West Coast to West Yellowstone With Kids

Our family is no stranger to camping as during the summer we spend more weekends in our travel trailer than we do at home. Most of these trips are within two hours of home but we always do one week in Oliver which is 4 hours away and then another week to a far off land. The past two years the far off land has been the Oregon coast which is still a reasonably short trip; Astoria was about 6 hours away and the central Oregon coast was 8 hours. So, when we decided to go to Yellowstone which was 1450km away I was a little worried about how the kids would react to being in the car that long but I think we planned it perfectly...This is the longest post ever, for random thoughts, what we would have done differently, regrets, etc. just scroll to the bottom and pictures are scattered through out...

Random Pictures From Summer 2016...So Far

These are some of the pictures we have taken so far this summer. Most of them are from Oliver and Sheridan Lake with the odd one from May long weekend in La Conner. Enjoy the pictures. Peace Out!

Spring Break 2016

Just a few pictures from spring break. The falls are the lower and middle falls of Wallace Falls which is within Wallace Falls State Park in Washington. It was a pretty easy hike and we would have liked to have carried on to the upper falls but a certain 9 year old girl was not having any of that. The other photos are of the park at Seattle Centre as we went to the Pacific Science Centre in Seattle for a day also.

New Years 2015 - or is it 2016?

This past New Years we were lucky enough to be invited to a friends cabin. There cabin was at Sheridan Lake which is in the southern Caribou district of B.C. For my Australian family that is about 4.5 hours north east of Chilliwack. Having on been as far North as Cache Creek I assumed the area would look like that, kind of sparse for trees and a little desert like. Also, since Kim used to live in Quesnel I pictured a stinky area as she said it always smells of the saw mills; boy was I wrong. The area was full of trees at at just under 1200 meters above sea level it was also super cold. The whole area was picture perfect and just so much fun to sit and look at the scenery. I cannot describe how awesome the area was. As someone who has spent the majority of their life on the coast and only spent "holiday time" in the interior during the summer I had no idea how awesome winter can be in B.C. when a chair lift is not present. Our gracious hosts had built an ice rink on the lake by plowing away the snow and it was something else to see the kids ice skating outside on a lake - the whole thing was very Canadian and that was perfect by us. I got to go ice fishing for the first time and I suck at that as much as I do at normal fishing - i.e. I didn't catch anything - but sitting on a lake surrounded by the scenery is what it was all about.

Oregon Coast Trip September 2015 - Random Photos from my Phone

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Oregon Post Trip Part 2 - September 2015

As the title says this is part two of our Oregon Coast trip posts. This will be more pictures as I already forget what happened in the second part. We went to Newport to visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium which was pretty cool and very informative. We got to learn about garbage in the ocean, ship wrecks and obviously the living things in the ocean!

The next day we drove down to Florence which is where the sand dunes start. The drive from where we were staying to Florence was about an hour and a drive that is "pure" Oregon Coast. It was full of beach view, rocky bluffs, a couple light houses and trees; it was awesome. On the way down to Florence we stopped at the Sea Lion Caves  which was pretty cool; there were not any sea lions in the caves but was still a good educational trip.

In Florence we took a tour of the sand dunes on the "slow" dune buggy. It was an hour long tour and told us about the evasive grass growing on the dunes, who planted it and why they cant kill it. The tour went through various lookouts and then along the coast for awhile which was quite nice. As we were driving through one of the open areas some 40 year old skid with a grey mohawk was doing wheelies and stuff trying to show off and then he hit a bump and got bucked right off the quad and his awesome sun glasses and crap went flying as he went cruising over the handle bars. He staggered back up and collected his stuff, other than his helmet because he wasn't wearing one, and then jumped back on

Oregon Coast Trip Part 1 - September 2015

We should probably call this the Cohen post as most of the pictures seem to be of Cohen; that is partly Kyahs fault as she did not want to come to the beach on Monday when we got here. Anyways, we left town on Saturday when Chelsey was done work and spent the night in a Wal-Mart parking lot just south of Olympia…Boo Ya! On Sunday we got up and drove the remaining four hours to our campsite which is just south of Newport on the Oregon Coast.

When we got here on Sunday we unloaded and then went for a quick look at the beach across the street from the campsite; there are a few photos below of that. Monday was a stay at the campsite day as Kyah was still fighting a cold but we still went for a swim in the pool and Cohen and I spent some time at the beach being chased by waves and dodging jellyfish…That’s why most of the pictures are of Cohen. I got to go for a quick bike ride which was also nice as it is always fun to ride new roads.

Yesterday we went on our first adventure into the town of Newport to check out the Yaquina Head Lighthouse which is the tallest lighthouse on the Oregon Coast and

Birch Bay Trip 2015...And the Lynden Fair!

 

So this past weekend we took a 4 day weekend and scooted down to Birch Bay for some camping; I had not been to Birch Bay in over 20 years so it was kind of cool to see it has not changed one single bit. We stayed at the Thousand Trails RV Park which was a hop and skip from the beach. The RV park was pretty solid but had screwed up positioning of their sewer "holes" and a really small pool. The lady in the office said the screwed up sewer holes was because the first part of the RV park was built in the 60's and trailers were smaller, I am assuming the pool was smaller because the average american wasn't 300 pounds back then. The "newer" part of the RV park had normal sewer holes if anyone cares.

