Orcas

Many kudos to our friend, Briar, for editing this photo for us.  She's a miracle worker!

We just, and I mean just, got back from nearly a week up in the San Juan Islands.  We went to a family camp that Sacha's been going to with her family since she was a baby.  It's a very important place to her, and so she wanted us all to go as soon as the kids were old enough.  We had been there several times when we were dating, and, in fact, it was the place where we first got engaged.  So, we both always look forward to going back.

Unfortunately, Sacha's parents had a prior commitment and couldn't come with us this year, so we went with just the four of us.  We had our own little cabin, which was named "Willow," and we all slept there.  Together.  In one room.  And we all actually slept.  Vacations are seriously getting more and more vacation-like all the time. 

Although it was advertised as a family camp, it turned out that they didn't have anything going on for kids under 5.  And by that, I mean, nothing.  There were groups and initiations and games and such for everyone else from 5 on up to adults, but nothing for the littler ones.  It's quite possible that we wouldn't have gone if we had known about this going in, as the description for the camp made it sound otherwise, but we made the most of things and still had a great time.

We ate delicious vegetarian food at every meal, and got lots of exercise walking up and down the hill to our cabin and back.  We hiked down to the beach.  We did crafts.  We fed the chickens in the garden.  We met lots of new people, including the one other toddler at the camp.  We explored the mountain on the island, and the little town nearby.  I went for a run nearly every day and realized that I'd forgotten what running on hills is like.  And then, before we knew it, it was time to come home.  We had a long trip home yesterday, taking a ferry for an hour and then getting in our car and driving until almost 1 am to get home.  Whew!  We are exhausted, but still glad we went.  It was our first real family vacation, with just the four of us, and I have to say that it went rather well.  The kids both brought home stuffed Orca whales so they could remember their trip to Orcas Island, and Mateo is already begging to go back next year...

I was going to upload more photos, but blogger is being balky, so I'll leave that for another day.  Good night!