The Atkinsons

Land of the Rhododendrons.

Well I wrote a whole blog post on my trip to Washington that I thought I had saved... apparently not, ugh. I can remember little snippets here and there of what I had previously written, but I think instead of trying to rewrite the whole blog I will just give a little overview and just narrate the pictures as best I can, or this post will never happen! 

I always like to go to home to Washington during the summer (yes I still call it home.)
Kc's little brother Greg was spending the month of August at my parents house because he was doing a rotation at the University of Washington so I thought it would be a good time to go despite the fact that  I usually like to come in the month of September because that's when the blackberries are ripe (yes that's how crazy I am,) but seeing Greg won out over the black berries (barely) and I was blessed with good karma because they were ready early this year and I got to enjoy in their sweet goodness anyways! I was trying to convince all of Kc's family to come because who doesn't love to share the things they love with the people they love, and I succeeded in getting Kc's older sister Angie to come with her two cute girls June and Simone. Olive absolutely loves June and even though she lives in California and Olive doesn't get to see her much she still talks about her all the time. Greg's wife Heidi came for the second two weeks he was there too and I loved being with her and their cute baby Ezekiel, he is only a few months younger than Elijah and I am so excited to see them grow up together. 

We stayed a couple nights on Orcas Island. I have always wanted to do that but it's so hard because when you come home there are already so many other things you want to do and my parents house is so fun anyways you never want to leave! I was glad we did it though, it was so fun and we made some good memories. Kc left after Orcas Island because he had to get back to work, so he missed out on the rest of the fun. When the week was over I didn't want to go home and was very close to changing my flight. If it hadn't been for work I would have! I think next summer I am going to stay for a whole month. I just love it so much out there, and my kids love it too. 

Olive loved collecting the eggs in the morning, and I loved cooking them (Olive loves over easy eggs too, I've brain washed her.)

 Look at how yellow those yolks are! Delicious! 

My parents have the most abundant garden.

 Fresh berries, Figs, Pears, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Apples... really anything you could wish for, it's divine.

This picture makes me so happy. This is our horse Hilary and she is really old and most likely will not live much longer. She has been very good to us, my mom loves her. I think Elijah will be my last child to sit on her so this picture is special for multiple reasons. 

My dad is THE BEST at fires. 

He can't resit an urge to start one, and does almost every night (and if you remember my posts from past years I showed his massive wood supply.) In the summer it's so perfect, and I don't even mind smelling like camp fire the whole time I am there.

For our birthday's my mom got us a ride on a hot air ballon which is something on my life list. It was so beautiful, I loved it. Our pilot said we peaked at about 25,000 feet. This last picture is the best I can do to get a picture of us "in" the balloon. I would definitely recommend it to anyone

I love watching the dynamic between these two grow. Sometimes Olive gives a little too much love, but she is slowing embracing his place in our family and showing more tenderness and patience with him. We went through a really hard frustrating stage where this mamma wanted to tear her hair out but we are already starting to come out of it, and it looks pretty sweet on the other side.  

One of the hidden gifts of having babies that make you get up early is that you get to see the world like this and have quiet peaceful moments collecting rocks and sea shells and thinking about life. 

I love picking blackberries as much as I love eating them (sometimes more.) I get a thrill out of climbing or reaching in places to get the juiciest ones that are just out of reach. As a child I would pick, and as quickly as I would pick my sister would eat them out of my bowl. We always joked that I'd pick for hours and have nothing to show for it. These kids are no different. I climbed down by a river bank and waded in some muddy water to get these berries, and boy were they worth it! So good! These kids gobbled them right up, Elijah loves them just as much as Olive. He would scream at me if I paused for even a second before giving him the next one. They had these blackberries all over Orcas Island so we pulled over and somehow were able to keep enough to make my favorite blackberry cobbler. Just thinking about it now makes me smile. 

The view from Mt. Constitution on Orcas Island. You could see all the islands around and it felt surreal and isolated and just really cool, like out of a movie or something. 

While babies sleep, we play.

Swimming at Cascade lake in Moran State Park on Orcas Island.

 Half the island is a park, and it's so beautiful. 

The water was cold but in a way that felt good and calming. Angie and I enjoyed a short swim together and it made  me want to try to do a triathlon. Someday. 

Well this was one of the best dinners Ive ever had, and I will think back on it for years to come. That's how much I love food, especially seafood. 

I remembered my friend had a sister that lived in the San Juan Islands because she once brought us some crab from her. I called my friend up and she said her sister lived on the neighboring island and would love to take us crabbing! Because you can only crab on certain days, it didn't work out for us to go with her but she did bring us some of the fresh crab they had caught the day before and it was just SO GOOD. Paired with the salad and corn that kc's sister made it was really the perfect dinner. We were in a good place, with good people, and you add good food? That's how I want to live my life. 

Orcas Island has a funny shape, kind of like a kidney bean or horse shoe. 

He we are in the center of it. 

We don't board to ride the ferry without our huckleberry ice cream. No matter how close you are cutting it ;)

My very good friends live on a little lake close by our house. We love to visit them because they are always so fun and welcoming and wonderful people to be around. Olive jumped off this tramp 50 times, no matter how terrified she looked when she came up from the water she wanted to go again, ha. This girl likes fear a little too much. I love this last picture. We miss June. 

Farmer's Market bouquet for my Mamma for $7.

Greg and Heidi wanted to see the troll under the bridge, I wanted Olive to come but she was having way too much fun at Grandma's and refused to come haha. I am sure she had more fun there, I just always want her coming on adventures with me for my own selfish reasons, and I mean I do think she would have loved it! Next year.

 We toured University of Washington campus. It is so gorgeous, I loved looking at the old buildings and the beautiful greenery. You can't beat Washington when it comes to that. We couldn't resit taking pictures of these two cutie pies. We miss them.

We had a wonderful summer. Every year seems to get better and I love seeing my kids enjoy things and get old enough to look forward to events and have memories of spending time at Grandma's house. I think someday we might have to move back, a piece of my heart will always be in Washington.