Today was wild!
In every sense of the word!
I always to see exactly where we stayed overnight when the sun comes up. This morning, we found ourselves among tall pine trees, in a little outlet our car fit in perfectly. All of us sleep like babies in the car, which has surprised me the most. I always am the first to wake up.
Dash has traded seats with me, so I sleep on the middle bench and he is on the driver’s seat.
After I wake, I quietly move him back to my bench, and as the kids sleep, I drive. I love the silence. I first find a breakfast place to go in and grab them something. This morning I found a darling bakery that had banana muffins. I stocked up on four, and drove towards Seattle.
As the kids wake up one by one, they each get their food, and I get their approval or disapproval.
Today, I had good marks.
On our way towards Seattle, it was glorious. (Not a word I use often — but the perfect description.) Literally…glorious. The sunbeams peeked through the trees, and bounced off the lakes we were driving by, that rivaled the prettiest lakes I have ever seen. I am not a huge fan of pine trees. I would take a quaking aspen or maple tree any day over a pine. But today, I saw it differently. Every mountain looked as if it was covered in fur. The pine trees were so dense, you couldn’t see a dot of earth on them. They were absolutely beautiful. The kids and I oohed and aahed every new turn. And the best part — you could smell the pine through our vents. When we opened the windows, we were inhaling extra hard to let the pine scent linger.
On these road trips of ours, we take many, many offshoots. If anyone sees a road they want to travel down, take it. We have found that the greatest discoveries are in the hidden places. And when we are surprised by finding a gem, it is all that much more exciting. Today, we took several roads and among other things, we found incredible wildflowers. Navy was constantly looking up the wildflowers in her “Wildflowers of the North East” book, and on today’s drive, we found 3 new species to this trip. Navy is my wildflower girl. (Pippi is my moss girl.)
As we approached Seattle, it was amazing weather! I knew the kids wouldn’t totally know where to go in the big city, so I did a few minutes of research for something I thought they would love today. But on our way, we were stopped in our tracks by the coolest thing of the trip so far!!!
It was a 1/2 mile long wall of wild blackberries! The berries were totally ripe and ready to be picked, so I pulled over, and they kids went to town.
Everyone was in great spirits…
…until Pippi got eaten up by the berry plant!
Good thing Navy got her untangled.
The kid’s fingers and mouths were stained purple, from the juiciest and best-tasting blackberries I have ever had.
Scout’s bounty was impressive — and this is after he had eaten the same amount during picking.
We ended up picking for over an hour and a half. I am pretty sure my kids would pick a berry wall over a candy store most days.
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Only a few miles beyond the berries, I drove by “Wild Waves”. I kind of manufactured this adventure, but I needed a relaxing day in water. Basically, I need a Choose Your Own Adventure shower!
When we got there, the kids begged to go in, and I was the hero when I said yes!
My first stop was the cabana rental booth.
Thank goodness I got the last one available!
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The day kind of went like this:
The three big kids got to run around together for two rides at a time. They would come back to the cabana and check in, and head out again. The park was pretty small, and they were in and out about every 25 minutes. After a few times, I would get up and go to a ride or two with them, and head back to the shade and the lounge chair. I did this until Scout and Navy made me go on the most psychotic shoot-out slide…then I retired for the day.
Meanwhile, Pippi was my little helper. She went to go get new ice every few hours. She retrieved the ketchup when needed. She would organize and reorganize the cabana. And she finally napped for a few hours. When she wanted, we would go to a few slide and rides. But she was perfectly content just hanging out in her cabana imaginary world next to me.
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There were so many great stories from the day, but the two best are:
#1
Dash and Scout had both earned $20 from their hill clomb a few days ago. When they saw the Skycoaster, they wanted to go on it so badly! I told them I wouldn’t pay for it, but they said they would pay for themselves. I thought that was a great idea, and we headed over. When they got over to it, Scout pulled Dash aside, and had a quiet conference together. When they came back, Scout and Dash announced that between them, they had enough money to pay for Navy also, so they wanted her to go with them. She was SO excited, and I was SO proud!
Here they are — all suited up!
And like three bugs in a rug…they soared with the biggest smiles. When they got off, they were all recounting their adventure, and how Dash was so brave to pull the ripcord. As the three of them ran off together, I felt so happy to see them as a team.
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#2
The three big kids discovered an arcade. they know I will never give them two cents to waste on games, and dad wasn’t around, so they did what they always do — they scrounged. Of course they looked under every machine and found a few tokens. But then they befriended a kid that had pockets full of tokens. And this kid was the most generous kid ever! They kept coming back with prizes and tickets, for their new-found friend. Apparently the parents were there and didn’t care that their boy was spreading the wealth, so I just stayed in the cabana and played dumb.
A bit later, they came in with an ice cream cone. I asked them how they had it, and they said their friend had bought it, but decided he wanted a different flavor. They ended up with it, and Pippi was stoked! She started licking away. I asked them how the story went down again…and that is when I heard a detail I hadn’t heard previously.
The boy bought a strawberry ice cream cone. He decided he wanted a different flavor and gave it to his little brother. His little brother tasted it….did you hear the details….HIS LITTLE BROTHER TASTED IT…and decided he didn’t want it. And that is how my kids aquired it and gave it to Pippi who was about half way done at this point.
WHAT!?!
I guess the damage was done. I should have known when the big kids weren’t devouring the cone.
Ha!
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After a full day in the sun and three nights sleeping in the car, i told the kids that I demanded a hotel bed for the night. They didn’t like the idea, but I just drove…because they didn’t know I had one last thing up my sleeve. When we got there, they thought it was weird to knock at the door instead of check in.
But when the biggest FOMO dad answered, they got it.
Micah just couldn’t see us adventuring like this without joining in.
Pippi was probably the happiest to see him, while I was the happiest to see a mattress!
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