 

We went to the Lynden Fair on Friday and it was our first time there and it was awesome. We saw this dude that had all these crazy animals and reptiles from

Stave Falls Dam

Weather sucked yesterday and we were looking for something to do so we took the kids, and cousin Madison, to the Stave Falls dam. This dam was built in the early 1900's until it was replaced in the 1990's (if my memory is correct) so they made the old one into an education centre where you can go see the old power generating facility and learn about creating electricity and other cool stuff. For you Chilliwack locals its only $15 for a family and a short drive away, good place for a rainy day. Some pictures below; I hit something on my phone that changed the pictures to black and white and I dont know how to change it back - kind of worked for these photos anyway.

5th Annual Oliver Trip

Its crazy to think that this was our fifth year to Lakeside Resort on Tuc-El-Nuit lake; probably Chelsey's 15th time or more when you consider she went as a kid too. This continues to be our favorite vacation every year because the kids have tonnes of fun, the parents relax, Chelsey gets her wine tours and I get a few bike rides...Lets not forget Tickleberries too!

Not as many pictures this go around as you have all seen them before but a few highlights from this year...

Camping at Blue Lake - May 2015

Back in may we went up to Blue Lake Resort for a quick weekend camping trip; it is located about 15 minutes from Boston Bar so not too far away. After booking we read the Google Reviews for the place and they were not all pleasant so some nerves were present; the reviews were wrong as the place was awesome. We were looking for a place a little more "rustic" than a KOA and this place was perfect.

The road up was a little dodgier than expected but after talking to some regulars and employees I learned everything always works out fine. There were even some big ass bus size RV's up there

Leavenworth Trip - July 2015

Another inconsistent blog post to keep our far flung family updated; I always promise to do this more but it never happens so I will stop promising! Anyways, this year Canada Day fell on a Wednesday so we decided to take the Monday and Tuesday off as well so we can go on a mini five day trip; for this adventure we chose Leavenworth, Washington. Leavenworth is a cute little "German" town (for you in South Australia it is kind of like Handorf) which is just over Stevens Pass from Everett; it is a 4-5 hour drive from Chilliwack.

We left the Friday night after work and I was able to fulfill one of my camping dreams...Sleeping in a Wal-Mart parking lot. After spending the night at Wal-Mart we headed off and made our first stop at the Monroe Reptile Zoo; as a hater of spiders and snakes I did not find this place much fun - the kids sure loved it though. Our next stop was Stevens Pass where we stopped for a beer and to watch the mountain bikers heading down the hill. It looks to be a pretty decent ski hill with prices much better than Whistler-Blackcomb!

Our campsite was about 25 minutes north of Leavenworth but it was well situated between Lake Wenatchee and the town so it was perfect. It was super hot the whole time we were down there so we spent most evenings in the pool to cool off before bed. We spent one day at Lake Wenatchee where the kids ripped around in their kayak and Chelsey and I tried the paddle board; I suck but its because I am fat and have no core muscles (I ride bikes so I can eat crap and drink beer!)

We also spent a day wandering around the stores in Leavenworth. There were some cool shops and

Seattle Trip Easter 2015 - Part One

For the second week of Spring break we decided to take the kids camping just outside Seattle. Now that we have the trailer we hope to be able to take lots more trips. For our first day we went and checked out the Pike Place Market. Chelsey and I had lots of fun and I would say the kids had 75% fun. The walking around was a little too much for their little legs and there was not enough fun stuff for them but we have other things planned for them later in the week!

Maiden Voyage

This past weekend we took our maiden voyage in our trailer. Little background on why we got the trailer...I have wanted one for the past couple of years as I figured it was a good way to get the kids outside more and was good for family bonding. We rented one last September for our Oregon trip to see how much we liked it (we liked it) and I was able to bug Chelsey enough that she caved in December when I found a 2014 for super cheap when the dealership was blowing them out to make room for the 2015's; not so oddly enough the 2015 looks exactly the same as the 2014, same paint and everything...scammers!

Since this was our first trip in the Minecraft Killer we chose somewhere easy to camp and just cruised down to the KOA in Lynden. Since Chelsey had to work Saturday afternoon this also allowed me to take the kids down on Friday and Chelsey came down Saturday after work. When we arrived Cohen met a little boy to play with within minutes and I didn't see him for the rest of the night - the Minecraft Killer was working already! The kids played in the park and played basketball and I set up the trailer; it was even quicker than I thought. We spent the rest of the day playing and after dinner and more play time we watched a movie before bed. Saturday was a pretty busy day as we fished in a fishless pond, went geocaching and play lots. Seemed the kids worked me tired as we went into the trailer for a little quiet time at 3:00, I laid down on the bed briefly and woke up sometime later to a pillow full of drool and the kids were already outside playing. Anyways, the rest of the trip was more of the same, lots of fun and very little screen time, so I will bore you no more and post the pictures...

Great Wolfe Lodge Trip - February 2015

For the kids birthday this year we decided to take them to Great Wolf Lodge; this is part of our plan to give the kids experiences as opposed to stuff - last year we went to Manning Park for the day. So while you all probably just want to see some pictures of the kids having fun I will first share a couple of my observations from the trip: