Bainbridge Vacay, Day 1

This is technically day 2 of our summer vacation but I had to head back into Seattle yesterday to work (that’s what professionals do, right La V?) so today is the official start of my vacation anyway.  Jason and the boys hit the ground running yesterday, hiking, harvesting huckleberries and canoeing while I caught the morning ferry back to Seattle and headed to Swedish First Hill.    I came home in the evening exhausted and weary but I somehow managed to grab some take-out and swing by Mora’s Iced Creamery before heading back to our vacation house on Manzanita Bay.    It’s a rough life.

Our vacation house basically has everything we look for when we’re away from home.    We are right on the water, surrounded by trees, tons of exploring and fun to be had without driving anywhere.  There’s a hot tub (of course), small kitchen, and we’re only about 8 minutes to “downtown” Bainbridge.

After hitting the hot tub this morning, we decided to head out and explore Fort Ward State Park.  It was beautiful in typical PNW style but the weather was cold and Gryffin was kind of grumpy so we packed it in after exploring for about an hour.   Both boys seem pretty tired today, despite sleeping really well the past 2 nights.  Maybe the 3-mile hike with J yesterday wore them out?    Who knows.  We ate lunch at a deli on Winslow and headed back to the house for nap time.  So the boys are sleeping now (or “sleeping” in Gryffin’s case) and I’m sitting here on the couch, gazing out the window at the trees, relaxing and going over some the pictures I took this morning, while Jason is out on a bike ride.

I am feeling happy.  I’ve got a good book, some creative projects brewing in my head for this summer (among other things, I’m thinking about trying to make a picnic table- is that too ambitious?), and my little fam nestled in around me for a couple days.  I’ve often talked with friends about how vacations with kids are kind of… well, a lot of work!  Not really vacation at all.  And in some ways, that is still true for us.  We still have to take care of the boys after all.  No vacation exists for that.  But it’s the other things.  The meals.  We eat out a lot when we’re on vacay.  The nap times.  We don’t work or cook or clean or do laundry during nap times.   And after the boys are in bed for the night, we just hang out.  No entertaining, no cleaning (seriously, this house is already totally trashed – friends, you would be shocked!  it’s very un-Nance-like up in here), no “to do” lists.    It’s great and about all I could ask for at this stage of my life.

For the past few days, when Gryffin wakes up in the morning, instead of waking up Isaiah, which is his usual MO, he’s been sneaking into our room without waking his brother and snuggling into bed with us.  I think he’s actually awake long before his light turns green (how he knows he’s allowed to get out of bed – best invention in the world, by the way) but is keeping quiet so that he can have that time with us on his own.  Such a sweet time with our boy and Isaiah gets some additional zzz’s.  A win win.   This morning, though, Gryffin sidled up to Jason first and the two of them decided to get some books and come down stairs.  I thought about getting up with them.  I really did.  But someone needed to stay upstairs with Isaiah, right?  So I decided to re-fluff my pillows and nestle back under the covers.  People, I have not slept in for almost 4 years.  I’m not exaggerating.  I got to sleep until 8:15 when Isaiah finally woke up and toddled in to see what was what.   If that ain’t a good start to vacation, I don’t know what is.

At the start of the trail @ Fort Ward

This was the highlight of the park for the boys.  Seriously.  As you can see, there was a drinking fountain and then this spigot which we told the boys was for dogs to get a drink.  They found this just hilarious.

Isaiah, after he informed us that he wanted to “drink like puppy dog.”
Kid has been cracking us up lately with the random things he says

I’ve been working on some basic photography skills the past few weeks.
I really like having a camera on days like today.It’s fun to play around with different shots and camera angles while we explore and we’ve been trying to remember to take more photos, instead of always relying on our talented friends to take them for us!