Knives, Spoons, and Forks

Ok, first off, this post has nothing to do with knives or spoons. It is all about Forks!

Forks Washington that is! Yep, the VAMPIRE capital of America!

The famous sign

It was great to be there with my sister

Jenetta and I went on a little sister's weekend while I am living in Oregon (she is in Washington) and decided to go out to the Olympic peninsula.

The ferry out of Seattle was a new, fun experience for me

The water was beautiful!

Cute little harbor

We stopped at a very amazing little restaurant in Port Angeles on the way, and had great seafood, Italian sodas, and creme brulee. YUM! It was raining as we drove which was a little scary, but we survived.

It was dark by the time we got to Forks, but our cabin was so adorable!

It was pretty small

but had very cute decor

and even a little kitchen

and a loft.

The next morning we went to breakfast, and it was then that I realized just how over run by Twilight this little town is. EVERYONE in the little diner was talking about something to do with Twilight!

Next we headed out to the coast and La Push from the books. We went to first beach and walked down the beach looking at all the amazing driftwood. It was very fun, even when the tide started coming in and we were running from the waves and water.

It was sprinkling and the wind was blowing like crazy!

But the view was still wonderful

There were so many trees on the beach!

Just to get some perspective of how wide this trunk was

It was massive

And my pictures don't do it justice!

After first beach we drove to the head of the trail going down to third beach. I wanted to be able to walk in the forest. I had recently dislocated my rib (and hadn't gotten it put back in yet) so I wasn't up for any real hiking. This hike was so beautiful!

My camera doesn't do it justice, it was magical.

It was really raining pretty hard, but we loved it anyways

We were very prepared for the rain.....we were the only ones on that whole trail with rain ponchos.

This was so much cooler in real life....click to enlarge and it might be better.

Jenetta and her poncho

Where we turned back. The forest was beyond amazing!

After our hike we did the Twilight fan thing. The whole city is filled with Twilight shops, and we went to 3 of them. One was insane. I didn't get any pictures and I wish I had. There were things that no sane person would ever buy. The most insane thing in the store was a little piece of paper that detailed exactly what Kristen....whoever wore in one of the movies. It was FIVE DOLLARS!!! What normal person would pay that much money for a piece of paper?!

I bought a hoodie, and a water bottle, so nothing too crazy. The other two shops weren't too crazy, which was a relief.

That evening we went back to Port Angeles to eat dinner and see a movie.

This mural was by where we parked....it was pretty cool

We went to dinner at the restaurant that Bella and Edward go to in the books.

It was good food, but the waitresses were really snooty! It wasn't as good as Michael's where we ate the night before. We still had fun, and it was amusing to see how many women stopped to take pictures of the restaurant while we were there.

We went to a fun little book store and I wanted to buy SO many books that I had had as a child. I really want to get more books for Kaylee, but I never think about it, and when I do, I have forgotten to budget for them. Oh, well a little at a time I guess!

It was pretty late when we got back to forks so we went straight to bed. The next morning it was clear and sunny. Too bad it couldn't have been that way the day before. We got to stop and take a couple pictures of a lake on our way back to Seattle.

Then we were back on the ferry and headed back to real life.

There was a beautiful little beach down from the parking lot for the ferry

And it was neat watching them steer that huge boat into the dock

Our ferry

The Seattle side

My VFFs (I love that I am using my toes to hang on to the mesh railing)

We got to have lunch with Jenetta's in-laws and my parents and I got to see little Evelyn! She is so adorable, and it almost walking! I can't wait until Christmas when both of them will be walking and able to have so much fun together. I tried to take a nap before I drove home but I only got about 15 minutes.

Driving home to Eugene

It was great to be home, and have our little adventure to look back on. I had a lot of fun, and can't wait to go on our "official" sister's retreat sometime next year when all three of us sisters can go.

First Trip to the Beach

Ugh, I can't believe it took me this long to get this post up!

Robert, Kaylee, and I all went out to the coast Sunday afternoon. It was wonderful! Oregon beaches are beautiful! Cold, yes, but beautiful. This trip made me seriously think about staying here long-term.

We took both dogs (Hobbs and a guide dog puppy we were puppy sitting) and they both had a blast running around. Luckily it hadn't gotten busy there so we let Hobbs off leash to play in the waves for a while. He loved it and got really into chasing them some times. We didn't trust the other puppy enough to let him off leash, so he had to live with the retractable leash.

This beach was really long and wide with the water coming in from the waves for almost 50 yards. That was with the really big waves, but we didn't dare go clear to where the waves were breaking because the big ones came in so often. When we first got there we walked really close to the waves breaking and let Kaylee down to walk around.....then a huge wave (over Kaylee's head) came in really quickly and we had to snatch her up and run for our safety. That spooked her pretty badly and she was nervous about the water after that. It was ok though because things were so fun on the beach for her.

She chased the Crows and Seagulls, stared at seashells (didn't want to touch them), picked up driftwood, laughed hysterically at the dogs playing, and practiced walking (and drawing) on the nice smooth sand.

This was the first picture I took of the beach and it is my favorite. I LOVED the driftwood that lined the upper part of the beach.

You can see in this picture (and the next) how far out the surf was! there was a TON of wet sand because the water would come up so far with the really big waves.

It was so fun to walk our little girl along the sand, helping her discover the wonders of the world.

She held our hands a lot at first because she was unsure of the water and is still learning how to walk in shoes.

But then she took off!

She explored a little bit with Daddy

It was just barely raining, but it was more like just mist falling from the sky. It was great! It got all our hair wet though.

It was a bit windy too

Investigating sea shells

and playing with the sand

Running back and forth to daddy......

....and back to me.

I absolutely love this picture!

she really really didn't like touching the sand. She looked like this the two times she tripped and got sand on her hands

Drawing. Yes, I drew the circle around her.

Her first sand drawing (and adorable footprints)

Drawing with daddy

I was a little nervous when she wanted to walk round holding the stick, but she was pretty carful with it!

Some more shots of the water/beach

I don't know if she was coughing or talking in this one, but it is a funny face either way

More footprints in the sand

I love this little girl SO much!

I wanted to get a nice family picture on this log, but then the camera broke :(

Here are some of the videos we took:

I can't wait to go back sometime and see if she gets more brave about the water. It was such a wonderful day! It made me never want to leave.