Trained Before Cabining

Vivien is potty trained.  Check it out:

Not the smoothest that's ever gone, but you get the idea.  She is happy to be wearing panties.  She must have improved range of motion, because she was able to climb up to Rafe's changing table without too much trouble.

She even felt big enough to show a little sympathy for Rafe and join him for tummy time.  

Just for the record, we "potty trained" starting on Monday.  She'd sat on the potty and gone a couple times the week before, but Monday we gave her lots of fluids so she'd have lots of chances to go.  When she had an accident, we'd practice running to the potty from different parts of the house and sitting on it as many times in a row as her attention span would allow.  She was pretty much an expert by the end of the day.  3 accidents Tuesday, 2 accidents Wednesday, 2 Thursday, 1 Friday, 0 Saturday, and one bitty one today.  We were very grateful for her quick learning on our cabining trip.  

The kids weren't too sure our trip was going to be very fun.  Car seats?  For hours at a time?  No thank you. 

Daddy did his best to make things fun.  Here's where we stayed:

Daddy chopped wood for our fire.

Vivi explored.

And ate lots of Ruffles!

Notice Vivi's special camp chair that I got at Target so I wouldn't have to juggle her while trying to eat my s'mores.  She loved it!

But she still wanted to sit by Daddy most of the time.  

Our foil dinners turned out really well.

And I was magically able to pick a good watermelon, even though I can't ever remember the trick to it.  Is it supposed to sound hollow or dense?  

Rafe is such a chill baby.  He enjoyed being outside.  We talked around the fire as long as our parents-of-young-children-eyes could stay open, but the sun sets so late here that we didn't get to experience the stars in all their wilderness-y glory.  Oh well.  

 It was a pretty rough night.  Vivi was awake from like 1-4.  Ah, the great outdoors!

In the morning, we packed up and drove to Crescent Lake.

We hiked up Mount Storm King.  The trail gains 2,000 ft of elevation in a mile and a half.  We were very sweaty. 

Well, some of us were sweaty.   The others were sleeping. 

It was a spectacular view of the lake at the top!

Drew would like it to be noted that the handkerchief was purely functional and not a fashion statement. 

 We had really tasty wraps for lunch.  Peanut butter spread on a whole wheat tortilla, sprinkled with mini M&Ms, wrapped around a whole peeled banana.  Using the whole banana in one wrap gave it a refreshing fruit to PB to tortilla ratio.  And who can say no to M&Ms?  Oh ya.  Drew can. 

Rafe did not like the wind at the top.  

Vivi took a turn hiking at the end.  Drew's shoulders were grateful.  

She was a little harder to keep on the trail though.  

She found a good hiking pole in her wanderings.

Back at the lake we found a fuzzy caterpillar.  Vivi almost killed it with her love.  

 

We took a refreshing plunge in the lake, then headed to Sequim for dinner.  We had some very spicy Thai food. 

 We were the VERY LAST CAR they let onto the ferry on our way back.  When we got out of the car, one of the workers told us to go buy a lottery ticket.

  Vivi was unable to share in the excitement of our narrow escape from the Olympic Peninsula as she had succumbed to sleep.  

I think the kids had fun, but they were happy to be back home.  They like their routine.

Vivi especially likes looking at pictures from the Gospel Art Kit every night with Drew.  He is a good Daddy.

And here's another one of Rafe, just because he's so cute.