Island vacation

After the King family reunion, we stayed a couple of extra days and went on our own family vacation. We went to a hotel in Bellingham for one night. It was our nephew, Bowen's, birthday so Blaine's brother Roland and his family came over for a little birthday party. We had pizza and went swimming in the hotel pool. It was loads of fun. Nolan was so exhausted after the whole week of reunion fun and then swim party fun. He crashed on his own hotel bed and we barricaded him in as best as we could.

The next day we headed to the ferry to ride it over to "Friday Harbor" on San Juan Island. Nolan thought the ferry ride was pretty fun. He sat and looked out the window for a little while and then ran around...what he does best! Cleo just hung out and enjoyed the ride...what she does best!

We loaded up in the car to drive off the boat and before we had even driven all the way both of the kids were asleep! We decided we would just let them sleep for a while and we would take a driving tour of the island. It was really quite beautiful and it kind of felt like we were in a foreign country. It was green and quaint and had interesting little "looky" spots throughout the island. (did I just make up the word "looky"?!)

Once the kids woke up we stopped at what was called "The American Camp". This was the American side of the "Pig War" which was basically a battle over territory. You can learn more about it here. Sorry, to just send you to a link, but this is already a long post! It was fun to do a quick walk around (we had to be quick to get in what we wanted to get in before the ferry left to go back to Bellingham). Nolan insisted on pushing the stroller, but did a great job keeping up and pushing straight. It was beautiful scenery and I had fun trying to take some interesting pictures. 

We went to a whale watching spot for a little bit. It sprinkled on us, we did some unanticipated hiking with Cleo in her car seat, and we didn't see any whales. Were we glad we went still...yes! It was all just a  part of the experience.

It was a great trip and our first real family vacation. Blaine and I realized that while we really wanted the kids (well mostly Nolan) to be making memories and have a neat and adventurous vacation, he would have been just as happy running around the hotel room. It was neat and adventurous for us though!