movie, crabbing and shopping oh my!

Last night, our family ventured into Burlington to the movie theater. The boys went to Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom and the girls went to Mamma Mia, Here We Go Again. The boys enjoyed the movie, the girls thought the plot line was a little hard to follow, but we LOVED the fashion from the movie.

This morning, Brad and Anders went out to check crab pots with neighbor Larry and came home with 10 dungeness crab. While they did that, Osten and I went out for a walk and a football game while Katie lounged around the house watching TV.

Lunch and then the boys stayed at the house while Katie and I went out shopping after being inspired by the fashion of Mamma Mia. We did make a few purchases in preparation for the coming school year. I'm going to start preparing dinner--Ibby's Mac and Cheese and Brad is making clams YUM!

This has been a pretty outstanding adventure so far!

football and clamming

Today we all slept in (at least I believe everyone did, I got up at 9:30am). Osten, Brad and Anders went into town to get fishing/clamming/crabbing licenses and when they got home we noticed Osten was the new owner of this...

a favorite quarterback Russell Wilson's jersey.

Then Brad, Anders and Katie went out with neighbor Larry hunting for horse clams. Katie took the camera and here are some of the photos she captured:

We ate lunch and then went out for a football game at the local park. Brad and I were the Bears--Osten and Anders were the Seahawks. Katie was all time offense. The result was the Seahawks 28 Bears 21.

and then on the way back to the house, we found some peaceful mule deer eating in a meadow

Now Brad is out cleaning the clams, I'm updating our blog, Anders is playing video games on his phone, Katie is watching videos on her iPod and Osten is tossing around a football. I'm planning on making some mac and cheese for dinner to go along with clams.

we arrived on Samish Island!

We woke and left Boise at 8:30 mountain daylight time and traveled in three states! We got through Idaho, Oregon and Washington today. We got to our air bnb here in Samish Island at about 5:30 pacific daylight time.

On our journey, we ate lunch at a great sit down place called Bobs Burger and Brew in Kennewick, Washington, managed to stay kind to one another with many hours in the car and worked together to unload our Prius when we arrived at our home for the week.

We met the owner's Dad, Larry who shared some delicious cooked crabs with us that he just recently caught. The kids played football on the beach while Brad and I went into Burlington to pick up groceries.

We ate dinner and now are settling in for a long night's sleep. Osten and Brad are down already and I will be hitting the hay with Katie and Anders very shortly. Lots of these photos were taken by Osten as he was getting a little stir crazy in the car.

day 3

Signing in from Boise, Idaho! We didn't realize how popular Boise would be so had some tricky times finding accomodation, but are now safely settled into a Holiday Inn Express. Osten is already asleep and Anders is close behind.

where Brad is going elk hunting this fall--we used to hike here lots when living in Idaho Falls

red rocks in Wyoming

view of the Tetons on the Wyoming side

eating square ice cream in Swan Valley, Idaho

sunset over the Snake River near American Falls, Idaho

the best hotel of our trip in Boise, Idaho

We left Casper at 8:30am and made it to Jackson, Wyoming for lunch at McDonalds. We then drove to the area near Swan Valley Idaho where Brad is going elk hunting with friends this fall. He wanted to do a little scouting to make sure he remembered where to go. We made it and it was fun to go down the trail a little bit with Anders. He doesn't really remember hiking there as he was 2 1/2 the last time we visited that spot.

Next on our list was square scooped ice cream from Rainey Creek--drove to Idaho Falls, recognized parts of the city and then on to Pocatello for dinner. We enjoyed fry sauce on our french fries (an Idaho original dipping sauce) and then Anders safely drove us to Boise where we struggled to find a room because it seems to be a very popular destination.

day 2 out west

We woke up after 8am and headed to McDonalds for breakfast as our hotel didn't have a complimentary breakfast buffet. Brad drove and we ate lunch in Mitchell, South Dakota and also did a drive by of the Corn Palace. Then I drove and got almost to the edge of South Dakota. We made a trip to Devil's Tower (so incredibly impressive) and then dodged thunderstorms and made our way to Casper, Wyoming. We are staying at a nicer hotel than night one--and it has a complimentary breakfast. I will report on if the hotel is indeed better than night one.

off to our adventure!

So we did leave at 9:22pm on Wednesday, July 25. We decided to take a southern entrance so we had a chance to swing through Idaho Falls and scout out where Brad is going elk hunting this fall. We drove down I35 and picked up I90. Spent the night off I90. It was a great start to our adventure!

getting ready to head west

Tomorrow I am going to dedicate the day to getting ready for our trip to Samish Island, Washington. We are planning on leaving after Anders is finished with marching band drill tomorrow. We are so excited for our adventure!

ant man and the wasp

Katie, Osten and I went to the movies tonight and saw Ant Man and Wasp. Loved it!

preparing the classroom

On Monday and Tuesday, I've been spending days in the classroom getting ready for the school year and for a university class that is meeting in early August. I'm getting really close but do need to put some finishing touches on tomorrow.

home again!

We are back home in River Falls. We got home Saturday and spent the day Sunday weeding the garden and then getting Brad to the airport for a business meeting. On Sunday night, I met friend Julie in Stillwater for a little blues dancing.

scenes from the campground

We did leave the campground on the 20th and headed back on the ferry to the mainland. We enjoyed our time around the campfire, hammocking and Katie reading a new book she bought in about 4 hours.

the Knier's arrive

We planned our Washington Island adventure with our friends Jennifer, Jerry, Jillian and Julia. They arrived after our adventure on Rock Island on the 18th. We made dinner for us all and then Jenny and I played a little Scrabble and then Katie joined us as she was having trouble falling asleep. I think this is the first time I have actually beat Jenny at Scrabble!


The 19th was a lot less sunny and we visited Rock Island again. This time we took the ferry and visited the lighthouse. Osten was a bit unsure of our journey to the top of the lighthouse.