We spent the good part of a week in Port Angeles, WA for a Stoess family reunion and I was really excited to be somewhere I had never been before. I was also really excited to be close to Olympic National Park. We love National Parks so we planned to hike, a lot. Unfortunately, the weather decided that I should not see any mountains and that instead, I needed to see fog. Lots of fog. I’m still not sure I believe you that there are mountains there, BUT we made the most of it and hiked over 20 miles in 2.5 days and I felt superhuman hiking at minimal altitude.
The fog redeemed itself by making things pretty and also by living up to how that area is described in the Twilight books. I know Twilight is so 3 years ago to many people, but not to me and, I learned not to the town of Forks either. They are certainly still milking it. Every sign for every business seemed to reference it. Things like, “Buy Twilight Firewood here”. I’m a pretty big fan but I even found it annoying. I understand milking real references from the story but firewood? I guess I don’t understand business logic.
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| Fog on the Boulder Lake trail. |
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| Near the Sulfur Hot Springs |
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| Hiking the Spruce Rail Road trail with the Duffs and Brooklyn |
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| Boulder Lake |
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This tree was huge but blew over in December.
We just missed it. |
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| Hoh Rainforest |
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Beach 4. I wanted to go to La Push (for Twilight reasons)
but the boys decided on Beach 4. |
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| Brothers on a Beach |
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And then we hit a rock slide on Vail Pass and got a flat tire
on our way home. Fun times. |
We got back to Colorado and spent that week ringing in our 10th Wedding Anniversary. Brian asked me to get off work early and he planned a wonderful picnic dinner for us to eat at Crater Lake. We didn’t realize the forest service only accepts cash or check for the entrance fee after 5pm so we pulled up with only credit cards. She asked if we could get anywhere close to the $10 that’s required so we frantically dug around the car, looking in every crevice. We came up with $2 in change but she didn’t look very amused. We were about to give her our sob story about it being our 10 year anniversary when she sighed, gave us a one-day pass (instead of the typical week) and let us go. So, USFS Lady, whoever you were, THANK YOU again.
It’s hard for me to believe it’s been a decade. How am I old enough to have been married 10 years and STILL not have known Brian the majority of my life? Does not compute.
Mostly, the time seems to have flown by but when I take a moment to look back, a lot really has happened in that 10 years. It makes me excited for what the next 10 hold in store for us. My life with Brian has not always looked the way I pictured it, but it has been so much more adventurous and beautiful than I ever could have imagined.
We lucked out at the end of the month when The Fix Crew came through Glenwood on their whirlwind visit to Colorado. It had been faaaar too long and I’m always thankful to reconnect with my best friends. Their girls are wonderful and I was pleased with how well our fur kids reacted to three small children descending upon them. My favorite part of the kids meeting the dogs was all the giggles and belly laughs. And, Cotton liked Chad! Me thinks she’s finally over her aversion to men. Woot!
And with that, July was over.
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