Rocky Point- The Saga of the Gigantic Pizzas

I just love Rocky Point. I have always loved beaches, and the kids definitely love it too. Aaron was not so hot on beaches when we first got married, but he says I have since convinced him of their awesomeness. 

For this trip, we stayed in an Airbnb house in Las Conchas that was part of "The Village," which means we got access to the volleyball court and pool. The Coes ended up being able to come the same weekend as us. They stayed in their camper trailer at the RV park and hung out with us during the day. 

Our first stop was at the house to check in, evaluate what the kitchen was stocked with, and then head out to dinner. Unfortunately the lock was finicky and I had to call the owner to figure out how to get into the house. They had this keypad that I just could not get to work. Apparently you have to hit a key to wake up the pad before entering the code. We figured this out when Winston ran up and started pushing buttons when he got too tired of waiting, and it worked on my next try. 

Eventually we made it to Pollo Lucas to feast upon chicken and beans. I love that place because it is so simple yet delicious. There are low key wild dogs wandering through the establishment though. It is funny what you can get used too. 

After that, the guys went to put the kids to bed while the girls did a grocery run. Our main objective was to buy a large quantity of ice cream treats, plus stuff for breakfasts and lunches. Weirdly, the first grocery store we went to had NO ICE CREAM, so we had to make a second stop

Do people actually buy these three feet tall bags of cheese puffs?!?

We were all incredibly thirsty, so we broke out the mango juice boxes 

This is the only place I have ever gone where we have the beach to ourselves like this. 

Sandy toddlers

Ultimate Frisbee is exhausting on sand. 

See those dots on our legs? Those are LIVE sand dollars! They crawl around very slowly, and it tickles in such a strange way. We found this spot where you could stick your hand in the sand and pull one out every time. Then we tried again later and couldn't find a single one.

As we were getting ready to head back for lunch one day, a lady selling pina coladas walked by and we decided to get some. I'm glad we did because not only were they delicious and fancy looking, we also saw some DOLPHINS jumping out of the water while we were waiting! At first I thought I was seeing some fins, so I got everyone to look right before one jumped all the way out and we got to see this perfect silhouette of a dolphin. 

Fancy beach treats

Fancy beach friends

Back for some swimming at high tide. The water was colder than it is in the Fall, but still swimmable.

Solving all the world's problem while bobbing in the waves

Elliot was unconvinced about my talk of how convenient it is to pee in the ocean. He opted for peeing on the sand grass instead.

Seafood out of this barrel on a truck? Yelp said it was the best Mariscos in town, so we gave it a try.

It was SOO GOOD!

Now it is time for 

 The Saga of the Gigantic Pizzas

There was a pizza joint called Mama Mia Pizza near our rental place. Allison had looked up their website and noticed that they prominently advertised these gigantic pizzas that could feed 30 people or something like that. On our second day, we decided to send Aaron and Walter to go pick up a couple of these bad boys for a quick and easy dinner while we finished up swimming in the pool and getting the kids ready for bed. 

Half an hour later, they came back empty handed with shell shocked looks on their faces. They drove to Mama Mia Pizza and asked how big their biggest pizzas were. The guy showed them a regular sized pizza box. Walter and Aaron were confused and thought they might have the wrong pizza place, so they turned around to leave. We never figured out what the deal was with the website- maybe there are two Mama Mia Pizza places in Rocky Point?

The truly inspirational business owner stopped them by exclaiming that he could indeed make them a gigantic pizza. He rushed into the back and came out with his biggest pan. The only problem was that the pizzas would not fit into the boxes. The man offered to let Aaron make a small deposit to borrow the pans to carry the pizzas home on and then return them later, or deliver them on the hot pans to our house. Walter doesn't speak any Spanish, so it was up to Aaron to make the most complicated pizza order of his life with this valiant Mexican restaurateur. Aaron translated the very specific arrangement of sausage vs ham on the Hawaiian pizza like a champ.

Two hours after the guys had left to pick up the pizzas, the pizza man showed up in his tiny, beat up two door car with our three gigantic pizzas. He had cleverly unfolded pizza boxes and covered them with tinfoil to solve the pan situation. We all felt terrible for making this guy jump through so many hoops- clearly we should have just ordered more normal sized pizzas, but things got confused in the heat of the pizza-ordering moment. This guy was just so willing to meet the ridiculous whims of the American tourists. Hopefully he got to go home that night and make fun of us to his family. 

Capitalism at its finest right here.

I love hanging out at the beach, and I also love hanging out at rental houses with friends where we can play games and have great chats after the kids go to bed. The game highlight was Aaron and Eric saying "I will Steeeeeallllll" while playing Cover Your Assets.

