrating went on – but we had a great time exploring the property.
- Joshua found a baby snake.
I was so inspired by how brave Jillian was, that I held the baby snake too.
Then we found this big one. We thought is was just cold, but after we left Geoff told us that is had died. Poor thing.
Photo by Wesley.
Then we went to Yaya and Papa’s house. The bunny left quiet the spread for these little bunnies.
Let the egg hunt begin!
Wesley gets his paper mache dinosaur egg open by using the fire hydrant to smash it.
Jillian saw what success Wesley had, so she tried to do it herself.
Got it!
Playing with the toys from inside the dino egg.
We had such a wonderful day. This is our first holiday back home in Washington. It sure felt good to see the kids with all of the family!!!
Tags: Adrianne, Amber, Ashley, Dave, Easter2010, Family, Geoff, Holiday, Jillian, Joshua, kathleen, Susie, Wesley
Last days in Austin and first ones in Washington:
- Joshua and I signed the paperwork to close on selling our house on Monday the 15th.
- Joshua left that afternoon with the truck & the kids and I stayed at Mary Anne’s that night.
- Early Tuesday the kids and I flew out of Austin and arrived in Sedro-Woolley around 6. The kids did great on the plane and in the car.
- Wednesday the 17th went house hunting in Edmonds with my Mom and the kids. We looked at 2 houses. I liked one and wanted Joshua to look at it too when he got in.
- Thursday the 18th Joshua gets into Sedro-Woolley around noon. He made such great time. Redmond was great for Joshua in the truck. He mostly just slept. After Joshua took a nice long (much needed) shower, we dropped the kids off with Kathleen and looked at the house I liked from Wednesday. It is a good thing I let Joshua see it. It was really bad. I don’t know why I liked it on Wednesday, but Joshua and I decided it was not a good place. We drove around town and got fliers and phone numbers.
- Friday the 19th all 4 of us drove down to Edmonds/Lynnwood to look at 4 houses. We liked the 1st and the 3rd houses. We drove back to Sedro-Woolley and I started emailing/calling on those 2. After some talking, the 3rd house was out – they were asking too much and did not want to come down. So we were hoping house #1 would work out. We got an application and sent it back right away.
- Saturday the 20th. We found out that they wanted us to move into the house at 10am. So we packed up the rest of our stuff in Sedro-Woolley, left the kids to spend the night with Kathleen and Dave and drove down to Lynnwood. We met with the owner around 4:30. Then the house was ours around 6pm. We stared to unload our 26foot truck packed full of our stuff. 10pm the truck was unloaded and cleaned out! (All of the stuff was just in the garage – but out of the truck none the less.)
Here it is… our new house:
The front of our house.
The backyard
It is a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom rambler. It has 2 living rooms, a nice sized kitchen, a utility room and a big garage. It is our house of carpets… There is carpet everywhere! Carpet in the kitchen, master bathroom, utility room and even in the garage. Luckily the kids bathroom is not carpeted! And the carpet in the living room that is the playroom is a lovely green color.
So far, I am enjoying the carpets. It helps to make it warmer and quieter in the house.
The kids each have their own room in this house. And Jillian got a new bed. (It is Joshua’s captain’s bed that he had when he was a kid.)
The kids have been helping us unpack.
There is no library nearby, but there is a nice park just a few blocks away. Wesley and Jillian really had a good time! And the best part for Wesley…
Zipline!!!
Jillian liked it, but not as much as Wesley!
Tags: Jillian, washington, Wesley