Rocks aren't edible?

Our maternity leave trip was amazing, unparalleled but  - it is really fun to take Roslyn on van trips where she can interact now! She was very blobby the whole trip and napped a lot. This meant we got to do whatever Joshua and I wanted the whole time. We hiked when we wanted, ate when we wanted, etc. Now though Roslyn has opinions and wants to interact with the world which has been so much fun! She likes to crawl around outside getting her knees dirty and playing with rocks, sticks, bugs, etc. She also now giggles when you throw her around on the hammock and she can fit in the swing we bring along. We knew she would slow us down but we didn't anticipate how much we actually enjoyed it. We really like her and therefore going her pace and watching her interact with and discover has brought us a lot of joy.

Roslyn has always loved watching water so we walked around the beach the next morning. She would giggle when a big wave washed in and sucked itself back out. She attempted to eat more rocks and wanted to hold our fingers to go on lots of walks. At one point we dumped her among a bunch of driftwood and she surprised us by how well she climbed over big logs, played with the sticks, and overall didn't need us to accomplish how she wanted to play. She's an independent lady and constantly impressing us with her boldness!

Back to Whidbey

Lately, when we get home from work it has been warm and the sun has been shining so we play outside in the yard with Roslyn a bit before dinner. The problem is we can't get her to then come inside. We try to coax her to crawl in, carry her in, try to make it a slow transition. Any way we go at it she's always pretty sad when she has to come inside. So on Friday I texted Josh "should we be going camping at Whidbey this weekend?" Without missing a beat he booked us a site and on Saturday morning we headed out to spend the whole weekend outside playing.

We had just recently been to this area with my sister and brother in law but since it is snow free and close we didn't mind going back. We hiked along the bluff and played in the grass all afternoon. Roslyn, even from just a few weeks ago, played very differently. She wants to hold your fingers and walk endlessly and spent a very long time plucking up little flowers and smooshing them in her fingers. She can hear the sea planes, point at them in they sky, and then she waves at them all. She also would crawl around find something fun, show it to us, then clap for herself. Really crushing the adorableness lately.

Before bedtime we walked back out to the bluff for a peak as the sun set. Roslyn played with sticks and we sat in the grass. Then she decided she was going to walk herself all the way back to Walter. She wanted Dad ahead of her cheering her on putting yogurt snacks in her mouth and to hold onto my fingers. With those things going her way she walked over a 1/4 mile on her own back down the dirt path. 

3 days off, 3 days in the woods

Over labor day weekend Joshua and I did one of the last big hikes he had on his list. We did about 34 miles to the Lyman Lakes and Cloudy Pass, out near Leavenworth. The first day we hiked in about 9 miles to the Upper Lyman Lakes. To get there we had to gain a fair amount of elevation. We also strapped on our boot spikes to make it over about a half mile of snow, uphill! It was exhausting but a fun challenge in its own way.

The entire weekend was so so sunny! Near the lakes we found a flat spot nestled in the trees to set up camp. We ate sandwiches, went to bed kind of early, and woke up in the middle of the night to a great sky-full of stars.

That morning we then woke up to a deer, I named him Gerald, hanging out about 3 feet from our tent. He was happy there so he just hung around while we made breakfast, so we made a new friend.

Strapped our packs back on and hiked about 8 more miles up into Cloudy Pass. Found a stellar shaded campsite that we dumped our packs at. Took a bit of time to hike up Cloudy Peak to grab some views of Glacier, I love all the fluffy white bear grass among all the spiky vegetation. We ate huckleberries, hiked back down to sneak in a nap in our hammock. Took a mini hike toward Suiattle Pass and pumped water. Then we made dinner that night, played games in our tent until sunset, hopped out to grab some sunset photos and to eat this weird mudslide backpacking dessert Joshua had bought, and went to bed

Final morning we packed up early, started our approximately 17 mile hike out that day. We broke it up with some lovely rest stops. My favorite was next to one of the waterfalls near Upper Lyman Lakes. We dropped our packs where we couldn't see anyone, soaked our feet in the water, and lounged around eating snacks for about half an hour. Took our last break in Spider Meadow, tried to wash the sunscreen and dirt from our limbs.

Once we were home we ran around looking for someplace with nachos or wings open, but all were closed, so we had to settle, haha not really settling, for pizza.

It was great to fit in one big backpacking trip before the season starts to tend toward rain.

Altitude

Made coffee and oatmeal that morning, packed up our tent and got back onto the Sognfjellet road. The scenic roads usually have sculptures or installations along them and because they are amazing the always relate to the landscape or help you better understand what you're looking at. They are also always beautifully detailed! That morning we came upon this glass "compass" that points you to a mountain peak and tells you which one you're looking at and how tall it is. There were over 15 peaks listed from this one viewpoint!!!

This road was probably our favorite. We were at a pretty high altitude most of the time so there were mountain tops all surrounding us but then an innumerable amount of alpine lakes dotted the surface. Sheep were everywhere, we may have had our windows down and baa'ed at every one. Snow dotted the rocky surfaces. Waterfalls were pouring down the sides of every mountain face. This part just felt very different. We were hanging out on top of the tops all day, which is a different experience.

We jumped off this road to head in to Jotenheim National park. We still had a hike we wanted to do that day. On our drive in though I had us stop at some sheep. I was trying to coax them to let me pet them when 3 other sheep come out of my peripheral and scare me because they DO want to be pet. And like it or not, like it I loved it, I was going to pet them. They were so funny and pushy. I had jumped out of the car so fast when we saw them and left the door open. Jorgen and I (Jorgen is apparently Josh in Norwegian because when I connected his phone in the car it translated it to Jorgen's iphone :) were worried the sheep were about to climb in the car. Luckily they became more interested in licking the tires. So finally got to pet the sheep but then these 3 little guys did not want to let us leave.