Our American Idol

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day this year I asked Cam for the following: 1.) the chance to sleep in 2.) my favorite meal (brunch) 3.) some new fun pictures of Clementine and I (because I'm always the one holding the camera 4.) a puppy

I got to sleep in until almost 10:30, then Cam made me Eggs Benedict and afterward we went exploring around Larrabee. I guess 3 out of 4 isn't too bad!

Here we are checking out whole, empty crab shells,
and a drippy cave.

Then we snuggled up for our photo shoot.
Only to be distracted by a boat going past.
A really nice stranger walking past took this picture. It's my favorite of the whole day. I love it! That's all this mama needs this year: a great reminder of my beautiful family having a great time exploring together.

Recently

Recently the weather has been totally unpredictable. When cooped up indoors, we play endless hours of dress up! Clem is ALWAYS the ladybug (completing the outfit w/ hot pink 80's prom shoes).
But the sunflower fairy rotates. Sometimes it's my turn, often it's Cam's. I love that he's willing to play sunflower fairy with her.
Keepin' it real.
While the rainy weather has me buggin out, the plants are loving it! We just finished mulching the front yard,
and putting in this year's bed (which Cam requested be 1/3 carrots this time around).
And I spy with my little eye the first two purple lilacs EVER to grow on this little plant. I thought I'd killed it several times but here come some blossoms. Finally!

Easter Weekend

This year we hosted Easter for my whole family. Clementine loved showing everybody all her stuff and having a new audience around.
We colored eggs on Saturday night, of course. This involved a lot of waiting because neither Cam or I could find our vinegar! Oops!
Once we found it, these little eggs took color much faster.

Here's Clem listening to her egg. Cam told her to listen to see if there were any baby chicks in there.
The next morning Nolan and family came over. The babies had a fun time rockin' out in the drum room.
And eating Easter brunch together.
Then it was time to see what the Easter bunny hid out back! (please ignore the weeds and dandelions)
Clementine was so excited! She loved finding all the eggs and putting them in the basket w/ Nolan. (If you remember in our last post, I mentioned Clementine's newest hobby which is collecting sticks and carrying them all day. Here she is finding eggs w/ her newest stick in hand!)
A fun day was had by all. We had just enough of a window to get out back, search for eggs and get back inside before the rain started.
(What a difference a year makes!)

Tulip Festival

We finally made it to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival yesterday. Usually, this is a trip we do over Spring Break but with the weather so bad it had to be put off. Saturday was the perfect, dry day for tiptoeing through the tulips and Clementine was SO excited.
As soon as we got there Clementine got her face painted. She chose a blue puppy for her cheek. She was very serious while having it painted on there.
And she was very pleased with the results.

We walked around a bit taking pictures and dodging tourists. After waiting patiently in line we were able to go for a tractor ride.
The tractor took us through the muddy fields all the way to the far end of the bright tulip fields. We could see all the vibrant tulip colors and these enormous kites flying in the background.

Here's me and Clementine snuggling up on the tractor ride.
And the whole fam posing in front of the red tulips (for the last few weeks, everywhere we go Clementine collects a stick and calls it her "treasure," that's what she's holding in the picture).
We wrapped up the day with strawberry shortcake and ice cream while Cam picked out a new kite for Clementine.
I decided on this trip that my future will definitely hold a pumpkin patch/Christmas tree Farm/Tulip field.

Shenanigans

Our Whirlwind Adventure

We had planned to just hang out close to the house this Spring Break but by Wednesday morning I was getting a little stir-crazy. I needed to get out of dodge!! We looked up hotels in places we could drive to relatively quickly and found the perfect one in Port Townsend. Within 20 minutes we had our room booked, our bag packed and the backseat loaded w/ toddler gear! (The above picture is of Clementine entertaining herself with her toes while serenading us with never ending renditions of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.)
We made it to the ferry, quite possibly Clementine's favorite part of the entire trip. She was wild with excitement. In the picture right above, I was preparing to take her picture when an older couple came and stood to our side. "Look how pretty she is!" said the lady. And Clementine mugged it up, just for her sake!
We got to town and it was like we were the only ones there! The sun was shining as we wandered the empty streets! It was lovely.
We ate at Waterfront Pizza and Elevated Ice Cream (my favorites!). I've been going to both of these places since I was Clementine's age and I was really excited to see the changes at Elevated, particularly the solar panels in the back!
We stayed at Water street Hotel right downtown. Even though we had two beds, all three of us piled up in this bed to watch movies and eventually fell asleep! (This is amazing because Clementine has NEVER slept with us before!)
We woke up bright and early (emphasis on EARLY) the next morning and head right for the beach (after a stop for a HUGE coffee for mama).
We'd brought Clementine's brand new kite with us and found the perfect kite-flying conditions on the far side of Fort Worden. Cam let the kite out....and it immediately broke! Oops!
There were plenty of other things to do at the beach, though!
This family shot at the beach took approximately 25 attempts to get right. We are all very very tired, can you tell?
Clementine and I threw rocks into the water, explored the different kelp that had washed ashore and looked for crabs (strange side note, we didn't find a single crab either here in Port Townsend or at Whidbey Island's beach we also explored! Where are all the crabs???)
As the gray clouds rolled in it was just about time to pack it in and head back to town to catch the ferry.
We had a good time in one of my favorite places on earth. We came home very tired but with sand between our toes and pink cheeks, what more could we ask for??