14!

This kid is 14 years old. I'm blogging a few weeks late, because we've been a bit busy lately! I blogged quite a bit about AJ because he has had some big things happening. High school/robotics/all the things. I really do enjoy this guy. Here's a story for you. Since I recently had my fix fixed, I'm definitely cautious when hiking around. AJ took it upon himself to support me during our Pacific Coast travels. I would be behind him and all the sudden he would have his arm out to steady me. He would hike down and then immediately look up to help me figure out my route. That is something that not every kid would think of, but AJ did. 

Sometimes that makes up for all the damage he causes with Ryker (eyerollllll). I think I'll always have a special relationship with AJ as he made me a Mom. He is wicked smart, and has this sensitive side that he will show you on occasion. You can reason with him, as long as you have good enough explanations. His brain IS ALWAYS working. ALWAYS. It's pretty remarkable. I'm no doubt a smarter person because of him. 

Russell and I took AJ to a concert to celebrate his continuation. We went to Charley Crockett in Wyoming. It was a rough turnaround as we just got back from our trip the night before...but it was so worth it. AJ got his hands X'ed-which just felt like high school and college to me! We got a chance to go in and pick our seats. We enjoyed the show, and I just love how much AJ appreciates listening to music! His tastes our wickedly awesome and all over the place. 

Hopefully he always lets me give him a morning hug:)

Love, 

Mom

Pacific Coasting

We started off summer on an epic journey! The impetus... was Russell wanting to see Redwoods and then combine that with my need to go on adventures...we sure did it right! As you can see our journey consisted of 56 hours in the car and 1,891.7 miles across the states of California, Oregon and Washington for 16 days. Was there a google spreadsheet to help us plan? YES. Did Russell insist on a few days that didn't have places to stay in the evening times? YES. Did it all work out? Sure did. 

The goals for our trip:

• AJ: See 10 seals and have fun!
• Ryk: Get good sleep
• Demps: See zoos
• Megan: Dance everyday-bring joy!
• Russell: Be fully present, slow down.

Day 1: We flew very early in the AM to San Diego. We got our rental car and went straight to the San Diego Zoo. After that we headed to our place in La Jolla, a favorite spot of mine and Russell.

Highlights:

AJ: Zoo and checking out Point Loma

Ryk: The New Zealand eatery and Seal Rock

Demps: Animals at the zoo, baby seal

Meg: Tapir, koalas, Point Loma tide pools

Russell: Capybaras, seals,

Fun fact: We saw the purple trees aka Jacaranda Tree. They were planted in San Diego in the 1890s. 

These were GIANT tortoises! They just stood there looking like this!

There were 4 1 month old baby capybaras that were born! We managed to walk by just as it was feeding time. I did contemplate if I could steal a capybara. 

The tapir! My favorite animal and the closest that I've ever been to one. He managed to take a huge dump right as we were appreciating him!

We took this double decker bus around! First time ever for a double deck bus for the kids.

These were the tide pools of Point Loma. 

This is Seal Rock in La Jolla! We watched so many babies! It was pretty adorable. 

Day 2: We checked out Mission Beach all day long! The first family rollercoaster which is a huge deal- AJ has a bit of a fear of heights, Demps has never expressed interest, and Ryk...well he loves fun!

Highlights:

AJ: 1st rollercoaster, great beach day, skip ball

Ryk: Really loved the roller coaster,

Demps: Playing with the huge bubbles

Meg: Got saved by a lifeguard (not really, but kind of), rollercoaster with my kids

Russell: Rollercoaster, beach time

Fun fact: The rollercoaster was built in the 1920s for 2 million dollars. 

The Fru5 FIRST rollercoaster ever!

This was before I got "rescued."

Day 3: We said goodbye to La Jolla, grabbed lunch over at Newport, made a stop in LA, and then landed in Santa Monica! We were pleasantly surprised to experience the Griffith Observatory-Russell was in heaven. 

Highlights:

AJ: Playing with rocketcopters at night on the beach in Santa Monica. 

Ryk: Rollercoaster and rocketcopters

Demps: Rollercoaster

Russell: *Crickets*

Meg: Checking out Santa Monica in the dark.

Fun facts:

• 63 Earths can fit into your Uranus.
• 500 stars are empty!

I really love this photo with AJ. He's feeling more and more like a high schooler!

Fun art in La Jolla!

This was the wings at the observatory and if you angle it right you can see the Hollywood sign.

So many names we didn't know!

The Tar pits! We made sure we watched Volcano the night before....and I couldn't help feel like what if....

The end of route 66!

I was representing in the front! This was AJ's favorite rollercoaster. 

