Nooksack River Camping Trip

This weekend we went camping with some families from church. We were in the north cascades on this family's own private campground. His family had homesteaded it over 150 years ago from norway. They have over 100 acres of land, and turned part of it on the river into a campground.

Chillin' in the tent. Last time we camped with Rachel Abe slept really well in the pack n play. This time he was into sleeping on my mat--eventhough we still had the pack n play taking up half the tent.

The guy's aunt had 100 acres next to his family's land, and when she died it was all donated to the county to make a park. We went on a little hike through the county land.
Abe's newest way to smile is to hold open his mouth as wide as he can.
Abe had a great time trying to tag along with the big kids. There was one other boy who was his age. Abe like to hug him and call him a baby.
Abe with Duncan the dog--his new best friend.

1, 2, 3 Jump (Lake Crescent)

Abe was filling up the holes with rocks.

Dungeness spit is one of the worlds longest at 5 miles.

Lake Crescent is the 3rd largest lake in Western Washington. It's deepest point is 624 ft. Although it was in the 80's, the water was cold.

Marymere Falls

The Last time we were here, there was no Abe

Who needs them in the Picture

Leading the Hike on the Spruce Lake Trail. One of only three hikes in the Olympic National Park that allows dogs.

Log Cabin Resort

The Locke's (minus Jacob) spent a couple of days at Lake Crescent. We lucked out on the weather. It was the first weekend int the 80's. Emily, Neil & Abe stayed in a "rustic" cabin that allowed dogs. The rest of us stayed in an A frame chalet along the lake. We had a good time hiking and boating.

Guest Post by Calvin

Born on the 4th of July

Parade Clown ?

Friday Harbor Parade

View from the Hoff's

Neil celebrated his birthday in the traditional manner by attending the Friday Harbor 4th of July Parade. We spotted quite a few Orcas just behind Neil & Abe. You can tell where they are because all of the whale watching boats gather around to spot them for us. Ruth & I spent the night & "Rocked the Dock" with David & Dianne until the fireworks. Pictures of us dancing might have been as funny as the one with Neil & the clown nose. Fortunately we don't have any.

Guest Post by Calvin

The Drrty-Drrty Dash

So....it's been a while. But we're all still here kicking in Seattle. We've celebrated Father's Day, the 4th of July, my birthday, and had a friend from Alaska visit and did some camping. While Rachel was here, we did the Dirty Dash - a 10K (more like only 4 or 5 miles) on a moto-cross track in Kent. It had obstacles like jumping over walls and tires, crawling on your belly in mud while getting cold water sprayed on you, some weird structure to climb through, a slop 'n slide down about 30 feet, and a muddy lake to walk/swim through at the end. It was a lot of fun. Here are some of the pictures that we have the option of buying. Or one could just do this.

I have never been accused of looking graceful while doing athletic events. How else does one get the nickname "The Sloff"????

"Whew...time to keep moving."

Emily did well jumping over all of the walls. There were about 7 of them, and some were pretty tall.

Rachel hitting the bottom of the slop 'n slide. Imagine a big slip 'n slide down about 30 feet up with a bunch of mud at the bottom. Some guy dressed like Harry Potter went down right before us.

Emily has a smile on her face because she knows she's almost done with the race.

VICTORY!!! Finished and filthy.

If only BBC could have done the race with us. He'd appreciate this picture.

Bad start to the day

So I woke up this morning and decided to take Banjo and Abe to Martha Washington for some chuck it fun. When I got into the Explorer, I noticed that someone had broken part of the ignition off, and forced open part of the steering column. Some hooligan kids must wonder the streets at night causing mischief of one kind. Anyways, the car still started, and off to MW we went.

The waves were a little choppy on the lake, but all in all it was a great day out. We noticed one person at the park, who was walking his dog on his leash. They quickly left, so Banjo, Abe and I were the ONLY ones at the park.

About a half hour later, after some chuck its in the field, and some swimming in the lake, an Animal Control officer approached us. Apparently someone had called them a half hour earlier about 'an off-leash dog". The officer was actually very nice and professional, but he gave me a $54 ticket for breaking the off-leash law.