Easter 2019

First event of the Easter season: A madhouse of an egg hunt at the park in Aunt Mary's neighborhood.

Annie only found 1 egg, but was thrilled nonetheless

Next came the Easter Egg Lunch at Preschool. The parents brought eggs stuffed with food items for the kids to find and eat for lunch. 

"sharing" the egg chalk with Annie

Preschool kids ready for the hunt!

Devouring the spoils

Last but not least was the annual ward Easter egg hunt and potluck. I love the simplicity of this event. Everyone brings 12 eggs per however many kids will participate. A handful of dads go to hide the eggs on the green on the other side of the street while everyone else eats dinner. Then we stop traffic for a while to heard the mass of children across the street to find eggs. It is super fun, and it is hardly any work to organize. 

Good thing his helmet is in place

I attempted to re-create last year's classic Easter picture. Elliot is making about the same face, just from a different angle

Easter 2018

I tried to take a picture of the kids in their Sunday clothes after church, but the ground was burning their feet so this is the best I got

Some beautifully dyed eggs. Elliot kept at it for about half an hour after Aaron and I finished and wandered off. All of Elliot's eggs ended up pretty much brown. 

We didn't get Annie a basket this year because she still doesn't really know what is going on. Elliot got a new thing of water paints and a water bottle, along with the eggs of candy collected at earlier egg hunts. There were great messages about Christ at church. All in all it was a great Easter season!

The Time I Kissed A Goat

We have driven to Mary's house countless times in the 6 years we have lived in Arizona. Each time, we drive right past the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Farm, but we have never stopped. UNTIL NOW! And boy did it deliver!

First stop: mini donkeys. All the animals are trained to use only their lips as they eat the grass pellets from your hands. 

We thought Elliot would be scared, but he was way into it! (Not that you could tell by his face here)

Annie's favorite was the brightly colored parakeets that would land on the seed covered sticks that we stuck into their cage. "BIRD! BIRD!"

Some beautiful deer

Here's the money shot! This is the wall of a two story barn. The goats stick their heads out of the holds and bob around in a truly comical way. There was a sign encouraging the brave in heart to put a grass pellet between their lips and feed it to the goat. It felt WEIRD. Elliot surprised me by being willing to do it too! He was totally a champ that day. Aaron refrained from the goat smooching. 

Elliot's favorite: putting feed in these little cups and turning the crank to raise it up to the goats in the "Goat Penthouse"

You put feed through a tube to feed the ostriches.

More goats! Not pictured are the bunnies and ducks. 

These Lorikeets are smart enough to open the lids on the nectar containers and drink it out.

Elliot was thrilled until one landed on his head. That was a bit much for him, and he dashed out of the enclosure. 

Last stop: sting rays! These were my favorite. They sucked on my hand to get the little bit of fish or whatever the white slimy substance I was feeding them was.

 We will definitely be back!

I had to take a picture of this cereal box that they had at Mary's house. Rebekah is super into all things feline. She is writing a "Catland" comic book series. I love seeing the latest installment when we go visit. 

Gotta love a desert sunset

Wienermobile

Once upon a time our car was having battery issues, so I took it into Firestone. Little did I know that it would lead to a magical encounter with the legendary Wienermobile 

Normally I would have thought "cool," snapped a picture, and carried on with my life. But since I had 40 minutes to kill, I found myself having a lengthy conversation with the hotdoggers. Apparently there are 3 wienermobiles currently travelling the US. Every year they hire 6 college graduates to work a year on the Wienermobile. They go to Hot Dog High for training, then hit the road! They spend a week in a city going to random parades or parking lots. They let people into the Wienermobile and hand out the classic wiener whistle and stickers. When they aren't out interacting with the people, they post on social media and produce podcasts and marketing videos. They spend 6 months with one partner in one of the US zones, then switch it up for the last 6 months of their contract. They do a lot of training with the drivers of the Planter's Peanutmobile, which has a very similar program. The gossip is that Ryan the hotdogger is dating Molly the Peanut Girl. 

They had music playing. At one point, Elliot asked me "what song is this?" I could tell it was by Monsters and Men, but couldn't tell what song it was, so I guessed "Dirty Paws." The playlist shuffled to the next song, WHICH ACTUALLY WAS DIRTY PAWS! Ryan the hotdogger flipped out because apparently the playlist is huge and he thought that I magically controlled the playlist. 

They are very willing to sing the Oscar Mayer Wiener song on demand

Aaron made this meme making fun of me in the week following the Wienermobile incident. 