Day 4: We played in Santa Monica all day! We played in the water, took bikes to Venice Beach, and did some working out...at the beach.

Highlights:

AJ: Biking and swimming

Ryk: Boogie boarding

Demps: Balance beam practice!

Meg: Being able to climb the rope-even if I got a wicked rope burn.

Russell: Swimming

Fun fact:

Santa Monica had a food service where Coco the robot delivered food-just like Doordash. It was wicked awesome!

Riding down to Venice Beach. We got to see Muscle beach, the spot where Barbie and Ken roller skated around. 

Day 5: We headed to Santa Cruz, with a lunch stop at Morro Bay. Morro was just a quaint little town, but had some yummy food, plus we were able to see Sea Otters and seals! 

Highlights:

AJ: Like Morro Bay and the dim sum restaurant

Ryk: Dinner was good

Demps: Chinese dinner

Meg: Loved seeing the sea otters and the sea lion

Russell: Liked dinner

Fun facts: Morro Bay hosted the Ironman recently. According to a local the water was so cold that they had to pull 300 plus athletes out of the water. 

AJ's favorite Clam Chowder of the whole trip!

Morro Bay

We stopped at Cayucos Beach because I heard that there was great rock hunting-and for sure there was!

We wanted to show the kids the boardwalk at Santa Cruz Friday evening- it was a ghost town. They had shut down the boardwalk so that the high school graduates could come play!

Day 6: We went back to the boardwalk to have some fun in the morning. IT WAS PACKED! Ryk, Russell and me went on the roller coaster, while Dempsey & AJ headed to the arcade. Then we headed to San Francisco and we stopped at Panther Beach based on a recommendation from Dempsey/Ryker's teacher. For dinner we met with Russell's cousin Justin and partner Lisa at a summer yummy ramen place!

Highlights:

AJ: Arcade, clown game

Ryk: Big rollercoaster, walking into the San Fran place

Demps: Clown game

Mom: Roller coaster, Panther beach

Russell: rollercoaster and driving the PCH.

AJ is notorious for these closed eye photos! hah!

Overlooking Panther Beach

Day 7: San Francisco Day! We played in San Fran ALL DAY. We had to convince Russell that it was worth the wait to ride a street car, and fun fact. IT WAS. We were able to meet with Russell's other cousin Maddie and her fiance over at Lands End and it such a lovely time. We ended our night at a favorite dinner spot of Russell's that ended up being a delight. 

Checked out Lombard Street

We waited for 1.5 hours to ride, and it was great! Kids were brave all rode on the outside.

A beach right by Lands End to dip our toes in while we wait for cousin time. 

Lands End-such a great spot to hike! AND the views of the Golden Gate were top notch. 

Lighting, shadows, greenery, family!

Day 8: We said goodbye to San Francisco and hello to Fort Bragg. This was the part of the trip that was unplanned. Russell wanted us to have ultimate flexibility to see whatever caught our fancy! This ended up being a wonderful thing because we were able to make multiple stops! Our final stop at a hotel with a pool which was a hit. 

Fun view going on the Golden Gate bridge with the fog!

Before we left San Fran we had to stop at this new park and throw the frisbee. Not quite sure how we would have entertained ourselves without the frisbee.

AJ took this selfie at Stump Beach. A random spot we pulled over in! AJ did lots of exploring here!

On an overlook over Stump Beach. The water was gorgeous, the rocks were so pretty, and there were flowers everywhere. 

I asked Russell if he wanted to come with me to see the sunset. He agreed. We were on top of these rocks and had the best view ever of the sunset. 

 Day 9: From Fort Bragg we headed off to Eureka. This was our first time being able to see the Redwoods and it was MAGICAL. We did make a stop at Glass Beach, which was a favorite of mine!

Highlights:

AJ: Exploring places and climbing Redwoods.

Ryk: Redwoods and all the trees

Demps: Glass beach

Meg: Glass beach and the smell of the woods

Russell: Hiking around the Redwood forests and climbing on the logs

Fun fact: We were among the tallest trees in the world. 

One of the tourist traps that we had to try! Russell definitely drove our van through this! AHHHH. No thanks!

Look at how big they are!

One of my favorite photos to try and show how insane these trees are!

Ryk in his element.

I wish I would have counted how many trees Russell touched and hugged and looked up at. His church.

Dempsey found this log and practiced her balance beam routine

Oh yes we will go on a log to get to the other side!

Look at this crew. LOVE THEM hard. 

In a street, in the middle of giants!

Day 10: We played at the Eureka Zoo and the coolest park that was right beside the zoo. We were in search of the infamous banana slug and we found one thanks to an amazing lady who found one and shared with us! On our drive we stopped and hung out at Agate Beach. I found this stop in a book that I had ordered before the trip. It did not disapoint! Then we headed to Brookings, Oregon for the night. 