Now I can accept the risk of having Banjo off-leash, and running into an officer sometime and getting a ticket. But when there is NO ONE at the freakin' park, who am I really hurting? It's 8:30 am on a Thursday. No one is around. I'm not preventing anyone from enjoying the park. But someone who lives next to park, likes to get into peoples business, and hates dogs and their owners must have felt inclined to give a call. Instead of coming out and telling me, hey, I live here, could you please put your dog on a lease, they had to take the cowardly way out and call someone up to do their dirty job. That is what pisses me off. If there was anyone else at the park I would have put Banjo on a lease.

So that's my rant. After that we went home, had a snack, and then went up to the Woodland Park Zoo and had a fun day. Abe had a big (>2.5 hours) nap in the afternoon so I was able to watch more of my lectures.

poop hand

It happens.

finally downloaded some pics

Abe and Franny have tummy time.

We found a replacement dog park! Ever since we moved back from Anchorage, we all have really missed the wonderful dog park at university lake. Banjo would just give up whenever we'd take him to the off leash areas. Even Magnason--which everyone would suggest when we complained about missing our AK dog park was a dud for Banj. But, we found a little unofficial dog park right near our house! Martha Washington is a big open area right on the lake, and Banjo (and Abe) LOVE it!

Banjo getting back into his swimming. The last time we were there I threw a rock in the water, and poor banjo just kept swimming further and further out looking for it. I was afraid he was going to drown. Poor Abe started to cry when I frantically called for him.
Showing off my fresh grown lettuce!
Nothing says summer like eating naked!

Sheep, sheep, and church

Celebrating Emily's 30th birthday wasn't the only reason we went camping on Whidbey Island. One of the pastors at our church, Katherine, lives there. And once a year she invites kids and their families to come visit her sheep farm. So we went camping on Friday night, and then visited the sheep on Saturday. It was a lot of fun. We got to go inside the pen where the sheep live and feed them a snack. Abe loved looking at the sheep, even if he was a little hesitant in letting them eat out of his hands. We even went on a little hike, too.

Everywhere we go, it seems Abe makes friends with the local dogs.
Abe taking in the action inside the sheep pen.
Abe walking around with Mom, watching the sheep run around.
Baaaa!!!!
Abe and Dad getting down and dirty.

You can see Katherine passing out sheep snacks for us to feed to the sheep.

Emily turns 30!!!!

While we have been absent from our blog-making duties, someone had a milestone birthday. And no, it wasn't Abe. Emily turned 30 on May 20th! We celebrated by going camping with the whole family (all 4 of us) at Deception Pass on Whidbey Island. It was a beautiful day, and we hung out on the beach for a while before going back to our campsite to make dinner. We made an Emily-and-Neil car-camping classic: campfire pizza pockets. We actually made them the first time we ever camped together 8 years ago, also at Deception Pass. For Emily's birthday dessert she borrowed a recipe from our good friend Kari in Alaska. She made a cobbler in a dutch oven. It had pineapple and cherry pie filling. It was super tasty.

All was well until we went to bed. Or I should say tried to go to bed. Because someone (his name rhyme's with Wabram) didn't want to sleep in the tent. He climbed over Emily for over an hour, and when she got fed up with that, I walked around with him at our campsite. I actually got Abe to fall asleep, but in the process of getting him back into the tent and in his sleepingbag he woke up. Then after more crawling around, I finally took him for a car ride at midnight. We drove for about 30 minutes, came back, and then slept in the car for a few hours. When he finally woke up again he wanted to see Emily, so we went back into the tent, and finally he slept in the tent.

Here is Abe enjoying his camping pizza pocket. He ate almost the whole thing.
Emily tending to the fire, her dinner, and the dessert.
Ooohhhh......birthday cobbler!!!
I took this in the morning. It was a long journey, but Lil' Buddy finally got some sleep in the tent.
We were going to make breakfast at the campsite, but of course it rained during the night and continued into the morning. So we broke camp early and ate breakfast at a restaurant instead. Abe enjoyed his hot chocolate that came with a mountain of whip cream.