The Wienermobile drove off into the sunset, but it will always have a place in my heart. 

Seattle Trip

The Hays were kind enough to host us for a week long trip to see their new house in Seattle and do a little road trip around the state. We decided to go up during their spring break in the first week of April. Little did we know that we would end up going to Seattle again in August for James's wedding.  

Of course, step one was the planning spreadsheet, which was named "Wherein we convince the Bloods to move to Seattle." The Hays did 99% of the planning work, including telling us what we had to pack and what camping gear they could borrow for us. We flew up, so we were pretty limited with luggage space. Our coats and rain boots took up a sizable chunk of suitcase space. 

Airport buddies

It was great to see the Hays. Colby launched into a video game conversation as soon as we walked into the house, picking up things right where we left off. Alice came with Robb to pick us up from the airport, and Elliot and Alice spent the car ride back pretending they were astronauts exploring planet Marshmallow. And planet Alice. And planet Monkey. And planet Eyeball. They were quite creative.

The next morning, we were off! The girls (plus Emmett) took the van while the guys took the Hays's Civic. It was nice that we didn't have to rent a car.

On our way to the Quinalt Rain Forest Trail

Note the gas light and the remaining range of 0 miles. We realized that we forgot to fill up the van before leaving when we were already past the last town. We made it to a gas station 10 miles further than the "remaining range" predicted we had gas for. That is one way to add some excitement to the trip! (note for my parents- we weren't too worried because we had the second car that could have gone on and bought a gas can if we really did run dry.)

I knew it was wet and green in the northwest, but I didn't realize it was actually classified as a rain forest. We miraculously managed to not get rained on, but the ground was pretty soggy wherever we went.  

Our little forest creature

This fungus picture is dedicated to my fungi loving sibling, Clint

That night, we stayed in a mobile home Airbnb in Lower Hoh. We picked it because it was close to Ruby beach. It allowed us to see the sunset on the beach and have a place to shower before church the next day. We camped the following two nights. The mobile home was funny- it had nice wallpaper, but there were random holes that had been patched with pieces of cardboard from diaper boxes. I was greatly amused by the repair work. It was perfect for our needs.

Drawing pictures while the grown ups were unpacking and cooking dinner

My new favorite poem was displayed in the bathroom

We put on our coats and rain boots and headed down to the beach for sunset! The rain boots were a genius idea. All the barefoot fools were looking at us with eyes filled with jealousy and numb feet. It was gorgeous, and none of the kids let cold hands stop them from playing in the sand and tossing pebbles in the ocean. 

Annie trying to join Alice and Elliot in their cave. For some reason, they decided they had to pick up sand from the cave and carry it back to their sand castle near the (very small) waves.

Speak softly and carry a big stick

The crew minus our favorite photographer

These two were holding hands all over the place. They said it helped them not fall down. 

The next day we went to church in a small ward in Forks, Washington. The first speaker stood up and said "Good morning, brothers and sisters." Then the whole congregation said "good morning" right back! The same thing happened with the next speaker too! Then over the pulpit, one of the speakers was like "This scripture is for you Mary" and this lady that must be Mary goes "Alright!" It was delightfully folksy. We were swarmed by people who hoped that we were going to move in and double their primary, but alas we had to be on our way.  

Lunch in Forks consisted of sandwiches and birthday cupcakes at a park for Claire

Not the best picture, but it should be noted that Forks is the setting of the Twilight series. They are DEFINITELY milking that for all it is worth, with Twilight tours being advertised on many shop windows and special vampire additions to menus taped up in restaurants. But we were in it for NATURE not VAMPIRE NOVEL FANDOM.   

Next stop: Hoh Rain Forest! We had some awesome Elk sightings. They were munching on the ever prevalent skunk cabbage (thank you informational signs for identifying this wonderfully named plant)

I'm not sure if this is a pond or a swamp

Entering the Hall of Mosses!

Aaron had to keep his hood up because Annie was trying to tear off his ears. We gave up on the baby carrier pretty quickly.

It was such a surreal place

Holding hands again

When trees fall over here, new trees start growing out of the "nurse logs" as they decompose. After the nurse log rots away, we are left with three or so trees in a very straight row with a bunch of exposed, gnarly roots.

That night we camped at the very mossy Hoh campground. It got pretty cold at night, so we bundled up and got some good rest. 

I woke up early with Annie. When I stepped out of the tent, there was a bull elk about 50 feet way from me!!

