Hoh Rainforest

photo by Daniel Nelson

Headed out to the peninsula over to the Hoh Rainforest with some friends this weekend. The weather really outdid itself and gave us big sunshine that makes your skin warm and cozy and even let's you maybe believe that it's worth it to dip yourself in the glacier water running near you. We did a nice little forest hike and hung out on a rocky beach for awhile. Roslyn napped most of the hiking times to save her energy for the beach. She crawled around on rocks, couldn't keep her hands out of the wet sand, and had the gumption to walk around in the water. 

Her boldness and curiosity are really shining through her lately.  She'll wander off away from us to examine something and explore a new area. She'll pick something up and bring it back to me to share and sit in my lap playing with it. She'll crawl over large logs and walk along them with no fear. Her bravery and muchness are so beautiful to watch. 

 The Hoh has lots of lovely mosses and running water. We stopped to examine mushrooms, ferns, moss variations and bark. These little moments of exploration and slowness is what I love about hanging out with these friends. Roslyn is teaching us this as well but I think we were better prepared to find joy in the slowness and discovery from the way the way we've gotten to experience nature with them. They always notice something we'd have overlooked.

Every time we go outside now she get's totally dirty. I love it!

We played back at camp for awhile while eating lots of good food, another thing we are never short of when hanging out with these friends. Roslyn found most of her time lost to picking the heads off all the flowers and pointing at the birds as they flew overhead.

We put her to sleep in her own sleeping sack bag thing for the first time and she was so tuckered out from the day she went right to sleep. With her asleep in Walter we snuck out to hang out by the fire with our friends and eat brownies. She didn't make it the whole night in her "bed" alone but we were pretty excited that it worked even for a bit. We'll keep trying.

She napped most of the drive home and we got ice cream while waiting for the ferry to take us back to Seattle. Great weekend, great time spent with friends and ferns.

Campsgiving 2018

This year around Thanksgiving we had just moved into our new place and had yet to even get a chance to grab a bite to eat in our new neighborhood and have a fire. So, we opted to spend Thanksgiving day with some friend's and their family, then the next day having dinner and a lovely fire in our place and heading out to camp for just one night. We didn't have much time to plan it this year and we felt like going out for any longer would just be us doing it for the sake of doing it. I'm really glad we chose to do what was actually best for us and not push it. The day and a half we did go out for Campsgiving was lovely, not stressful, and was able to be fully enjoyed.

We went on a short 3 mile hike at Rockport State Park where we found mushrooms abound, watched the mist slowly change the landscape and played with face sized leaves. Then we headed to another park where we hung out and slowly made our Campsgiving dinner of turkey with gravy, fire roasted garlic mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts with leek, and our favorite the sausage and mushroom stuffing. Roslyn was partial to the mashed potatoes.

Then the next morning we drove down a forest road in hopes of finding a Christmas tree to chop down, sadly this road never really opened up to have any fields of trees under 20' but we were there and determined so we found one small wonky tree and nabbed it. It is the goofiest tree we've ever cut down but he's ours.

campsgiving 2017

campsgiving 2016

campsgiving 2015

campsgiving 2014

campsgiving 2013

Hanging out near Walter

This is about when our run from the wildfires began. We had plans to go to Glacier NP but it was all on fire. Everywhere we thought to go ended up on fire or the air was too smoky to subject Roslyn to it. So we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere Montana with no plans. We drove up a random forest service road, nabbed the only semi-level spot we could find and hung out on our little cliff for the night. It was hot, so we mostly lounged outside and made a slow dinner, then spent the night reading. Roslyn recently learned to roll over so she was constantly practicing and grinning with pride. That was honestly a large part of our evening and we loved it.

 Our next stop was another master campsite finder, Joshua, snag. We grabbed a beautiful quiet spot along the water. We took turns jumping into the just barely too cold water, Roslyn only got a toe dip. We were nestled among beautiful tall trees and the running water could be heard from inside Walter. We had another slow evening of getting in and out of the water, throwing rocks, and playing with the baby.

The hammock was pulled out frequently. Sometimes we only sat in it for a few minutes, sometimes hours, but it was always set up just in case. It was like the living room of our trip. Joshua pulled stool up usually while Roslyn and I swung back and forth. We'd sit out there at night and read, I'd breastfeed her there in the mornings, Joshua would nap with her in it, we'd chat and sip wine in it while Roslyn was sleeping in the van. It was a great extension of space.

She was mad when the mug was removed from her

On the slower days we got really good at making van food. I blistered shishito peppers, made steak over a bed of brussel sprouts, had lavish breakfasts that once or twice included mimosas, homemade waffles with fresh berries we picked ourselves, and more. The meals were always prepared slowly. Usually I made them while Joshua played and cuddled Roslyn (since he'd been driving and away from her a lot of the day). I got to chop everything as slowly as I wanted, stop for a sloppy baby kiss, or run out to catch the sun dipping behind the trees. Our meals were intentional and something I really miss now being back home and life creeping in.