Redwood Tree Walk-pretty epic spot!

The banana slug in the forest. These are such ooey gooey creatures!

The kids found this downed log and had a blast climbing up and sliding down

The water was behind me and this is how you entered into Agate Beach. WHAT A COOL place! Excellent agates, warm sand, driftwood for days, and a stream that led to the ocean. This means only one thing for my family...creating dams and changing the trajectory of the water!

 
 Day 11: From Brookings we stopped at the Oregon Redwood trail which was a 2 mile drive up a mountain with some pretty sketchy bumps. Russell was having a blast, the kids and I....we were suspicious. Our stop for the night was Florence, Oregon!

Came across these Yellow Spotted Centipedes along the Oregon Redwood trail! Dempsey counted 50 + centipedes

Hollowed out Redwood due to a lightening strike

Hugging a tree

Day 12: We left Florence and were excited to get to Portland to see Jack and Will! We made a stop at Thor's Well, which provided us SO much entertainment! We were so excited to reach family and have a chance to relax from the constant go and go.

Highlights: Well .... I didn't get everyone's individual highlights because maybe I was over it, or maybe they were. BUT family highlights in general included: Thor's well, fire and games with Jack and Will, I went on my first jog (SLOW-but it happened).

Orchestrating the explosion of water at Thor's well

We stopped at the Tillamook factory which was so informative and neat! We got to see how the cheese comes from the cows and then gets packages into cheese for the store! Obviously we enjoyed some ice cream there too!

Awesome house, with a great fire and smores!

Always wonderful to see these guys together! The genetics are strong!

Day 13: We did NOT get into a car at all today. This marked the first time all trip that we didn't drive anywhere! It was glorious! We explored Portland via Will and Jack's house. 

Bless Will and Jack-they had the patience while Ryker continued to play the piano. A couple things. 1) Ryk is musical and just can't help it! 2) He has perseverance and practiced Jingle Bells 5 million times until he got it! 3) We did teach him about quiet playing!

Jack taught the kids how to make ice cream with the ice cream maker. There was chocolate, bananas, and vanilla. We had so much that we definitely ended up with ice cream for breakfast! 

Day 14: We said goodbye to the uncles and headed on our way to our last city. Before we arrived in Seattle, we stopped in Olympia so that Russell could reconnect with her cousin Kady. Kady suggested an amazing park to putz around in! We arrived in Seattle with time to visit the Gum Wall, Pikes peak and the most amazing dinner place!

LOOK at these noodles. I'm going to daydream about these noodles. 

I had to get a picture to memorialize this...Dempsey has been perfecting her cartwheel and she cartwheeled everywhere. EVERY town. Every surface. The woods, the sand, the boardwalk, the sidewalk...anywhere and everywhere!

We never got to see anyone throwing fish, but it was great to show the kids this iconic place. 

We would have personally contributed to this wall if we hadn't CHEWED all our gum ahead of time! lol!

When did we go to Russell's fave ice cream joint in Seattle? Day 14 or was it Day 15? I'm not sure. Either way-we really enjoyed it!

Day 15: We hung in Seattle all day! We rode scooter down to Pikes Peak market, which always has me squirmy. We are technically not supposed to have the kids ride them AND I just worry about everyone around my babies. BUT gosh it makes the kids so happy! We then got to go to dinner and ice cream with my cousin Emerson. It was lovely getting to see him in his town!

Did a drive by of the Fremont Troll!

We took a tour of the Boeing Plant. It was very neat to see the assembly line that it both people and robots! We also got to be in the biggest building in the entire world!

Emer's fave ice cream place- we all ordered the same thing! SO good!

Day 16: THE LAST DAY. WOW. We decided to leave later in the day so we would have more time to play! We were able to catch a ferry over to Bainbridge Island. Russell was tremendously happy to take the car over, I think Dempsey might not be so afraid of cruises, and we got to enjoy our favorite clam chowder in the world!

On the ferry!

We counted 100+ jellyfish in the water. This is due to higher water temperatures.

PHEW! 16 whole days! We all did better than I thought, but it was still a struggle at times. I didn't realize how much I appreciate having some alone time, my weights to work out, and access to healthy food! The kids were ready for their own beds. Russell was ready for his space and to get back to the business. It was the first time we ever spent that long together. I'm glad that Russell fought for the van- because we needed that space. The kids got great at packing up and moving their bags into the car. The van looked like a tornado came through! ALL THE memories and all the things we saw...it was really great! I'm so glad we made this trip happen. 

:)

Mom