As we went to cook breakfast burritos in the morning, we realized that I had left all the eggs in the fridge at the Airbnb. They were in these nifty containers that are actually a part of the Hays' fridge. Fortunately the Airbnb owner agreed to meet us in Forks to give them back to us. We switched the meal plan around and had pancakes instead. Because of the bonus trip to Forks and how long it took to break down camp in the morning, we decided to skip the stop we had planned for Cape Flattery and went right on to Sol Duc.

Sol Duc was at a higher elevation, and we passed several snow banks on the drive up. There were patches of snow on the ground at the campsite. Lakin and I got scared of a night that was even colder than the night before. We sent the guys to go ask about the cabins associated with the campground, but they were ridiculously expensive. It turned out to be only a bit colder than the night before, and with hats and lots of layers we all slept fine. 

The gals hanging out while the guys inquired after the overpriced cabins

They kept finding sticks to use as wands and making up spells that were just normal words with "-io!" added to the end. Example: "Frogio! Mom, now you're a frog!"

Drummer gals

Many moss salads were made

After we decided we were staying, we crossed a log to get to the river area. The water levels were way low, so we could walk out into the area that is normally underwater. 

 Then we went back to camp to make some spaghetti. This was the sure-fire meal that we knew all the kids would make. But DISASTER STRUCK! Our can of propane ran out before the water could get to a full boil. The guys went to the small camp store, but they didn't have any. We were hours away from any towns. So we soaked the noodles in the hot water until they softened up. It was like spaghetti mush. We were hungry enough that even the kids were able to choke enough down, and then we devoured many more s'mores than we normally would have. 

Reading "More Spaghetti, I Say!" while waiting for our Spaghetti Mush

The reward for eating the Spaghetti Mush

Wool socks over the jeans for extra warmth

That night after the kids went to bed, we were sitting around the fire. (Side note- it is VERY DIFFICULT to get a fire going when everything is wet, but we had a decent one that night that helped against the cold.) All of a sudden, Robb snapped on his flashlight and pointed it at the picnic table right behind us. There was a huge raccoon going through the toiletries bag trying to get at the toothpaste! He was not at all scared of us. We threw rocks, but he came right back a few minutes later. He didn't actually leave until Robb charged him with a huge stick, bellowing fierce war cries. We brushed our teeth so that we could lock up the toiletries bags. After that, Lakin said, "Won't he just come back?" to which Robb responded "No, he'll find an easier target." As soon as he finished his sentence, we heard a yelp from the campsite next to ours. Perfect timing!

This is the spot that the raccoon kept sneaking back to until Robb all but attacked him.

The next morning we hiked to Sol Duc Falls. We debated skipping it because Emmett desperately needed a nap. We finally decided that Lakin would stay back with him while the rest of us did the short hike. Emmett took a disappointingly short nap, so Lakin threw him in a backpack and caught up to us. I'm glad she did- these waterfalls were worth seeing!

SO. GREEN.

Sol Duc has three parallel waterfalls that crash down into this narrow canyon. 

Elliot and Alice were both very intent on carrying cumbersome armfuls of branches back to the car

Then we bid farewell to our favorite temperate rain forest and headed over to Seattle! This involved driving our vehicles onto a ferry that floated us across the sound in a surprisingly efficient manner. It is weird to think that this is part of some people's daily commute. 

On the Ferry

Driving and walking through the city was stressful. When we are hiking and camping, we let the kids scamper all over the place. I am 0% afraid of the kids getting mauled by a bear or some other unlikely nature disaster. Walking on the sidewalks in Seattle was terrifying compared to walking through the woods. We had a firm hand holding policy in place, and still had a scary experience of Colby almost tripping into a busy road.

We attempted to go to Pike Place Market, but unfortunately we got there as all the shops were closing up. We wandered around anyway for a while, then settled on a place called "Beecher's" for dinner. It is a fancy cheese shop. You can see them making vats of cheese through this window. They age the cheese for a year before using it in their various sandwiches and Mac n' Cheese dishes. It was rich and wonderful. 

After one more night at the Hay's house, it was time to say goodbye. The day we were flying to Seattle, we got a message saying that our return flight had been cancelled. We talked to customer service at the airport and ended up with a direct flight at a more convenient time! I'm sure it was one that we had looked at before and skipped because it was more expensive, but we got it for free this way. This is the first time that we have had an airline change our flight and have it be better in the end. And Annie took a nap, so it was an excellent return trip. 

Our luck ended when we got to the hotel where we had parked our car. The battery had died while we were gone. We had to hunt down someone to jump it for us, which wasn't too bad. We were able to make it back home, but had to take it into the mechanic to replace the battery later that week. I suppose it is impossible to travel without something going wrong!