The Accidental Boilermaker

 Sarah and Jason got married on Saturday! The Cubs lost and it rained the whole game but Nate and I had lots of fun on our little weekend getaway.  We got to Wrigley early so we walked around the stadium and someone offered to take our picture while we waited for Sarah.  Sarah arrived with her mom and all the girls. She was a little stressed. Their Uber driver had dropped them off at the back of the stadium. Jason and his sister-in-law who was the photographer where somewhere on the L. It was raining. So I stayed by her, trying to cheer her up while Nate distracted the girls right after he finished tying Sarah’s shoes.  But then Jason arrived and they took some pictures and we got to our seats and they exchanged their vows and everything was wonderful. We had great seats and there was free food and drinks. The best part - Sarah was so happy we came.  It made me so happy that we decided to come and so thankful that Kate could stay with Evelyn and Jameson.  N...

 My friend Sarah is getting married Saturday in Chicago at a Cubs game. We were invited kind of last minute but Katherine said we could stay with her and she would watch Evelyn and Jameson.  Slight change of plans when she came here for the 4th to get away from the city and decided it could be easy if she stayed the week and watched the kids here. That means we get a weekend getaway too. And then today Sarah invited us to get our nails done.  I actually didn’t get my nails painted. I ended up hanging out with the kids but honestly that was ok. Sarah’s mom, sister, and aunt where there too - all people I know from birthday parties - and it would have been nice to be with them but someone had to watch the kids. And I was happy to fill that role. It let Sarah relax a little I hope and I truly enjoy being with Harper, Willow, and Violet. And I also really didn’t feel comfortable leaving Evelyn and Jameson alone in the “princess pedicure” area.  Both Evelyn and Jameson lo...

We spent out 4th of July weekend up at the cottage.  The weather was great and there was lots for both Evelyn and Jameson to do.  Evelyn's collar (which I haven't written about because the last 2 weeks have been hard and sad in many ways; not all related to Evelyn) didn't seem to stop her from having fun.  They both spent lots of time fishing.  Evelyn caught the most fish but thankfully Jameson caught one too, We also caught a toad, a snapping turtle, a tadpole and two frogs. Evelyn and Jameson played in the sand a lot which was good because Evelyn can't swim right now.  Jameson got to go on a tube ride and Evelyn got to drive the boat.  We also went on a few paddle boat rides. Saturday night we did something different and went into Baldwin to listen to a jazz trio and singer.  Evelyn really enjoyed it; Jameson eventually fell asleep but he was well behaved. There was so much to do so I don't think Evelyn felt like she missed out on too much.  And...

 Our last day of vacation was a full travel day.  Our flight was at 7:00am so we woke up early to drive to the airport and picked up breakfast there.  We did catch a glimpse of Mount Rainier from the plane.  I was only able to take a picture after the person in the window seat moved to an empty row of seats.   The flight home went just as smoothly as the flight to Seattle.  Kate let Evelyn and Jameson play on her switch. We arrived in Chicago on time and quickly picked up our luggage and hopped on the L to Kate's apartment.  We relaxed a little bit and caught up with Tom before going for a walk and picking up some food for dinner. The drive home was long, but it was nice to be home and see Penny and sleep in our own beds.  It was a fun vacation and I hope Evelyn and Jameson keep some good memories of their time out west.

 Our last real day in Washington we went back and forth about what we wanted to do.  I had thought I wanted to drive to the coast and see the ocean, but it's 2 hours away and we had already spent a lot of time in the car driving places. Evelyn and Jameson were still interested in waterfalls, so we went to Snoqualmie to see a really big waterfall. And there was a rainbow. We walked down to the bottom of the waterfall, climbed on the rocks by the river, and took more pictures. After lunch back in Lacey we went to the Nisqually nature preserve.  We walked little ways before it started raining.  Jeremy and Hans turned back and the rest of us made it to a small shelter to wait out the heavy rain.  We didn't walk the whole boardwalk; we were too wet and cold. Later in the day we got to see Meredith and Jeremy's new house and to celebrate we got shakes for dinner.

 On Tuesday we drove to the Olympic National Forest for a big hike up to lower Lena Lake.  This was my favorite day. We hiked up about 3.5 miles and then back down.  There was a lot of little streams and a few bridges to cross and lots of big rocks. We took lots of pictures too. We ate lunch once we reached the lake. The lake was beautiful. On our way home we stopped for ice cream because everyone did a great job on the hike.